ARTIST:.......: Gert Emmens TITLE:........: An Artist's Stroke TYPE:.........: Retail LABEL:........: CATNO:........: GENRE:........: Ambient LANG:.........: English QUALITY:......: 249 kbps / 44.1 kHz / Joint Stereo CODEC.........: LAME 3.100 -V0 SOURCE:.......: WEB GRABBER:......: UKW TRACKS:.......: 7 SIZE:.........: 147.59 LENGTH........: 01:18:29 URL:..........: http://gertemmens.bandcamp.com/album/an-artists-stroke RELEASE YEAR:.: 2012-00-00 RIP DATE:.....: 2020-01-30 T R A C K L I S T -------------------- 1. Cossack Temperament 13:54 2. The Long Walk (Towards The Black Sea) 13:14 3. Paintings - The Themes 16:46 4. Paintings - The Spirituality Behind It 7:21 5. The Leningrad Years 12:24 6. Darkness Unfolds 11:42 7. Yuri Pugachov - In Memoriam 3:08 ----- Total 78:29 min R E L E A S E N O T E S ------------------------- Russian painter Yuri Pugachov is the deceased father of Artemi Pugachov, known from his online electronic music-encyclopedia. For his album ôThe Nearest Faraway Place, Volume 2ö Gert Emmens was allowed to use one of YuriÆs paintings on the cover. Gert is an admirer of YuriÆs work and so, in cooperation with Artemi, an idea was born to create a conceptalbum based on the paintings of his father. Dutchman Emmens always brings us electronic music of high quality: it is warm, melodically and played well. ôCossack Temperamentö opens the album in a great way because of the strong sequences, fine Mellotronstrings and a solo that resembles the sound of a Theremin. The sequences get fuller and fuller, after which a quiet intermezzo follows. In the second part of the track the sequences are masterful. In ôThe Long Walk Towards The Black Seaö Gert describes a walk of 1.000 (!) km. that Yuri undertook to reach the Black Sea. As a kind of relaxation, he painted there. Also he stopped underway to paint. This piece is kind of lighter, in comparison to the other compositions. The solo here is great. Gert always differs from other electronic musicians in the retro-electronic music because his music always contains more melody and tension. Yet for the most part anyway he stays within the paths of the Berlin School and that is clever. The German Lambert has this too in his music. And ôPaintings-The Spirituality Behind Itö sounds like a Lambert-track, musically and sequencer-wise. The fat solo sounds almost like Vangelis. Also in ôDarkness Upfoldsö this kind of solo can be heard. In the beginning the sequencer pattern sounds like a marimba, something we heard often in the electronic music of the early nineties. The cd closes with the atmospheric ôYuri Pugachov-In Memoriamö. Here the antique drum boxes of Gert are included. Emmens has again created a beautiful cd. Music and paintings blend together beautifully in this way. Those are the wonders of art. released January 1, 2012