CONTRIVA - Separate Chambers

If we wanted to make a very crude generalization, today we could split the "indie" and alternative scene into two different ways of making music. On one side, compositions built on a very simple musical structure, which nonetheless draw their strength from the passion and emotion stirred up by the vocals and lyrics. On the other, pieces that are purely instrumental or nearly so, distinguished by a certain complexity in their compositional structure and in their pursuit of sound. Well: faced with such a simplistic and purely pretextual division, "Separate Chambers", the new album by Contriva (the project led by Masha Qrella, Max Punketzhal, Rike Shuberty and Hannes Lehmann), released in November 2006 on the Berlin label Morr Music, settles into a kind of limbo, where the album's eleven tracks seem to find no real place in either of the two categories listed above.

In most cases, in fact, we're dealing with purely instrumental tracks, pleasant and relaxing enough, but ones that show almost no complexity in their structure and that eventually become a bit tedious and monotonous. With due exceptions, many of the tracks on "Separate Chambers" essentially rely on laying out a theme and repeating it three or four times. An almost unvaried repetition, except in a few cases where, during the reworking of the theme, it's enriched through the introduction of different instruments.

This is specifically the case with the opening track, "Good To Know", where the theme is first introduced by acoustic guitars alone. Electric guitar, sampled drums and finally bass are then added in progression. The same applies to "Unhelpful", "Bluebottle" and "Number Me": three tracks that are far from bad and even display fairly complex structures. Yet something really does seem to be missing to give these pieces more variety and bring them to completion. Perhaps the interplay and dialogue of more lead instruments, a more refined modulation of sounds, or, much more simply, a voice singing something over chord progressions that otherwise seem to spin a bit in place. And it's precisely Masha Qrella's voice that finally shakes us awake on the third track, "Before", and on the closing track, "I Can Wait", even if here she's singing fairly unassuming pieces that have almost nothing in common with her own delightful solo indietronic albums. Qrella's typical style is instead more recognizable on tracks like "Concrete Sleepers" and "On One Below", where the oblique, unpredictable trajectories of certain chords recall, at times, the beautiful "Unsolved Remain".

That said, there's no shortage of striking moments, especially "Say Cheese" and "Florida/Lay-by", two short compositions built on sweet acoustic guitar patterns enriched, in the first case, by a melancholy accordion and fluid keyboards, and in the second, by a sad, dreamy violin. Finally, a few words should be spent on "Centipede", which at just over eight minutes, dominated by an obsessive guitar arpeggio, is the album's most elaborate track: after a long, engaging intro, where electric guitar refrains and the wails of a tormented violin layer over the simple arpeggio, the song takes on its true form with the entrance of bass, disciplined drums and piano chords, which take charge of the main rhythm; in the second part, however, it's acoustic strumming that replaces the piano in its load-bearing role, while the piano itself drifts into a minimal solo made up of simple, light notes. Interesting, yes, but hardly transcendent.

All in all, the main impression left by listening to "Separate Chambers" is that its eleven tracks feel like sketches, ideas still waiting to be completed and developed further. It's a pleasant record, but one best kept as background listening, perhaps during a cheerful chat with friends. Listening to it alone, on the other hand, it gets a little tedious, precisely because of the almost total absence of emotional peaks or creative sparks capable of surprising and winning us over. In short: "Separate Chambers" is an album of good songs that, however, lead nowhere.

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12/01/2007