Update August 5, 2022: Spyra informed us: SATURDAY SUMMER SESSION at Little Garden of Sounds 22 in Kassel!!! With Spyra (Synths), Udo P. Leis (Glocken), Chris Lang (Synths), Robert Golla (Guitar), Alexander Rausch (Modular Noise), Till Mertens (Soprano Sax) & surprise guests! Start at 20h, Saturday 6th of August 22, with Quadraphonic Sound & Ambient Light by Andreas Kaiser… don’t dare missing this!!!
Update July 22, 2022: Tonight the launch of the new Little Garden of Sounds takfes place in Kassel (Germany). Tonight Wolfram Spyra and Roksana Vikaluk presents the new LGOS 22 album in Kassel Start 20.00 / 7pm. The launch is an exclusive event featuring a quadraphonic loudspeaker system, special live appearances by international musicians from other bands, a church bell installation, magic plants in ever changing light atmospheres, ambient dinks and an after show dance party at Franz Ulrich Club. You can listen to some of the tracks of the new Spyra album here.
Update June 27, 2022: Wolfram der Spyra wrote “hi friends! Q : What is LGOS 22 (Little Garden of Sounds 22), an exhibition or a new Spyra CD? A: It is BOTH!! Although you might not find a lot of information yet, the exhibition with interactive sound sculptures will open on 1.7.2022 (18h) in the garden of Nachrichtenmeisterei Kassel. – A (p)review of the CD can be found here. C U in Kassel next Friday, Spyra.” If you want to keep up-to-date you can follow Spyre here.
Great news: Wolfram der Spyra is about to launch a new album ‘My little garden of sounds 2022’. At this moment we have no official info yet, but it seems this album sees the light July 1.
Wolfram wrote: “Yes, dear Eric, this is very true! “LGOS 22” will be a sonic art exhibition (Kassel, 1.7.-7.8.22) AND a new Spyra-album, which will -during the exhibition time- ONLY be available THERE:-)!
So if you want to obtain this album, you’ll have to go to Kassel (or send someone for you :-). But it turns out it will be available afterwards through obvious channels such as the Spyra website.
Sylvain Lupari (of Synthsequences) already was able to give this disc a review: “Most beautiful tribute to Klaus Schulze comes from left field! Nimble hands and the creativity of Wolfram der Spyra . In a completely unexpected sequel to what many fans of the German musician-synthesist consider his best opus, MY LITTLE GARDEN OF SOUNDS 2022 literally plunges the listener into the complex structures of a Berlin School refreshed with a new fountain. of Youth. Composed in the context of an exhibition on interactive sound sculptures, these two works by Spyra are intimately linked even if a distance of 25 years separates them. Unlike 1997 ‘s My Little Garden of Sounds , Eschwege ‘s sound sculptor here uses analogue synthesizers and sequencers that lend a richness and warmth to rhythms that progress from an atmospheric state to violent spasmodic jolts in textures where his typical Techno confronts the rising processions of the Berlin School. But the real strength of this album lies in the magnificent solos that Spyra unrolls with the same tenderness as a gardener caressing his garden with his gaze, especially in Polyphonic Plants which keeps spinning in my head, on structures which recall the influences of Klaus Schulze, Body Love Periods at Miditerranean Pads .
