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When I say “just discovered” that’s not strictly true as I’be been wearing out the EP release of the single ‘Barock’ (with remixes by Robert Hood, Mondkopf and Wareika) since Sonar earlier in the year.

They’ve since gone onto the Detroit version of Sonar and what with recent reviews of William Orbit’s Pieces In A Modern Style 2 and Vijay Iyer’s Solo, Aufgang is a sort of ‘missing link’ (almost).

The thing is, unusually the story of this trio starts with “2 pianos, 1 drum: 1 unfathomable lift”. Really? Yeah, this is some of the most challenging and accessible FLY music as the trio of Francesco Tristano, Rami Khalifé and Aymeric Westrich put together all their musical know how into their debut album.

Tristano and Khalifé met in 2000 in New York where they were both studying the piano at Juilliard (and clubbing at night) and then recruiting Aymeric Westrich (a drummer who was a big fan of electronic music). The three of them went their separare ways and between them producing classical albums, working with Murcof and Moritz von Oswald.

Their break came when Jeff Mills got to hear their version of his ‘The Bells’ and that got them onto the bill of Sonar 2005 and since then it’s been non-stop; “It is neither acoustic techno nor electronically seasoned classical music” they say. What it is though is highly original, powerful and, at times, danceable - their tracks ‘Sonar’ and ‘3 Vitesses’ being the best example of this hybrid style.

And talkin’ hybrid, Keith Tippett’s piano playing technique (literally) is taken onboard on the scary ‘Soumission’ and then ‘Good Generation’ is far more pop-dance crossover (even with vocoder vocal hook).

Since the album and Barock EP came out there’s another EP Air On Fire with previously unreleased tracks (the two extremes of classical end of Aufgang are terrifying ‘Douce Violence’ and soft ambient ‘Warm Snow’) and remixes by Sutekh and Krazy Baldhead of the lead track ‘Channel 7’.

‘Channel 8’ starts off in the concert hall and it’s very cinematic like ‘Channel 7’ but more minimal and darker and is in total contrast to the 4×4-garde title track ‘Aufgang’.

InFiné was set up by Sébastien Devaud (aka Agoria) but don’t expect Aufgang to be close to Balanced 016. I keep thinking there’s some sort of reverse engineering connection to Christian Prommer’s Drumlesson project but Aufgang are so less obvious, spectacularly unbalanced and brilliant all at the same time.

Reviewed: Aufgang - Aufgang (InFiné) Cat. No: iF1006LP Release date: 12th October 2009
Tracklisting:
1 Channel 7 (5:35)
2 Channel 8 (9:11)
3 Barock (4:52)
4 Sonar (7:45)
5 Prelude Du Passe (In Memory Of Kevin) (5:39)
6 Good Generation (4:50)
7 3 Vitesses (5:03)
8 Aufgang (6:30)
9 Soumission (10:41)

Links:
www.mysace.com/aufgangsonar
DOWNLOAD “GOOD GENERATION edit” taken from AUFGANG HERE
www.infine-music.com
www.myspace.com/hoodrob
www.myspace.com/mondkopfonthemoon
www.myspace.com/hellowareika
www.discograph.com
The German DVD magazine “Slices” has recorded an interview of the boss a couple of weeks before Nuits Sonores and DEMF festivals.
www.eb-slices.net