Thomas Köner - Unerforschtes Gebiet

Last but not the least - this is the last record from not-so-big Thomas discography I've heard and it's one of my top 3. It's worth to buy this album for the first track alone - it's probably one of the most dark and unhuman pieces of music ever recorded. True nature sound - really deep drones and "Köner-type" wooshing ambiences, wich makes you think about the coldest and darkest places on Earth, like Antarctic or North Pole.
Sounds of crushing the glacier, cold storm gathering under the ice lands, melting the never-melted icebergs...
It need to be remarked that even if those sounds are dark and cold, Köner never uses that kind of "childish-spooky" sound like Lustmord and similar dark ambient artists do. His music has its own, unique "nature" climat, which is not dangerous for people, but remember them, that in comparison to the nature forces, human ones are nothing.
Second track is softer, yet dark and mysterious - kind of "light" version of the first one.
Third, bonus CD track, for me is unnecessary and seems like put here only for "bonus for CD buyers" commercial purposes. Musically it has nothing to do with the previous tracks - it's more "spacey" type of ambient, in which Köner is not very good at. Also it's very minimal, and the key role play vocal samples (like on "Zyklop"). Not bad, but only decent - in Köner's scale, of course ;-).
But as I said before - this album is worth to buy for the first track alone. Truly "unexplored territories".

The tracklisting above corresponds to the picture LP version (DS43). The CD version has an extra track, "Les Soeurs Lumiére", that was composed for a film by Karen Vanderborght. The track is an interesting, half-an-hour journey through a story featuring two women; Stella, who lives in Belgium, and Lucia, who lives in Spain. The plot unfolds in the form of letters (postcards?) from Stella, who wants to become an astronaut -- Lucia's voice is only heard in the beginning, responding to the news of Stella's death.

All in all, Köner's always-evolving, distant sound accompanies the story perfectly, and the track makes an excellent addition to the mesmerizing accomplishment that is "Unerforschtes Gebiet", Uncharted Territories.

Very minimal, very dark, ie... very Köner! This album shifts and rolls like mist. Engulfing you in it's deep and haunting drones. Yet another master piece from this guru of drone/isolationist music.