There’s not a piece of bad music when it comes to the AKKU Quintet as they march forward into a chaotic voyage by documenting their next adventures on their fifth studio album Kinema. It had been four years since the band released a new album after their 2019 release Depart. For Manuel Pasquinelli, he’s geared up and ready to embark on the next voyage.
Kinema is a big portion to delve deep into the sharp razors, waiting to be unveiled with more broader ranges that is destined to get you on this intense ride, waiting for us. Nydegger’s electric keyboards on the title track adds a significant hold by putting you inside the movie theaters, with the lights dimming down as the projector lights up with images that puts you in the director’s chair to see what kind of masterpiece he came up with.
Manuel still adds that Sonar influence he brings to the quintet’s kitchen table. He brings more of the controlled beats to keep you on the edge of your seat as ‘Ink’ sees Gilsenan adding in those effects on his sax by transporting us into a sermon of the flying teapot from Gong’s Angel’s Egg period.
It moves into an unexpected change before Maja’s loop, Markus’ hay-wiring screeches that speaks of David Torn and Robert Fripp whilst Andi sets up the traps, one by one for the murderer to be caught in the nick of time. There’s something Ligeti about the third track as the AKKU’s walk into a ‘Musica Ricercata’ approach before Andi and Michael walk up the stairs by doing a call-and-response motif as Markus unveils his inner crimson texture to come alive.
‘Zephyr’ opens the album by the hypnotizing the listener into a trance between sax and guitars, transforming themselves into a morse code to let the show start. We walk in the middle of a snowy day, walking in the park and looking at the beauty of these massive gigantic trees in all of its glory.
‘Morph’ closes the album with a de-tuned bass from Andi as he goes into this frantic cry for help by letting Maja come forth in a wildly experiment while Gilsenan’s sax speaks volume inside the loony bin on the bring of collapse as it ends abruptly.
From where we are right now, AKKU Quintet have delivered another propitious release for 2023. And this is a hairsplitting testament that our fellow comrades have let loose this year.
