VARIOUS – Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3 – LP + Bonus 7” – Vinyl [OCT 27]

LP + Bonus 7” – Limited Edition Black Vinyl.

Kompakt unveils the third volume of Jorg Burgers Velvet Desert Music compilation series, dedicated to music that hits the sweet spot between the cinematic, the (pop) ambient, and the psychedelic. With Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3, Burger and his friends wander afar, taking trips away from, or adjacent to, the dancefloor thats acted so long as the crucible for the Kompakt aesthetic. Like its predecessors, its a gorgeous, lambent collection of late-night mood music.

Because its such a broad church, Velvet Desert Music admits all kinds of new experiences, as well, with Burger looking for music that “leads out of the desert into the velvet universe”. Indeed, of all the volumes in the series, this third instalment feels closest to an album made by a true collective. The roster has changed, with new contributors Flug 8 and Seb Martel, both with his trio Las Ondas Marteles and with Chocolate Genius and Zsela as La Finca, joining regulars The Novotones, Mount Obsidian, The Golden Bug, Paulor and Sascha Funke.

Burger himself reappears, too, alongside Fritz Ackermann (of The Novotones), Max Wurden and Thore Pfeiffer, in The Velvet Circle. Their contributions are pure lush life electronica: Our Tribe hitches a ride with a low-slung groove, flickering psychedelic reels of acoustic guitar traipsing across moody bass and taffeta layers of drone; their opening remix of Flug 8s Puerto Rico gently introduces the album with solly tangling electronic tones, while guitars, drenched in reverb, pirouette in the background. A Mount Obsidian remix of Sacrosanct by Burgers The Black Frame – project is a swirling treat for the ears.

La Fincas electronics and voice miniature, What Clouds Say, is a masterclass in poetic restraint; Martels Dark Mambo, remixed by Burger, is one of the collections big surprises, for it indeed does what the title says, a driling, surrealist take on the mambo form, full of pensive chords, rich with unrequited longing, a breathy saxophone whispering under the songs sly rhythmic carriage.

Elsewhere, The Novotones chime in with a slyly propulsive, Krautrock-esque charmer, Liberty Bell, and the guitar-led tone-dril of Valley of Oblivion; Paulors The Last Coke in the Desert is a chiming, lilting dreamscape; Mount Obsidian are joined by vocalist Charlotte Jestaedt for two modern takes on early-hours art song, Marole and Fade; Sascha Funkes Mathias Rust is a lavish dancefloor dream, vocal samples driling through the song as it slowly envelops the listener in its opulent radiance.

This is just a taste of the rich pleasures of Velvet Desert Music Vol. 3, a triumph of a compilation that takes the psychedelic visions of its predecessors and looks for the desert within, a dusty kiss, a road-movie hallucination flickering on the listeners eyelids, a cinematic projection from deep inside the mind.

Tracklist:

Side A
1. Puerto Rico (The Velvet Circle Mix) By Flug 8
2. Sacrosanct (Mount Obsidian Remix) By The Black Frame
3. Liberty Bell By The Novotones
4. Mathias Rust By Sascha Funke
5. What Clouds Say By La Finca

Side B
1. The Last Coke In The Desert By Paulor
2. Fade Feat. Charlotte Jestaedt By Mount Obsidian
3. Our Tribe By The Velvet Circle
4. Dark Mambo (Joerg Burger Mix) By Seb Martel Feat. Las Ondas Marteles
5. Marole Feat. Charlotte Jestaedt By Mount Obsidian

Bonus 7”:
A. Es Cucurucuc By Golden Bug
B. Valley Of Oblivion By The Novotones