Blutiger Fluss

Most fans of vintage electronic music strive to make music like Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream made anywhere from 1975 to 1984 or so. The duo known as BLUTIGER FLUSS aims more around 1972 to 1974, when freeform flowing electronics were the order of the day, before something called a sequencer became all the rage and seemed to define the genre ever after. Although Jeff Hutchison and Jim Duede formed the band in 2008, they have quite successfully created a sound rooted in origins some 35 years prior. Four lengthy drifting pieces of space music, all with German titles, harken back to a simpler yet more adventurous time in musical exploration. Though there are no beats or distinct melodies, the soundscapes are continuously shifting and changing. Perhaps best of all, the only thing Hutchison and Duede have truly copied is the spirit of that period of time in electronic music; the music itself is to my ears quite fresh and original. The sound is purely synthetic, thoroughly electronic. Though futuristic it also has a primal quality. It does not sound like Zeit or Phaedra, or Picture Music or Blackdance; it sounds like some new, undiscovered gem of a band from that time period has recently been unearthed. And in a way, I suppose it has.
- Electroambientspace.com

You may think these guys with a name like Blutiger fluss, a complete set of tracks written in German and with a sound influenced by Klauz Schulze and Tangerine dream would be Germans, but not, they are Americans! I guess that’s one of the typical turn arounds from globalization, or perhaps the consequence from multiculturalism, don’t know for sure, but they certainly pay tribute to the old league from German electronica. The band was formed in Iowa by Jeff Hutchison and Jim Duede in 2008 and they turn their rockets on in order to transport the listener into a space travel directly aimed at the aural adventures exercised by the precursors from this genre. The CD was self released and presents a very retro cover representing the surface from Mars after landing, so typically 70’s in some way. This CD is limited and is available as simple file on Itunes, CDbaby and Amazon also.

Dawn of Mars wanders in the old school analogue synthesizer ambient, presenting an amalgam of atmospheric explorations and out worldly progression that often results abstract but colourful enough to bring some brilliancy and inspiring daydream like states. Absent from rhythm or melody the music drifts into nebulous synthetic contours so typically imbued from the 70s feel and sound, presenting a sonorous tendency exactly as evidenced in some albums from the bands that they admire so much. Schulze divagations are present in here and re-created in some sort of way, presenting a quality and form that doesnt differ in much from the texture and aural paradigm produced by some from his albums. Ever taking different forms and directions the music is certainly moving and morphing but navigating without fixed direction or objective, exactly as a daydream or a semi conscious like state. As referenced before the sound doesnt bring any modern acquaintances and opts for preserving the typical retro analogue sound from the old school, so typically synthetic and lifeless, in some way abstract as product from these qualities but very positive in mood and definitively futuristic in perspective. The continuous movement as product of the introduction of different analogue layers and keyboard effects transmits this spacey aperture to the music, almost like floating into foreign orbits from unknown regions of space, a paradigm in the standards from 70s music but a sort of nostalgic remembrance for us today.

Highly experimental the album brings four songs that sums more than one hour of aural travel and sonic exploration, minimalistic structures and primal soundscapes of multiple contours and artificial textures that never lack profundity or lack of ambition in their aim but results kind of outdated while compared with the sounds of the future generation of keyboards and synthesizers. The contribution from Blutiger fluss to the space music is certainly not vanguardist as they preserve the form from the old school at maximum and completely circumvent any possibility to bring any new texture or formation that was not envisioned by its original creators and inspirers. In a way “ Dawn of Mars” is a tribute to the old school, represented in certain momentum of Electronica, especifically directed to the space age as envisioned by the German forefathers from the genre. Interesting to travel on, but not enough to be utterly representative.
- www.heathenharvest.com

This release from 2008 offers 70 minutes of harmonic electronic music.

Blutiger Fluss is: Jeff Hutchison and Jim Duede (both on keyboards, synthesizers, and effects).

Drawing on influences from the early works of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, Blutiger Fluss craft moody electronic soundscapes that explore waves of tonal harmonics. With only four tracks to this album, the tunes are allowed ample room to flourish in a relaxed mode.

In track one, texturals establish an expansive foundation of pulsating electronics. Bubbling diodes provide an energetic counterpart for that lavish vista, while dreamy keyboard cycles lend sweeping embellishment.

In the second piece, atmospheric layers converge to produce a spacey disposition, while shuddery electronics inject an eerie edge to the dense flow. Auxiliary keyboard threads, consisting of harmonic sustains, thicken the mix. As the song progresses, a sense of mobility is conveyed by the shifting tonalities, carrying the listener across kilometers of barren Martian landscape.

Next, the music exhibits more complexity as several sonic tangents unfurl to define an undulant panorama of throbbing oscillations. A droning foundation provides a canvas for other threads, one an escalated cybernetic pulse, another a cascade of glittering unrhythmic e-perc, while keyboards introduce a series of gurgling chords to approximate the advent of light spilling across the crimson terrain.

The final track displays a more somber demeanor. The undercurrent has a deeper voice, while the embellishments are distinctly reminiscent of those featured in the earlier tracks. Sweeping keyboard sustains, sharper pitched tones and pulsating chords oozing through the mix. A growling temperament prevails as the piece culminates.

While there is little variation among the sounds used to make the music, this similarity becomes a thematic device. The sterility of the Martian landscape is crisply captured and communicated. Pensive moods are evoked by the textural arrangement, layering harmonics to achieve a pacific demeanor tinged with otherworldly character. - www.soniccuriosity.com

Blutiger Fluss “Extrema”

(Available from iTunes, 2009)

2 tracks, 30.50 mins



The follow up to Dawn of Mars is Extrema, a 2-track EP that continues in the direction set by Jeff Hutchison and Jim Duede on their debut. “Minima” sounds very much like the early space music they emulated so well in their first album, with a very spacey and primitive synthesizer sound, music for 1973 in 2009. Fantastic for fans of this early period in EM history. “Maxima” clocks in at twice the length and half the speed, a softer, almost ambient piece of space music, although it shimmers and wavers in that deep space manner characteristic of the genre. I like both tracks a lot, but the second one is particularly soothing, very pleasant to kick back to. While “Minima” again has that early Klaus Schulze feel, “Maxima” shows Blutiger Fluss creating something truly their own. Highly recommended.
-Phil Derby - www.electroambientspace.com

Blutiger Fluss “Moons of Jupiter”
(Available from iTunes, 2009)

4 tracks, 73.16 mins

The duo known as Blutiger Fluss is back with their third release in less than two years, Moons of Jupiter. Like the two releases before it, this one explores improvisational, free-flowing space music that harkens back to the earlier days of EM. This is about sounds, textures, and tone rather than melody, rhythm, or other musical conventions. “Europa” breathes slowly in and out, with bubbly little electronics percolating up through the longer sustained sounds. I’ve often said my favorite electronic music is the kind that truly sounds synthetic, rather than trying to emulate conventional instruments that already exist. In that regard, Blutiger Fluss succeeds beautifully. They make no attempt to disguise the thoroughly synthetic electronic origins of the sounds emanating from the speakers. Space music, after all, should sound, well, spacey. “Io” gets even more abstract and “out there.” The music often has a reverberating, circular pattern to it, a pulsating quality. This is perhaps even more pronounced on “Callisto”, which is a bit mellower as well. “Ganymede” is the longest, dreamiest track, an appropriate way to finish the sonic journey, in the outer reaches of deep space.
-Phil Derby - www.electroambientspace.com