Luxe, spaced-out drone music from Phillip Sollman (Efdemin), including a charming drone-pop take on Jane’s ‘Fine Day’. In his post-techno phase Phillip Sollman continues to spread his wings and double down on his interest in minimalism following collaborations with Oren Ambarchi and John Gürtler in the past few years, and more recently on his percussive study ‘Monophonie.’ The title for his new suite with Dial kinda gives the game away; it’s very minimal, in the school of thought developed by likes of Alvin Lucier, La Monte Young, Eliane Radigue or Phill Niblock, and can almost be heard as his ultimate exploration of the hypnotic tonal and spatial aspects that have long been key to the attraction of his music. Sollmann’s touch is reduced to a barely there presence, only just perceptible in the music’s glacial tonal gradients on the glittering time-lapse star-arc of ‘Room One’ and in the glistening timbral manipulations of ‘Room Two’, while the more austere organ-like tone of ‘Room Three’ recalls Kali Malone works. But Sollmann lends a more physical impression in ‘Room Five’ with his gently trembling vocals intoning the lyrics from Jane’s ‘Fine Day’ (aka the one used by Opus III) over a bed of gossamer fine harmonic wooze redolent of Pinkcourtesyphone passing out on a chunky xan, but with a cheeky hypnic jerk closing awaiting anyone who’s fallen properly under its spell.