DREISSK – To Nowhere
To Nowhere is the 3rd full-length album from composer Kevin Patzelt‘s aka dreissk. I say ‘composer’ yet actually Patzelt prefers the term sound engineer. It’s apt. dreissk albums feel wrought with all manner of sonic techniques and the idea that it was engineered (any more than any studio recording) feels appropriate somehow.
Latest album To Nowhere is possibly the most accessible dreissk record thus far. On it, Patzelt conjures images of a journey into the unknown. The blend of ambient IDM with industrial and even post-rock dynamics evokes a sci-fi vibe. Not ‘flying saucer and ray gun’ sci fi, but rather serious, weighty speculative fiction – drifting alone, helpless into the vast nothingness of space. Landing on a remote planet and finding ruins of a civilization far more advanced than our own. Coming face to face with the unknowable – these are the places to which this record transports me.
There’s tension on To Nowhere. There’s also reverence and awe. Drone becomes a kind of landscape, distortion an alien language. Indeed the latest album also includes moments of respite from the trademark dreissk ‘foreboding’. The triptych of ‘A Long Road’, ‘Of Approaching Light’ and ‘Near The Shore’ are the perfect illustration of this, the latter glistening with hope and optimism.
A shout out too for Todd Mires‘ artwork which has an almost Gerhard Richter quality. With Mires, dreissk has maintained consistency in line with previous releases and the images match the music perfectly.
Is it his best album thus far? I’d say yes.
To Nowhere is out now on the n5MD imprint.