Customer Reviews

Venice

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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In an interview with The Wire last year, Kid606 let slip that, like many electronic producers in his sphere, he could create an album in one night. He asserts that the software has gotten so good that making tracks is just that easy: Talent is kinda nice-- and probably adds something to the equation-- but it's not really required. There's no question that the perceptible dip in interest in experimental electronic music in recent years has something to do with the fact that there are so many labels, artists, and, above all, records that don't sound different enough from one another to warrant special attention.

But then there's Christian Fennesz. When it comes to recording under his own name, Fennesz works slowly: Venice is only his fourth full-length studio album in seven years, and his first since 2001's groundbreaking Endless Summer, which altered the perception of experimental electronic music with pop leanings. Fennesz has remained busy by remixing, collaborating, touring (both on his own and with FennO'Berg), and re-releasing his back catalog, but-- considering Kid606's admission-- three years is a long time between albums for an artist such as Fennesz.

With every album, Fennesz's music has become prettier and more accessible yet still retains his distinctive style-- and Venice is no exception. That's fortunate for the uninitiated because as Fennesz's reputation has grown, each new offering has served as the perfect introduction to his work. "Rivers of Sand" opens Venice with deep bass pedals working against pinched swoons of feedback. It's completely electronic, but this piece would also sound fantastic in an arrangement for strings. "Château Rouge" is in the vein of the bent instrumental pop of Endless Summer, with what sounds like an organ melody (simple, just a few notes) beset by synth gurgles and pinstripe bands of white noise. Its "middle-eight" is vertical howls of machine noise, but its purpose is the same as the bridge of any pop song-- to offer a variation on the themes presented earlier. "The Other Face" also feels as if Fennesz were taking some of the ideas from Endless Summer and pushing them in a different direction, here adding ethereal vocal samples to the buzzing mix.

The short track "onsra" serves as an intro to Venice's centerpiece, "Circassian", which was written and performed with fellow avant guitarist Burkhard Stangl (who has previously worked with Fennesz as a member of Polwechsel). When people talk about Fennesz's Kevin Shields fixation they're thinking of tracks like this. "Circassian" drowns in loud, slightly out-of-tune power chords, each of which leads a long and happy life after the initial strum. The string reverberations multiply and mutate endlessly, making it possible to imagine cathedrals, a jet airplane passing through billowy clouds at 500mph, or the volatile racket of a tropical storm. Markus Schmickler gave it a shot, but no one does neo-shoegaze laprock as well as Fennesz.

On Venice, Fennesz also continues to dabble with pop. Last year, he collaborated with David Sylvian on the former Japan singer's Blemish, and that partnership continues here with "Transit". When a record contains only a single vocal track, the tendency is to place too much focus on it. That anomalous track always seems destined to summarize or "explain" the record somehow, yet the particular concerns voiced by Sylvian on "Transit" don't blend easily with its abstract aesthetic joys. Still, as a song, it works well and would have made a nice non-album single. Fennesz has demonstrated a sympathetic yet adventurous ear when supporting vocalists. On "Transit", a low organ sound anchors the tune but all sorts of strange explosions do the real work, simultaneously marking the changes and shifts in the song and reinforcing its structure. Fennesz flirts with a different kind of conventionality with "Laguna", a guitar duet with Stangl with a serious Morricone vibe.

Venice's quality extends beyond its sound. Touch proprietor Jon Wozencroft-- through his breathtaking design and photography-- continues to fight the good fight against records-as-pure-data by making the CD a value-added prospect. More importantly, the music is of a high standard. One thing that is made clear by Venice is that Fennesz is a composer who spends as much or more time crafting melodies and chords as he does searching for the perfect texture. He works regularly with improvisers, but his records under him own name could not be more orderly, with discrete sections carefully structured to maximize their emotional impact. (The symphonic nature of last year's Live in Japan is strongly present here.) Thanks in part to that emotional heft, I have a feeling that long after many of the experimental electronic records from the past ten years disappear, we'll continue to reach for the works of Fennesz.

