Atom™ & Jacek Sienkiewicz – Wagner Zwei Abhandlungen

Label: Recognition – R-EP032
Format: Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Limited Edition
Country: Poland
Released: May 27, 2013
Genre: Electronic, Classical
Style: Techno, Ambient
Condition: Near Mint

The 32nd release on Recognition Records is a very special one — label boss Jacek Sienkiewicz invites Uwe Schmidt, known as Atom™ among a myriad of other disguises, to join forces for a celebration of the 200th anniversary of Richard Wagner's birth. Produced in collaboration with the Goethe Institut in Warsaw, the result is two totally different but equally challenging variations on a theme from one of classical music's most extraordinary and provocative figures.

Atom™'s Tristan Chord Studie opens the A-side — a majestic, classically composed ambient piece inspired by a chord derived from the epilogue of Wagner's opera Tristan & Isolde, moving from quiet to almost bombastic with a dramatic conviction that fits the theme perfectly. A serious, somewhat sordid electronic tale of loss and separation, driven to a point of stubbornness rather than resignation. The flip belongs to Sienkiewicz's The Phantom Of Bayreuth — a deep techno epic that strips back the Romantic drama into something altogether more minimal and haunting, string arrangements underpinned by a muffled minimal groove, both layers shifting and intertwining to illustrate the struggle, the drama and the passion one can find in Wagner's music. Neo-classical approach to modern club rhythms. Stripped-down Romantic machine music. Limited edition.

A. Atom™ – Tristan Chord Studie
B. Jacek Sienkiewicz – The Phantom Of Bayreuth