There are two types of people in the world, people who like string solos and liars. Even if it’s that high class silver spoon in the mouth golden rod up the bum type of thing, it’s impossible to deny that string solos are nice to listen to. You can throw one and feel like a fancy pants for a day, even if you aren’t wearing pants. Luckily, this album has nothing to do with your colon, golden rods, or silver spoons. Think: Max Richter, Nils Frahm, Hauschka, that minimalist classical, neo-classical, bent on music. Müller has even played with Frahm on “7fingers”. German chamber musicians. There’s something happening right now in that country in regards to neo-classical music. Alex Stolze plays the violin, Müller plays the cello, and Sebastian Reynolds, though a pianist, is also British so he’s the producer. Sebastian works well as producer. The song “Cell to Cell” really shows you what the fuck he’s up to. 

On their own, each of these players are already well established. If you want to find good minimal classical music, find out who these players have played with and voilà. They have played sold-out concerts in Berlin like rock stars with bows. Stolze is established in the electronic scene as well. That’s right, a violinist in the electronic scene, that’s how this shit works now of days. Music is music. These guys play with names like Ben Lukas Boysen, Agnes Obel, Peter Broderick, each playing their own version of a celestial choir. 

So, why do this then? Why make a solo collective album?

First off, calling it an album is a stretch. This whole thing runs 37 minutes. And the last song is a fucking remix. It seems like they played some live shows, turned on a mic a couple times and said, “say, let’s make these songs an album and just call it Part One”. It’s not thematic, it’s not cohesive at all. It seems lazy and thrown together last minute. Logically, I want to toss this album aside. But it’s an album I keep putting on. It’s something I keep going back to. I wake up and want to listen to it. I love the mood it creates. The playing is sharp, modern, and intelligent. This album springboards a listener into all these other projects these three have worked on.

I think that’s the point. It’s like a drug dealer giving out the first taste for free. You listen and just crave more. Would I put this album on my top 100? Fuck no, not even my top 500. But it’s the album I craved to listen to today. And I think that means something more than lists or “best of” whatever-the-fucking-year-or-theme. This album is just really fucking nice to wake up to. It’s a last minute scrambled mess of an album, it’s pure donkey shit when it comes to theme, but goddamn it’s a good listen.