In 1947, the American artist James Turrell, who drew his artistic inspirations from light and space, bought a vast area of land in the middle of the Arizona desert, in the center of which lies an extinct volcano of 400.000 years. He named it Roden Crater. In the following years, James Turrell started working the mountain in his very own way, milling a network of corridors and rooms into the crater so that the rooms opening up to the sky were bathed in the lights of individual luminaries – an incredible project on perception. Now, this »Roden Crater Vision« was used as an inspiration for the latest EP by Berlin-based techno producer Michal Matlak, a.k.a. The Analog Roland Orchestra The outcome offers impressive synergies between the subordinated topic and the EP, starting at its appearance: The vinyl is covered in a seemingly geological pattern, in the middle of which the label forms an elegant caldera. Its hole in the center allows the light to float through. »Lightlandscape« is an ambient-piece, free-flowing towards cosmic spheres. »Roden Crater Vision«, the title track, works through interesting echo effects, creating the vision of directly walking into the crater. Connections like these can be found throughout the whole record, either leaning towards the esoteric (»Curvature«) or away from the worldly (»Orange Rainrain«). Unfortunately, The Analog Roland Orchestra can’t keep up this notion through the album. The music keeps turning in angles of 180 degrees (»Impact«) and keeps returning to secular matters (»Melody 4«, »Melody 8«), as if the Analog Roland Orchestra himself didn’t trust the visions he created.
Payfone
Lunch
Otis