Redux by Jan Roth

The earth swings through space. Seen from here the sun rises and sets, music is in the air, lovers love, food is ready. And Jan Roth – the grand seigneur of cultivated understatement? Four aces fall out of his jacket. 

Just as this strange older person sits down on a park bench, Roth sits down at the piano in his favourite Leipzig studio 'Behind The Plane' and turns the bags inside-out. He also places a small beatbox next to him, 808 or 909 or whatever it is. And then he waits. And just like the songbirds in the park, the songs on this EP gather around him.

The sparkling new "Hin Und Her". The swirling "Restless" from the debut album "L.O.W.". Then "Boicycle" from last year's album "Kleinod", which photographs the moment when the supporting hand lets go of the rack for the first time while riding a bicycle: shaky and overwhelmed and proud, a new freedom is conquered. And finally, the somewhat more expansive "March", which tells of the last uprising of winter melancholy. On "Redux" we hear hear heart-warm miniatures, skilful bonmots, witty nonsense.

About the very reduced sound concept of the pieces – piano and restrained beatbox – Roth says: "The two walk beautifully side by side, the piano points a lot to the trees and clouds and people and animals. The beat goes alongside, kicks stones, but is not there without pleasure. Neither of them pulls on the other. They just spend their day together."

Roth already builds a monument to the beauty of chance and the magic that lies exactly between the tones on his previous album "Kleinod". In the pieces, which have grown into a band sound, he simply lets the music pass by and doesn't chase after it. After trying out many different approaches and not being satisfied, the album finally takes care of itself in four to five beautiful days.

Previously on "L.O.W." Roth had made and composed a beautiful and strange album from the sounds of his shared room in the premises of a former mental hospital, and thus found many new friends from XLR8R to Zeit Online, Arte to Bandcamp Weekly.

With the songs on "Redux" Jan Roth now spans the arc from "L.O.W." over "Kleinod" into a beautiful future. Lean back into the moment. Chill.

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