Moritz Von Oswald Trio

Moritz von Oswald Trio featured Vladislav Delay (percussion), Max Loderbauer (sequencer, synthesizer), and von Oswald himself (programming, keyboards, percussion). When they aligned, the three musicians had long-established reputations as major figures within electronic music. Among his many achievements, von Oswald pioneered dub techno with the Basic Channel and Chain Reaction labels. Delay, born Sasu Ripatti, released material on Chain Reaction and produced some exceptionally sensual and cerebral house music as Luomo. Loderbauer was one-half of Sun Electric and remained active with Tobias Freund as NSI. The trio’s studio releases — 2009’s Vertical Ascent and 2011’s Horizontal Structures — offered something distinctly different from their previous output. These recordings were the product of improvisations shaped into lengthy, winding, subtle compositions rooted in ambient techno while incorporating forms of Latin, African, and Jamaican music. The trio also took to the stage; a performance recorded at New York City’s Le Poisson Rouge, during the 2010 Unsound Festival, was issued later in 2010 as Live in New York. Fetch, a four-track set darker in tone, followed in 2012 with additional input from Freund and bassist Marc Muellbauer. ~ Andy Kellman