Selbstportrait VI - The Diary Of The Unforgotten
His first selfportrait in 13 years. Could've been a pointless exercise in nostalgia. It wasn't.
Sitting on a vast archive of his archetypal solo keyboard loops, the CD age, with it's low unit costs making even limited edition releases affordable, was made for Roedelius. How else could the obscure Curious Music label have disinterred these outtakes - mostly recorded 17 years earlier - and vault over an indifferent music industry to slake the thirst of retro-addicts. All ten tracks here are in the same vein as the earlier volumes of Farfisa organ vignettes where Roedelius solos over his own looped rhythms. The only surprise here is "Remember Those Days" a murky organ carols hesitantly before bursting out of a muddy mix before finally snapping into focus to great emotional release - signifying the album's subtitle 'The Diary of the Unforgotten'. But Roedelius is too conscientious to offload poor quality outtakes onto a captive niche market. The album's centrepiece, the 24-minute "Hommage a Forst" segues five analogue organ sketches into a beautifully sequence medely with a digital production that compromises their joyful mood with a tinge of nostalgic sadness at halcyon days gone by.
