Album: Ghost of New York
Author: Ed Pinsent
Publication: Sound Projector (source)
Date: 05/25/2010

Frank Rothkamm has devised another puzzling release of rather queasy and bewildering electronic music, and wrapped it up in a contextual conundrum.

Previous releases have alluded to the history of electronic music in both the groves of academe and in the movie theatre (science-fiction soundtracks), but on Ghost of New York (FLUX RECORDS FLX11) the chosen theme is Spiritualism. The track titles refer to ectoplasm and levitation, and there’s an ingeniously concocted spirit photograph on the front cover with all the other artworks tinted in sepia tones to drag the unwary listener back into a semi-fictional past. The back cover view of the Empire State Building is especially striking, for some reason.

As usual, Rothkamm offers a rather difficult listen, packed with unnatural electronic sounds and very little underlying structure in evidence, in spite of the very extreme dynamics of composition.

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