QUIET LOVE RECORDS
Like his 2018 debut Nummern, Jan Wagner’s second album uses the piano as a foundation for eight quietly haunting tracks whose anonymity restricts listeners’ preconceptions. The results are most reminiscent of A Winged Victory For The Sullen, whether on opener Kapitel 11, whose brooding soundscape slowly blooms then gently wilts, or Kapitel 25, where Wagner teases out a tender, Dustin O’Halloran-style melody that’s finally overwhelmed by textured synths. On Kapitel 28, however, additional drums lend the piece an urgency that might have suited Nils Frahm’s Spaces, while, at the other end of the spectrum, the shimmering Kapitel 36 recalls Harold Budd and Brian Eno’s masterpiece, The Pearl. Nonetheless, it’s labelmate Rosa Anschütz’s monotone spoken words on Kapitel 30 which, surprisingly, prove most affecting.