Some time ago (Vital Weekly 1338), I had the pleasure of writing about TBC_CZEPOKS, a project of which Kai Seemann is a member. He included an older release for us to check out am. I was pleasantly surprised by the ritualistic character and cinematic isolationist atmosphere there. So, of course, I said yes when I was asked to review another release by Kai. The album "Hemisphäre" is a self-released CDR by Seemann and contains one 40-minute composition, which can roughly be divided into three parts.
The first part is about 20 minutes long and is a massive drone with heavily manipulated sounds. It has a bleak, almost translucent approach to its sound design, so don't expect big basses or rumbling - it's a minimalist well-designed drone that lures you right into a hypnotic state. Halfway through the composition, rhythmic structures (note from the reviewer: there is a big difference between 'rhythmic structures' and 'rhythm') are added to the composition, but the entry point and speed of addition are chosen carefully. So it's not after a few minutes you experience a rushed, uneasy feeling - I think 'paranoid' came to mind the first listen.
The final ten minutes of the track are filled with creepy manipulated voices and not-so-heavily processed harmonium sounds. As the CDR mentions the use of the harmonium, piano and samples, I can't help wondering and thinking about the amount of harmonium sounds I missed before this point, or better said, in what way the harmonium was used as a primary sound source, for example, the first part of the composition. And as the composition ends, a piano melody can be heard, emphasising the uneasy feeling... Powerful.
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