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Non Plus Ultra (2LP Vinyl)
Non Plus Ultra is the third album from the Finnish band E-Musik Gruppe Lux Ohr. The trio consists of:
Pertti Grönholm: synthesizers, sequencers, samplers and percussion
Kimi Kärki: E-guitar, Ebow and effects
Ismo Virta: Memotron, E-guitar and effects
The music is HEAVILY influenced by 70s period Tangerine Dream and the "Berlin School" in general. If you are interested in the genre you couldn't do better - these guys are right at the top of the heap.
"E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr is an all-Finnish group (despite their use of German language), founded in Turku in 2008. Their instrumental music is -- I'm citing the band page now -- "Space Rock and Space Ambient, highly influenced by 70's German electronics and other forms of progressive rock". Indeed, especially the Berlin school of electronic music is the guiding light for them, and the influences from e.g. TANGERINE DREAM (early years and the Virgin era) and KLAUS SCHULZE are very audible. This new release is a double vinyl consisting of eight tracks, two for each side. The album's launch party will be held at a planetarium near Turku this Saturday -- already sold-out, I heard.
I'm having a promotional CD copy in which the tracks are just slightly edited (from a few seconds to roughly a minute) in order to fit the music in 78 minutes, losing only about four minutes in total. I believe those careful edits don't affect negatively to my listening experience; in fact, I can be carried away by the music without the interruptions of changing the vinyl sides on the turntable. And this really is the kind of album which the listener can sink into completely. Functions best with lights off and with no other activities around!
The soundscapes throughout the album are basically pretty familiar from Tangerine Dream's classic albums such as Rubycon, Ricochet and Stratosfear, or Klaus Schulze's works. I find this no problematic at all, instead I daresay Lux Ohr improves on their influences and crafts each ideally measured piece to sonic and artistic perfection, in a way that honours the original era and the artists. Electric guitar is used too, and it gives more depth to the space rock sound. The beautifully worn-out sound of Mellotron's flute sample on 'Aus dem Kollaps geboren' makes me think of Tarkovsky's Stalker -- the film either had similar sounds in that certain poetic scene or it didn't, but hopefully you get my point. Which is that the listener forms his / her own inner images when listening to this music.
I don't feel it necessary to deal with the individual tracks separately. Most of them are packed with the magical power to transcend one into other worlds. If you wish to find spacey electronic music reminiscent of the classic Tangerine Dream, E-Musikgruppe Lux Ohr is definitely the best you can get these days." - ProgArchives