Yarek

Artist: Various Artists
P: 2009 / 2011
Second official DVD release of the Ricochet Gathering event in Croatia in 2009. Including new improvisations by the artists.
The 10th Ricochet Gathering took place in Croatia during May 2009, on the shore of the Adriatic Sea and is now available on DVD, directed by Indra.
American producer Vik Rec organised 10 gatherings between 2000-2010, each in a different location. The ‘grand finale’ happened in 2011 in Berlin, EM's world capital. None of these events benefited from being filmed. The 10th is a well-deserved exception as it appears to have been the most beautiful, unique and successful gathering of all.
The soundtrack to the wonderful picture is a selection of the musical improvisations provided by the participating composers.

Artist: Yarek
P: 1994
Fast tracks in Jarres Revolution or Rendez Vous style. Melodic with a lot of rhythms.

Artist: Yarek & Friends
P: 2010
This time Yarek decided to dust off his oldest electronic pieces, rearrange them completely and (re)record them with a little help from his friends.
The introduction is a pretty tough try-out: classic electronic sounds intermingle with solid rock guitar-riffs, so that we are dealing here not only with fantastic moods as if taken from the craziest Redshift dream, but also with some industrial spice to it!
The second piece is a quieter one; still, it`s not just dreamy ambience in a major key, but a wonderfully swinging dialogue between soft keyboards and an improvising guitar - it would have been a "top hit" on "Future of the Past" or "Invisible Fields", had Yarek been invited to Wolfram Spyra`s jam-sessions... This track is a brilliant melange of nostalgia, gloominess and some tricky sense of humour and remains so far my favourite piece in the whole set.
The third impression is one of the biggest surprises as far as this album is concerned: aggressive beats, guitar sounds even harsher and harder, and, last but not least, there comes this female voice in the oriental manner (plus some additional ethno-elements). In the fourth track, the ethno taste gets still more exposed, whereas the background gets rather traditional, exit harsh guitars.
The fifth piece is a fantastic sequential block in a mid-tempo; while in the background you can hear shiny, ashy patterns of sequential snowflakes, the leading tune is sung by several female voices, once again oriental-tuned. This impression has very much in common with some of the moods conjured up and explored by Klaus Schulze on his newer releases ("Contemporary Works II", "Moonlake", "Kontinuum") and is indeed that great!
Track #6 is quite surprising, this time Yarek combined classic electronica, upbeat ambient a la Autechre or Fanger & Siebert and a bit of acid - with some female voice ornaments sprinkled over it, at first once more in the "new schulzean" mood, then turning into something a bit like wordless paraphrases of Blue Fiction`s catchy tunes.
In the seventh track there appear once more some distorted guitars, this time they become background for an unconventionally arranged "theatre soundtrack", though.
The next piece is probably the most "conservative" one in the set - this composition really does sound like Tangerine Dream`s film music in the early eighties - but even here there is enough room for the overall spookiness and gloominess.
The final track is a quite optimistic (which is not the same as "quite mellow", however...) electronic hymn with further schulzean chants and additional moody synth-figures every now and then. The music gets prouder, sharper... and all of a sudden, it just fades out, comes to an end.
It turns to be such a short album - or does it only seem to be so? Be it as it may, this CD is a brilliant puzzle of moods, inviting you to take the astounding journey once more and then once more, you may be sure that there are even more wonders to be found and explored...

Artist: Yarek
P: 2014
Recorded live at The Ricochet Gathering, Rathaus Schöneberg October 18, 2010
in celebration of 40 Years of Berlin School Electronic Music.

Artist: Yarek
P: 2013
This CD is a kind of goodbye to the berlin school style he used to play.  Here he adds some ethnic and prog-rock influences.

Artist: Yarek
P: 2008
One short announcement - we get to know, how the artist and his work is called - and there immediately slide the first tangerine-brownish lights onto the stage.
The first part of the suite brings fantastic sequencing in a bit of a Redshift-style, especially as far as attractive semitones and jarring sequencer sounds are concerned.
"Mrok" ("Dusk") is based on a hypnotising sequence, intermingling with electronically generated sweeps, washes and murky "breathing" sounds. Here, like in the previous title, all tracks are very attentively arranged, one should also pay attention to the wide stereophonic field of the impression.
"La Orkestra" means a certain increase in speed and an introduction of the beats: generally, the atmosphere conjured up here has something in common with both parts of "Xangadix" by Pino and Wildjamin, however, you will still find here more sequencing stuff as typical acid or trance. Voice samples, which could be associated with "Kiew Mission" by Tangerine Dream, make for an interesting background and also for the rhythmization of the piece in a way. It's those voices that bridge "La Orkestra" and the following piece "Ambient 2".
"Ambient"-style lurking beneath this title has - what a pleasant surprise - much in common with vinyl Frankfurt ambient of the mid 90s.
"Live" consists mainly of hypnotising rhythm patterns, appealing ostinatos in mid-tempo, and further sounds and noises as if coming from a secret abandoned rocket station, hidden deep under the cellar rooms of the castle. Everything here sounds rusty, yesteryear- and future-explorative at the same time.
In "Ambient", the Listener will be served some Berlin patterns once more, but also this time they just sound fascinating and fresh.
"Berlin" could be understood as a title suggestion, where the goal of our next musical journey is, and still it is by far not the most "Berlin-like" composition on the whole album: if at all, we will be exploring rather a Spyra-side of Berlin (whereas Spyra himself comes from Kassel) than the corners described by Klaus Schulze or Tangerine Dream.
The final track "Misja na Marsa" ("Mission to Mars") is a pretty long piece, in which there is a place for pumping sequencers as well as for ambient passages and cosmic murkiness.
50 minutes of "Noc na zamku" ("A Night in the Castle") really do make a great impression indeed.