PETER FROHMADER & RICHARD PINHAS: FOSSIL CULTURE

What can be expected in the meeting of such giants as Peter Frohmader and Richard Pinhas, especially knowing that they've been around for over 20 years at the time of release of this album? The attempt was definitely risqué, but it was worth a shot and the recording happened over two years. And to top it all of, the album was released on the excellent Cuneiform label, even if the general packaging/artwork (from Frohmader himself) is not the best they've done.

In some ways, this album could almost serve as a techno album, if there was not some almost-unnoticeable progression in some tracks, but it is all but too slow to capture the imagination or even tickle the listener's curiosity. Whether the album is closer to Frohmader or Pinhas is difficult to say, since I am not too familiar with both musician's late 90's careers, but you can see/hear some Heldon AND some Nekropolis. The seven pieces of Fossil Culture (just numbered differently) range from the lugubrious (the fourth part) to the sinister/gloomy (the fifth part) to the almost happy. This writer's best moment is the third movement with the recurring percussions.

Had these two geniuses met in the late 70's, I'm sure this meeting would've given something memorable, but unfortunately Fossil Culture might just go down as an all-too- prophetically-titled album, the fossils being those of two dinosaurs that might have retired a few years before. Not too bad an album, but certainly disappointing, partly due to the expectations one can have of such a meeting.