Dominik Eulberg - Sensorika

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  • Dominik Eulberg remains a quaint figure in dark-hour dance music climes. When not producing pillowy minimal, dude supposedly works as a forest ranger. Fitting then, that Eulberg's creations mine the crossover between the natural world and electronic music's innately urban zoning. Just look at the man's taste in cover art (this one included). But whether bell-laced or simply belly-thick in nostalgic tonal textures, his tracks typically pulse with warmth and dewy sentimentality. Following a pretty hectic release schedule in 2007 between a singles collection on Traum and his Bionik LP on Cocoon, 2008 was notable mostly for Eulberg's relative silence, with only one EP of his own seeing the light, the excellent Herbarium 12-inch on Traum. With a joint EP with frequent partner Gabriel Ananda in February and now this latest Traum EP, Sensorika, thankfully Eulberg's returning to his prolific ways. A-side "Aurora" is another of his crafty summons of dawn, a bit of slow-growth house that opens simply enough with dubby bass and pinpoint rhythms before revealing hidden pockets of melody. Eulberg's always made a virtue of patience, often building incrementally for six or seven minutes before unveiling its true center, and "Aurora" is no exception. As its fan-whirr synths and sturdy beat expand, he clears the air suddenly with a beautiful, Cathedral-top synth line and a melody that reminds me, briefly, of the sound UFOs emit in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, left alone in a brief ascent. The b-side, "Sansula (oder der letzte Grund)," is a bit more utilitarian unfortunately. Atop a porch-front bell pattern and steady 4/4, Eulberg stalls after the first flickers of light. It's a reversal of method for the producer: its focal point emerges early, bound in the tight-wound castanets. For a producer so fingertip savvy in his construction of narrative, the track feels knuckled out, brute-fisted, for its delicacy on the surface, though the throb increases and the volume grows. Still, "Sensorika"'s worth seeking out for "Aurora" alone; few producers are so capable of sudden revelations, of brief glimmers of story and tale and detours concealed in seven thudding minutes of exposition.
  • Tracklist
      A Aurora B Sansula (Oder Der Letzte Grund)
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