INVENTIONS FOR ELECTRIC GUITAR

After the demise of Ash Ra Tempel, Michael Göttsching went on to form Ashra, a band dwelling in similar ambient realms, but with the aid of electronic instruments. In between both incarnations of the Ashra bands, Göttsching released Inventions for Electric Guitar as a first solo album. The album clearly hints at what Göttsching would do on the first Ashra album, but all music is still created with guitars and echo devices.

The album is often called groundbreaking but in fact it resembles very much the earlier experiments of Achim Reichel on his album Echo. The title of the first track Echowaves might even be a clear nod to that album. Göttsching goes a step further then Reichel and creates a more profound minimalistic pulse with a texture that sounds truly electronic, trance and repetitive, but at the same time in constant flux, moving through ever changing patterns. It ends with a soaring guitar solo.

Quasarsphere is slow-paced and dreamy, with guitar chords fading in and out to create a fragile and abstract melody with an ambience reminiscent of Fripp's flippertronics. Pluralis is somewhat of a letdown after the excellent tracks that preceded. The 21.30 minute echoed guitar sequence is hardly as urgent and captivating as the one from Echowaves. It ends with a piercing guitar solo again but the bubbling guitars in the background remain too meek.

Inventions for Electric Guitar starts out excellent but I have to be in the mood for the last piece that, certainly when compared to the early Ash Ra Tempel albums, runs out of steam too quickly. 3.5 stars