Stefan Goldmann: Alluvium
Macro
With Alluvium, Berlin producer Stefan Goldmann (b. 1978) continues his examination of experimental techno's possibilities. This latest exploration of “layered asymmetry” shows what happens when multiple irregular patterns are combined to form interlocking, multi-tiered edifices. A weirdly captivating brand of mutant polyrhythmic techno is the result, the music tangentially connected to the form but pushing away from it at the same time. With the release's dozen tracks, Goldmann reveals himself once again to be one of the genre's most thoughtful practitioners, someone uninterested in simply adding to what's been done before but instead subverting it to produce something alien and fresh.
Like his other albums in the series, Veiki (2019) and Vector Rituals (2022), Alluvium is a natural fit for Macro, the label he and Finn Johannsen established in 2007 as a laboratory-styled outlet for, in their words, “radical yet playful innovation.” Goldmann treats each of the twelve pieces as a site for exploration while at the same time grounding each in a percolating rhythmic design. The music's bottom end possesses immense thrust, its upper layers a constantly shifting panorama of glistening electronics and tones. The opening “Axios” lays the foundation by patiently building on its insistent, almost tribal pulse and maximizing tension and anticipation in equal measure. “Helicon” and “Drilon” pulsate at high-velocity with off-centred bass drum accents intoning alongside a vortex of fluttering jungle chatter and gyroscopic smears.
With distant hints of house working its way into the arrangement, the cyclonic “Scylax” plays like some spasmodic transmission beamed in from some distant galaxy (Goldmann's not without a sense of humour, either, as shown by a brief drum solo at the end of the track). Drenched in steely sheets of sound, the epic space-age supernova “Arda” suggests that he could be a first-call film soundtrack composer were he so inclined. The inclusion of hydraulics and other industrial noise intensifies the machine techno character of “Magoras,” a track that would sound equally at home on Chain Reaction as Macro. The bleepy 4/4 groove of “Hebros” aligns it closest to standard techno, though even here Goldmann works enough quirkiness into it to distance it from the norm. His dazzling command of sound design reaches its zenith during the locomotive closer “Scamander.”
Throughout the release, the music's both tight to the point of breaking yet also elastically open to possibility. In that regard, one of the most satisfying things about the material is its unpredictability: while the tracks establish clear and distinct identities, they're never static but instead constantly mutating. Were Goldmann to play these pieces during a Berlin club set, the crowd would likely be both mesmerized and left dumbstruck by such wholly engulfing material.May 2024