CD, Tympanik Audio, 2009
www.myspace.com/seonline
SE is one Sebastian Ehmke who has been creating music for some time, in numerous guises, and has released albums before, but only to his close friends. Luckily, for us, word got out about this and “Epiphora” came in to being. “Epiphora” means, in medical terms, an overflow of tears. This may seem like a strange title for an album, but upon hearing it, you suddenly understand why. The beauty and emotion played out over the course of this album would send anyone with the coldest of hearts to reach for the tissues.
“Epiphora” is beautiful. It’s full of gorgeous melodies and landscapes, and relies very little on glitch and electronics as most IDM tends towards; this feels somewhat more organic than that, focusing less on the beat, and more on the flow of sounds. There are certainly resemblances to Gridlock here.
“23r0 & TH3 5t4r5” is the first high point to the album, lots of interesting crunches and noises with a swell of sounds over the top. It’s very unassuming, and you just lose yourself in it. “Null” sounds vaguely robotic to begin with, but soon finds its own rhythm and “Aer-” is possibly about as close to a classical recording as you’re likely to get from an electronic musician.
There’s an altogether ethereal feel to this whole album. It isn’t like any kind of IDM that I’ve heard before, as instruments aren’t buried under a slab of unintelligible glitches – in fact, it’s the glitches that take a back seat and lets the instrumentation take you somewhere different. This is an absolute must have for those with a Gridlock shaped loss in their lives, and for everyone else, this is just recommended to show you that electronic music doesn’t have to be ugly, it can be tear-inducingly beautiful.
[9/10]
— Kate Turgoose