This Friday, Jan. 26, marks the debut from the new heavy psych jam outfit Minerall. Issued through Sulatron Records and titled Bügeln, which is German for ‘ironing’ (see cover), the collection features expansive improvisation-rooted breadth presented across two side-consuming pieces as the trio of guitarist Marcel Cultrera (also Speck), drummer Tommy Handschick (also Kombynat Robotron and the decidedly more crushing Earthbong) and the indispensable Dave “Sula Bassana” Schmidt (Zone Six, Sula Bassana, on and on) on bass and synth feel their way through a course of rousing cosmic rock and hypnotic dronescaping. Between the two-part “Bügeln/Unerforscht” (‘iron’/’unexplored’ in translation) at 22:07 and the subsequent “Sachebene” at 21:26, the live-recorded album sounds duly organic in its rollout and offers some of its most lush and engrossing moments in its most subdued stretches.

The story as I understand it is that Schmidt, Handschick and Cultrera came together with producer Yannick Aderb at Studio Buffbergen for a two-day session on Jan. 27 -28, 2023 (a year ago), that doubled as a birthday party. A celebration, in other words. It’s easy enough to read that mindset into the audio if one is so inclined, though the context here is open enough that if they said they recorded it at the top of a mountain in a thunderstorm, I’m not sure it wouldn’t also work for a narrative.

But “Bügeln/Unerforscht,” which was recorded on the 28th, makes a suitable opener as its more active first half draws the listener in with a lightly-insistent space rock push that would probably still be mellow in many other situations but here is complemented/contrasted by the textures that follow as the drums step back, Schmidt moves from bass to synth and the guitar likewise drones out. Krautrock, expanded-definition heavy, and through “Sachabene,” a molten, heroic-dose lysergic middle ground that finds balance between the two ends of “Bügeln/Unerforscht” — these things all come into play to crate a complete picture of scope and dynamic.

I don’t know if all this stuff was made up on the spot or if anybody came in with a part they’d dreamed about the night before, but even the stillest moments on Bügeln carry the vitality of their moment of creation — that spark of life, if you want — and though they’re presented in reverse order of how they happened, the fluidity Minerall capture in and between the two pieces shouldn’t be discounted and is nothing if not emblematic of the component players’ pedigrees.

Is all of this a long way of saying, “Hey, check out the jammers jamming?” Could be, and there’s definitely a they’ve-done-this-kind-of-thing-before sense to Minerall‘s dynamic. If you think of jazz players sitting in on open jams, different groups combining and players coming and going, Minerall‘s first and reportedly not last LP has some of that sensibility — just a thing that happened over a couple days and/or nights — but is all the more special for what came out of that fleeting time. Immediately it holds a character of its own in its widescreen vista, with sounds that can bristle with tension or dwell at rest as they will, and as Bügeln arrives, one can only wonder what’s in store for that birthday party this year.

Not just a studio project or the one-off they might’ve otherwise been, Minerall have a couple live shows booked for February in Germany. You’ll find those dates and more info below, courtesy of the PR wire.

Please enjoy:

Minerall, Bügeln album premiere

PRE-SALE of the vinyl (incl dl code) on NOW at Sulatron Records: www.sulatron.com/xoshop/lng/en/vinyl/minerall-buegeln-lp-dl.html

In the spring of 2023, musicians from three of the most creative psych bands in the German-speaking world came together for a session at Buffbergen Studios in Hanover. Birthdays were celebrated and hours upon hours of music were recorded.

Through a broad spectrum of common ideas, the jams range from hard riffs to spherical ambient soundscapes and enchant not least through the interplay of synthesizer and space echo. “Bügeln” is now the first work of this creative process. An endless jam with hypnotic dynamics, carried by bass and drums, the three musicians lose themselves in the spheres of space echo only to land again after 45 minutes. Minimally edited at the beginning and end, this work is a non-reproducible snapshot that will be released on vinyl exactly one year after the recording session.

Recorded by Yannick Aderb in his Studio Buffbergen.
Mastered by Eroc. (www.eroc.de)
Coverdesign by Sula, bandpic by Marcel.

LP on black 180 grams recycling wax made in Germany, plus download code, limited to 500 copies! Distributed by Echodelick Records (USA), Clearspot (in NL, worldwide) and Broken Silence (in Germany, for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, UK, Scandinavia, Japan, USA)

Tracks:
1. Bügeln/Unerforscht 22:07
2. Sachebene 21:26

Minerall live:
08.02. Hamburg, Bar 227
09.02. Göttingen, Vinyl Reservat
10.02. Halle (Saale), G.i.G.

Minerall is the project of Marcel Cultrera (Guitar, Speck), Tommy Handschick (Drums, Kombynat Robotron, Earthbong) and Sula Bassana (Bass, Synth, Zone Six, Interkosmos…).

Minerall on Bandcamp

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