Florian Kupfer – Lifetrax II[Ediciones Capablanca]

It is 10 years since the first releases of German producer Florian Kupfer, a debut surely desired by many other artists, since his first records were released on L.I.E.S. Records, Ron Morelli’s famous label. Florian Kupfer has shown throughout his career a desire to map distant aesthetic modes. Influenced by his early training in Gregorian chorals, Kupfer has since tangled with analogue noise and rhythmic industrial soundscapes.

In parallel with formidable output on imprints including L.I.E.S., Ninja Tune‘s Technicolor, and Willie Burns’ W.T. Records, Kupfer has also explored the more transcendental qualities of sound. Focusing on our relationship with time, affect, memory, repetition, and stasis, Kupfer infuses his approach to improvisational composition with the evolving, tonally rich qualities of contemporary and vintage electronics, drawing on his engineering experience to create compelling, expressive music of warped, imperfect intensity.

Florian Kupfer returns to the fold for a double volley of raw, elusive DIY club music on new 12″ single ‘About U’, alongside a full-length foray into hypnotic, minimalist analogue electronics on ‘Lifetrax II’, the sequel to his 2013 debut release. After a period of small-run releases & self-released output, including the introspective, radiant ambient of 2021 album ‘Phantom Pain’, Kupfer realizes a full-circle culmination of the kinetic, roughly refined yet stylistically diverse sensibilities he showcased on his seminal debut, and on subsequent releases for L.I.E.S. Records and Ninja Tune imprint Technicolour.

Now landing on Hugo Capablanca’s Ediciones Capablanca label, Kupfer reasserts where he’s been, and conveys where he’s at, forging aqueous, hazy manoeuvres of crisp breaks, fragmentary R&B-inflected vocals, and heavily filtered FX on ‘About U’. Here, locked, cyclical scuffles of broad low-end and fizzing percussion emerge and disperse, reflecting the exhilaration and enervation of an adventurous late-night session, if soundtracked by Rezzett, Theo Parrish and some narcotized edit of Drake. For the flip ‘Replication’, Kupfer turns in a distressed dose of brusque, jack-heavy techno, evoking sinister scenes of pursuit, paranoia, and voyeurism, and recalling L.I.E.S. labelmates like Delroy Edwards and Traxx. An impactful reset from a truly original operator, ‘About U’ signals an emphatic new chapter in Kupfer’s trajectory, elevated further by the cryptic, longform movements and dilations of ‘Lifetrax II’.

Veering from rugged electro & industrial rhythms and fractured noise to disorientating drone and provocative samples of consumerist critique and plundered media, ‘Lifetrax II’ is an ambitious work of crude, outlying dancefloor exhilaration and resonant, enigmatic experimentation. Low-slung, upfront, relentless distillations of EBM and techno, as well as uniquely rendered incursions of electro and industrial music, sit side by side with delirious vignettes of defective drone and noise.

As with Kupfer’s past work, and many of his peers on L.I.E.S, ‘Lifetrax II’ is still ingrained with an intrinsic analogue grit, yet in terms of Kupfer’s own pathway in production, the album represents an adjustment in execution, with an approach that seeks to incorporate deeper, sleeker characteristics. For Kupfer, the album signifies both aesthetic continuity and deviation: ‘As the adage goes, ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’ And when it comes to the title of my new album, I couldn’t agree more. The title, ‘Lifetrax II’ is the natural sequel to my very first release back in 2013. After much contemplation and reflection, I decided to embrace this title because it just feels right to pick up where I left off in those early days.

The result is an album defined by personal fulfilment: ‘It’s been a labour of love. It’s taken me some time to digest my initial releases and find my own voice again after moving to Berlin, but the result is something true to my heart. In terms of style, I’ve continued down a minimalist path, but with a richer quality that sets this work apart from my earlier material.’

Consolidating the hi-def atmospheric coherency of ‘Phantom Pain’ with the abidingly abrasive, intoxicating thrust of his initial releases, ‘Lifetrax II’ shifts from brutalist techno rollers (‘Valiant’, ‘Stress Test’) – like Regis on a joyride – to bizarro dub diversions (‘CS II’) and entrancing electro flux (‘Disintegration’, ‘Dereliction’), into the sonorous, screwed interzones of ‘Raphe Nuclei’ and ‘CRS’, where in the case of the latter, a voice recounts the existential implications of playing Monopoly; play the game or be played kids. Altogether, this is music of contrasting volatility and delirium, all masterfully threaded together. Trax of velocity and estrangement, heat and aftermath, made for modern life.

Can you call this a resurgence if Florian Kupfer never really went away? ‘Lifetrax II’ is arguably Kupfer’s most complete statement to date and affirms what some of us always knew; you can never really predict his next move and you can never count him out. Don’t call it a comeback.

‘About U’ is out on 30th June 2023, available as an Ultra Limited, Single-Sided Lathe 12″ Vinyl & on Digital Formats, exclusively on the Ediciones Capablanca Bandcamp page. ‘Lifetrax II’ is out on 7th July 2023, available as a Limited Edition Cassette & on Digital Formats, with Cassette + Merch bundles including an Embroidered Hoodie plus an Embroidered Patch available alongside the Cassette.