Stephan Thelen - Fractal Guitar 2 (2021)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 469 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 174 MB | Covers - 64 MB
Genre: Instrumental Progressive Rock, Psychedelic/Space Rock | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: MoonJune Records (MJR113)
EAC Rip | FLAC (tracks+.cue+log) - 469 MB | MP3 CBR 320 kbps (LAME 3.93) - 174 MB | Covers - 64 MB
Genre: Instrumental Progressive Rock, Psychedelic/Space Rock | RAR 3% Rec. | Label: MoonJune Records (MJR113)
It’s been two years since Sonar guitarist, composer Stephan Thelen has released a follow-up with the Fractal Guitar release. Last year he had done music for the RareNoise label with the Kronos Quartet and the All-Women ensemble, the Al Pari Quartet entitled, World Dialogue, and the continuation of the second volume of Transportation with Sonar. This year he’s back in the saddle again with Fractal Guitar 2 released on the MoonJune label. Recorded at various locations between Europe and North America in November 2019 and July 2020, Fractal Guitar 2 shows Thelen a sign of bringing some hope and strong freewill to those who are going through another rocky road since everything came to a screeching halt in March of last year.
With Fractal Guitar 2, it is not only a pattern-based sound, but a journey into the unknown. When you listen to "Celestial Navigation" it becomes this underwater darker passage score to Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1979 unsung sci-fi classic, Stalker. You feel that you’re on this adventure into the Zone, which is an area for the laws of physics. And it’s a dangerous place to avoid and hidden from its secrecy.
The opener "Cosmic Krautrock" takes you into the heart of the jungle with a steamy hot atmosphere. Featuring some intensive loops done by both David Torn and Bill Walker, choppy organ with morse code effects, it is a cross between Bowie’s Outside-era and the psychedelia midsection of Ash Ra Tempel’s Manuel Gottsching. The train ride continues once more to a stop as they come to this place that has now become a ghost town before returning back home with some intense guitar-like grooves at the end.
"Mercury Transit" echoes both Tool’s Undertow and Pink Floyd’s Atom Heart Mother-era. Swirling echoing wah-wah effects by going to this spiraling staircase that go up-and-down with Barry Cleveland’s bowed guitar by turning into a nightmarish scenario, it’s the back-and-forth arrangement to see what will happen next before it cries out into this brutal howling arrangement that is batshit crazy with some minimal organ exercises!
"Ladder to the Stars" sees Kaiser, Muir, Reuter, Durant, and Pasquinelli releasing all of the flaming fires they have inside their body to go beyond our solar system. Adventuring through space and time, Stephan returns to Sonar’s answer to the millennium falcon by giving his bandmates enough oxygen, making sure he hasn’t forgotten them. It transforms into this Camel-sque sequence that is honoring the Moonmadness album. Imagine if you will Robert Fripp, Andy Latimer, Edgar Froese, and Peter Bardens creating this continuation for "Air Born" with some hyper-driving formulas that makes the jump to light speed.
Closing track "Point of Inflection" gives David Torn a chance to return for his looping arrangements. Returning back to the Bowie-esque vibes from the Outside-era, the cracks are finally about to be opened. You can imagine he and Stephan are finally carrying the badge that Detective Nathan Adler had left for them before he went back home to his planet making sure they got the job right. The insane twists and turns moves into this neo-noir scenery that Adler’s spirit is pleased. And he’s finally at peace understanding that justice is served the right way. For him, watching both Stephan and David knowing that he’s very proud of them to get the case closed.
