Mathias Grassow – Tara

Mathias Grassow
Tara
Practising Nature, 2013

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On this release, dedicated to the memory of Kristian Kotarac (Nextera label runner) & Gianluigi Gasparetti (Oophoi), Mathias's music sound exactly as Klaus Wiese's works. Grassow dedicated farewell album to him too, but long time ago he moved from purely "wiese-style" drone to the very own sound. Was a time when they recorded albums together, blending synth pads with overtone-rich sounds of singing bowls, but since Wiese passed away, Mathias became interested in dense, assertive sound. There wasn't so much left of meditative calmness, what made Grassow's  music more accustomed to fans of classic ambient. Yet, we can't say that Mathias went by the well-trodden road, - he continues experimenting with conditions and feelings, recording some dark soundscapes (Transpersonal), ritual drone (Wisdom of Fate) and even folk-inspired music on the recently released Sonnenwende. Nevertheless, reflecting on the death of two friends and colleagues, Mathias recorded so contemplative and calming work, that it brings to mind Touch of Silence by Klaus Wiese. On this CD you can find perfect balance between endlessly spreading drone and the music of singing bowls.

Smoothly unfolding sleeves of cloud cover is casting a shadow over the fields and valleys, where old temples are standing. Inside some of them you can hear one special, monotonous sound, that goes into the sky on its own spiral vibrations. There is a few of them and each temple is responsible for his own, while only the birds and celestial beings can hear the whole composition. However, each of the living in the valley monks knows what to do to maintain the infinitely flowable harmony of this millennial symphony... Can be said that each of the musicians, creating a harmonic forms of ambient and drone music, creates its own temple, and the total of their efforts, merging into the flow of music, published by the labels and listened by the fans - is this primordial symphony. Each participant in this process occupies exactly the place that should be occupied, each chooses its own note in the overall harmony.

Unfortunately, formed in the 90's and 00's scene of metaphysical drone-ambient is gradually eroding, and not because of musicians laziness or lack of ideas, simply because they are just as mortal as any human being on this planet. Steve Roach, Stefano Musso, Robert Rich, Mathias Grassow and many others are enthusiastically continuing what they started. Their goal - is not to hit the audience with experiments, but maintain their aural pillar in the overall temple of the sacred sound, spiers of which is disappearing there, where the Absolute turns into Nothing, into the void. Goddess Tara was born there, and all her manifestations merge there - where the primordial sound transforms into beginningless silence. And while slow meditative waves of this records are laving the shores of the listeners' consciousness, it is time for the next generation of architects of sacred to took their places in this process. But this music will remain forever, regardless of who wrote it, because her curls are stretching from the foundation to the dizzying heights.

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