Call & Answer By Hanslik & Moniz Experiment

 

Call & Answer

By

Hanslik & Moniz Experiment

Written by

Steve Sheppard

 

The skill set required to create a cogent and fascinating experimental album is a wondrous thing indeed, here the Hanslik & Moniz Experiment gift us another release packed with expressions, textures and layers of tonality like no other, and at all times manifest an energy of an ambient captivation whilst doing so, they entitle this work of artistic brilliance Call & Answer.

I adore it when composers choose the title track as the first composition on the album it shows us, the ever eager listener, their true intent and direction. Here the duet does just that with a swirling harmonic resonance called of course Call & Answer, the synths and guitar seem to have a naturally organic manifestation, which makes this title header such a dream like opus to enjoy.

We now step into the garden of many electronic delights within the composition granted the title of The Weight of Truth, here can be found a song with a slightly mysterious quality, one that marches ever onward with its pastiche of truthful tones and harmonic builds and progressions, a track that leads us through many doors and passages along the way.

Serene Encounter is a special piece, I listened to its graces on a few occasions and loved its ambience, it reminded me in its early stages of my chart topping song Riccos Beach with its synth styled minor touches, but here lies a piece of the future with a more upbeat and flavourful musical narrative, listen to the guitar in this track, it’s something to marvel at indeed.

As we edge ever closer to the half way juncture of the album, we come across a track that is beyond fascinating, and at times creates an outer worldly energy about its construction, the string plucking matches the marvellous keyboard work on Reaching Out, and is totally addictive, while the electronic variances in tone brings to our attention one of the most creative and artistic pieces from the album.

The slow progression and back beat in this next piece entitled Did We Miss Anything, gave me the very same energy of some 40 years hence, when a track was gifted to me by the late but great Isao Tomita and his composition Pavane for a Dead Princess. The gentle processional style incorporated here makes the sound foundations of the piece solid, whilst the inventive and artistic nuances manifested by the artists, brings to the fore one the best electronic experimental compositions I have heard for decades.

Listening to this next piece I was reminded of the heady days of the 60’s and Georges Harrison, a short form moment of crafted genius can be found here in the track Willing, one of the best 60seconds plus I have spent listening lately.

Now we turn the corner of our musical modern art gallery and reach a portrait entitled Conversation Interrupted. Here one will find a tornado of a track, a piece that swirls around you, forever changing its form and structure, forever altering its direction and as such your perception, this is a dreamscape of a musical narrative, but be careful, you may get lost within its transfixing dimensional narrative.

Our penultimate offering is entitled Exoplanet, a planet out of our solar system, research Kepler-452b as an example of one. Here the artists build a piece that is all encompassing and totally engrossing, a piece that constructs a vast sound to explore and, a vibrancy that is just too hard to resist and also allows us to finish off the project, with the ingenuous and original manifestation of What We Missed, which reminds me in its construction of Floyd meets Tangerine Dream, and a brilliant way with which to leave the release indeed.

Call & Answer by Hanslik & Moniz Experiment is music to lose yourself within, it’s new and investigational energies are so well crafted, that any listener will just get carried away with its artistic nuances. Call & Answer by Hanslik & Moniz Experiment is an album that must surely be a collector’s item, a main stay in the playlists of musical purists, an album that many will carry with them throughout the ages, like they have done with artists like Eno and Budd, this is something quite special, make it part of your collection as soon as possible too and enjoy the electronic experimental reveries contained within.