Medard Fischer
Four Songs for the City of New York EP
Hidden Shoal Recordings

More ambient gold from the fab Hidden Shoal label. Medard Fischer's soothing and tranquilising EP, Four Songs for the City of New York. Yes, the EP holds four songs. Dive into it.

Medard Fischer is a Canuck, being a Toronto native residing in Sydney, Australia via New York. Fischer - known for his solo work under the monikers Arc Lab and Tyyson (check out labels such as Duotone, Music Made By People or n5MD) - put last year out an EP (under his own name) called Four Songs For Peter Fechter (self-released). Who's Peter Fecther, one might say (though you might have heard the name sometimes)? Peter Fechter was an eighteen year-old East German bricklayer who became one of the first (and youngest) fatalities along the Berlin Wall. Facts (by Hidden Shoal): 'On August 17, 1962, Fechter and a friend ran the wall near Checkpoint Charlie in the Kreuzberg district of central Berlin. Fechter was shot in the pelvis by an East German border guard during his attempt to scale the wall and fell back into the "death-strip" on the eastern side. He lay in agony in full view of western onlookers, and of border guards on each side of the wall. Despite his pleas, he was refused medical attention, and western bystanders were prevented at gunpoint from assisting him. He died of blood loss approximately an hour later. The senselessness of his death and the refusal of both East and West German border guards to render him aid was a flashpoint for anger in Berlin over division of the city and construction of the wall and led to the eruption of spontaneous demonstrations in the city.' A sad, horrendous story from a gruesome time. Well, the times they are not a-changing... However, this time Fischer hails New York City. His music is still of the low-key kind. The spirit of the music is still lamental - grievous and sorrowful, even though he pays homage to 'a dynamic, incomparable city'.

Fischer is a sensible, sensitive and careful musician and componist, creating impressionist, ambient electronic music merging classical music and ambient pop in his delicate musical stew. His tender songs is gentle carresses and probably quiet memories brought into sound. The four, piano driven tracks - "The Imaginary City", "Five Years Almost To The Day", "Monument" and "A Light That Doesn't Go Out" - well, they all bring out, or expose a present foundness and longing for a city you've left. I guess there are love and hate shoulder to shoulder. All the tracks are pleasant compositions that glide through the air. They leave the speakers to fill the room around you. Not in a scaring, or disturbing way, but in a most comforting way. Fischer musical efforts are warm and friendly. These are welcoming, gratifying songs. Come on, let Four Songs for the City of New York delight you. You will not regret it. This is the soundtrack for Colibri birds when they're sleeping.

Four Songs for the City of New York EP will be released on 3rd of September 2015. Fischer can also be heard as half of Hidden Shoal's electronic duo Down Review (alongside fellow Canuck Tim Arndt a.k.a. Near The Parenthesis).

PS! Net proceeds of the Peter Fechter EP sales was and will be donated to the UN Refugee Agency. Respect. Go get that one as well!

Copyright © 2015 Håvard Oppøyen