Io Tu il Loro

スイスを拠点とするデュオKlaus Johann Grobeによる6年ぶりの新作が登場。スイスの渓谷の奥深くにある山小屋で2週間かけて製作された今作は二人が楽しく楽曲を作るところから始まった。彼らに必要だったのは"休憩"であり、彼らは今作の製作以外の仕事は一才入れずに作り上げた。メランコリックでしっとりとしたトラックに包み込むような暖かなヴォーカルが印象的な作品。大衆向けのディスコではない大人に向けた良い時間を過ごす至高の音楽。

With their first three albums, Swiss duo Klaus Johann Grobe created a raw yet danceable sound that drew from a diverse spectrum of rhythmic influences. They began somewhere between the analog Krautrock of the 1970s and DFA Records-styled, bass-driven, dancefloor-ready punk, eventually changing their sound up to fully embrace disco and decorate their infectious songs with cosmic synthesizer sequences and spaced-out production. Their fourth album, Io tu il loro, arrives six years after 2018s Du bist so symmetrisch, and the band are on an entirely different page, yet again. Strikingly, this is KLGs first album featuring songs sung primarily in English (though a few other languages make appearances as well), changing the tone of a catalog that was mostly sung in German beforehand. While the nine songs of Io tu il loro are still heavy on vintage synthesizers and deep grooves, the atmospheres are more relaxed and melancholic throughout. Opening track "Highway High" is a slow-building, midtempo swoon of library music synth sounds and pensive electric piano. The vocals are relatively dry and up front in the mix, with the instrumentation somewhere between the reassuring gentleness of soft rock and the humid simmer of Tropicalia. "When You Leave" is similarly hushed, with slippery electric bass and lush keys gliding along in aching exhales. The groups disco push hasnt completely vanished from their sound, but shows up in more subtle ways than the four-on-the-floor drums and octave bassline bumps of previous work. On tracks like the jaunty "Bay of Love," disco undertones take the form of ticklish hi-hats and nostalgia-seeped melodies sung in falsetto by one voice and a husky baritone by another. Sparkles of computeristic synths flash around the edges of "Getting Down to Adria," while "Never Going Easy" keeps upsetting its bittersweet emotional tenor with blasts of fuzzy guitar leads. Ultimately, its the happy/sad melancholy Klaus Johann Grobe finds on nearly every song that ties together the albums moments of jazz fusion, neon synth lounging, and Brazilian-inspired pop dreaminess. Io tu il loro is sweet, blue, and distant in a cinematic way. Hearing it from start to finish feels more like experiencing a beautifully sad film than an album, and its all the more enjoyable for it. ~ Fred Thomas