Rough Trade
Learning that Pantha Du Prince had enlisted a three-ton bell for his latest album Elements of Light wasn’t a surprise. Throughout the German producer’s decade-plus career he’s increasingly embraced chiming celestial-like tones balancing the organic with the electronic most noticeably in 2010’s shimmering Black Noise . So the fact that its followup goes even deeper in that direction is just logical.
For the collaborative Elements of Light Pantha Du Prince (a.k.a. Hendrik Weber) joined forces with the aptly named Norwegian ensemble The Bell Laboratory and their bell carillon a simply massive instrument consisting of 50 bronze bells. Composed by Lars Petter Hagan and played by Vegar Sandholt the ding-donging tintinnabulation of the instrument takes centre stage as Weber slowly brings his driving minimalist-techno craft further up in the mix.
While the 43-minute album is one big continuous play it comes out best on the brief centrepiece “Photon” and the epic following track “Spectral Split” where Pantha’s drum backdrop and his melodic production skills are equal with all that bell-play instead of being buried or ditched altogether. It’s also in these tracks where you hear some of the few moments where he electronically alters the course of the melody rather than letting the continuous chiming lead the way.
Much like Weber’s krautrock-referencing 2012 album as Ursprung Elements of Light is best judged as a collaborative experiment not the proper followup to Black Noise . As such Elements is simply another interesting diversion for Weber where he fits his already existing Pantha Du Prince framework into a newly shaped box instead of pushing it forward in some new exciting direction.
