ZUG

Originally released in 1973, "Zug" is one of my favourite Schnitzler's obscurities. Less known than "Blau" or "Ballet Statique" but it strangely captures at its best the essence of spacious abstract soundscapes. The album is made for one long piece (superficially divided in two titles), surfing on ultimately trance like sounds taken from long, monotonous electronic drones and minimal obsessional clicks. A weird and wonderful effort, all in progression and intensity. We can hear similar transcendental psych drones in "tracer" (from the New Zealand Omit) or in some kraut/electronic weirdness. The music explores suffocating sounds that can be obtained by haunted analog synth textures and ultra hypnotic frequencies. A very creepy, extended drone manifesto. Supreme stuff!! An hymn to the repetition , micro events and dream time.

Zug is one of Conrad Schnitzler's most compelling works and definitely one of the most completely interesting pieces I've heard from this master. Compared to Gelb or Rot, this album is considerably darker and more abstract in an almost creepy way.

Zug mainly pedals along with a continuous hypnotic pulsing that is similar to an electronic rendering of a train riding along its tracks, never attempting at all to slow down from such dangerously high speed. Flowing atop this pre-industrial pulsing and clicking are Conrad's analog synth sounds ebbing and flowing from far off to the forefront of the soundscape, changing from ethereal soaring to punchy direct synth attacking, Zug is always displaying dynamism to keep the listener's attention from disappearing into the organic hypnotic grinding.

Zug personally kind of reminds me of Bernard Parmegiani's L'oeil Ecoute (especially the first movement) except much more active and hypnotizing.

Explaining music like Zug is a bit difficult, so I feel forced to leave my above description as it is and hope readers understand the gist of this recording, but I'm sure upon actually listening to this album then the intensity and ingenuity of this album become more understandable.