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From building up memorable beats out of his bedroom, tapping into his beloved childhood memories, flush with retro games and static-filled VHS imagery, to taking over some of the biggest international stages including Burning Man and Fusion Festival, the journey of Berlin-based producer Rampue has been no short of graceful and inspirational. First single lifted from his upcoming new LP, ‘Bubblebath Trance’, which also makes for A Tribe Called Kotori’s first-ever incursion in the full-length territory, here comes ‘Harmonie / Inside‘. The work of a vibist in the purest sense of the term, this first extract gives a rather formidable glimpse into Rampue’s washed-out and poignantly evocative mindscape, replete with the “goosebump or tears moment” he’s pledged to cast a broader, comprehensive light upon.
Skipping out on the harshness of life, Rampue’s sound is a vivid invitation to sail off and explore outside of your comfort zone, what knits and unties the limits of your inner/outer duality. Infused with the “euphonious strains of soundtracks from my childhood PlayStation 1 games”, the seven-minute-long ‘Harmonie’ is streamlined electronica at its lushest and most cinematic-friendly. Figure yourself riding a chocobo across the sand-covered expanse of North Corel (toasting to the FFVII nerds here) as this blasts out in the distance. This is an absolute marvel of uplifting composition and deft orchestral implementation, where Rampue’s gold touch for creating these ample, mind-expanding modular buildups (all Buchla blazing) shines through all the more brightly.
Breathing typical ’90s breaks and stepping motifs into the picture, he elegantly laces along a future-facing / early 2000s electro-pop kind of vibe, ‘Inside’ finds us swimming against tides of non-figurative, octave-shifting vocals and heavily processed machine talk veering off into modular abstraction. Here, Rampue’s poetic take lives up to his prophetic will of finding his vocabulary in the “cadence of melodies, not in the labyrinth of words”. If, as he explains, “my music, rich with shades of melancholy and themes of love, seeks to evoke the profound: those ‘goosebump’ moments, the stirrings of tears, the intimate connection with the listener’s emotions”, no doubt ‘Harmonie / Inside’ provides the perfect platform to experience Rampue’s tightrope dancing between cozy nostalgia and acrobatic here-and-nowness.
Release date: July 7th, 2023.