Cosmic Ground is Dirk Jan Müller’s solo project outside of Electric Orange. For a number of years now he has been perfecting his journey through Berlin School style sequencing to great effect. While inspired by the classics I find the work to be closer to the later work of bands like Node or Redshift.There isn’t a whole lot to say here. You either like the style of music or you don’t but album to album its pretty much the same story. Different sequences and textures but if you are looking for new direction it isn’t happening.That being said, I eat this stuff up. There’s nothing better than jumping on a European train and firing up some Cosmic Ground on the ear buds and zoning out watching the countryside go by. If anything I find Isolate to be a bit darker. There are low rumbles and ominous pads laying the foundation for the sequences and in some cases some muffled spoken word. Side one of the double LP features three shorter tracks which is also a somewhat different approach on a theme. Each of the other 3 sides are one long track each which allows the sequences to evolve more. Part of what I enjoy about this music is that I have tried and failed over and over to get my analog and semi analog synths to do anything that approaches a decent sounding sequence. From the note structures to the delay and reverb effects its a skill that has so far eluded me so to listen to someone this skilled at it is always a pleasure. So if you are into the Berlin School thing and have enjoyed past Cosmic Ground releases this will not disappoint. Also if you are interested, there is another new vinyl release up on the Bandcamp page called Sanctum which features very early recordings.
Isolate was released by Tonzonen Records and can be purchased in their shop here or from the above linked Bandcamp page of Cosmic Ground
