Samuel Rohrer: Codes of Nature

Born into a musical family in Bern, Switzerland, in 1977, Samuel Rohrer began playing piano at age seven and drums at fourteen. After studying arts and music in Bern and Boston, he moved to Berlin in 2003 and was soon issuing recordings. Since then, he has worked with an impressive array of talented musicians, including Eivind Aarset, Oren Ambarchi, Laurie Anderson, Jan Bang, Sidsel Endresen and Nils Petter Molvaer. However, although such names indicate how well-connected Rohrer is, they are hardly relevant when considering Codes of Nature; as was true of Range of Regularity (Arjunamusic, 2017), Rohrer was solely responsible for all of the compositions, all of the instruments played, the recording, production and mixing of this album.

Across six tracks, ranging in length from five-and-a-half minutes to ten-and-a-half, Rohrer has come up with enough variety and versatility to make one forget that this was the work of one man alone. Throughout, there is plenty of evidence of Rohrer's roots as a drummer but the complex polyrhythms he has constructed manage to avoid the worst excesses of machine-generated rhythm tracks. Each track has enough of a rhythm to satisfy those who enjoy moving to music without that being its main focus.

Rohrer clearly knows his way around a synth, but he never sounds reliant on such knowledge; rather than using synths to imitate real instruments, he has no qualms about the sources being obvious. The end results contain washes of sound that could be perfectly at home in a sci-fi soundtrack or sometimes a horror movie; each track is capable of conjuring up a subtly different atmosphere. While the music handsomely repays the attention invested in listening to it, it can just as easily be part of the environment without demanding attention. One thing is certain; once one has heard Rohrer's music it will be instantly recognizable forever.

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