EINNICKEN RECORDS METAMUSIK | Con7 REVIEWS "Following several live appearances, this debut album ‘Con7′ on Einnicken sees Rytzler and Carlson crafting seven different variations on a ‘meta-concept’ utilising both electronic processing and acoustic instrumentation, the end result being a intriguing conceptual piece that gradually shifts from almost harsh austerity towards more melodic and almost dancefloor-friendly territory. Opening chapter ‘Con 7.1′ begins things in stripped-back and forbidding territory, placing unpredictable, broken rhythmic textures beneath a sinister backdrop of gong-like ringing tones and distant metallic crashes. While it certainly represents this collection’s least accessible entry point, ‘Con 7.2′s following permutation sees elegant yet eerie piano motifs filling the spaces between increasingly florid rhythms, with ‘Con 7.3′s slide down into rich, glitch-strewn digi-dub much in the vein of Pole signalling the arrival of more lustrous textural elements into the comparatively sparse mix. ‘Con 7.5′ meanwhile sees tentative, burbling electronic tones treading a path against clicking, Deru meets Prefuse 73 minimalist hiphop rhythms and ghostly synthetic harmonium melodies in what’s easily the most warm and approachable chapter to be found here, before ‘Con 7.6′ takes things out into a glittering ambient wash of chirping, laser-like zaps, machine bleeps and opaque synth pads swell beneath crackling, digitally-treated scraping sounds. In the end, after traversing some fairly warm and serene dub landscapes, the listener is more or less left back exactly where they started – back out in the sparse, frigid surroundings that the original ‘meta-concept’ emerged out of. Fans of stripped-back, post-IDM electronics along the lines of Mille Plateaux should find much to enjoy on this impressive debut from Metamusik." Chris Downton Cyclic Defrost, July 2010 (Australia)   "Daniel Carlsson and Johannes Rytzler build their electronic duo on improvisation, and unlike any acoustic instruments that lend the sound of electronica they seem to want to investigate, how they can approach their playing to other improvisation. They have retained the repetitive, annoying nervous in their playing, it gives a rhythm to hang on to. The tones are often interrupted, while they at the same time float away.   An interesting experience is how they create undulating movements within these clumps. There one direction violates another; the feeling of space sways up and down or is it the sense of balance.   The electronics muffled diffuse sounds often play against different small tones, rhythms and echoes of different instruments you may imagine yourself. Now and then rather right-handed scenes are lined up, that mixes sound art and disjointed rhythms. That’s the parts I like most of all. And probably wanted to hear more in that direction. To a lesser degree I like when they dissolve those parts with rather general muffled sounds, such we do expect from electronica.   I'm fond of their efforts to move into the world of improvisation, but there it is important to dare to let go of convention, be unsure and avoid the known. When I listen past the easily recognizable in Metamusik a whole world of sound clashes and tone configurations and cracked rhythms is revealed, which had fared just fine without the backing. It does not exclude the exacting and intrusive." Thomas Millroth Sound of Music, March 2010 (Sweden) "Some interesting bleepery and wayward playing from Metamusik, which is the duo of Daniel Carlsson and Johannes Rytzler. On Con7 (EINNICKEN ERA 0918) they present further evidence of their project which since 2005 has been striving to find a way of improvising within the electronica framework, in order to get away from what they perceived as ‘random sound experiments’ and make a return to simple music-making. I’m all for it. At their best moments here, they do manage to escape the straitjacket of the clean lines and grid-systems that might be said to characterise the schools of Cologne and Mille Plateaux since the 1990s. My only reservation is when they attempt to pluck out half-baked melodies on a distorted piano in the middle of a track, only to arrive at some species of airport lounge music thereby." Ed Pinsent Sound Projector, March 28, 2010 (UK) "At just over 34 minutes the Eskilstuna familiar duo with Daniel Carlsson and Johannes Rytzler, both with all sorts of electronics as tools for their creation, manage to produce exciting music that without the slightest touch of ingratiation captures the listener with its very special sound. Regardless, if I venture to label their music as electronica, electronic music, concrete music, electroacoustic music or anything else (which many times is an academic issue) Metamusik stands out against the usual standards of that type of vegetation by putting improvisation, or if we call it imagination, in the front seat. This also gives the music a warmer, less synthetic and more sympathetic strain. Con7 is divided into seven pieces, each with its own character but also interconnected by a basic idea. You who guess that this is a way to earn a lot of money are of course completely wrong." Peter Bornemar Eskilstuna-Kuriren, February 27, 2010 (Sweden) © 2012 Einnicken Records. All rights reserved.