Flanger

Atom Heart's and Bernd Friedmann's Flanger project is produced by the combination of traditional jazz elements with experimental filtering and editing techniques. For the 1999 album Templates, Flanger used drums, bass, piano, and vibraphone, then put the product through their own editing process with the end product of unrecognizable instruments. The June 1999 release was hosted by the well-respected Ninja Tune Records, home of artists including Kid Koala, DJ Food, and Funki Porcini. Midnight Sound followed in fall 2000.

2001 - Outer Space Inner Space

Flanger - 2001 - Outer Space Inner Space

With 2001's Outer Space/Inner Space -- how apt a title and motif for this space odyssey! -- Flanger vault even further forward into the future of jazz while somehow managing to keep one foot in the roots of hard bop, free jazz, Latin jazz, and samba. The grounding element is most likely the core of guest musicians, including players from Cologne, Germany; Copenhagen, Denmark; and Santiago, Chile. On the title track a robotic voice chants "outer space" over decidedly retro Latin jazz rhythms augmented by occasional synthesizer flourishes and beats that are equal parts organic percussion and electro loops, again blurring the line between jazz old and new, which appears to be the Flanger modus operandi. "Galak" is an astronaut's floating dream with its fluid blend of spacy vibes and earthy acoustic bass, its spiraling ascent chased along by dueling congas and fusion guitar. A squelchy computer rhythm clashes with driving acoustic drums while two keyboards and processed bass and guitar battle it out furiously on "The Man Who Fell to Earth," evocative of a more down to earth (so to speak) Squarepusher. A sexy Rhodes fuels the robot dance of "Inner Spacesuit," while flailing funk bass propels the sci-fi theme "Le Dernier Combat." (Is that a Spanish-speaking musician announcing something like "I'm drunk" on the fade?) The zenith, and mission statement, of this album is "It Ain't Rocket Science," with its dueling Coltrane-esque saxophones and grimy techstep beat programming that perfectly meld the origin and the destination of modern jazz. Apparently it takes two forward-thinking and often whimsical German composer/multi-instrumentalist/deconstructionists and their host of multiethnic trad jazz players to bring the groove to the sometimes stiff world of jazz and launch it into the future.

		1		Outer Space/Inner Space	Flanger	5:35
		2		Galak	Flanger	7:47
		3		The Men Who Fell from Earth	Flanger	3:44
		4		Inner Spacesuit	Flanger	7:45
		5		Le Dernier Combat	Flanger	5:57
		6		Unosietecero	Flanger	4:50
		7		It Ain't Rocket Science	Flanger, Hass	4:45
		8		Hirnflug	Flanger	6:03

¡Aquí!