M. Ostermeier - The Rules of Another Small world

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5...according to our Phil on Thu 05 May, 2011.

A somewhat cosmic title and quite fitting or me since I've been obsessed by all things cosmic lately. I drift off looking at the stars thinking how big they are (yet they're so small) and they're so far away and that I'm so small and insignificant. Enough of that and other worlds already. I loved this guys last album. It was simply smashing from start to end so I was reasonably excited by this one (I rarely get more than reasonably excited about anything anymore). It's been on for a couple of tracks so far and it's good. the ingredients are all there, tinkly pianos, electro acoustic business, glitch, drone, ambience and electronics. It's beautiful stuff which is totally calming me down (having a stressful one today). Sunlight On My Desk is all bloopy and lovely and there's some gorgeous sounds in there. 'Streambed Arrangement' is quite disconcerting with a strange wobblesome factor and some micro glitches totally busying my ears. Songs like 'Trickle Down' sound exactly what the title suggests with micro electronic glitchy noises and some xylophoney style noises. It's a very delicate record with lots of warm sounds filling the air between your ears. I think it's quite possibly better than his last album as there's lots of original and unusual sounds on there and I think I'm going to use the word brilliant again.

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With The Rules of Another Small World, M. Ostermeier has arrived at an elegant voice – otherworldly and strangely beautiful, much like the desolate Taiwanese San-Zhr Pod Village gracing the album cover.

While elements of electroacoustic, modern classical, jazz, glitch, drone, ambient, and even lounge weave in and out of the record’s eleven compositions, The Rules of Another Small World is the converse of an eclectic collection of songs.

Instead, a cohesive album springs forth from the subtle commonalities in texture and structure etched into every song. These commonalities derive in part from the “rules” of the album title, a reference to M. Ostermeier's self-imposed limitations adopted during the composition of these pieces.

Despite its minimalistic leanings, The Rules of Another Small World paints a melodic, freeform world full of detail. Slow melodic fragments dance in and out of focus, while small sounds both tinker about in the foreground and percolate curiously in the aural architecture underneath.

The striking superposition of unadorned piano melodies and unpredictable sonic microorganisms lifts the melancholic darkness M. Ostermeier explored on Lakefront (Hibernate, 2010) revealing a tone that is more optimistic – even playful (think Cluster, Benjamin Lew, Carpet Musics, Pawn, or Opitope).

Towards that end, most compositions are constructed in the three-minute pop-song format, blossoming with lives lasting only long enough to explore their environment before they metamorphoses into something new.

Tracklist:

micro forest updraft (2.58)
streambed arrangement (2.48)
sunlight on my desk (2.48)
i took out your picture (3.09)
floorboards, well-worn (3.54)
trickle down (2.28)
fast darters (2.50)
underwater drifting (3.21)
retreating night (3.59)
suspicions (3.13)
ngth (5.27)

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