Martin Wester & Bernhard Hering - Balance

PSI - LP

France, 1987

I've never been obsessed with library music, especially not the 1980's electronic kind, as I often found such records - filled with ideas and production tricks - too gimmicky to play and fully enjoy on a stereo. But there are a handful of records that broke the library conventions that I adore: Alan Albert Owen's modern classical pieces on Apollo Sounds and this one by very discreet ambient heroes Martin Wester & Bernhard Hering.

Unlike their good but more conventional Klangräume recordings for German library label Herkules Records, Balance has a very peculiar structure. The first side is a collection of vignettes that, taken together, compose a nocturnal landscape: Michael Mann / Bohren & Der Club Gore-like kind of doom jazz jams to drive around LA at night ("Crystal View" or "Sentimental Mood", that also recalls early Oneohtrix Point Never); eerie Lynchian themes, like the title-track that so strongly foreshadow Mulholland Drive's main theme; extatic minimal ambient pieces like "Sculpture Moderne", reminding of the music of Hiroshi Yoshimura ; or the levitating fusion-jazz piece "Zikade".

The second side, and that's very unusual for a library record, offers two long ambient pieces. And again, the music is exceptionally good. "Serengeti" is a mournful bed of synth pads, backing an elusive guitar, while "Windows" rounds off the record in an uplifting manner : another blissful number that again recalls Hiroshi Yoshimura's harmonious soundscapes... Highest recommendation. (VG+/VG+)