Düsseldorf-based pianist/composer Volker Bertelmann, also known as Hauschka, has gone high-concept for his new LP, Abandoned City.

It’s a dramatic collection of tracks inspired by and paying homage to the desolate metropolises and ghostly urban sprawl across the globe. The veteran art-music weaver has primarily utilised the splendour of the prepared piano, an instrument made famous by John Cage, to create some of the most chilling, bone-shiveringly beautiful compositions you’ll hear all year. Inside his semi-operatic world, there are hints of post-rock – things like Explosions In The Sky and Godspeed You! Black Emperor rear their majestic, bewitching bonces.

Advancing his structural concepts envisaged on his 2010 and 2011 records (Foreign Landscapes and Salon De Amateures, respectively), whereby the prepared piano was used more rhythmically and not just as a solo instrument, Bertelmann toys with texture and the mechanics of neo-classicism. Though Abandoned City is centred around solo prepared piano, it’s layered and run through a cornucopia of pedals and synthesizers; it’s doused in reverb, sodden with distortion and riddled with debilitating strains of techno. The rhythmic aspect is front’n’centre of the macabre charade, with everything from gentle Chromatics-esque ticks and resounding romantic booms blurting forth from the versatile instrument. While an intriguing concept album in and of itself, it’s also a vital link in Bertelmann’s wider canon.

The concept behind the record is described by Bertelmann as being “interested in finding a metaphor for the inner tension I feel when I’m composing music, a state of mind where I’m lonely and happy at the same time.” He landed upon the broad imagery of abandoned cities due to the beauty and wonder of nature and humanity coalescing, albeit in a decrepit, morbid way. In many ways, he’s incredibly successful in achieving his goals: it’s a record that sounds increasingly isolated with every listen, the entwined forces of natural piano and man-made FX/mechanical ostinatos are symbolic of the wider metaphors, and, crucially, it gets intense. This record doesn’t simply lull at surface-depth shenanigans, it pierces through the veil and delves Mariana Trench-deep into your psyche. If you’re not wary, the desperate, sinister darkness will absorb you.

“Pripyat”, named after the city blighted by the Chernobyl disaster, is a sparse, echo-laced cut, rammed with scrapes, scratches, whirs and judders. There’s some classical piano motifs in there too, muddled with the aching, apocalyptic effects – presumably this is the prepared piano alterations at work. There’s galloping beats as well, morphing as minimalism is want to do, howling through the rickety melodies like a squall. Off-kilter arrhythmic metallic strikes, dissonant thumps and atmospheric droning signify a distorted landscape. “Sanzhi Pod City”, taking it’s moniker from the ‘future ruins‘ in Taiwan, features similar ideas as a framework. The jarring beat and cinematic backing drones mix alongside futuristic melody lines. However, there’s a vague Eastern influence here, as if Bertelmann is performing on Japanese koto.

These two efforts are emblematic of the entire record – there’s certain themes and stylistic trends that are implemented in different ways to create different environments, depending on which city/area is the focus of Bertelmann’s orchestrations. It’s a worldly record in many ways, and though the core tenet is of his personal feelings, it works just as well as you what you’d probably assume the record to be about – abandoned cities. This is a fantastic record. Not at all one that will ensnare the majority’s hearts, but one that will reward a precious few greatly. Take some time with it, unwind, and explore. It’s indescribably fascinating if nothing else.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6jEvfIHT6s