Umnachter Project – Schall und Rauch.

• Label: Self-released.
• Year: 2010.
• Style: Folk / Classical / Vocal-art.
• Format: CD.
• Note:
• Score: 83%

UMNACHTER PROJECT (earlier UMNACHTER) is Robert Polsterer and “Schall und Rauch” is his second album. “Gedankensplitter”, released some years back, received a pretty high score from me, so let’s see how its younger brother will do.

What made “Gedankensplitter” so unique is still here, so is Robert’s out-of-this-world guitar skills. I mean, just listen! He’s plucking the strings like a mad, without cutting a single chord.
You can think of this as a mix of classical guitar music and “Kveldssanger”-eaque folk with throat singing, chanting, yoiking and this time around, also some human beatbox beats. Sounds weird? Well, it is. But it works, and that’s very well, thanks to Robet’s exceptional skills. I can’t imagine any other artist doing this without ending up under a cloak of shame.

The first couple of moments here are pretty plain. You might lift an eyebrow here and there, but it’s not until the fourth track (“Wurzelwicht”) things are getting seriously serious. This progressive track mixes suspenseful folk with very strong overtone, thundering didgeridoos in a very successful sludge. And while this track (along with a handful others) has a very dark sound, the album itself feels brighter than its predecessor, especially in the guitar driven tracks. It feels like a fresh breeze. Don’t get me wrong, I like my music dark, but exceptio probat regulam, you know.

Also, I remember I did some silly complaining over “Gedankensplitter”‘s artwork that felt underachieved… Well, “Schall und Rauch” certainly looks far better, but I have a hard time putting the artwork in context with the music, but once again; everything mustn’t be dark forests, clouds, moons and runes.