A few years ago I went completely bonkers for an album of electronica from a European label–Rasmus Kjaer’s Turist. It sounded like the proverbial breath of fresh air because keyboardist Kjaer was so adept at finding unusual sounds that fit together, like a puzzle, in order to produce a completely original sound. (I tend to love music that sounds like nothing else out there.) Well, Kjaer is back with Erobotica, and he now records under the Turist moniker.
Words and Photos by Marc Phillips
Does Erobotica sound like Turist (the album)? Sometimes yes, sometimes no. First of all, Kjaer has framed these tracks around a stricter idea of song structure, and there are passages where Erobotica strafes such genres as funk, R&B and more. But then the old Rasmus Kjaer will sneak in with his oddly beautiful synthesizer sounds, sometimes chunky and cartoonishly simple, and at other times there are abrupt juxtapositions of sound that belie a powerful and creative vision that’s breathtaking.
I think that the switch to a more congealed approach has to do with the evolution of Turist into Turist. I’ve always been fascinated by Kjaer’s synthesizers and samples and how they interact with actual musical performances–the line between them is wisely blurred to the point where you don’t know if this is acoustics or programming. On Erobotica he has an actual ensemble that includes drummer Anders Bach, bassist Jacob Haubjerg, flutist Jeppe Hojgaard and vocalist Marcela Lucatelli, and the fun of this adventurous album, once again, is to identify the two forces and try to determine the actual proportions on the actual tracks.
That’s partly because Erobotica is a sonic masterpiece. Rather than plugging everything into the digital realm, Kjaer seems to extract very analog sounds that have a proper amount of decay, imaging and tonality. In other words, my question is this: is Kjaer recording most of this live, or is he just one hell of a producer and artist? I’ll leave it for him to answer, if he wants to, but it doesn’t really matter in the long run. Like Turist, Erobotica is engaging, surprisingly upbeat, and it will constantly make you smile with its sheer inventiveness.
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