German producer Henrik Weber, also known as Pantha Du Prince, is noted for his long, oft drawn out, house and techno masterpieces. On Elements of Light, he joins forces with a group of musicians referred to collectively as ‘The Bell Laboratory’ to extend the ideas and sounds explored in his previous outputs. With the focus of this new project and release being a 50 bell instrument called a carillon, Weber manages to craft an auditory experience that isn’t too far removed from his usual output, but goes great lengths to show his versatility as a producer and musician.
‘Wave’ provides a subtle opening to the release, a four minute track almost entirely composed of pitched bells, with a soft and hollow tone chiming in at the end before the track blends into the second song on the EP, ‘Particle’.
Continuing on from ‘Wave’, ‘Particle’ begins with light bells and a highly pitched percussive rhythm setting off the 12 minute track. The introduction builds with restrained intensity until a low kick comes in, pushing the second half of the track into the jazzy house rhythms expected of Pantha Du Prince. Eventually developing into a fantastic house song, the way in which ‘Particle’ carries on the bells from the first track and turns them into both melody and the highlight of the song goes to amaze at first listen.
Followed in the same fashion by ‘Photon’, the steady kick and house vibe remains, this time bringing the bells to an even more heightened sense of importance within the song. It seems to act as more of an annex of ‘Particle’ than a stand alone track in itself.
For me the stand out song on the release is ‘Spectral Split’s which comes in at an epic seventeen minutes, constantly developing and pushing forward. With a slow, slightly laborious yet cathartic build up, Weber uses the 50 bell carillon to form an evolving masterpiece. Not reaching the same intense climax as ‘Particle’, ‘Spectral Split’s takes its place as more of an exploration of the sounds at his disposal, rather than a one track minded song.
Rounded out by ‘Quantum’, a song composed purely of bells in the same vain as ‘Wave’, with the soft tones providing an excellent exit for a stupendous and marked EP by the German producer.
Joshua Millar
