Stendeck - Scintilla

Mesmerized is the word which best describes what state of mind Stendeck's latest has put me in. It's a fusillade of incredibly intricate effects and melodies tearing this album apart at it's seams. Try to follow along with one set of sounds and they morph into others, lock onto to those and they evolve into entire rhythmic structures which last only a few seconds and then are gone. This record is like holding a snowflake in the palm of your hand, blink and it will be no more. Fortunately, one can play "Scintilla" again and again thus re-capturing the fleeting elegance and microscopic beauty Stendeck are giving away. Incredibly moody in tone but resilient like you would not believe, this is the mantra to keep in mind when you take this trip. Your ticket has been punched, who knows where you'll go from the starting point.

There are several movements which encapsulate groups of tracks on this album, from the manic, thunderous opening cut through the iridescent middle section riddled by gnawing atmospheres out into the spacey finale which then comes back around ferociously galloping as though that last set of reins have been ripped apart. This artist operates with the maxim that the work he does tell a story, now that story is entirely defined by the listener's take on the music he makes. Here's what it tells me: though much reflection on what has come before is present in the sonic world of Stendeck, there is no need to crumble or cave in to doubts, nothing is so great and insurmountable that it cannot be overcome by sheer will. So much thought goes into an outing like this, it's difficult to do it justice... I could take the easy route and just keep using the word 'beautiful' to summarize album five but who wants that? Nothing easy is ever shown up front and so I keep listening and languidly drifting through the dynamic auditory landscape which one man and his machines have created.

Imagination is far from dead, creativity thrives in this divinely synthesized realm inhabited exclusively by this entity. No one else has this man's ear for exquisitely detailed cinematic composition; when he puts out a new opus, there's little fanfare about what has been released which is puzzling on so many many levels. Speaking of levels, have fun playing about with your equalization settings during "Scintilla" if you have such capabilities as he's buried all manner of detail and a myriad of hidden eclectic electronic esoterica throughout the bandwidth. So far, I have managed to locate a few of them and each time I do the entire overview of what this record is shifts and it takes on a different feeling all together. Even though to the casual listener it sounds the same every time, it is faceted by truly fourth dimensional craftsmanship, demanding that you look into it... for as far as your eyes and ears can perceive.

It's quite a perpetually shifting exercise Stendeck give us to grapple with, I wonder if it is designed to parse through one's mind and illuminate even the darkest recesses. He has a fondness for the introspective side of things in his work: there are just too many elements in his style which point to an individual very curious about the world we live in... determined to understand all he can. This feeling pervades Stendeck's latest, from the icy vistas crafted out of magnificently executed orchestrations right into the frenetic heart of all that wickedly clever percussion. Apr 07 2011