Adventures

Are you ready for a bewitching pop adventure? Ex-Fenster member Rmi Letournelle aka Slow Steve presents his debut album, Adventures, following a 7 split single on Berlin-based DIY label Spti Palace and Steps, a six-track EP released on Morr Music in 2015 (MORR 134CD/EP). His bubbling vintage synths (together with an impressive variety of instruments) take the listener on a strange trip through imagined galaxies and secret deep-sea worlds. Call it weird, but this is amateur pop in all its glory, and the most natural outlet for Slow Steve. Think of Ariel Pink, John Maus, early Future Islands, old krautrock luminaries, or Arthur Russell -- a whole school of alternative pop music that Letournelle is set to join. He recorded Adventure with producer Tadklimp over five days in WORM Studio in Rotterdam, using their many glorious vintage synthesizers, and in Tadklimp's studio in Berlin. Apart from the work of Charley Vecten, who started Slow Steve with Letournelle as a live duo in 2012, most of the instrument parts on the record were written and performed by Letournelle himself. When Letournelle moved to Berlin, he met psychedelic pop outfit and fellow Morr signees Fenster; he has since become part of their live shows and contributed to their first two albums. There are certain similarities between the washed-out sound of Fenster and Slow Steve, but Adventures sees Letournelle doing his own thing. I had weird science fiction in mind, visions of Jules Verne drawings from the early 20th century and science fiction/action movies from the end of that same century, recalls Letournelle. That's why it's called Adventures: I'm picturing a kind of Indiana Jones going down to the bottom of the sea, to Lilliput and other crazy, weird worlds. Song titles like The Giant Spider Crab From Japan imply that this is a cosmic synth dive into creepy depths. Elsewhere, one hears the inspiration that French '70s sci-fi movies and their experimental electronic scores had on Letournelle, for instance in the blissful nostalgia reverberating throughout Oscillation. Even the sunshiny guitar pop and blurred synths of Sloth or Bali sooner or later end up as humorous excursions. All the song structures seem to follow some secret rules -- challenging but always easygoing. Adventures does what it says on the sleeve: surprise and mesmerize, wild and spaced-out. Welcome to the curious world of Slow Steve.