Sundaze 1240

Hello, time for some Sundaze to go with a lazy sunday afternoon, todays artist is a bit of an oddball as he hasn't released anything these past 8 years, despite being rather successful the previous five. I suppose making music babies became to stressful for him, it's not a nine to five job. After all with creative processes it's always in your head, 24/7 and that can become unsettling, anyway with his last track here he announced "Good Bye Forever". Likely he's got a decent job now and dabbles for himself in free time. And that's OK by me... Here's some Arovane for you'll  NJoy !


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Zahn was born in Germany in 1965. He first began experimenting with rudimentary audio equipment and keyboards when he was 15. Over the years he continued experimenting and developing his sound, even learning to play the clarinet at one point. In the late 80s he was dealing increasingly with synthesizers and turntablism and deconstruction of hip hop beats. In 1989 Zahn began creating music with a collective of electronic musicians in Munich. This collective, known as S.A.M., was dedicated to creating live, free, electronic improvisational music and operated in Germany.

Throughout the 90s Zahn lived in Berlin and continued creating electronic music. After working for a radio station for a time he caught the attention of electronic music label Din. He released his first tracks as the Arovane EP there, it also released the first of German dub minimalist Stefan Betke's work as Pole. Stylistically, Arovane's work hearkens back to the insular melodic electro of early Autechre, combining interesting, highly syncopated machine box rhythms with warm, delicate synth textures that evoke a gauzy, somewhat nostalgic mood contrasted by the sharpness of the rhythms. It gained him a degree of notoriety and acclaim mainly in Germany and then throughout the world in the IDM, ambient, and electronic music scene.

Indeed, while Autechre's Amber has become a touchpoint of sorts for a whole new generation of laptop do-it-yourselfers whose music rarely rises above tribute, Zahn's Arovane work is a legitimate extension of an aesthetic left largely unfinished, and is some of the most interesting and accomplished music of its kind. Since the productive early Arovane years of 1999 and 2000 there have been a collaboration with Phonem and one additional album release, Lilies, in 2004. It may be significant that the last track on that album is called "Good Bye Forever" – no further release from Arovane has surfaced after the release of Lilies.

Arovane can possibly be compared to a blend between the robotic glitch sound of early Autechre and the expansive open synth-laden fields of Boards of Canada. Zahn and his music are often referred to as being melodically advanced.

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Atol Scrap features a full hour of some of the most intriguing electronic listening music recorded during the late '90s. Uwe Zahn's productions balance two competing sides of electronics with apparent ease. On one side, the warm and inviting; on the other, the relentlessly technical and complex. There've been plenty of producers who've excelled at either heavily processed rhythms or haunted melodies (think Autechre and Boards of Canada, respectively), but Atol Scrap documents the emergence of that rare artist who displays astonishing skills at both. Zahn flashes his Berlin credentials with the calm, faraway ambience of "Scapen Te," similar to Chain Reaction producers like Monolake, Pole, and Porter Ricks. On several tracks ("Norvum," "Revart Amx"), though, he experiments with complex rhythms, revealing ties to the growing crowd of DSP (digital signal processing) artists led by Autechre and Oval.

Arovane - Atol Scrap (flac  344mb)

01 Nonlin.r 1:31
02 Tascel_7 5:42
03 Thaem Nue 7:29
04 Ambelio 5:49
05 Scapen Te 6:16
06 Norvum 7:43
07 Christian Kleine - Revart Amx (Rmx Arovane) 5:01
08 Failed 5:15
09 Amine 5:28
10 R/Elet 6:41
11 Atol Scrap 7:24

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One should never underestimate a creative force that truly doesn't come into its own until at least the second time around. This is why Arovane's Tides should be a testament to waiting to see how something develops rather than letting it all fade away too soon. It is -- surprisingly -- a lovely, lilting album of electronic class. Few people could have predicted the quantum leap of quality between the debut and this release. As soon as the first track -- "Theme" -- begins, one knows things are different: a harpsichord trills over waves of big, slow beats, a languid pace lives on yet with a progression that keeps it breathing, and everything sounds, well, correct. The goal here seems to be to try and outdo Boards of Canada. So you get the ambient thumps of songs like "A Secret" (with enough high swishes to leave you wanting more), the rumbling, slow breaks of songs like "The Storm" (with a layering of melodies that demands to be appreciated), or even the subtle crescendo of songs like "Epilogue." Indeed, if Arovane's debut was trying to be magnetic with piddling about, this follow-up is just hypnotic due to good old fashioned songwriting. Again, it's true that one shouldn't underestimate second albums. Tides might not capture that sheer dynamic exquisiteness of a release like Music Has the Right to Children, yet its ideals are often just as splendorous. Surprisingly short, sweet, and not too many bloops and bleeps. This is just about everything that minimalist electronic musicians should try and emulate. Tides is beautiful work.

Arovane ‎- Tides (flac  230mb)

01 Theme 3:40
02 Tides 5:32
03 Eleventh! 4:45
04 Tomorrow Morning 1:51
05 Seaside 3:35
06 A Secret 4:39
07 The Storm 7:23
08 Deauville 5:43
09 Epilogue 2:43

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Four years after the last proper Arovane album -- a collaboration with Phonem and a compilation of previously 12"-only material intervened -- Lilies will also allegedly be followed by another stretch of relative inactivity for producer Uwe Zahn. Just as 2000's Tides followed a trip to France, Lilies was made after some time spent in Japan, though there isn't a whole lot of evidence of that; excepting a few slight samples and one contribution from vocalist Kazumi, the album is very much a continuation of Tides, with many of the same motifs present (fluttering harpsichords, tingling hi-hats, soft-smear strings, fine keyboard patterns). Bursting with florescent melodies propelled by creative beat-making, these nine tracks (in a very tight, digestible 37 minutes) reaffirm that, despite Zahn's beginnings as a follower and scores of nondescript peers working in roughly the same field, the producer has carved out a sound of his own -- one that's as discernible as Boards of Canada's oft-filched (but never successfully cloned) take on downtempo IDM.

Arovane ‎– Lilies (flac  212mb)

01 Ten Hours 3:01
02 Windy Wish Trees 3:19
03 Passage To Nagoya 2:07
04 Cry Osaka Cry 5:08
05 Pink Lilies (Voc Kazumi) 4:00
06 Lilies 5:27
07 Tokyo Ghost Stories 5:07
08 Instant Gods Out Of The Box 4:35
09 Good Bye Forever 3:48

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