Hypnotic night drives through the city and light-flooded places of longing. A journey into the no man’s land between dream and reality, hope and disillusionment, everyday life and escape. Trying to fit the music of the Berlin-based band Conic Rose into any standard formula is almost hopeless. Depending on one’s perspective, it could be described as indie pop, jazz, ambient, electronica, or as a soundtrack that evokes its own imagery. It is all of these at once and yet far more than just the sum of the listed styles.

The unmistakable rasp of a trumpet tone placed over tranquil soundscapes of electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards, bass, and a stoic drum set—one that channels influences from J.S. Bach, Krautrock, Thom Yorke, or Bonobo into a sonic aesthetic reminiscent of Jon Hassell, Nils Petter Molvaer, or Toshinori Kondo’s unforgettable band IMA—creates the special aura of this album. The magic formula for trumpeter Konstantin Döben and pianist/keyboardist Johannes Arzberger, who know each other from Clueso’s band, along with guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Bertram Burkert, bassist Franziska Aller, and drummer Nicholas Stampf, is barrier-free openness in every direction.

As focused as the band’s cascading sound textures may appear in the final result, many of them emerged only once—improvised, recorded, and ultimately produced. Nothing was prepared. The ensemble surrendered itself to inner moods that could only be made audible by playing them. The recipe lay in the perfect blend of intuitive calculation and calculated intuition.

This passion for their own sound is palpable in every single moment of “Conic Rose.” It translates into images whose striking casualness lingers and continues to live on the inner canvas of the listening observer. On their second album “Wedding”, Conic Rose deepen their surreal journey into the world of distorted mirror images, only to celebrate a new ideal of unfiltered beauty in sound at the other end of the wormhole.