I first came across Pantha Du Prince after being shown a recorded phone video for a concert he did with The Bell Laboratory performing Terry Riley’s ‘In C’ at London’s Barbican Theatre. Phenomenal – I don’t think I had ever been so jealous at missing out on a gig. I immediately brought Elements Of Light, a beautiful album he consequently made with The Bell Laboratory, which now finds itself housed away from the CD stand with the other CDs and right next to my Hi-Fi because of the amount of times it is played. Now, three years later, I find myself reviewing The Triad.

Making a name for himself on the influential Berlin dance label Dial Records, Pantha Du Prince (aka Hendrik Weber) had his breakthrough moment three albums in with the release of Black Noise once he signed to Rough Trade. Using field recordings from church bell’s in the mountains of Switzerland and a feature from Panda Bear (Animal Collective), Hendrik announced himself to the music world by carving out his own ideals within the electric genre. Starting in a more beat driven place, Hendrik, who is now releasing his fifth LP, continues his ever more symphonic exploration by bringing in Scott Mou (Mr. Queens) and Bendik Kjeldsberg (The Bell Laboratory) to form minimal techno bliss as “the triad”.

The album starts in a familiar place with a track that could have been unused from Elements Of Light. Bendik’s influence is felt in the twinkling bell’s chiming and glittering instrumentation which creates the wispy ambiance in ‘The Winter Hymn’, however, the complimentary vocals by Queens are on the wrong side of cheese and go some way to limiting the song’s potential. Next track ‘You What Euphoria?’ hits the heights I envisioned for this album – shimmering rhythms and flickering ethereal dissonances create a soul-filled feeling that is so unique to Pantha Du Prince’s music. Having admitted that he never set out to be a musician and that it was more that he was really interested in creating a parallel universe with sound, Pantha du Prince’s music has an air of freedom surrounding it. The absence of obligatory sounds, trends or rules makes Hendrik’s music extremely organic and human.

The track ‘Frau im Mond Sterne Iaufen’, named after the Fritz Lang movie, is the calming cinematic soundtrack to a future utopia buried in a concert dystopia – played out in a hidden nightclub where the encircling melancholy cannot reach. Throughout much of The Triad, an opaque beauty masks the underlining vibe of bleak vistas. For instance, the cascading rings in ‘In An Open Space’ cover up the continuous uncertainty surrounding the subdued melodies.

As the album goes on, you find yourself delving deeper with fascination into the meticulously crafted ideas being portrayed in each song. ‘Chasing Vapour Trails’ signifies a progression in the album. Starting off at a somnambulant pace, the track evolves into deep house realms. A dreamy fusion of pulsing basslines, glitch beats and atmospheric dronescapes continue in ‘Lichterschmaus’ and the far darker ‘Dream Yourself Awake’ (my favourite off the album).

Pantha Du Price seems to create songs that sit weightless, away from any time – they build unknowingly and elegantly in its own vacuum of evolving mood and atmospherics. Hendrik comes across as an intellectual, a scientist of the techno-sphere of knowledge, creating a music that is unobtrusive yet utterly mesmerising. I do hope he tours near our shores soon.
Iain Lauder

Website: PanthaDuPrince.com
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