England / Germany - Full Moon 230 - 06/02/15

Will Samson & Heimer
Animal Hands
Karaoke Kalk

Animal Hands is the collaborative work of two close friends, Will Samson and Florian Frenzel. Samson is a British-born Anglo-Indian musician exploring 'the middle ground between ambient, electronic, experimental, minimalism and 'folk' music - using a variety of recording techniques', according to the press sheet bio. He loves to go for the use of vintage analogue equipment. German musician and producer Florian Frenzel, A.K.A. Heimer, is a former member of the Berlin based band I Might Be Wrong. Samson and Frenzel worked closely together as mutual producers on Will Samson's solo releases, Balance (Karaoke Kalk, 2012) and last year's beautiful mini-album Light Shadows. The next step was therefore (naturally) a joint musical project, resulting in this record. Their debut co-op track, "Beacon Island" was included on Will Saul's DJ-Kicks (!K7, 2014) album last June. Here's some more animal magic, from another, small animal collective.

The soundscapes of Samson & Heimer roam the electronic, dreamy interspace between Bon Iver and Ásgeir Trausti. Animal Hands is a nine-track album, which sees the combination of their skills make a super cool sound, with mesmerising songs on it. The warm (and cooling cold) vocals of Samson, as well as his organic taste of sound backed with the chill-vibe of Frenzel's soundscapes, makes this album come as a pleasing piece of work. 'Each piece of music took on many different shapes, twists and turns during this time, including the previously unplanned addition of live drums. Many early sketches that had been abandoned were reinvestigated - then sampled, processed and/or reworked, interlacing their way back into the threads of the record. The resulting album is one that strikes a dynamic balance between the immediate & the intricate.' (animal-hands.com/). Yes, Animal Hands is truly rich, ripe and crisp sounding and indeed powerful, without being braggy and cocky. This is purely laidback and chilling stuff. Like Clash Magazine wrote about Samson's Balance: '...running themes and riffs waft over songs so heartfelt, you dare not speak over them'. Yes, same goes for this one, even though there are some tougher tracks included here (with drop-out-cut'n'paste beats etc.). Magic, sometimes breath-taking stuff. Enjoy. It is all a dream. Luckily, they caught it on tape.

Copyright © 2015 Håvard Oppøyen