It's actually been quite recently I found out about the label Grisaille from Münster, Germany. They're releasing only cassettes (as well as digital), and the fun thing is that they are not limiting themselves to a certain style. So amongst the 61 releases so far, you find names ranging from Richard Ramirez and Aidan Baker to Francisco Lopez and The Rita. As well as no less than five tapes from Modelbau of which the most recent is "May Flower".
Modelbau is, of course, Frans de Waard, known as one of the - if not thee - most prolific experimental artist from the Netherlands. Various projects solo (a.o. Shifts, Quest, Surge, Freiband) and many projects as a member - Beequeen, Wander, THU20, The Tobacconists, WaSm, Wieman and Kapotte Muziek, to name but a few. To come to the point, this man knows what he is doing. You can't be active since the middle of the '80s and *still* make a difference.
The design of the artwork is in sync with all the Grisaille releases. If you visit their Bandcamp (find the link under the review as always), you will see what I mean. Minimal, black & white and with a drawing or picture yet still all in the same atmospheric setting. And it's this 'less is more' / uniformity that also describes the music very well.
There are eight tracks on this cassette spanning an hour. Eight tracks that simply are called 05 + an unexplained number + the length of the track (the release "April Shower" had the same, but the tracks started with "04"). The number is probably a file number or a session or something like that because listening to the music and all tracks are simply very well conducted pieces of experimental drones. There's not much happening, but the things happening make the compositions alive in various ways. Minimalistic electronics, looped field recordings, strings/pads of unknown origin, and slow mixing layers or added effects are all properly produced, resulting in a solid release.
Excuse me while I go grab the other ones and listen to those too ...
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