2

Kl(aus) are Jonathan Elliott and Stewart Lawler, plus a rotating roster of friends and collaborators. Originally from Tasmania, now living and working in Sydney, the pair have known each other for several decades and formed Kl(aus) in 2013 over a beer and a shared appreciation of Tangerine Dream’s 79-85 period. They both have long experience in the music industry – Lawler, formerly a member of Sydney techno-pop outfit Boxcar has spent much of the last ten years touring with Tom Ellard’s Severed Heads. Elliott is a classically trained pianist who played in multiple local bands in the 1990s, touching on numerous genres and styles.

“I’m getting a bit hesitant to call us straight-up Berlin School these days,” says Lawler, “I think we’ve moved beyond that with this album in some ways. Maybe it’s my classical background but when I’m mixing our tracks I tend to think of each instrument contributing their own line as part of an ensemble, which is not a million miles from the way our favourite Froese/Franke/Schmoelling era Tangerine Dream tracks used to work either. Plus the album format is probably as close as I’ll ever get to working on long-form ‘classical’ music. One of our aims, after all, has been to reclaim electronic music from the dance floor and put it back into the concert hall.’

From the melancholy, dream-like state of “Alma Febles Struggles Into The Night” to the joyous exuberance of “Mammatus Clouds Over Saskatchewan”; via the pompous grandiosity of “On The News It Looked Like She Was Floating” and the whimsical proto-synthwave of “Heroes of 1986”, Kl(aüs) 2 is an album of fantastic, inventive synth classicism. Losing none of the Australian charm or fondness for intriguing track titles as displayed on the 2016 debut album (also released on Castles in Space), this LP promises to be an instant and enduring classic.

The download for the album includes “Shurnarkabtishashutu (Original Demo)”, a 30 minute rehearsal take of the album opener, Shurnarkabtishashutu.

“…a refined exercise in pulling human emotion from the synthetic. Kl(aüs) 2 recalls a time when sonic exploration of electronic instruments required playing rather than programming.
“All heart and humanity, Kl(aüs) have again created the future of music, dreamed up in the past, but perfect right now.”
James Thornhill, Electronic Sound Issue 61, January 2020.