This one is right on our fringes being described as Dark Doom Jazz but many facets of its sound cross over and it certainly struck as an interesting proposition. This is expanded even more as the main contributors to the project Sven Pollkötter and Jakob Diehl have been working in music and arts for a decade or so and recorded a with a 13-piece ensemble the music for a radio play called Die Nacht aus Blei which has been compared in mood to the music by Ben Frost of Netflix show Dark. If you saw this and were equally bamboozled by the post-apocalyptic shifting time lines of it one thing you cannot fail to have noticed was that fantastically atmospheric score. Echoing the likes of Brian Eno and Philip Glass it’s a great companion piece to the strange atmospheric world of Winden, loomed over by a nuclear power plant and full of mysteries. Even more strangely Diehl actually went on to act in the show, so talk about time-lines merging and catching up with each other. I digress perhaps but it is something similar I was hoping for here.

Taumel were formed in 2016 by the core musicians and here they are joined by a couple of like-minded souls bringing the unlikely accompaniment of the flugelhorn to this review (possibly a first). The track titles are the broken-down components of the album title ie first ‘There Is,’ but this is definitely music to be looked on as a whole continuous listen. This is to a certain extent jazzy but not in a confounding way that is likely to put off those, like me who find the music a bit too beard-strokey for comfort. It’s mainly found in the moody looseness of the free flowing and meandering movement within the music and the knock-on wood clack of the slow beating percussion at the heart of it. The horn adds a moody noir edge and a mournful cry which similarly pulsates and adds to the now booming pulses from the drums and strange underlying psychedelics lingering in the background. By ‘No Time’ I find myself lingering in the sort of place inhabited by the denizens of Ulver’s Perdition City and its not a bad place to be; mysterious and beguiling for sure especially when the horn adds a mariachi like cry of perhaps lovers embraced in sweat and passion. There’s certainly some spice within the instrumental themes and you can tell a story is unfolding, its just up to you to match the sound with the images in your head. A creepy aura pervades into ‘To Run’ and you can easily imagine a soon to be victim being stalked and doing just that. We could well be in the neon-hued nightmare of a Nicolas Winding Refn show here and this is certainly good soundtrack music. There’s excellent tonality here, the production is crisp and clear and the tracks subtle build-up in volume takes you completely with it until it finally ebbs out and silence is restored for a while.

Although as I mentioned this is on the fringes it does cross over into other places, a hint of Bristolian trip-hop is found in ‘Away’ perhaps and there’s even a vibe towards a place that a band like Anathema could have been moving toward if they had continued. If a vocalist were necessary, which they are not, one could easily see someone such as Lee Douglas or perhaps Anneke van Giersbergen contributing to the sultry sway of the music. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of last part ‘From Here’ it’s just a bit too “lounge” for me and lightens what had been a rather darker journey. Still as a half-hour distraction I did enjoy this sideways trip to normality and if Taumel’s name ever pops up as a soundtrack artist I will be literally all eyes and ears.

(7/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/taumelofficial

https://taumel.bandcamp.com/album/there-is-no-time-to-run-away-from-here