Welcome

At the end of the '90s, there were a lot of murmurs about the living room scene in Berlin; magical concerts on improvised stages in temporary event spaces. It was a counter-reaction against the egos of rock stars. One of the protagonists of this scene was F.S. Blumm. But Blumm has shown many faces. He has collaborated with David Grubbs, Andi Otto, Harald Sack Ziegler, and Nils Frahm; He realized his love for dub reggae with the Quasi Dub Development; and he played post rock in the band KINN. Now, F.S. Blumm is entering a new phase of his creativity which one could call his nonchalant phase. Besides a few guitar chords and the suggestion of a xylophone in the background, there is nothing but the wide spaces between them. Fine, almost random sounding noises are remotely reminiscent of the era of his experimental instrumental concerts with classical guitar. Then the voice comes into play and everything changes. Laid-back, F.S. Blumm sings with a combination of urgency and relaxation. The piece are touching and intimate. This is the way "Handle Bar", the opening track on his new album Welcome, is delivered. Previously, Blumm was active as a songwriter. He wrote songs for three duos: Bobby And Blumm with Bobby Baby, Old Splendifolia with Jana Plewa, and finally Jonsson Gille & Blumm. For the first time since he started making music, he is singing his own songs himself on Welcome. And with every song on Welcome, new doors of association are opened. "New Day" uses reverb-laden drums and hymnal harmonies to great effect. But Blumm always manages to make the grandiose still sound grounded. Rather than spreading himself too thin, he prefers to explore the depths. There's the relaxed and erotically crackling "Going Away", the optimistic "Initial Spark", and the casual "Overweight". Blumm is ever traversing the field between greatness and modesty, sophisticated melodies, and recordings which are like the extremely condensed sound of a cassette recorder. This aesthetic permeates the entire album. With Welcome, F.S. Blumm has perfected the imperfect. Where other producers filter out the noise, pops, and crackles, Blumm does the exact opposite. He reverses the roles of desired and undesirable sound. What remains are songs like sculptures left in the wake of acoustic tracks.