Me Raabenstein, a.k.a. Slowcream, is an experimental electronica artist based in Berlin, fusing classical samples are paired with electronic elements. Based on blog entries I’ve read at their MySpace, the artist seems to be an American émigré now living in Germany.

Wax on Wool, which will be released February 27 on Nonine Recordings, appears to be the artist’s second work. Both this album and the one released before it, Live Long And Prosper, are digital-only releases. This music is different from most ambient material I’ve listened to in that not all of it is purely instrumental; some selections have spoken lyrics, such as “Into Butter” and “On Carpets”. Many of the tracks, including “Punch Indigo”, reminded me of post-industrial music I had studied in college and university. I was fairly certain it was something familiar, ideas that were avant-garde yet explored before. This is what Joshua Farrier of DMA had to say of the album:

the work in its entirety reminds me of a young alban berg, having just learned the principles of twelve-tone music. in berg’s music of this period, one hears elements of the, at-the-time, mainstream romantic approach combined with tone rows, both elements beautifully intertwined. (a feat that other atonal purists never really achieved.) i like to attribute this to berg’s great sense of musicality and style. this is what i mean when i say that the second slowcream album contains elements of pure raabenstein, but with a new, fresh kind of artistic refinement that makes the work a joy to listen to. it is still in the experimental, electronic genre, but it has something new:
a definite sense of style.

As I had very little to go on as far as Slowcream’s biography or background, I would imagine this is another instrumental artist that prefers to remain somewhat anonymous, or a bit of an enigma. I went to the artist’s MySpace under this name, and even the blog entries were very short, reading like little thoughts when one is musing quietly during some time alone. So it is much easier to suggest that the music speaks for itself, rather than try to determine how Raabenstein was inspired. The album is available for preview (90 seconds preview per track) here.