After four years of techno EPs for Delsin and Ann Aimee, Niels Luinenburg aka Delta Funktionen has finished his debut full length, Traces. Though still very much couched in techno, the album sees the Dutchman explore plenty of new sonic territory, as he often does in his long ranging DJ sets. It’s adventurous, basically, and is an album that doesn’t loose itself in intricate sound design, but instead pairs a raw, machine made aesthetic with plenty of real human soul and palpable earthly emotion.
“Traces is about my long time research into electronic music. It covers tracks that make reference to my favourite subgenres within electronic music: techno, house, electro and (Italo)-disco. There was no specific idea behind it because the album contains tracks made over a long time. Some are 3 years old, others were made this year, but in the end I think it sounds like a coherent piece of work.”
Made using a mixture of drum machines, FM and digital synthesizers, various bits of hardware and digital FX units, the whole thing was sequenced in Ableton with plenty of sample use to finish it off. From the atmospheric openings of blissful electro joint “Frozen Land” through the sultry and searching acid of “Enter” and on to more forceful cuts like “Redemption”, this is an album for listening to as much as it is for dancing. Mood driven landscapes like “Onkalo” prove that, but you’ll have to check it out for yourself to get a real appreciation of the story Delta Funktionen is telling.
