Bleep

The estimable Touch label here compile three luscious and unassuming live takes from Burkhard Stangl, whose still and contemplative atmosphere invoke the work of seminal British painter William Turner. Stangl uses little more than a suggestive layer of tape-based field recordings and the meditative twang of his guitar on ‘Mellow, ‘Sailing’ and ‘Ending’ but creates a work of unassuming beauty nonetheless. The presence of Christian Fennesz during the album’s pre-mastering here is telling, with evocations of the former’s classic albums such as ‘Endless Summer’ often coming to the fore, though the real beauty of the release is its simplicity, with only a subtle throbbing delay pedal extending the instrument’s natural resonance beyond its usual capacity, to give the unmistakable feeling of the undulating waves depicted on the disc’s cover.