The Wire (UK)

An artist as prolific as Raster-Noton’s Frank Bretschneider must have some kind of system in place for determining where to take new recordings. He’s never been content with just putting material out on his own label – the last decade or so has seen him delivereing music to Mille Plateaux, Audio.NL, Fallt, and Bip Hope, as well as developing a budding relationship on the other side of the Atlantic with Taylor Deupree’s eminently tasteful 12k label, which released a previous Brestschneider solo outing, Raush, back in 2000.

The title of this latest collection suggests a music that combines abstract rigour and emotional approachability, and Looping I-VIdelivers exactly that. The 12 tracks are woven seamlessly together to produce a subtle, endlessly modulating procession of silvery, seductive detail. Occasionally, Bretschneider’s glittering digital pulses thicken into something approaching rhythmic urgency – “Looping IV” has an almost latin twitch – but the sleepy, Cluster-ish drones of “Rocket Summer” and the sparse, cool twinkles of “Night Broadcast” are more representative. Overall, the effect is one of unobtrusive yet highly involing alchemy.