Album: just 3 organs
Author: Susanna Bolle
Publication: WZBC (source)
Date: 04/27/2008

Frank Rothkamm is a German born sound artist with a penchant for concept albums, vintage electronics, and unconventional tunings.

This latest release on his own Flux Records label is a 33 minute, 33 second long disc featuring 9 tracks of music composed using 3 Yamaha home organs, each tuned 33 micro-tonal cents (or roughly a third of a semitone) apart. Yep, for what it’s worth, there are a lot of 3’s in here.

But this is not a coolly conceptual record; it’s a charmingly eccentric, obsessive compulsive sort of project that’s an enjoyable and engaging listen. The pieces themselves are endearingly retro, referencing early electronic music, classical, and cinematic psychedelia, while the organs’ idiosyncratic tuning casts it all in a unsettling, luminescent glow.

Weird (in a good way).

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