NOW HERE NO WHERE (2LP + DOWNLOAD)

Tracklist A1 Great Escape A2 Shoulder Of Giants A3 Remind You B1 Sleeper Must Awaken B2 Time B3 Traumfabrik C1 Fandango C2 Glypto C3 Now Here No Where D1 Romtech User Manual D2 While Waiting For Something To Care About D3 Pause On his fourth album proper, Now Here No Where, Danish producer Kölsch (aka Rune Reilly Kölsch) is charting new terrain. Fans of his ˜years trilogy™  1977, 1983 and 1989, released on Kompakt over the past decade  were privy to a kind of sonic diary, an autobiography, tracking the artist™s early years through three albums of superior, meticulously rendered techno. Calling in collaborators where needed  most notably, the strings of Gregor Schwellenbach  there was still something deeply personal going down, not quite hermetic, but internally focused; the albums proved not only Kölsch™s mastery of his chosen form, but also his capacity to make techno personal, individual, and to trace histories of the self through music. But on Now Here No Where, Kölsch finds his feet firmly planted in the present. Reflecting on his new album, he notes, šIt is fascinating to write about memories and feelings that have had years to manifest and develop, but how would I approach current emotions?› It™s a good question: our past coheres through the narratives we build around memories, but the moment we™re in, the newness of the now-ness, is harder to navigate; this story is as yet untold. For Kölsch, this makes Nowhere Now Here šan album about life in the year 2020. A time defined by confusion, misinformation and environmental challenges. It is an emotional interpretation of personal and mental challenges, observations and personal growth.› Kölsch does this with music that effortlessly balances emotional heft with the dancefloor™s brimming desires. It™s a space that Kölsch has navigated for a while now  one of techno™s breakthrough acts, an in-demand DJ across the globe and a prolific and restlessly creative producer, he™s also Kompakt™s biggest-selling act  but Now Here No Where ratchets up the lushness, making for a delirious drift across twelve tracks that are at once perfectly poised and deeply trippy. šGreat Escape› is an elegant swoon, an opener that pivots on a sigh and a prayer; then šShoulder Of Giants› bustles into view, subliminal clatter and an aching violin line giving way to a riff that glows with fluorescence and iridescence. šRemind You› combines an odd ECM jazziness with notes from a twenty-first century torch song; šSleeper Must Awaken› mines huge buzzing synths and lets them float, in and out of sync, with reduced, ticking beats; šTraumfabrik› (dream factory  there™s a giveaway) is oddly lush, the tones malleable and plastic, morphing across a glitching undertow. There are sad, emotional washes of strings throughout the penultimate šWhile Waiting For Something To Care About›, while šRomtech User Manual›™s patterns twist and shape in the light. Throughout, Kölsch never keeps his eye off the dancefloor, and you can tell this is his still his home. šThe amount of energy and joy I experience every time I perform, has a profound effect on me. It has inspired me so much of late and has become an integral part of my musicality.› šThe way we join in expressing our hope for the future every weekend has given me so much,› Kölsch concludes. The club as a temporary autonomous zone, as a space both of freedom and of politics; somehow, that™s all here, Now Here No Where. šMost of all, it is an album about hope.›