SPIELT 20 JAHRE KOMPAKT

In which the titular German composer/musician reinterprets highlights from Kompakt's 20 year catalogue for the classical idiom. As you'd expect, it's a bag of mixed nuts: sometimes the approach works, sometimes it doesn't; but you have to salute Schwellenbach's ambition and derring-do. Most of Kompakt's artists, whether producing for the club or driven by a more gaseous notion of "pop ambient", make music that feels naturally sympathetic to classical minimalism, and as such Schwellenbach's arrangements rarely feel as awkward as you'd think: particularly lush is his lovelorn, sluggishly paced rendering of Closer Musik's classic 'One, Two, Three (No Gravity)', while Jurgen Paape's 'Triumph' has never sounded as thumping as it does in the effectively acoustic, kickdrum-less version that opens this album; the similarly treated version of Studio 1's 'Grun 4' could be released on Profan as is, it's that streamlined and powerful. A number of talented guest musicians contribute effectively to the bizarre daydream, with particular props due to Jane Berthe, whose resplendent harp illuminates Triola's 'AG Penthous', and Infansonido, whose strings lend urgency to an inescapably silly but undeniably enjoyable take on Justus Kohncke's 'Was Ist Musik'. Other artists whose work gets the chamber treatment include Triola, Voigt & Voigt, Michael Mayer, Oxia, Superpitcher and Kaito. (Boomkat)