This new album also makes a link with Future of the Past , an album also released in 1997, with the sequels to Non Disperdere nell’Ambiente with a 3rd part that starts slowly. It is the keyboard, very dominant in this album, which structures the upward march of its luminous arpeggios. The movement seems hesitant with additional lines which follow in the shadow of an ambient rhythm. A rhythm which staggers under the weight of this swarm of sequenced arpeggios, thus sculpting a wavering rhythmic approach which serves as a basis for majestic synth solos which contort on what becomes a Berlin School with irresistible flavors of yesteryear. Tsiitts-tsiitts picked up here and there adorn this ascent towards our memories while the keyboard continues its multiplication of arpeggios whose radiations thicken a musical texture both aggressive and passionate. Abandoned momentarily to these tsiitts-tsiitts and to the invasion of arpeggios, the solos come back embellished the 2nd part of Non Disperdere nell’Ambiente Pt.III , recalling the importance of Klaus Schulze in the evolution of Spyra. Crumbling their harmonies for synthesized phonetics, they slide this first title of MY LITTLE GARDEN OF SOUNDS 2022 towards the deaf and voltigious sequences which animate the opening of Flowers Under the Snow . All the titles are linked to this seductive new opus by the German musician and more or less follow this ascending sequenced rhythm pattern unique to the berliner model of the 70s. The flute replaces the synth solos on this rhythm which rises and falls with a dominant rhythmic inflection which simulates a progressive walk towards the stars. Sequencer movement has that unsettling shadow of Body Love structures with a luminous synth layer that serves as sunscreen. Spyra plays admirably well on the emotional nuances surrounding the secret life of the inhabitants of her garden of sounds, giving this cachet of shadow and mystery to this title dominated by the harmonious texture of the synth solos while leaving room for the mellotron and his superb flute songs. A return in time which metamorphoses into a typical Spyra Techno which shears it with solos as intense and sharp as the rhythmic rise. The movement decreases slightly and lets float wandering arpeggios which are found in the introductory corridor of Non Disperdere nell’Ambiente Pt.IV. This title is articulated on a series of loops which oscillate and flutter by performing leapfrog with organic shadows. Chirpings and stardust evaporate under a sky shaded by a permanently suspended synth pad which moves with a fascinating musicality, reminiscent of a distant vampiric melody. The intensity rises in this atmospheric title which reaches its threshold of tranquility around the 4th minute. A menacing shadow of voices and oral hums gradually fills the space, delivering the hungry loops and their repressed shadows in a finale of rare atmospheric intensity.
The last shadowy breaths spread in the opening of The Storm of the Garden Gnomes and its parade of keyboard chords marching awkwardly in a beginning of convulsive phase. The structure quickly changes into a spiral of chaotic cha-cha-cha steps enveloped by an iridescent synth layer. The structure becomes more and more jerky as other sequences, contracted arpeggios in a tonality of hungry belly and percussions are grafted to this spasmodic robotic dance which actually combines two easily identifiable rhythmic patterns. And it is always in a chaotic confusion that the rhythm crumbles its last beats in a series of oscillating loops. The album’s tonal structure is heavily inspired by the 2002 show and it’s most apparent in 49 Words for Paradise which seizes on the fly remnants of The Storm of the Garden Gnomes rhythm to make a line shimmer of arpeggios which twirl briskly in a figure of circular rhythm. Other arpeggios with a melodic vision encircle this movement both fluid and jerky in a magnificent allegorical ballet where a line of low pulsations is added as well as boom-boom type percussions. The rhythm is very catchy and more spasmodic in a berliner technoid phase which is covered with a texture of vocal effects which will garnish its sonic sky with a multitude of words launched randomly on a rhythm framework which has this ability to regenerate itself without having consumed a beginning of an end, if only for a more atmospheric finale where some arpeggios still remain with a rhythmic memory. The very short The Secret Door stands out from all that swirls in the universe of MY LITTLE GARDEN OF SOUNDS 2022 to offer a superb ballad for the lonely soul. To make a camouflaged rock cry in this water garden! The longest track on this album, Polyphonic Plants is also its cornerstone. Composed with his wife Roksana Vikaluk , its rhythm is a splendid Berlin School well mounted on a structure filled with jolts created by the impact of percussion and bass sequences. Its strength lies in the magnificent solos which contort and cry like Martenot waves. These solos are precisely performed by Roksana. She demonstrates her knowledge of Jazz with solos which fly and hover like specters on this structure which is violent from within until its 10th minute. And its imprint, never so violent, still remains for the next 3 minutes where these solos cry with a texture of guitar that we torture.
Undoubtedly the most beautiful album and the purest of its kind to follow in the footsteps of analog years, MY LITTLE GARDEN OF SOUNDS 2022 is a pure masterpiece of contemporary electronic music (EM) that has never no desire to deny its grandiose past. However, you must arm yourself with patience, because this little gem of sound sculptures to sparkle in the open air will be available in July in this context of sound exhibitions Sound Lounger and Volksklangliege which will be held in Kassel from July 1st. ore information can be found on the Spyra website Thereafter, the manufactured CD will be put on sale by the known networks, Groove nl and others, before finally ending up at Apple and co. months later. One of the most beautiful albums I have heard!
Sylvain Lupari (24/06/22) *****