why we love this
A riveting technicolor world that breathes with surrealist magic and elemental splendor. Mechanical amphibians bellow from below while echoing coos signal above. Natural Element covers a wide range of sonic textures, switching patterns and influences within the same tracks, enriching the experience of the album.
about the record
Max Graef returns to Tartelet Records with Natural Element, a genre-bending listening trip pitched towards bass-heavy daydreaming and sensitive dancefloor escapades. It coincides with the 10th anniversary of his revered debut Rivers of the Red Planet, which remains a cherished high watermark for both label and artist alike. It also serves to highlight how much time has passed and how much has changed.
The process on Natural Element was one of reflection for Graef, who has been plenty busy with his TAX FREE label and the spider’s web of offbeat collaborations and projects that orbit it. The freewheeling quality of that outlet helps inform the freedom Graef brings to this album. Initially conceived as a mixtape to gather recent ideas, it soon evolved as he delved deeper into MPC sketches and reconnected with the approach he had in his late teens.
“After the sketches, I worked a lot with the computer again, which I haven’t done in years,” Graef reveals. “Intensive MIDI work and arrangement, but especially working with elements of the sketches in all possible ways, going back and forth with analog and digital equipment, pitching, time-stretching, really soaking up the beautiful inspiration of limitation.”
Taking a patchwork approach but pushing himself to make use of all elements from the initial sessions, Graef wound up with an album that still retains a certain scrappy mixtape quality, but equally represents his artistic approach in the here and now as a richly developed listening trip.
“The new album is in many ways a more grounded version and display of my musical universe,” he explains. “In some ways, it is a transmitter and vehicle of my sound world, because I also like to go much wilder into exploring different approaches and ways of making music nowadays, but it is also very honest since it evolved so naturally in the process.”
- 1 - Sound Bytes (Relax) & Zitar 5:37
- 2 - Lake Serenade (X-Flute) 2:59
- 3 - Gost 3:01
- 4 - Sports (Is Good For You) 4:48
- 5 - Gaza International Airport 3:30
- 7 - We Are the World (Test Drive) 5:36
- 8 - Birds 1:49
- 9 - Natural Element 5:49
- 10 - Reencontro da Massa (Alternate Mix) 4:34
- 12 - 4L 1:25
€30,00
in stock
- 1 - Sound Bytes (Relax) & Zitar 5:37
- 2 - Lake Serenade (X-Flute) 2:59
- 3 - Gost 3:01
- 4 - Sports (Is Good For You) 4:48
- 5 - Gaza International Airport 3:30
- 7 - We Are the World (Test Drive) 5:36
- 8 - Birds 1:49
- 9 - Natural Element 5:49
- 10 - Reencontro da Massa (Alternate Mix) 4:34
- 12 - 4L 1:25
why we love this
A riveting technicolor world that breathes with surrealist magic and elemental splendor. Mechanical amphibians bellow from below while echoing coos signal above. Natural Element covers a wide range of sonic textures, switching patterns and influences within the same tracks, enriching the experience of the album.
about the record
Max Graef returns to Tartelet Records with Natural Element, a genre-bending listening trip pitched towards bass-heavy daydreaming and sensitive dancefloor escapades. It coincides with the 10th anniversary of his revered debut Rivers of the Red Planet, which remains a cherished high watermark for both label and artist alike. It also serves to highlight how much time has passed and how much has changed.
The process on Natural Element was one of reflection for Graef, who has been plenty busy with his TAX FREE label and the spider’s web of offbeat collaborations and projects that orbit it. The freewheeling quality of that outlet helps inform the freedom Graef brings to this album. Initially conceived as a mixtape to gather recent ideas, it soon evolved as he delved deeper into MPC sketches and reconnected with the approach he had in his late teens.
“After the sketches, I worked a lot with the computer again, which I haven’t done in years,” Graef reveals. “Intensive MIDI work and arrangement, but especially working with elements of the sketches in all possible ways, going back and forth with analog and digital equipment, pitching, time-stretching, really soaking up the beautiful inspiration of limitation.”
Taking a patchwork approach but pushing himself to make use of all elements from the initial sessions, Graef wound up with an album that still retains a certain scrappy mixtape quality, but equally represents his artistic approach in the here and now as a richly developed listening trip.
“The new album is in many ways a more grounded version and display of my musical universe,” he explains. “In some ways, it is a transmitter and vehicle of my sound world, because I also like to go much wilder into exploring different approaches and ways of making music nowadays, but it is also very honest since it evolved so naturally in the process.”
