EYELESS DREAMS

I enjoy finding and reviewing previously unreviewed artists here, and the electronic genre seems very suitable for that activity. Here's a German one-off. According to Discogs, Wolfgang Düren (b. 1956) was raised on the music of the fertile German underground, and in the early 70's he played guitar in a few bands whilst he also studied electronic musical instruments. In the late 70's he become a roadie and sequencer programmer for Tangerine Dream. After several years of distributing PPG synthesizers, he founded Waldorf Electronics, manufacturer of various popular synthesizers in 1988. His sole LP has become a rarity buit it's entirely available in YouTube (hence this review).

"Waving Berlin School's cold style" is very well said in the artist info. Yes, I sense a certain coldness in this synthesizer music. And yet it's not downright uncomfortable or hostile -- with some exceptions increasing the dynamics. The album consists of five tracks between 5 and 10 minutes length. 'Eyeless Dream I' has a powerful beginning with hypnotically swirling synths, and at 2:14 starts a more rhythmic section, reminiscent of what the artists in the Innovative Communication label would release sometime later. If I was told this piece to be from 1990 instead of 1980 I'd most likely believe it. There's certainly also a strong influence of TANGERINE DREAM of the time, albums such as Tangram (1980) in which Düren probably was involved as a programmer. 'Phila' (9:53) is more experimental at first, in the similar hollow way as Vangelis' Beaubourgh (yaaawn), but rewardingly it gets air beneath its wings in a Tangerine Dream like manner. One reference could be 'Madrigal Meridian' on Cyclone (1978), minus its greater progression due to its greater length.

All of '904' hasn't aged very well. Some sounds on it make me think of film music by GIORGIO MORODER, and one of the synths playing the main melody is a bit too sharp to my ears, but another -- Micromoog? -- sounds nicer and gives me a Rick Wakeman association. 'Proton' is cold indeed, like you were lost in a vast ice cave. Oh, and a sudden sonic burst suggests there's an unknown enemy you need to escape from. A threatening, otherworldly SciFi atmosphere.

The final track 'Eyeless Dream II' starts with a German-language narration by Bettina Weber which doesn't last very long, leaving the cold synth music to wander around hesitatively and introspectively, as if begging for the return of Bettina's voice, which does come back briefly. Too bad I don't understand German, would have been interesting to know what are the lyrics about.

Whilst I'm not exactly warming to everything heard on this cold and dark album, it surely deserves a good rating. A mint copy of this LP would cost about 100 euros.