Fennesz – Black Sea

this record sounds ludicrously gorgeous, and the pressing is pretty much spot on to my ears, if a little quiet.

why make it a 10 inch? what is this, 1999?

Essential album in any electronic music collection. Perfect music, nothing more, nothing less.

There's a 2x10" with the full album on his Bandcamp now

Why on earth did he leave out Vacuum. One of Fennesz's most unique creations.

Nice Album.

I think they didn't have to trim the album down by two songs for the vinyl version, both sides would total around 25 minutes each if done right without rearraging the songs.

missing out on Colour of Three sucks big time as it's a standout track on the cd

Here comes Fennesz, with his highly anticipated fourth studio album on Touch. Christian Fennesz is a prolific Vienna based composer who has been crafting electronic multi-layered laptop compositions with an aid of his guitar since the late 90s. Or is it the other way around? His guitar driven pieces with a heavy dose of DSP? Either way, Fennesz has developed that instantly recognizable and many times imitated sound. His vast discography extends through numerous EPs, remixes, soundtracks and collaborations, most notable of which is his work with Ryuichi Sakamoto on Cendre (Touch, 2007); as well as Cloud (Erstwhile, 2005) on which he worked with Keith Rowe, Toshimaru Nakamura and Oren Ambarchi. With a collection of works approaching the count of 30, Fennesz's last solo studio release was four years ago, Venice (Touch, 2004). So it should be no surprise that the fans jumped in anticipation to grab this 2008 release, Black Sea. And I hope the fans are not disappointed. Fennesz picks up where he left off with Venice, building on his trademark of processed and filtered guitar sound. Faint melodies cut with their pale beauty through a sharp fuzzy white haze. Sure, it may sound like over-driven, bit-crushing, pixel-offsetting, standing noise you have heard before on another album. But let me remind you once more, that Fennesz has been pioneering this sound well before the advancement of software and saturation of costly plugins on the market. On a nine-and-a-half minute track called Glide, for example, Fennesz is joined by Rosy Parlane [check out his albums Iris (Touch, 2004) and Jessamine (Touch, 2006)], to build up an incredible swell of sound, that buzzes to an orchestral crescendo, until it breaks into a tidal wave of near silence, which washes off the coast of a Black Sea. Experience Fennesz if artists like Alva Noto, Philip Jeck, Jan Jelinek, and Oren Ambarchi are on your radar.

The new album from Fennesz is an absolute masterpiece.

Perhaps even better than 'Endless Summer' and definitely much better than 'Venice'.

Acoustic guitar and glitchy electronics are mixed in seemingless contrast to produce a delicious audio treat.

'Grey Scale' in particular will appeal to those who have been waiting for so long to hear something that compares to 'Endless Summer'.

Fans of Fennesz's earlier works should digest this as soon as possible because it is his most comprehensive work to date.