Kevin Keller – Shimmer

Over the course of his long career, composer Kevin Keller has been known to switch things up from album to album, but this year he took things a step further. Breaking the patterns of his previous twelve albums, he asked his fans for directions and ideas – and then designed new sounds to guide his studio improvisations.

The result of this experiment is Shimmer, his first album to be released on both CD and VINYL. Using mostly piano and vintage analog gear, Keller created “the sound of dreams and memories… music about the search for companionship, and the illusion of loneliness.”

Sample the album and find it on your favorite streaming service:Shimmer contains some of Keller’s most propulsive tracks, bubbling with analog beats while also deploying a multitude of motifs that mesh like clockwork. The opening “Orchards” demonstrates this style immediately with a piano intro that could be Steve Reich remixed for the dance floor. The more meditative moments, such as “Bridges”, “Inverness”, and the closing “Delta,” show off his compositional knack for beautiful melodies and lush textures. The title track and its sister track “Riverbend” combine all of these streams and, like all Keller’s music, evolve their sound, never standing still even when they seem to float weightlessly.

Shimmer may be the most seamless mix of Keller’s classical, atmospheric, and Berlin School electronic stylings yet.

Get the album on various formats on Bandcamp.

For more information and music samples, visit kevinkeller.com.