Frank Rothkamm – Lax

Frank Rothkamm

CD – Flux Records

This is a brilliant conceptual posthumous soundtrack, inspired by the Millenium fear, trying to sonify this atmosphere during the two years before 2000 in Los Angeles. Fear, city on the edge of chaos, media upcoming hysteria, noise are described with an emotional tour of frequencies, recorded with “vintage” equipment (Atari, old Macintoshes, custom programmed). The stage is Los Angeles and its suggestive airport (LAX), with granular synthesis and glissando becomes the symbol of a science fiction crush on reality. The scaring suspense of a digital-induced catastrophe pervades every sound, inducing different dilated states of mind. The cd label report a Windows error, formalizing the kind of abstract fear that was around that days, but it’s only the surface of an aural injection, monopolizing the nerves and the imaginary of everyone was adult on the eve of 2000. Isn’t that what a good soundtrack is supposed to do?