eskalation
| Format | CD |
| Country | Germany |
| Recorded | 2000 |
| Issued | 2000 |
| Label | Gazul/Musea |
| Cat no. | GA 8646.AR |
| Playing time | - |
| Reviewer | Trond Gjellum |
| STEPHAN KOEHR eskalation |
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This is really on the this year’s surprises in my ears. It is not often that I am presented with music which really manages to invoke ovations, but I must say that this product really is in a class of its own within recent progressive rock. Koehrs music is composed for MIDI instruments and bassoon/counter bassoon, plus a few guest musicians on trumpet and violin, and the result is definitely original.
It is unfair towards musicians as original as this to always having to compare in order to explain what an artist sounds like, but if you are able to imagine Happy The Man’s Kit Watkins and Univers Zero’s Daniel Denis were to compose music together with Lars Hollmer, and with Michel Berckmans on bassoon, I am pretty sure it would sound something like Stephan Koehr’s "Eskalation". Now and then it also sounds as if he has been visited by Art Zoyd, in order to pull the music down to a dark and sinister musical landscape, somewhat reminding of horror film music from the twenties.
Composition-wise it has a great deal in common with the above mentioned composers, but Koehr also has a voice completely his own, and especially the rhythms is characterized by quite a bit more fusion than those mentioned above. As on almost every record there are a few dead centres, and some of the more melodic pieces don’t bear the same stamp of quality as the best parts. But this is details, because all in all this is an album deserving a large audience, simply because is has a very personal and unique expression which few other so-called progressive musicians can match these days.
© 2002 Tarkus Magazine