Album: FB02
Author: Dmitry Vasilyev (I.E.M.)
Publication: monochrome vision (source)
Date: 12/31/2006

Frank Rothkamm is one of the most interesting musicians of our time who has been working for a quarter of a century.

He is a real fighter of the invisible front, producer and initiator of many projects, founder of the label "Flux Records" who has tried multiple styles from magnetic-tape-collage music produced in his home studio in the beginning of the eighties to post-classical music for chamber orchestra, and he's not feeling squeamish about pop-music productions either.

"FB01" and "FB02" - the albums of his latest period, put out by him independently, complement each other musically, being parts of one series. The subtitle of the second part is "Astronaut of Inner Space", and indeed the album resembles music to sci-fi movies of the sixties, something in the middle between an electronic version of Debussy's impressionism and early computer music of the twentieth century.

Purposefully devoid of any hint at standard harmony and regularity, absolutely dehumanized and still very confident in its futuristic course, this music attracts by its otherworldly charm. Deserted and cold landscapes, divided by four-second id-marks, surround the listener from all sides. Five abstract and atonal models of whimsical uninterrupted three-dimensional functions that get out of balance at the minor interference into hyper space.

(translated from Russian by Mikhail Magaril)

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