Con_Sense

NOW AVAILABLE:
CD Album - Code sent (Databloem - 2009)

Order the album direct via el culto (PayPal):
www.el-culto.eu/english/music/projects/consense
Reviews:
"Con_Sense doesn’t want you to know who they are, because their music should speak for itself. For this reason any personal presentation is not relevant. If you search a little for yourself however, it is not difficult to figure out who they are. These guys have a huge amount of music on the market, but with this release they are trying to create a new form of music. And in my opinion they succeeded.
“Code Sent” is their second release, “Compass” on Gears of Sand being the first one. And right from the start this cd gets to you with a large portion of tension. The sounds are electronic, but the music is a combination of all kinds of styles mixed together in one long journey. Underneath the slow rhythms there are orchestral samples, choirs, bleeps, acoustic sounds, chants, sweeps of synths, trumpet and sequencers, sounding all very exciting. Most music you can compare to other artists, but in this case it turns out to be difficult. With all it’s noises and sounds flying around, you cannot call it ambient, it is rhythmical but don’t expect a techno beat, and maybe some ethnical percussions, but it does not sound ethnical at all. OK, one track, “The Secret”, could be an old Autechre track, or Speedy J in his old experimental period, but we like that don’t we? This is truly a very remarkable release and a must for every lover of exciting new electronic music.
Code Sent is a gift from the musicians to us, the listeners who wants to expand their musical view, so take this journey. Their first release on the Databloem label - a new code, a new experience, a new possibility." (Bob Rusche - Tip van Bob)
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"I couldn’t help thinking of Locust when I heard the first track on this excellent ambient album. There’s something about the way the bass is set off with reverb and has a rhythmic quality that instantly reminded me of Mark Van Hoen’s work. Of course that’s no bad thing as he’s one of my favourite producers and, if you know his work, then that should give you an idea of where this is coming from. It uses classic sounds as well as a more contemporary feel to deliver some truly gorgeous and majestic tracks. Wonderful earthy textures and soaring chords combine with a lightly new-age feel to give you a coherent and flowing experience that has a real old school element (in a good way – think Rising High when they were in their prime). In some ways this could almost be a Practising Nature release as I feel it has more in common with Nostalgia or Mathias Grassow than some of the more recent Databloem releases. But honestly, either way it’s still a very satisfying listen indeed and, if you like a spot of ambient, comes highly recommended." (Smallfish - UK)
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Album: Compass (Gears of sand - 2008)

Order the album direct via el culto (PayPal):
www.el-culto.eu/english/music/projects/consense
Reviews:
"Kudos to Ben Fleury-Steiner at Gears of Sand for consistently finding superb new artists. This time around it's Con_Sense with Compass—a rich, deep work that seamlessly melds dark ambient textures with irresistible beats for a fully immersive listening experience. The disk begins with the sinewy electronic slither of "Threshold," a thick undergrowth of drums and jumbled sounds punctuated with sudden balalaika-like bursts. "Tarika" ups the beat ante with a mechanical clank-and-throb over the rise and fall of ghostly vocals, and begins a gentle Middle-Eastern vibe that carries into the wailing voices and percussive atmosphere of "Gathering From Step Beyond." From there, "Structures" insinuates itself quietly with a jazzy downtempo beat and hushed tones like half-heard secrets. The fantastically hypnotic "La-U-Tir" charges in next powered by a driving beat and a barrage of electro-birthed sounds. Halfway through the percussion drops away suddenly, and it's like a reprieve, however temporary, from a forcible groove. This is the pure highlight of the disk. The lengthy drone of "Sirius" then moves in slowly, a welcome sonic balm that calms like a long, soul-felt exhalation. An easy beat rises to complement the quiet base without disturbing the relaxed feel it's imparted. This is a beautifully meditative stretch, time well spent inside the sound. Then it's back into high gear with the potent bass twang and long-hanging pads of "Compass Error" as they swirl upward in an ever-more-complex spiral of sound. The disk closes with "Starry Sky," replete with appropriately twittering, glistening sequencer lines. This is a disk that will most certainly get a lot of repeat play, and offers enough depth and layering of sound to reward subsequent listens. Have I gushed about Compass enough yet? Clearly, this is a Hypnagogue Highly Recommended CD." (Hypnogogue)
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"On Compass, Con_Sense part the overwrought red seas of laptop nonsense in the yielding of sonic schemes aburst with good sense. Scattering moonshot contrails over grey fields that drone on into the night, the mysterious duo possess a rhythmic tenacity that makes for heady spiralling down their interspatial sinks. Case in point is the lengthy "Sirius": astronauts in awe viewing swiftly blossoming nebulae, synths a rush of blurred images surging in heavenly resins, until fluorescent beats eclipse the night sky, bidding travellers' return. Con_Sense inaugurate a new breed of cosmic courier, dreaming in tangerine yet funkily-flavored — pretty great." (Signal to Noise Magazine)
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First up come Con_Sense, two name artists going nameless in protest against authorial genre-driven imperatives; point being that artists tend to situate themselves too readily in a specific genre straitjacket. Their aim is to float free between various stylings, to spring something new out of hybridisation, bidding listeners open minds to other styles they may have been closed to. Compass is a fresh and wild enough package of high resolution atmospheric ambient with occasional beats, fusing something of neue Berlin (Monolake) with traces from alte Berlin school (K. Schulze). From the sinewy slither of “Threshold”, with its dense thrumming undergrowth and compressed sound-curtain threaded with zither-y motifs, to the sputtering sequences of “Starry Sky,” it blazes its genrecidal trail. In between “Tarika” ups the beat ante with a mechanical clank-throb over the wellings of ghostly vocals, while ululations and roiling percussive atmospheres animate “Gathering From Step Beyond.” Best of all is the hypnotic “La-U-Tir”, a teeming mélange of bit-crush and beat-push." (Furthernoise)
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About Con_Sense
We would like to present this project to you and give you some information about the meaning of “Con_Sense”. Looking around at the world music market you may notice that many groups or artists embrace only one form of musical expression or genre. You can also label them and neatly categorize them in a specific artistic field, like Pop, Rock, Ambient, Ethno, Club...etc.
This categorizing will be nearly impossible to achieve with “Con_Sense” since our main purpose is to combine many different elements characteristic to various styles and to attempt to create something new from what could be seen at first as “un-combinable”! To say that these elements are not combinable would seem to us a stereotype of artistic behavior and is an unnecessary limitation to creating new and interesting music. Our intention is to include and not to separate.
The main reasons for most of these common separations are clique approaches or the conviction that "our music is the best" - And this is definately not what we want ! Our music should be seen as an invitation to open your mind to other styles which you may not have considered until now. The same aspect can be found in our everyday life - there are always new experiences which make each day absolutely unique (And this is possible to experience if you keep an open mind).
Our music should speak for itself for this reason any personal or private presentation is not relevant. So there is no detailed personal information available. This is not meant as a distance to you but more the attempt to avoid what we see as superficial. Our public persona is "Con_Sense" and only this ! You are invited to discover and experience the real content. We would be pleased to take you on this journey where limitations are only manmade.