Klangwelt - 2025 - Second Nature

(72:38; Spheric Music)

Track list:
1. Empress 7:27
2. Molecules 5:29
3. Mr. Bloom 6:01
4. Tree 602 6:02
5. Never Again 6:20
6. Scaramanzia 5:27
7. Rush Hour 4:04
8. Anyway 5:54
9. Home 5:20
10. Weightless Heart 6:44
11. Stasis 6:33
12. Letters 7:17

Line-up:
Gerald Arend - all instrumetns
with:
Ruth Arend - voice 


Prolusion.
German project Klangwelt is the creative vehicle of German composer and musician Gerald Arend, and besides working in the multimedia and video games industry he has been releasing albums under the Klangwelt name since 2002. The most recent of these is the album "Second Nature", which was released through German label Spheric Music in the spring of 2025.

Analysis
The music of Klangwelt is one that doesn't really uphold any specific style conventions, but rather these are creations that mix and blend elements from a number of different sources and explore them in a variety of subtly different manners. With ambient music, electronic pop music and progressive electronic music all being central building blocks being utilized throughout.

The opening cut 'Empress' drifts through a number of different moods and atmospheres in a rather impressive and compelling manner, with sacral as well as melancholic, mournful and more dramatic displays all being  present in this more progressive electronic music oriented construction. And while this compositions arguably is the one that has the most profound progressive inclination here, one of the recurring elements found throughout this production is material that to some extent or other makes use of elements that, to my ears at least, indicate a little bit of an influx of elements that can be traced back to artists such as Tangerine Dream.

We do get some more careful and delicate compositions along the way here, too, and while many of them will only partially adhere to a more stringent ambient music expression we do get a few examples of more purebred, introspective and dreamladen journeys here too.

On the other part of the vast landscape explored here we get songs that have a more distinct orientation towards the electronic pop music tradition, as well as the token instances of creations that combine this aspect alongside the more expressive trajectories at hand, like the concluding 'Letters' which to me sounds a little bit like a song that incorporate ambient elements alongside an influx of inspiration from the likes of Enya as well as aforementioned Tangerine Dream.

Other creations here will feature rhythm patterns with a little bit of a techno music feel to them, albeit delivered in a rather more careful manner, and with more energetic and vibrant displays often being a feature of these compositions to boot. Alongside the occasional outliers, such as the Yello meets Tangerine Dream combination we find on 'Rush Hour'.

Conclusion.
On this latest production by German project Klangwelt we get an interesting combination of elements where ambient electronic music and electronic pop music have been seasoned and occasionally mixed with elements from - or inspired by - certain progressive electronic music environments. So while not a creation that falls inside of the progressive music universe as such, it is also a more expressive variety of ambient music and electronic pop music that is the going concern here. A production to seek out if ambient electronic music and electronic pop music with a bit of progressive electronic music flair and inclusion strikes you as an interesting landscape to investigate.

Olav "Progmessor" Björnsen, June 2025

Links:
http://www.klangwelt.info/
http://www.sphericmusic.de/