Brannten Schnure
Aprilnacht
Originally released on tape by SicSic in 2014, Aprilnacht commemorates a decade of music from Brannten Schnuere and marked the spring in a tetralogy of albums about the four seasons when it came out. Back then the Wuesrburg-based project consisted solely of Christian Schoppik, who later welcomed Katie Rich to take over the vocals. He used to perform as Agnes Beil, but dropped the name when, while making this album realized his music was becoming "much gentler and more fragile". Aprilnacht already captured the particular musical ideas that Schoppik would thoroughly keep exploring, delving deeper and deeper into the use and manipulation of samplers from sources so diverging as to wander between the five continents to post-war German family television and cult cinema. Heir of the ritualistic intensity of Coil, of the intricate sampler assemblies of Ghedalia Tazartès', and of the dusty, dismal old ballads from around the world, Brannten Schnuere manages to make these paths cross in a territory that is as inherent as it is uncanny; sieged by the past and intimate as a hearth. An organic approach to folk, ambient, and sound collage, where ethereal yet thoroughly textured pieces coalesce in enthralling, delicate, and innermost musical rituals.