Black To Comm

"Wir können leider nicht etwas mehr zu tun..." is the rather weird title for Black To Comm's 2nd Album release within 12 months, this time coming out on a gorgeous vinyl-only double-LP with a beautifully strange gatefold sleeve in a limited edition of 500 copies. Black To  Comm is the nom de plume for Hamburg's Dekorder label head honcho Marc Richter's sonic voyages. In 2006 he released a 7" lathe cut picture disc ("Levitation"), his debut album "Rückwärts Backwards" on CD and very limited vinyl and compilation tracks for the Finnish 267 Lattajjaa and Ukrainian Quasipop labels. While the first album was mainly constructed from dusty vinyl and shellac loops, the new album is based on "real" instruments including several antique organs, electric harmonium, acoustic & electric guitars, bells, clattery percussion, vintage effect pedals and tape loops thereof. Richter builds up massive psychedelic one-chord drones, minimal yet dense and heavily layered, full of spacious details and swirling melodies buried within. Each track is slowly building, drifting and floating hypnotically into a warm and shimmering black ocean of sonic liquid, creating a mesmerizing and mysterious mass of sound. While most of the works are thick monotone layers of organic sound there's some sort of simple songwriting gleaming constantly through the mist, making this a highly accessible drone album. Guest musicians are Hamburg visual artist Renate Nikolaus on electric & acoustic guitars and voice and electro-acoustic musician Gregory Büttner on trumpet.