Tempus flees, except by listening to the work of the German composer Stefan Betke. In twenty-five years of minimalist techno and dub experiments, he seems to have discovered how to suspend time, its grooves delicate plunging us into such a state that listening to them takes us away from the frenzy of our existence. Tempus, his ninth album, achieves this without insisting on the hypnotic effect of repetition that runs through his work, introducing into his new compositions the idea of unpredictability by drawing inspiration from the codes of jazz. Even using the natural sonorities of the piano and the acoustic drums, for the most beautiful effect – the finale in beauty of Grauer Sandone of the most dub of the album, the piano which harmonizes the title song and Allermannsharnisch in the album finale. Betke, once renowned for his frigid, even clinical sounds, adds a layer of soul and abstraction to this album by almost giving the impression of improvising in the studio with a trio.
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