Founded by Jochen Gutsch in 2002, Cartography is the latest release from the prolific, now Sydney-based solo act Hinterlandt. Mixing electronic sounds and ambient textures with more rock-oriented elements and instruments not typically found in electronic music, it’s a disparate and at times jarring album, but one that is kept in check through clarity of vision.
Opener ‘You Are Welcome’ begins with circular bass guitar harmonics, wonky synths and light tremolo guitar. Drums not dissimilar to those on Radiohead’s ’15 Steps’ are introduced along with trumpet and xylophone. After only two and a half minutes, hard, spacious and overdriven guitars overtake the track. It’s kind of odd, and sounds like a theme for a non-existent television show – and this is all in the first song.
Elsewhere, ‘Trick or Treat’s sounds like Justus Köhncke’s ‘2 After 909’ if it were sound tracking a 16-bit videogame. The eighteen-minute, winding centrepiece ‘Stadt Land Fluss’ takes all these elements to their extreme.
Gutsch is a supremely talented musician, however he seems a little too keen to jam the tracks with as many elements as he can. In actuality, all of the different sounds throughout the album and even within each song are a joy to listen to, but taken as a whole it can get a bit trying. Indeed when he slows down and restricts himself on ‘Labour Of Love’ the results are nothing short of mesmerising.
Taking cues from a wide variety of genres, Cartography is an extremely inventive, intricate and restless release high on originality that sounds like little else at the moment.
Wyatt Lawton-Masi
