Fourth Face by Alex Ketzer

Alex Ketzer’s newest EP »Fourth Face« follows up right in the footsteps of his previous installments, continuing the Cologne-based producer’s endeavour of blurring the line betwixt abstract-adjacent techno and moody atmospherics through intricate narratives and vibrant motion. As ever with Ketzer, sound design is a matter of vital balance and focussed devotion, and no effort is spared in the sculpting of this dialogue between complex, slo-evolving soundscapes and surgically executed rhythms that unfolds as one fascinating audio-origami of sorts.

Typical of Ketzer’s subtle, tempered vision for dance music’s set of functionalities, the title track »Fourth Face« is a spitting sample of his craft, entrenched in ambient-laced pensiveness though purring with an understated tension that symbiotically breathes life in its own craggy landscape of jagged electronic sines and far-reaching poetics. Clad in darker envelopes, »Xenon Eyes« takes a shot at industrial techno but injects it with the synth-riddled iridescence of meditative electronica and awry, bubbly dynamics of the modular grammar to shape his own hybrid language.

All in on the rugged, sexy breaks and zero-G jazz getting soaked up in reverbs, »Symbol Zone (Dub Mix)« offers a magnificent view into Ketzer’s cinematic headspace, as it grinds fragments of decayed urban motifs with that of a more hopeful sense of melody-making. Tormented and ominous, »Infinity Now« shifts gears to establish a distinctly brooding facet of the German producer’s sound, criss-crossed by the maddened streams of stellar winds and anxieties at once, whereas »Black Sun« returns to a more serene state of stasis, again very much versed on the minute textural work and the heart-rending, brittle beauty of the piano.

A most compelling listen, the EP »Fourth Face« finds Ketzer at his most inspired and mature yet, deploying all evidences throughout its course that it indeed is the ripe upshot to a musician’s long evolving, ever-nurturing journey.

NOORDEN is a Cologne/Germany based label for electronic(a) music. We’re a collective of musicians, artists and designers releasing electronic music with an experimental DIY-flavor while pursuing our passion for carefully crafted artworks and special packagings at the same time.

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