MEANDERLUST | VINYL RECORD (LP)

Includes download code. With their second album, Meanderlust, Randweg undertake a trip along melodic fields and rhythmic turns. They make feel-good music with an experimental core, using clarinet, guitar, bass, cajón, and computers to tread previously untrodden paths. The duo breaks with any expectations one might have for this kind of instrumentation; the clarinet playing in particular "has nothing to do with the usual clichés one may associate with this in itself innocent and lovable instrument. On the contrary, its sounds remind us a lot more of our well-loved vintage analog synthesizers" (Groove). Andreas Ernst has played the clarinet since he was 12 years old. The way he puts his instrument to use is exceptional; the clarinet serves as something of a natural oscillator, as its vibrations are alienated with effects and transferred to a different world of sound. A woodwind instrument as a controller for sound transducers, filters, and delay. Ernst's distinctive playing style can also be found on tracks by Ripperton, Ellen Allien, and Der Dritte Raum. David Baurmann forms the musical counterpart on bass and guitar and enriches Randweg's electronic beats with cajón. Firmly anchored in the electronic music scene of Aachen, Germany, as a DJ, here he is a multi-instrumentalist, giving the duo's music its peculiar band-like sound. Following the 2013 release of Randweg's debut, Equisetales (FUNKEN 001LP), the duo began performing live and laid the foundation from which they have since meandered into further-out territory, with releases on Dock Records and Nachtdigital. The ten seamless songs of Meanderlust effortlessly wander across genre boundaries, from folk melodies and jazzy playfulness to clubby electronics -- sometimes even with an open sympathy for epic rock.