PAINTINGS

One of the few modern progressive electronic artists who consistently creates albums that exceed my expectations within the genre is Przemyslaw Rudz, who seems to always be tweaking his sound to create unique works of auditory art. After the wonderful collaboration album with Wladyslaw Komendarek from Exodus, he has returned in 2012 with his next solo offering, Paintings.

Paintings moves Rudz's sound slightly more towards ambient and drone, while still maintaining the spatial modern Berlin school sound with which he's proven himself adept. It feels more experimental, and it's very enjoyable to hear a skilled artist move forward instead of stay stagnant. When I say ambient, I don't mean strictly motionless, ambience with no progression--the ambient I'm talking about is more of a mood description, filling the air with progressive atmosphere, but also leaving enough blank space for the listener to explore what they will. That is what makes this album so enjoyable.

The opening track, "Hidden Nook of Our Ego", is possibly the most eclectic track on the album--it features primarily experimental drones and atmospheric bubbling, but periodically progresses into emotional synth solos. The synth melody that appears at the finale of the track very powerful and catchy, and the backing trance beat really adds extra punch to the climax.

"Sowers of Our Interstellar Intellects" is a very slow, drone-based track, but is progressing constantly towards a midsection that includes elements of industrial percussion and a somber melody that is as beautiful as it is awakening. The build up to this section is phenomenal, and not everyone could pull off such a slow build and make it work as masterfully as it does here. The climax eventually tapers off into "Cosmic Primordial Soup", which is a short track or more or less classic Berlin school composition not unlike the original master Klaus Schulze, except with better production and enhanced atmosphere as per the 21st century.

"Who Goes There?" is the third epic track of the album, and is very dark and moody, with vague industrial leanings with the percussive sounds and a huge cinematic impact with the swelling synth melodies. The mood on this three-part track is somewhat unsettling, but in a good perfect soundtrack music kind of way. It sounds tense, like something scary or upsetting to humanity as a whole is about to happen at any moment. The whole 15 minutes is built for brooding, and is very well emotionally affecting in that regard. After this darkness, we are led into another short track, "Astral Beings Hatchery", which carries the same moodiness but with an enhanced technological feel, because of the metallic swelling and nearly-robotic sounds emanating from the background.

And then there is the giant, main course epic track, "Misanthropic Aliens". This nearly 24- minute, three-part adventure is an amalgamation of everything heard on the album thus far. The whole thing is an emotional dirge of exploratory electronic music. The ambient element is used liberally, and the industrial elements are used sparingly, and I've never really heard anything quite like this. I feel like this track by itself could be used as a sufficient soundtrack to an entire sad science fiction tragedy film. Absolutely beautiful.

Alterations in style can cause anxiety in fans of musicians, but it's always very reassuring when a master is at the helm and everything turns out very well. I didn't know about the stylistic change before listening to this album, so it caught me off guard, but it was immediately enjoyable and I'd even have to say that this is my favorite offering created by Przemyslaw Rudz so far, just because of how emotional it all feels. Much of this type of music lacks in the emotion department, given the electronic/robotic nature of it, but it's done extremely well on this album. If you're into the classic progressive electronic albums, you'd probably enjoy checking this out, but Paintings has a lot more packed into it stylistically than the classics, so you'd better listen with an open mind and be ready to have it blown.

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