Hely Holding on to Themselves
And another ace release from Nik Bärtsch’s excellent Ronin Rhythm Records imprint: “Plode” by piano/drums duo Hely, available now.
According to the dictionary, „plode“ means „when an object exists without being destroyed“. The creation of this album was apparently no walk in the park. „While we were working on this record, things got pretty complicated between us,“ writes pianist Lucca Fries. „There was a lot of movement, a lot of heated discussions. The two of us are very different!“ Remarkably, the duo – apart from Fries we also have Jonas Ruther on drums – managed not only to overcome those turbulences, they also managed to address their state of instability on a musical level. The resulting album keeps the listener constantly guessing what might happen next. And yet, at no time do they leave us alone with this uncertainty, always providing us with some kind of piano or drum motif to hold on to. In re-evaluating their relationship, Hely drew on pieces from their three earlier albums to explore highs and lows they had previously paid too little attention to. Remarkably, the results never sound „difficult“, on the contrary – this music properly rocks!
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