-Mark Richardson, April 1st, 2004

as far as Fennesz goes, I've heard Venice and Endless Summer. I enjoyed Venice a lot more; it feels like the textured sound is more thoroughly explored = more interesting. Venice isn't a departure in sound but it is rounder and more focused. It flows very well as an album, which is why I won't go into specific songs.

at first I thought the vocals on Transit were anticlimatic for the general flow of the CD. I've changed my mind since. They do fit the song very well, eventhough I still prefer the instrumental tracks.

if you're in the market for something layered and enveloping without it being emotionally taxing, something that fits an introspective mood, don't hesitate to go for Venice. I personally find it very inspiring for intellectual pursuits or just for hanging out at home on a rainy day.

ps: I think the cover reflects the mood quite well :-)

Christian Fennesz's ambient, electronic experimentation is the absolute last thing I should be listening to, but thanks to Pitchfork Media's recommendations, and during a highly experimental phase in my life, I picked up his previous album, "Endless Summer."

While I never quite was privy to the brilliance it was reported to contain, I was nevertheless rather impressed at the way Fennesz could break down noise to its bare essentials, and how he would bury a melody so deep in dissonance, it would somehow make it even more powerful.

"Venice" is much more subtle than "Endless Summer," and I suppose by IDM or experimental standards, more accessible, but its hypnotic quality and breathtaking beauty are often too much to handle. It's quiet music that needs to played loud, very loud, and uninterrupted. It's 5-minute gurgly drones with embedded tunefulness that somehow completely swallow you from start to finish. And more importantly, it's music that I should not like for any reason, that I regard as some of the best I've ever heard.

This is an absolute masterepiece.

This is the future sound of electronic music. The treatments through the laptop really create a dreamy mood. The only vocal track has David Sylvian - his voice kind of wakes you from the hypnotic state you are in for the first 7 tunes. Transit is a beautiful song.

Fennesz is someone who desires a little more press than he gets. In many ways, it's best that he is a hidden gem. Can't wait for more material from him. He is releasing material w. Ryuichi Sakamoto in 2005 & 2006.

Don't buy this from Touch Records directly (UK pounds & shipping will kill ya) - better from hmv.ca or soleilmoon.com

Though I am generally someone who isn't terribly impressed with pop music which lacks vocals, it is so apparent that Christian Fennesz is a master of his craft who rarely needs input from that particular instrument. His use of guitar and laptop is so human and emotive, it's easy to see why so many artists (from the Junior Boys, to Ryuichi Sakamoto) are attracted to his work.

It seemed to me readily apparent why My Bloody Valentine is frequently referenced, due to both artist's attraction to creating beauty in distortion and dissonance - just about every track has this quality (excepting perhaps final track The Stone of Impermanence, which feels almost like something from a different recording session).

ive decided that this is one of the best things happening in music right now. his sensitivity is unmatched. textures of all kinds having wonderful things done to them. A warm blanket. a warm bath. the warmth of the sun. for those dreamy nights this is your drug. for those beautiful summer days, this is your drug. dig it, or dont.

its the perfect music for people who are living alone (i say that in a good way)... my girlfriend is more than 1000 plus miles away and my friends and family as well. i sit and i listen to fennesz and he makes me happy. its perfect music for people who are alone. its perfect.

This sound dissector and refractor may have been overpraised upon arrival simply due to the new laptop-samurai nature of it all, but by his fourth outing Fennesz had all but silenced skeptics, myself included, with continual sonic refinement and tonal placement breathing unforeseen life into previously sterile alien-aesthetics, even striving for structure in a few songer-sounding songs. It still is far from the second coming though, as an apathetic unevenness, accented by ineffective formula-meddling, eventually squanders noticeable momentum built from better production within the approach this man takes best.