Trilogy

by

ATB

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I downloaded this from iTunes four minutes after midnight so I could have the latest album from my favorite electronic artist and it did not leave me disappointed!

There are two discs that come with this one. The first is done in the mold of traditional ATB in terms of song structure and style. While it has ATB's distinct sound, it again goes into new directions in terms of how it is presented. Vocalists include Heather Nova, Jan Löchel, Jeppe Riddervold, and Karen Ires, with Heather and Jan being featured the most. Jan is also responsible for many of the guitars on this album, and I feel that ATB is at his best when he is working with him.

To some extent I feel the lyrics on this one are more complicated than on previous ATB albums in terms of how they are presented. This shows yet another progression of ATB, who always is seeking to try something new with every album he releases.

The second disc is a collection of soft instrumental pieces. They are heavy on ambience and also on piano. Notable is "Trilogy-The Final Chapter". Those who have heard the first two parts of the song (the first on Addicted to Music and the second on Seven Years) will appreciate this one the most. It's almost like a three piece work from the classical era and in some respects even sounds like one ala Für Elise with the simple yet powerful piano melody despite having the modern electronic backgrounds to go with it.

I feel "Trilogy-The Final Chapter" is the most powerful piece ATB has ever released, eclipsing even the first two installments of the series and "Sunset Girl", a powerful instrumental from Addicted to Music. The rest of the tracks are very relaxing and are not the typical upbeat ATB that most would expect from a typical album. Think along the lines of "Circular Symmetry" from No Silence but with much more ambience and with a focus on piano.

This is an album that I probably will be playing non-stop for some time. The date was delayed not long ago but it was well worth the wait.

American customers should note that the US release isn't coming out until May, check on Amazon for a separate listing. It's already on iTunes to coincide with this release, which is the German release.

Heather Nova really shines on this 2 CD compilation with the peaceful Stars Come Out and the smooth pop of Made of Glass. Renegade, the first single from this compilation, really doesn't feel like Heather Nova, and the bright melody doesn't fit well with the lyrics. There are no songs that I've noticed that use the unique techno sound that you hear in The Summer from Two Worlds and 9 PM from Movin' Melodies, as it would not fit in the flow of this compilation, and it's nice to hear something a bit different from that too.

Other vocals are done by Karen Ires, Jan Lochel does 3 songs, Jeppe Ridervold does 3 songs. Jan's vocal's are nothing special. Women's voices tend to work better with standard fare techno music.

The second CD is a nice ambient CD, just like the 2nd CD from Two Worlds. With the 2nd CD being all ambient non-vocals, it makes me wish the first CD had a lot more vocals than it does. It's very similar to Two Worlds in this general formatting of selection of songs, but it would've been better to have the 1st CD filled with entirely vocal songs. This 2nd CD does seem to have more [noticeable] background effects though, but they aren't too intruding to leave it as a nice calm unagitating wave.

I'm surprised this album is called Trilogy because you can only get one or two CDs, not three. Having many of the guest performers do 3 songs does help make the CD more of a trilogy, but otherwise it's really mostly a set of standard techno songs with a few good ones by Heather Nova, and Justify (vocalist not described), Desperate Religion (Vocalist karen Ires), and the non-vocal Beautiful Worlds also come out on the first CD. Nothing sticks out on the 2nd CD for me, but it's certainly not a bad CD. It's one of those CDs where I probably want to be reading a book by a pond on a sunny day or such. Also, if Two Worlds is part II of some series in which Trilogy is Part III, it's not obvious which CD is meant to be "part I."

ATB and Heather Nova obviously have a good relationship considering that she did 2 songs on Two Worlds as well. So, we can definitely anticipate wonderful things to happen with these two. Now if only Mensano could release his album with Heather Nova on it.