Tracklist:
01. Cosmic Krautrock
02. Fractal Guitar 2
03. Mercury Transit
04. Ladder to The Stars
05. Celestial Navigation
06. Point of Inflection
Total time: 01:13:50
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 4 from 7. December 2014
EAC extraction logfile from 4. June 2021, 11:18
Stephan Thelen / Fractal Guitar 2
Used drive : ASUS BC-12B1ST Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 702
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 14:07.71 | 0 | 63595
2 | 14:07.71 | 7:55.58 | 63596 | 99278
3 | 22:03.54 | 12:07.47 | 99279 | 153850
4 | 34:11.26 | 14:53.47 | 153851 | 220872
5 | 49:04.73 | 12:31.47 | 220873 | 277244
6 | 61:36.45 | 12:13.18 | 277245 | 332237
Track 1
Filename C:\EAC\01. Cosmic Krautrock.wav
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Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 45980C53
Copy CRC 45980C53
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\EAC\02. Fractal Guitar 2.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.58
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 3DA309F4
Copy CRC 3DA309F4
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\EAC\03. Mercury Transit.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.70
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8C6531C5
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\EAC\04. Ladder to The Stars.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.94
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 84FFB7A2
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 5
Filename C:\EAC\05. Celestial Navigation.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.65
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC CA0FC503
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Track not present in AccurateRip database
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Track 6
Filename C:\EAC\06. Point of Inflection.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:04.08
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8510C3CC
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None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.4
[CTDB TOCID: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI-] disk not present in database
Submit result: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 1C81B23878F2FBE095853440C15559B851CCBC546B136DE796278AC4C94C358A ====
EAC extraction logfile from 4. June 2021, 11:18
Stephan Thelen / Fractal Guitar 2
Used drive : ASUS BC-12B1ST Adapter: 1 ID: 0
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 702
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Gap handling : Appended to previous track
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 768 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE
Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "BAND=%albuminterpret%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %haslyrics%–tag-from-file=LYRICS="%lyricsfile%"%haslyrics% -T "DISCNUMBER=%cdnumber%" -T "TOTALDISCS=%totalcds%" -T "TOTALTRACKS=%numtracks%" %hascover%–picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 14:07.71 | 0 | 63595
2 | 14:07.71 | 7:55.58 | 63596 | 99278
3 | 22:03.54 | 12:07.47 | 99279 | 153850
4 | 34:11.26 | 14:53.47 | 153851 | 220872
5 | 49:04.73 | 12:31.47 | 220873 | 277244
6 | 61:36.45 | 12:13.18 | 277245 | 332237
Track 1
Filename C:\EAC\01. Cosmic Krautrock.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 2.1 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 45980C53
Copy CRC 45980C53
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 2
Filename C:\EAC\02. Fractal Guitar 2.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.58
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 2.3 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC 3DA309F4
Copy CRC 3DA309F4
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 3
Filename C:\EAC\03. Mercury Transit.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:01.70
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.1 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8C6531C5
Copy CRC 8C6531C5
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 4
Filename C:\EAC\04. Ladder to The Stars.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.94
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.5 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 84FFB7A2
Copy CRC 84FFB7A2
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 5
Filename C:\EAC\05. Celestial Navigation.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:03.65
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 3.6 X
Track quality 99.9 %
Test CRC CA0FC503
Copy CRC CA0FC503
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
Track 6
Filename C:\EAC\06. Point of Inflection.wav
Pre-gap length 0:00:04.08
Peak level 96.6 %
Extraction speed 4.2 X
Track quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 8510C3CC
Copy CRC 8510C3CC
Track not present in AccurateRip database
Copy OK
None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database
No errors occurred
End of status report
–– CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.4
[CTDB TOCID: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI-] disk not present in database
Submit result: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI- has been uploaded
==== Log checksum 1C81B23878F2FBE095853440C15559B851CCBC546B136DE796278AC4C94C358A ====
[CUETools log; Date: 07.06.2021 1:53:09; Version: 2.1.4]
[CTDB TOCID: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
2 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
3 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
4 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
5 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
6 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 001180ca-005d98af-5b114d06] disk not present in database.
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 96,6 [F6EE1F83] [4C9E29C3]
01 96,6 [45980C53] [2F591634] CRC32
02 96,6 [3DA309F4] [233027E0] CRC32
03 96,6 [8C6531C5] [41D546C2] CRC32
04 96,6 [84FFB7A2] [E7DDEF50] CRC32
05 96,6 [CA0FC503] [E2FE6264] CRC32
06 96,6 [8510C3CC] [3025638F] CRC32
[CTDB TOCID: u_W2_CvyQbiDmdz75RpYjwT37HI-] found.
Track | CTDB Status
1 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
2 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
3 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
4 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
5 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
6 | (1/1) Accurately ripped
[AccurateRip ID: 001180ca-005d98af-5b114d06] disk not present in database.
Track Peak [ CRC32 ] [W/O NULL] [ LOG ]
– 96,6 [F6EE1F83] [4C9E29C3]
01 96,6 [45980C53] [2F591634] CRC32
02 96,6 [3DA309F4] [233027E0] CRC32
03 96,6 [8C6531C5] [41D546C2] CRC32
04 96,6 [84FFB7A2] [E7DDEF50] CRC32
05 96,6 [CA0FC503] [E2FE6264] CRC32
06 96,6 [8510C3CC] [3025638F] CRC32
Thanks to vp_sunset