JONAS MUNK

Jonas Munk blending a very acoustic/folk/electric, an intelligent gutatr playing along with Ulrich Schnauss ´electronic landscapes.

Jonas Munk´s guitar brings on a new touch to these well visited areas. His electronic folk, lo-fi funk, dynamic & virtous approach exhales new air into these electronic, down to earth, cosmic heights.

Besides their talents, the music composition reaches for beautiful statements. Its apparently peaceful surface come to life by its own.

And yet "Jonas Munk & Ulrich Schnauss : Eight Fragments of an Illusion (2021)" as good as it is, do not expect any new kind of electronic findings. This work is heartfelt and not corny, Electronic/Prog oriented, a good example how you can watch your master and never plagiarize.

As for the rating.....Well, I will keep it. As for you, dear reader, 3.5 P.A.´s stars. You upgrade or downgrade as you wish.

Jonas Munk aka Manual is a musician and producer from Odense, Denmark. PAN, 2012, could be considered his first solo release and by his birth name.

It will be understood why Jonas Munk was inducted in PA's PE category by just listening to its first track- Orca, in which he blends his electric guitar with the super famous Berlin school's electronically generated pulses. During its length one can sense his own musical language's range and close influences. 3.5***

Track 2- Blue Dawn cools things down with an ethereal, evocative & enticing electronic feedback like melody line alongside a dreamy seaside atmosphere. 4****

Current, the following track, is Progressive Electronic Rock underlining Rock, close to Krautrock if you will, but without the random chaos or senseless mayhem, instead, to call it somehow, melodic chaos and electronic /electric guitar controlled mayhem. 4****

Track 4- Senses dims the stroboscopic lights and reconstructs another seaside dreamscape yet this one introduces minimalist pulse like patterns along the way, nostalgic yet uplifting. 5*****

Pan follows and stays on these slow tempo moods reminding us how good is Jonas Munk as composer, arranger and of course guitar player. 4****

Track 6- Schelling combines different electronic arpeggios and triggered pulses counterpointing each other while some upcoming menacing & distorted electric guitar noises which seem to enhance the beauty of the melodic lines generated by the juxtaposition of all the elements. 4****

The album closes with Sea of Orange a robotic like soundscape which farewells this album and hooks you up for future Jonas Munk's works. 4****

This album has many attributes but above all the construction of an own musical way of expression, with very few foreign influences (track 1 & 4), which in my book is "worth one's weight in gold".

****4 full PA's stars.

A wonder kid ala Steven Wilson less the fame more to his artist´s freedom, a guitar player and composer who constructs around progressive and contemporary electronic elements his guitar licks and riffs and yes this guy can come up with some truly amazing stuff and thank the Gods unique music compositions!

EPIC , 2010, is a non-stop creative 14 tracks effort and his first collaboration with the well established non-classical contemporary electronic music producer & recent Tangerine Dream member Ulrich Schnauss (included in these Progressive Archive´s also as collaborator of others).

Now to where it matters the music: Vigorously uplifting, a celebration of whatever needs to be hailed.

Flawless, original, creative, bright and optimistic, without any kind of corny cliches, where beauty is achieved by sheer good instrumental songwriting and it is blatantly displayed all over the album for the enjoyment of the lucky listener(s).

To set this project for a wider audience and go beyond the PE´s crowd, it could also fit easily in the Post Rock/Math or Eclectic neighborhoods, the same as for these stylings followers.

Full *****5 PA stars.

The alchemical interaction between two well versed electronic musicians with enough composer minded tools, a great deal of creativity and an even greater sense of humbleness, as to be able to focus singlely on the music not the names nor the fame, release PASSAGE, 2017, the second collaborative album by Ulrich Schnauss and Jonas Munk .

To translate all this outsider talk to Progressive Electronics one:

It will be impossible not to mention the recent Tangerine Dream sound of which Ulrich Schnauss was part of (QUANTUM GATE & LIGHT FLUX both 2017) and the other way around which kind of falls as Edgar Froese did in somewhat of frenzied "happy merry-go-round" constructions on some of the melody lines. My only complaint.

Fortunately Jonas Munk´s guitar balances this sugarly sound by refreshing it with an electric, Rock minded, guitar approach which dissolves the overly sweet flavors.

****4 PA´s stars.