Bleep

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of the 2004 release of Christian Fennesz's album Venice, Touch present a deluxe CD version remastered by Denis Blackham, with new and extra tracks not on the previous CD or vinyl versions. Venice was the fourth studio album by the guitarist, and it was seen to be the heir to the genre-defining and ground-breaking Endless Summer that was released in 2001. Endless Summer challenged and altered the perception of experimental electronic music, and murmured the discussion of how it could reflect and reference the language of pop. These concerns in Venice were still evident, but they evolved more into a whisper, with the artist's compositions and processes coming more to the fore, creating an album that is as distinct as it is accessible. With the anniversary edition beginning with 'The Future Will Be Different', a short and simple track of guitar chords, it abruptly gives way to the original opening track 'Rivers Of Sand', which quivers beautifully into focus, a languid low-end and fine-spun feedback that submerges the listener into the Austrian musician's unique and beautiful sound world. 'Circassian' - written in collaboration with guitarist Burkhard Stangl - is filled with cascading power chords, a hallucinatory, My Bloody Valentine-esque, swirling jam. 'The Point Of It All' is, in contrast, darker in tone, filled with fizzing, isolated noise, while 'Laguna' is a lulling and delicate piece of sprawling guitar work. Ending with 'Tree', the other extra track for this occasion, a simple meandering guitar wanders around alone, with hissing and harmonics hovering in the background dissolving the album in to the ether. "Transit" featuring David Sylvian, may be what people most remember of this album, but it is the moments in between, the distortion and degradation, the nostalgic memories of distant melodies, that haunt this album, and why 20 years on it still resonates loudly in its own quiet way.