Split Review: Siegmar Fricke / A Thunder Orchestra - Energy is Eternal Delight (2021 Re-Issue)

Picture Credit: Siegmar Fricke / A Thunder Orchestra

Siegmar Fricke / A Thunder Orchestra - Energy is Eternal Delight (2021 Re-Issue)
Release Date: February 17, 2021
Label: Calax Records
Format: Vinyl / Digital
Length: 70:35
Genre: Synthwave / Ambient / Electronica

Hey there, time travellers! Tokyo's Calax Records are inviting us on a spacey trip to the year 1991. It was the year, Freddie Mercury died, John Lennon released 'Give Peace a Chance', Nirvana coined a new era of Grunge with 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', and Janet Jackson became the first artist to have seven Top 5 tracks from the same album. But apart from Pop and Grunge, there was a legendary and yet rather underground release in the year 1991. By the name "Energy is Eternal Delight", electronic pioneers Siegmar Fricke and A Thunder Orchestra published a tape that is now being re-released on double vinyl, featuring two unreleased tracks.

Picture Credit: Siegmar Fricke


A- and B-Side: Siegmar Fricke

Length: 39:20

First two sides are filled with the mesmerizing collages by Siegmar Fricke. You can hear that this is pioneering but professional work. Siegmar Fricke mixes audio samples with warm synthesizer sounds in an experimental but catchy approach. Typical late-80s drum sounds are the motor for this moving and yet relaxing sonic experience. You can hear early traces of Berliner Schule as well as predecessors of what later got called Glitch.

Picture Credit: A Thunder Orchestra

C- and D-Side: A Thunder Orchestra
Length: 31:15

The other record contains the works contributed by A Thunder Orchestra. This one is a lot deeper and closer to Ambient sound. A Thunder Orchestra creates dark and gloomy atmosphere with synthetic sounds. Muffled themes are decorated with high-pitched leads and spooky samples and choruses. A Thunder Orchestra provides us a with hollow dreamy sonic journey that lead the way for later Darkwave sounds or nightmarish sonic experiences like those created by Edward Ka-Spel or Brother Grimm.

20 years after this legendary and pathbreaking release was first out on cassette tape, we can get it on vinyl. Calax Records have hereby re-issued a milestone of Ambient and Synthwave.

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