Solyst
The Steam Age
Solyst heralds a new era of digital steam power. On The Steam Age he turns his attentions to mechanical aesthetics beyond the ubiquitous binary code. As a basis for the third album by the Duesseldorf Kreidler drummer Thomas Klein, an abandoned piano served as a sound source. Tapping, scratching, scraping, plucking: working with the wooden body and steel strings led to the building blocks of a broad sonic spectrum, which Klein then brushed against the grain with his sampler. All of these alienated patterns and sequences were then invited to dance to the typical Solyst percussion groove, merging with him to form a hypnotically driving machine-funk. Solyst did not follow a pattern or a chronology on his latest work. Every reduced, often spontaneous step of the process was linked with the next-sometimes by intuition, sometimes by mutual condition. He also expanded his drum set rhythmically. A homebuilt, electronically manipulated table percussion ensemble, consisting of utilitarian objects such as a tin can or a wooden board, opened the sonic palette to previously unheard and weightless grooves. This percussive spectrum has already been tested and proven live, and spreads a rhythmic gravity that remains accessible despite its experimental basis. Solyst is ultimately a project that revolves around a hypnotic rhythmic element. The Steam Age uses an intoxicatingly atmospheric overall picture to create this hypnosis.