HANS JOACHIM IRMLER LIFE LIKE ALBUM STAUBGOLD RELEASE: NOVEMBER, 2003 REVIEW: DECEMBER 12 2003

"Life Like" is definitely an album that won’t appeal to everyone; that is the important information out of the way straight away. The reason being because it isn’t cheap, manufactured or throw-away. It isn’t presented in three minute songs, and it certainly doesn’t conform to the verse-chorus-verse ethic. What it is though is just as worthy and every bit as good.
Hans Joachim Irmler has created an album of soundscapes, mainly ambient (ie beatless), but loaded with quality. The tracks (of which there are eight), all seem to be based around a particular theme of isolated piano sounds, usually in single stabs, echoed up to give emphasis to the theme of isolation. They are presented on beds of cold electronics, creating very melancholy, lonely soundscapes, which are both dark and oppressive yet huge in scale. The interesting thing here is the contradiction between the "distance" of the music from the listener. At points you feel very close to the music, with it’s simple, intimate piano which pulls you close, only for you to be cast away within moments as the piano fades to huge darkly ambient washes of electronic fizzing and whooshing.
There are many interpretations you could get from these tracks. "Atlantik" for example, does give you the sense of some lonely, forgotten ship laying dormant and silent at the bottom of the sea-bed. The use of echo across the tracks help to give this sense of space and yet intimacy at the same time. Across the range of this album you can almost visualize the tracks, imagining stories behind each track, without the set at any point becoming fatigued or boring, Irmler manages to keep your interest simply by being good at what he does. Namely creating beautiful, interesting music. Like I said before, this won’t be for everyone, but a treat for those it is.

MIKE WHYTE