Selbstportrait Vol II
The companion volume to Selbstportrait I - with just a slightly more noctural atmosphere to distinguish it (as reflected by the dark blue cover).
Even if the formula continues to be disarmingly basic, there's a hidden craft at work here. Roedelius makes skillful use of three key ingredients - an ostinato piano; throbbing bass chords; and cascading themes. Each track explore different permutations of these in various major and minor modes with chromatic hints, harmony and counterpoint spontaneously dropped in here and there amidst the unending tumbling rhythms. As before, there are vague hints of pastiche, the Asiatic "Prinzregent", the machine funk of "Herold", the Nordic strum of "Halmharfe" but these are so well blended into Roedelius' stream-of-consciousness moods that they come and go like brief strands of thought in an eternal cosmic soundtrack.
Source: Stephen Iliffe
