Rhein Takes

When a band calls itself Rhein it is a brave move. The superstructure is weighty and demands a dedication to art. Although the musicians Jürgen Krause, Johannes Rix and Peter Michael Witt claim to have chosen the name because of their residential locations in Cologne and Düsseldorf. This may be so simple, but it is perhaps only the obvious part of the story. Are not the kilometers of current between the cathedral city of Cologne and the Rhine metropolis Düsseldorf the Mississippi delta of electronic music? That culturally fertile section of the river that first gave birth to Krautrock and then to the very music that was shaped into today's Techno and House in Detroit and Chicago? Rhine is the primordial soup of electronic music. The German name Rhein - the pun is permitted to the author of these lines - always resonates with the word "rein" (which means pure or clear). Audibly, the band Rhein cultivates the original, the primordial state. Their two "takes" are snapshots of music in statu nascendi: pure sound. There is no evoking of Schnitzler, nor Rother, nor Hütter/ Schneider. No melodies or rhythms that would give hints for an interpretation. When the layers, the pulsation of the synths in search of synergic elements and harmonies meet on guitar fragments, Rhein is in the flow: This trilogy oscillates from a flat rivulet to a profound, unbridled torrent. Like its name giver, Rhein is unpredictable. Rhein rises from the bed of digital listening behavior, giving sound the space it deserves, and astonishes the astute listener with a psychedelic experience of music. Rhein is beauty