Centered around the Villa Aurora Organ, an intriguing and mostly unknown instrument built in 1928/29 by the Artcraft Organ Company in Santa Monica, California, "Outerlands" presents a deeply personal approach to the instrument's particular properties, very much in line with Discrepant's ethos.
Consisting of a pipe organ, a wall mounted marimba and a two octave tubular bells/chimes ensemble, remotely controllable by MIDI, the Villa Aurora Organ's rich palette of sounds is translated into 12 short tracks capable of conveying the mesmerising spirits of minimalism, exotica and devotional music.
Starting with the ecstatic sound of the pipe organ, "Lucero" sets up the hypnotic mood for "Outerland"s excursions through moments of spiralling repetition—"Tramonto" -, blissful contemplation—"Sunset" or "Notteargenta"—or underlying tension—"Coperto". "Espera" amps up the unease, with queasy organ tones lurking beneath marimba harmonic motifs that wouldn't sound out of of place on some survival horror movie, while "Miramar" or "Revello" bring an uncanny sense of familiarity through its repetitive melodies. Drifting seamlessly through a variety of moods that somehow feel connected—the outerlands are within you, if you allow yourself to let go.
Hanno Leichtmann is a German sound artist, producer and curator based in Berlin, who also works under the moniker
Chromacolor. He is a member of the bands
Groupshow, with
Jan Jelinek and
Andrew Pekler, and
Denseland, with David Moss and Hannes Strobl. A quietly influential figure among electronic and experimental circles since the late 90s, Leichtmann has been developing a sprawling and idiosyncratic vision both as a creator and curator.
With a keen sense for charting new territories, Leichtmann's work spawns a multitude of languages that go from delicate ambient excursions to techno explorations or abstract sceneries on numerous sound installations, releases on such esteemed labels like Entr'acte, Karl Records,
Arbitrary, The Tapeworm or
Discrepant and collaborations with artists like
Valerio Tricoli or Jan Jelinek.
