Mueller & Roedelius - Imagori (2015)

Hans-Joachim Roedelius' 2015 collaboration with Christoph H. Müller (possibly best known for his electronic tango fusion trio Gotan Project) is busy and detailed, with clicking beats and pulsating bass tones surrounding the calm piano melodies. The album is far too involved to merely be categorized as ambient, and there's a bit too much tension in the music for it to be something to relax to, with plenty of jittery glitching and stuttering sounds in the mix. There's an enormous amount of diversity to these tracks, from the clanging metallic percussion and shimmering waves of sound on "QM" to the thumb piano-like melodies of "Origami II" to the dubby, static-covered waltz "Himmel Über Lima." Ambient techno track "About Tape" includes a sample of Brian Eno speaking about recording and editing audio; as he describes chopping up and stretching sounds, his voice is manipulated in exactly those ways. "808 Fantasy" similarly plays around with skittering drum-machine beats and Orbital-esque synths. Feeling like gazing at a sunset on a gorgeous beach after a slightly stressful day, the album is highly imaginative and vibrant, and worthy of repeated listening.