Steffi “World Of The Waking State” / Ostgut Ton

Steffi
World Of The Waking State
label Ostgut Ton
release date: 22 September 2017

Steffi occupies a unique space in the realm of contemporary electronic music. Although she’s a world renowned DJ – Steffi’s musical interests reach far beyond the dancefloor and it’s her work as a producer that provides her impressive hard-won legacy. Moving to Berlin in 2007, she joined Ostgut, becoming a resident at Panorama Bar and releasing on the club’s label. To date she’s released five albums; including two solo LPs for Ostgut Ton, co-producing another with Virginia, another with Analogue Cops as Third Side and collaborating as Doms & Deykers on Martyn’s 3024 label. Her impressive discography features club classics like ‘Yours feat.Virginia’, carefully chosen remixes and appearances on labels including Permanent Vacation, Underground Quality and mixes for Panorama Bar and fabric. She owns and operates four labels; Klakson (with Dexter), Dolly, Dolly Deluxe and Dolly Dubs.

‘World Of The Waking State’, is Steffi’s third solo album to be released on Ostgut Ton and a musical departure, for her and the label, a serious statement of intent. Over ten tracks she embarks on entirely new electronic terrain for her productions, marking industrial spaces with superlunary warmth whilst exercising a refined knowledge of polyphony and arrangement. Subdued melodies interact with each other over implied harmonies and microcosmic drum patterns, luring us into a world that is introverted, bewildering and gratifying all at once.

‘Different Entities’ opens with shaded harmonies and glitchy signals, the pulsing ‘Continuum Of The Mind’ develops with cyclical melodies swaying through staccato percussion. On ‘All Living Things’ complex rhythms take the attention over the restrained melody. ‘The Meaning Of Memory’ pairs low-slung squidgy percussion with overcast melodic interactions and ‘Schools Of Thought’ flickers through uncharted interplanetary spaces. Title track ‘World Of The Waking State’ pushes pulsing basslines and woeful refrains through an industrial void, while ‘Kokkie’ flickers with acid tones over the languid bass drive. ‘Mental Events’ paints a shadowy aura driven with echoing snares, and ‘Bounces of Nature’ flaunts meditative pads and expertly layered percussion. Closer ‘Cease To Exist’ brings together the mangled percussion and subtle melodies of the album to full effect.

On ‘World Of The Waking State’ Steffi stretches her wings. Created in a period when she found herself free of the past and settled more comfortably in her own skin. The shift in her mindset let to a new freedom of exploration in her creativity that enabled her to write more experimentally, and logically led to this new album. Gone are the classic drum sounds and conspicuous melodies of her previous works, Steffi’s productions unify disparate molecular details to forge a greater whole, reflecting a serious commitment to abstract electronic composition that manifests itself here as a totally inimitable collection of tracks. ‘World of the Waking State’ is a confident and mature work of complex rhythms and refined melody – the overall effect as subtle, unique and thought provoking as the artist herself.

Tracklist:
01. Different Entities
02. Continuum Of The Mind
03. All Living Things
04. The Meaning Of Memory
05. Schools Of Thought
06. World Of The Waking State
07. Kokkie
08. Mental Events
09. Bounces Of Nature
10. Cease To Exist