CEL (KUBIN, FELIX/ZEMLER, HUBERT) - Cel (Sealed) (LP)

Madness with method: restless, atmospheric and shimmering, music with electrostatic crackling. Behind CEL are the German electro magician Felix Kubin and the Polish drummer Hubert Zemler. The identical "CEL" is the debut album of this collaboration: an experimental laboratory for rhythm loops and electrostatic discharges, a restless pulse, ghostly shimmering synths, driving, machine-like beats and dark sound painting. Pieces staggering on the edge of madness. To this end, Kubin's erratic electronics and Zemler's sparse motor skills interlock perfectly: Felix Kubin is a Janus-headed poltergeist of retrofuturistic electronic dance music, but also an award-winning radio playwright and arranger of complex orchestral and big band compositions. For contemporary experimental music, he personifies the longing for pop and builds a bridge between club music and high culture. With him works the Warsaw-based Hubert Zemler, who has a classical percussion education and is successful in symphony orchestras as well as in experimental ensembles and pop bands. Trained in jazz, contemporary music and improv, the drummer, percussionist and composer is the congenial counterpart to Cuban lunacy. For "CEL" they have recorded seven instrumental pieces whose sound palette has been expanded by vibraphone, xylophone and African percussion. They come along unexpectedly, crazy and ingenious, change their direction, cast a spell over us, leave us wide awake. An album as if it had always been there - as inspiration for generations of musicians. A timeless classic.