Onur Özer – Kaşmir

my favorite minimal album since years, Onur Özer in best form !!!

Onur Özer's first full-length, KASMIR, has a sinuous complexity, avoiding any easy classifications. So even though the disembodied voices on "Eclipse" have their say, it's the piano appearing in the soundscape that speaks louder. Indeed, the orchestra stabs and horns on "Innervoice" suggest a certain spareness to the compositions themselves, and the modal moods of "Terpsichorean Echoes" emphasize that. Özer is fond of using a certain sound -- an electronic sigh, almost -- throughout his pieces, like to accompany the 'Toccata and Fugue'-like organ of "Sahara." "Astronomy Glance," on the other hand, edges towards minimalism from outer space, while the woodwind toots of "Seraglio" slot in easily with the beats. "Aida" ends the album on more of those sighs. Özer's personal take on techno sounds definitely intriguing.

Onur Özer's debut album is amazing - in many ways. Living in Turkey might have protected this talented producer from walking the path which a herd of increasingly uninspired "minimal" releases had already trampled through Europe's recordstores and clubs at the time. He's just doing his thing, his very own, personal interpretation of Techno. This is a journey into one musicians vision - not just another minimal copycat showing off production skills.

"Kaşmir" is a rich album - rich in texture, rich in ideas, rich in it's reflection of differnt cultural aspects of music. And while it still follows the concept that less is more, that doesn't keep it from being amazingly detailed. Full of beautiful unexpectedness, Onur combines well known sounds and instruments in a very unusual manner and thus keeps his music sounding fresh and surprising. What especially needs to be mentioned here is the enormous broad musical and cultural horizon which the melodies on "Kaşmir" introduce. Spanning from oriental bits over jazzy piano improvisation and gypsy melodies right to medieval church harmonics - this is electronic "world music" beyond any cliché.

An album well worth to discover, beautifully osciallating between East and West.