Monolight
Free Music
Rune Grammofon/Voices of Wonder

Free Music is labelboss Rune Kristoffersen of Rune Grammofon's fame own band and his second CD under the Monolight disguise. This time he steers away from the pure techno and beatoriented trap and delivers a pure slab of improvised elektronica. Improvised in the sense that everything is recorded direct to a two-track, even if some sounds are pre-programmed, the whole composition is played on the fly. Sometimes it works and sometimes not. That's the curse and blessing of all free music. Like he says himself: "Having worked for many years in an environment where the recording process has been relatively structured and calculated, I have found this new hit-or-miss situation very liberating."

It's refreshing to hear an entire album of electronica where mood and melody are of no interest at all. I personally think Monolight are in love with sound. With juxtaposing interesting sounds and creating organic patterns of crystal-clear airwaves. Like frozen light burnt into metal, soft and hard at the same time. More in debt to the early pioneers of the analogue synthesizer than to the later thechnoscene. Especially in the track "red mystic" you can hear traces of early Edgar Froese or even Zeit-era Tangerine Dream. But not to be unfair, this is not nostalgic music in any way, far from it. As fresh sounding as most other Rune Grammofon records, and that's a big compliment.

Copyright © 2002 Killer