Conic Rose - Wedding

'Wedding' is the second independently released album by young Berlin band Conic Rose. The band's first album 'Heller Tag' found fans in Gilles Peterson, Lauren Laverne and Nemone among others, thanks to its unique take on jazz, infused with seemingly disparate influences like Radiohead and the local Berlin techno / electronic scenes.

For their second album, Conic Rose repositioned themselves completely. Not in terms of personnel, but in the question of how to move forward. Conic Rose still sound like Conic Rose; their distinctive blend of avant-garde jazz, alternative rock, ambient and electronic music remains untouched. And yet Wedding is, in many ways, the conceptual counterpart to their debut album Heller Tag. Where the debut documented movement within an urban setting, 'Wedding 'describes a state of being.

The album title 'Wedding' is no coincidence. The story of Conic Rose is closely intertwined with the Berlin neighborhood that gives the record its name. The band’s studio is located here, and both studio albums were created in the immediate vicinity of the small river Panke. This place settles over the music like a warming patina. “We spend a great deal of time there and experiment a lot in our studio,” recalls trumpeter Konstantin Döben. “When you meet regularly in one specific place over the course of a year and make your discoveries there, it’s impossible for it not to leave its mark on the music.”

Yet this encounter between a band and its surroundings is not a one-way street. The album feels as though the musicians and the neighborhood have invited one another to get to know each other. Not least because Wedding also means marriage. These marriages between a band and an urban landscape, a fading past and an emerging future, fear and hope - unfold in every single song on Wedding.

The group opens up its palette, allowing more influences, becoming at once more subtle, more profound, more filigree. It is less about definition than about the spaces in between. The most immediately striking difference from the previous album is the strong presence of the guitar. In Bertram Burkert’s playing, many voices seem to converge. His yearning openness forms an equal counterpoint to Döben’s trumpet and flugelhorn. Blurred and layered sounds occasionally make the ground seem to slip away beneath one’s feet, while Döben’s gliding lines create both closeness and distance.

Together, the band express in a deeply subtle way a sense of life that corresponds precisely to our time. Something lurks in the background, omnipresent yet still unnameable. Conic Rose need no words to convey this feeling of uncertainty with remarkable eloquence.

Perhaps this has something to do with Wedding being a place of confrontational introspection, but Conic Rose confront the escape from escape itself. With the recording and release of Wedding, this process is far from complete. The seed only begins to grow in the listener’s ear. With every listen and the echo it leaves behind in memory, the studio bud continues to bloom. The album is merely the point of departure. What ultimately matters is what it sets in motion within those who encounter it.

Vinyl arrives on April 17th, with a full digital release following in late summer.
Feel free to share the Bandcamp link: https://conicrose.bandcamp.com/album/wedding-2