Since his wonderful 2012 album A Forest, Christian Löffler has refined his sound even further. Young Alaska is a wonderful example of an artist who knows his strengths and plays to them creatively, instead of shaping his music for particular contexts or to fit certain trends. Where so many electronic musicians employ a sloppy cut-and-paste approach to vocals, the vocal work on Young Alaska always complements Löffler's finely crafted songs (and his works are indeed "songs," as opposed to "tracks").
It's not just the vocal work on Young Alaska that makes it stand out, however; each and every synthetic patch and melodic sound on the album has been crafted with such detail that imitating producers could spend hours attempting to mimic Löffler's palette without ever succeeding. Whether it's the xylophonic textures of "Roman," which evoke images of raindrops lightly disrupting the stillness of standing water based on their timbre alone, or the emotional complexity of "Mt. Grace" through its optimistic melancholia, Löffler's Young Alaska easily inserts itself into the running for album of the year.
(Thrill Jockey)It's not just the vocal work on Young Alaska that makes it stand out, however; each and every synthetic patch and melodic sound on the album has been crafted with such detail that imitating producers could spend hours attempting to mimic Löffler's palette without ever succeeding. Whether it's the xylophonic textures of "Roman," which evoke images of raindrops lightly disrupting the stillness of standing water based on their timbre alone, or the emotional complexity of "Mt. Grace" through its optimistic melancholia, Löffler's Young Alaska easily inserts itself into the running for album of the year.
