hinterlandt Archive

Originally posted here

Imagine if you will; you are on a journey, perhaps as a passenger in a car, perhaps on a train, certainly a journey that allows you to relax –instead of looking out across the altering landscape Hinterlandt suggests that you substitute visual stimuli for audio stimulation – no longer will rolling hills become mountains and valleys, each feature will be replaced by sound and the sound will evolve as you travel through it.

The CD cover bears the legend “Thanks for believing in unusual music and sound” – couldn’t really have been any more succinct…

‘Migration, Motion, Movement’ is the eleventh release from Sydney-based solo artist Jochen Gutsch aka Hinterlandt; The German-Australian musician also has also performed live right across the globe including performances in Sydney, London, Rome, Helsinki, Berlin, and Cologne. What Hinterlandt does is challenge the open minded music fan. This is accomplished by taking the listener on said journey whilst being stimulated by a vast array of instrumentation. Hinterlandt produces acoustic sounds overlaid with electronics, gentle percussion, manipulated noise and distortion – the result being a truly unique, and carefully considered soundtrack…
The album opens with ‘Migration’ a 22 minute piece that heralds its arrival with a near 3 minute lone trumpet refrain, before without any real warning dropping a snatched clip of math-rock which without transition sees a single guitar and basic beat take the lead, as the journey progresses a selection synths filter in an out accompanied by some guitar distortion which almost takes on an aquatic feel, as the waves dissipate the math rock returns altering the beat entirely; the track slows and then the disparate parts fall away before reconstructing themselves into essentially dub; a huge cavernous bass holding all together – but this brief moment of recognisable rhythm soon dissipates to be replaced with all manner of wind instruments, insect noises and I guess wind chimes carry you onto an ambient plateau; any opportunity to consider just what you have listened to is destroyed as a harsh blast of a industrial/EBM guitar, beat assault ensues – the track finally closing after a near 22min kaleidoscope of sounds and styles.

‘Motion’ is possibly the album’s most accessible track. Again a lone trumpet opens the melody for the first section, the time of the signature altering ever so slightly as we journey into the piece – a almost motorik beat draws us in with delayed/distorted guitar before a brief rather funky trumpet refrain returns; this piece positively pulses and hums; the sort of engaging genre hopping soundtrack often favoured in those painfully trendy bars – but then the entire beat shifts again during the breakdown just to remind you of the joy Gutsch must feel knowing he is gently unsettling your understanding of music.

Final track ‘Movement’, is built around a strong driving bass line – this is verging on pop music, skittish funky lead guitar, the warmth built further with some synth lines before these are substituted by that trumpet once more, and some hushed foreign language vocals – As with the entire album there is just so much going on, just as you being to comprehend the shift in time signature, the switch to differing instrumentation it happens again, and then again, before the piece signifies its close with further industrial rasps. None of this should work, but this is the skill of Hinterlandt, he is literally juggling with sounds, distorted, altered beats, patterns and rhythms and yet somehow making sense out of it all.

If you have ever felt you want to be listening to something that little bit more challenging, then Hinterlandt may well be exactly what you are looking for.

by Nick Giles

Sydney native Hinterlandt must have a very active brain. One second he’s playing a steady trumpet line, before suddenly turning 180 degrees and careering off to the pace of rapidly shifting drumlines, then suddenly halting completely and dropping some serious dub rhythms. And that’s just in one minute. However, beneath this limitless shifting it’s evident that nothing is done without reason, as each section blends to the next with a deft precision. This is the work of a highly skilled, inquisitive, and highly erratic mind.

Opener ‘Migration’ opens steadily with a reflective trumpet motif, before sneaking a snippet of math-rock noodling from almost nowhere. As a single guitar and basic beat take the lead, synths filter in an out as distorted guitar swell ebb and flow. The math leanings return in a big way. With such a disparate collection of instrumentation and note movement, I can’t help but draw comparisons to early Mars Volta material: single tone guitar raging away as brass and synths shuffle and sing together atop an endlessly reconfiguring beat. As the track slows and builds again like a tide, it gently morphs into what could be considered dub territory, with a massive sine bass holding down a easy trumpet swing. Things get more dubby as they reduce, panned echoes pop around the stereo field as the beat disintegrates. Flutes and mallets hum out a quiet moment of reflection, before field recordings of lorikeets an coconut windchimes transport us to a suburban Sydney backyard. Swaggering dub lifts the mood, before industrial guitar and drums blast through the pot smoke, grinding along before the birds return. Phew, that’s track one done. ‘Motion’, as the title implies, moves with purpose. A lone trumpet leads the melody for the first third, changing time signatures as the head weaves its way. Delayed guitar takes its place as things get funky. Breaking the piece down to its core, the timing bends into almost a 15/8, if such a thing exists. Plucky organs and ticking blips complete this math workout. Funk guitar blasts open ‘Movement’, which sounds for all intents and purposes like the theme to a 70s cop flick. Western trumpet tones break the momentum momentarily, before the unstoppable bassline that is the backbone of this piece slides back in. Europop startles the funk out of existence, as distorted drums hammer it out off a skittery organ. As the track gets its math jacket back on, blasting its way to the end, woozy synths surface for a last gasp of air, before blastbeats pound them down and close out the release.

There’s a lot going on here, and it can be difficult to keep up. But between the endless genre-hopping, there’s an amazingly heady and accomplished mix of well-executed instrumentation, with a keen ear for interesting melodies and spacial refrain. If you can keep pace with this, it makes a highly rewarding listen.