(2020) Michael Rother – Solo II (Box-Set)  

Review:
A year after Grönland Records compiled Michael Rother’s first four post-Neu!/Harmonia albums (and a selection of later soundtracks and collaborations) as the superb box set Solo, the label rounded up the remainder of his works, from 1983’s Lust onward. For the most part, he made all of his later albums solo, without the help of Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit or engineer Conny Plank, who contributed to his earlier full-lengths, and these records tend to be far more electronic, gradually exploring different moods and textures than his past work. 1983’s Lust (“joy”) was composed mainly using a Fairlight CMI synthesizer, state of the art at the time, and it’s simply one of his most chipper, upbeat records, sounding sparkly enough to play around the winter holidays. Süssherz und Tiefenschärfe (1985) contains similar material, especially the bubbly 13-minute spree “Tiefenschärfe,” while other pieces anticipate the ambient direction he would explore on subsequent releases. 1987’s Traumreisen has more new age-sounding electronic textures, and sometimes gets dramatic enough to soundtrack television coverage of the Olympics, but Rother’s familiar fuzzy guitar tone splashes some of the songs with shades of amber. After the album was released to near-total indifference, Rother left Polydor and started Random Records, where he reissued his back catalog and continued putting out new works. Solo II includes a disc of bonus tracks mainly recorded around the early ’90s. Many were intended for an album which never materialized, but the tracks were tacked onto reissues or included on the 1993 compilation Radio. This lost album of sorts includes languid guitar explorations, sample-driven world music experiments, and a playful trance interpretation of “Tiefenschärfe.” Esperanza, Rother’s only studio album released during the decade, experimented with trip-hop drum loops and contained some of the most twisted, hallucinatory textures he’d come up with yet. 2004’s Remember (The Great Adventure) was a major departure for Rother, as it incorporated vocals from Sophie Joiner and German rock superstar Herbert Grönemeyer, as well as additional beats and electronics by Mouse on Mars’ Andi Toma, Asmus Tietchens, Jake Mandell, and Thomas Beckmann. The result is a lush, swirling set of ambient techno-pop, switching from energetic flashes to lonely, heartstruck reflections. 2020 full-length Dreaming fleshes out sketches from the Remember era, even revisiting its standout “Morning After (Loneliness)” as “Bitter Tang,” with Joiner returning as guest vocalist. The album retains the ambient pop feel of Remember while incorporating guitar arrangements reminiscent of Rother’s past works, fusing traces of his entire career into something breezy, trippy, and effervescent. — AMG

Album List:
1983 - Lust
1985 - Suessherz und Tiefenschaerfe
1987 - Traumreisen
1996 - Esperanza
2004 - Remember (The Great Adventure)
2020 - Bonus Tracks
2020 - Dreaming


Media Report:
Genre: ambient, electronic
Country: Germany
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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