Written by: Jen Dan
International progressive pop band Fenster set out on an exciting new track with its recent signing to record label Altin Village & Mine and the release of 4th album The Room. Sonic experimentation is the name of the game on the exploratory LP which delves into psychedelic rock, groovy funk, hypnogogic ambient, and playful chamber pop.
The official opening date for The Room is September 14th, but Stereo Embers is delighted to premiere in full a week ahead of time. Elias Hock (Germany), Jonathan Jarzyna (Germany), Lucas Ufo (Fance), and JJ Weihl (USA) craft intricate, yet ear-catching music that morphs from one genre to another, sometimes within a matter of seconds, on each song.
Their intent on this album was to produce a record that was completely composed and arranged together in a room. They worked collectively and transcended their individuality in order to evolve from the traditional format of songwriting. They tracked the songs live in a house where they all ate, slept, and played together. And their resulting gift is an album that makes the listener feel like (s)he was in the room during the creative process.
Title track “The Room” welcomes listeners into a tense and then liberating sonic rollercoaster ride, using juxtaposing genres and concepts as a means of expression. On the ensuing tracks, melodic pop, Krautrock beats, disco grooves, and psychedelia segue from one to the other with a vibrant exuberance, especially on songs “Rhythm A” and “HAHA Lol”, which deconstruct and then fuse together a kaleidoscope of sounds. Glittering pop ballad “Feel Better” gets wild in the mid-section with a long, trippy interlude suddenly materializing within an otherwise classic song structure.
The album’s cover art, created by Lucus Ufo, beckons the viewer to enter into a room in the shape of a human head. Upon looking out of the window in the image, one can see and extrapolate the idea of there being an infinite sequence of rooms within rooms. This playing with perception holds true for Fenster’s music too. The lyrics of “HBW” deal with objective versus perceived reality (“I was a phase / you were going through / Said I was the one / but there is no one…”) as the interplay of the bass and drums build up an endless-loop feeling.
The album itself begins with “The Room” and ends with “Two Doors” – Is one door an exit and the other a path to another room? Who really knows? There is a mysterious and expansive vibe that runs through the closing number, like a sonic flood carrying everything that is has been played, and is known, away.
Find out more about Fenster here: https://www.fensterfensterfenster.com/home
