Gas - Nah Und Fern

Gas. A short word, which appears to mean very little but beautifully describes the man's music. It's one of the infamous Wolfgang Voigt's many pseudonyms, and probably his best and most famous one.

This music is wonderful.

It was an excellent idea to release Nah Und Fern (Near and Far) since Gas's original artist albums are a little rare. The packaging is very nice - minimalism which suits the music and close up photos of tree branches from a darkened forest. There is no text inside the box except from album names, and of course the tracks are untitled. I love this since like with 76:14, without names you cannot have preconceptions about the music beforehand (for the purposes of this review I will name tracks Album Name + Numeral).

One small failing of some ambient music is when track names make the music prescriptive (i.e. Carbon Based Lifeforms - Central Plains), when it really should be your imagination making up the location and the emotion. But not so here, and it's appropriate since this album conjures so many images that could be taken in any direction.

The title album (Gas - Gas) begins with a beautiful piece of ambience which is one of my favourite across the box. It's followed by Gas II, a longer work, with a muffled drum which pervades the entire piece. Not much happens in the track but that is the point - the music is seductive and hypnotic - you won't find anything else like it.

Zauberberg (the name of a ski area in Austria) is probably the darkest album of the lot, but also the least memorable overall. The tracks are very dubby, more so than any other album. However, the last track, Zauberberg VII is another wonderful ambient work that has been described as heaven on earth by one of my friends.

Konigsforst (literally Dark Forest, this album was inspired by Voigt's hallucinogenic experiences there) utilises that hypnotic and endless drum more than the other works and sounds like its got more actual instruments used in it such as the guitar in Konigsforst IV. It's also dark throughout like Zauberberg and again has that epic feel, particularly in tracks like Konigsforst V. Konigsforst VI is possibly my all time favourite track by Gas and even my favourite track of all time, it's stunning - the sound of a viola playing over and over again, pouring out emotion - the places I've been with that track... this disc is my favourite of the four since the tracks flow together nicely and the ending is amazing.

The inappropriately named Pop (this is almost as far from Pop as you get (look up Sui Generis Umbra if you want to head into weirder territory), but Voigt says there are Pop samples in there somewhere. All I can hear are lyrics brushing the surface, albeit barely on one track!) Pop is my second favourite album overall. It's also his most well known piece. The first two tracks are just lush, totally beautiful and addictive - they DO sound like heaven on Earth it's that at all possible. Pop V is another totally ambient piece; really withdrawn and sad. It's Pop VI and VII that really end the album in style, both cinematic and epic that remind me of sieges in Middle Earth or something, or deeper versions of Asura - XP Continuum.

So more about the Gas sound: swirling chords, an extremely deep feel, a relentless trance-inducing hydraulic drum. To me it sounds like being underwater, like floating in space, or even like hearing a rave from far away, a rave which you long to be part of. It evokes the deepest emotions.

I've written too much here, but honestly such an epic album deserves an epic review. Forget most other genres, this is hypnotic, wonderful, awe-inspiring, anesthetic, lenitive, mesmeric, narcotic, opiate, sleepy, somniferous music.

At a bargain price, this is definitely worth getting if you like anything near to ambient or deep music. It could just change your life.

Kompakt's collection and reissue of the four classic Gas albums (originally released on Mille Plateaux and now highly sought after collector's items) provides the perfect opportunity for the newcomer to develop an appreciation for the Gas sound. It has been said that the Gas project is Wolfgang Voigt's tribute to the sound of Chain Reaction; if that is the case, the closest act to Gas would be the most dense moments of Fluxion, or Porter Ricks minus all beat but a single pounding bass drum. Gas takes the often wintry, mechanistic sound of these acts and gives it a little more of an autumnal feel with the use of elegant strings, nature sounds, and occasional flashes of real instruments. Although he manages to stick relatively true to the Chain Reaction aesthetic throughout (as the first three discs demonstrate, particularly "Zauberberg"), the most impressive works of the collection are ultimately found on "Pop", where all of elements which are distinctively Gas come to the fore.

Although calling "Nah Und Fern" a hallmark in Kompakt's now ten year discography only serves to further highlight the label's recent slide in quality, it's hard not to do so, especially considering the great impression the four albums made at their original release and their scarcity today.

I find this release pretty contradictive in terms. We are talking minimal techno right, so why does anyone want to put out a 4CD box of it, making it a MASSIVE release (or even EPIC), not minimal. Wouldn't it be better to cut out the best 30 seconds of the batch, which fans of the genre then could loop, enabling them to hear that kick drum bang 24 hours 7 days a week if they so may wish? Top marks for the packaging though, a wonderful cardboard box it is indeed.