After making his debut in the world of Electro last year with the stunning Primær, Espen T. Hangård is back with another LP, Elementær. The sophomore LP, released less than three months on from his first, suggests Hangård’s furore into electronic music is more than a fleeting fancy as he marks his intentions with another eight cuts of bristling energy. Elementær was captured during the same recording sessions as Primær between 2009 and 2012, and features Hangård in the a creative frenzy, coaxing beatific arrangements from lifeless machines.
Skipping Electro beats and lysergic bass movements, bounce through phrases in the spirit of Kraftwerk with a hint of Aphex Twin through expansive textured layers. Like Primær, Elementær harks back to the origins of the genre, where innocent melodies and song structures lifted from popular forms of music coalesce in that creative cauldron that not only birthed the earliest Electro and therefore Techno, but also Hip Hop. Short, effective pieces with a stocky determinism, make punchy entries, before moving on to the next track.
Simplicity is at the core of Hangård’s work with a no-frills approach to Electro and breakbeats. Building the foundation of his music on the rudimentary constructs of Electro where Roland X0X machines engage in a musical dialogue with each other, Espen T. Hangård is not breaking any new ground for the genre, but in his fundamental approach, he manages to capture something perfect and pure. Hangård’s expressive melodic nature, negates any designs on the dance floor for music where function will yet again follow form to engage with its listeners at a instinctive level.
Shimmering pads and multi-layered textures, temper the fast-paced rhythm sections of tracks like “Atlas Reconfiguration” and “Trampoline” with a kind of wistful serenity clouding the productions. Alongside Primær, Elementær establishes Espen T Hangård’s sonic signature as an electronic music artist, offering a view from the side with regards to Electro and broken beat music as he proffers his interpretation of the origins of this music.