walls and wires

Perhaps one of the more emotionally resonant house producers out there is Lawrence (aka Sten, aka Peter Karsten), whose work since 2000 has straddled the lines between deep house, minimal and ambient electronic sounds. He is dropping his next album, Until Then, Goodbye, on mule musiq in late August, and I can honestly say that it is a gorgeously melancholic, cloudy Sunday of a record. Not surprising, given Lawrence's reputation for obsessing with minor key arrangements and nostalgic synth sounds. To get everyone prepared for the record, I dug around my collection and found two of my favorite Lawrence tracks to share.

The first is from Lawrence's only outing on Ghostly International. "Wasting a Fall" begins with some nice, lush organ synths, brassy harmonies, and hi-frequency swells that give the whole thing a lovely feeling of lightness. With kicks and some stuttering secondary percussion arriving a bit later, and the bass-line suddenly dropping in as if from heaven, the track takes on some seriously dreamy momentum about halfway through. It doesn't let up, and even switches tones entirely, becoming a darker, near-Chicago piece by its end.

Lawrence- Wasting a Fall

Next, a track that I had forgotten about until several months ago, when I found a mix CD that I had made in autumn 2006. Superpitcher's remix of Lawrence's "Along the Wire" is just...unbelievably beautiful, a minor-key track with intense harmonies, excellent drum programming, and a sad tone color that puts it at the top of the 'teardrop techno' category, right there with Villalobos' "Dexter," and any number of Frankie Knuckles tracks. Seriously, this is the sort of track that sends chills up my spine and makes me weirdly emotional, not to mention the fact that it is a hell of an earworm.

Lawrence- Along the Wire (Superpitcher Remix)

Tomorrow, think I'm going to digitize some treats for you.