Leermond: Castanea

Sunflower galaxy

Leermond's music is defined by the composer himself (one half of the German duo Die Schatten) as "wandering through time and the senses" - and Castanea is an album that illustrates this description in the most representative manner. Deeply introspective and thought-provoking, the sound flirts with an assortment of styles and genres, claiming its own particular "signature" through the creative assimilation of its references.

In the eponymous opening track, Kastanien, the voice is treated in a way that gives it an "embryonic" quality - a protopypal dimension evoking a dreamy state of being, before or even beyond life. The enigmatic introduction and the fragmentised repetition of words and syllables entices the ear and mind into following the thread of sound that unravels, until the final melodic "question mark": a musical "riddle" that remains unsolved, allowing each listener to react emotionally to it according to his or her own personal "reading". There is an "official" explanation offered by the composer about the choice of this title, but as it always happens with art (or perhaps in the case of listeners who do not speak German and are not aware of the story behind the song), many different answers are possible. An object can be viewed as a symbol that corresponds to a variety of meanings; both visually and organically, the form of a small fruit (a chestnut or kastanie, for instance) is proportionate to the elemental structure of a molecule, a planet or a solar system - like the sun or the core of the Earth, its center contains the life-giving, regenerating force of its own existence. An interpretation in this vein might also be suggested by the sunflower on the cover, a miniature sun seeking its fiery reflection in the universe.

Zion is a rich and faceted instrumental, with its apparently diversified ingredients layered in harmony. The rhythm takes over towards the end, giving "flesh and blood" to the pleasant abstraction of the melody. The changeability of the liquid element is rendered beautifully in Wasser, a welcome juncture between experimentation and feeling. The addition of vocals, rippling effects and imperceptible dissonances builds up to a fluid, kaleidoscopic impression that alludes to the volatile atmosphere of Kastanien.

And then comes the surprise - a remix of the song Melancholic Afro (by the Irish band Empire State Human in collaboration with Kraftwerk's Wolfgang Flur). Although the difference in style from the three previous tracks is immediately evident, Leermond's distinctive touch reconstructs and redefines the pre-existing material quite drastically and no less than intriguingly.

Castanea's range and wealth of intrinsic elements is impressive, the sound quality exceptional. In the four songs that comprise it, this mini album manages to make itself a kind of paradigm by condensing the essence of Leermond's musical quest and unique artistic identity.