The Story:

Kubusschnitt was an international orientated band, active from 1999 - 2002. Members during those days were: Ruud Heij (Netherlands), Jens Peschke (Germany), Tom Coppens (Belgium) and Andy Bloyce (UK). Three offical albums were released: The Case (1999), The Cube (2000), The Singularity (2001). Later on, material that was kept during that period was released as download.
In fact, the four members never have been all together at the same moment....
Last thing heard from Kubusschnitt was a performance at the Alfa Centauri festival in 2002, where Marcel Engels replaced Jens Peschke.

In 2006 Tom Coppens visited Ruud Heij for a weekend. They spent lots of time in Ruud's studio and made many basic recordings. Nothing happened with the recordings, until Ruud asked Gert Emmens in 2007 if he wanted to do something with it. During the summer of 2008 Gert spent much time in editing the basic tracks and added chords, drums, solo's and melodies to it. Room was left for a guitarplayer. Gert asked Jan dieterich to play a guitarsolo on each of the tracks, which Jan did. The result was 4 long tracks. Then, Ruud came up with the idea to use the bandname Kubusschnitt for it, since two of the original members were part of it, and like the other Kubusschnitt albums, there was a guitarplayer too. Finally the album was released in May 2010. At this moment I cannot say if there will be another Kubusschniit album.

Dave Law

Well, I never. After a long break Kubusschnitt are back! Ruud Heij and Tom Coppens survive from the original line up but now they are joined by Gert Emmens and Jan Dieterich. Each brings something new to the sound but no fear; the original Kubusschnitt spirit is still there!

A deep echoing pulse rings out followed by skipping melodic sequence. A wonderful haunting lead line plays over the top and then yet another sequence completes an absolutely stunning beginning to ‘Uncertainty of Entropy’. The massed sequences surge forward to increase the excitement level still further, yet another lead hitting the spot perfectly. Jan’s guitar now provides the main focus but this is not axe man stuff, just an excellent sympathetic addition to all the other layers of pads and pulsations.
String pads create a melancholy opening to ‘Perpetual Chaos’. It isn’t long however before a brace of sequences make their brooding entrance. In the fourth minute the foot is put down on the accelerator. The guitar then comes in adding a little bite.
The title track growls into existence, contrasted by lovely soft Mellotron. All dies away and a slow sequence emerges, accompanied by fantastic melodic crystalline note droplets. An eight-note motif provides a stunning addition. The temptation to overdo things is temporarily resisted, the simple notes are just left to hang there, weaving around each other creating a hypnotic spell until first one sequence then another emerges along with a wistful lead as the track starts it’s gradual build to Jan’s exquisite guitar section, his best on the album.
‘All things Lost’ features sequences from the very first moment but overall this is a restrained relaxing track, ideal to unwind to.

The original Kubusschnitt albums had something of an improvised feel to them, where as here things come over as more tightly composed but still with that element of surprise!

 

Sylvain Lupari / Guts Of Darkness

Here is a pleasant surprise! Band existing since 1999, Kubusschnitt seems to have known a career in the shade of the big names of the contemporary EM. Initially constituted by Andy Bloyce, Ruud Heij, Tom Coppens and Jens Peschke, Kubusschnitt knew an uneven career, realizing albums parsimoniously with the same rhythm as the group lost members. During a week-end of record session, Tom Coppens and Ruud Heij realized numerous sequential movements. Movements that Ruud Heij brought to his good friend Gert Emmens. Strongly inspired by these sequences Gert Emmens worked these structures by adding synth lines and bass lines, as well as solos, rhythms and chords, leaving room for guitar solos that his good friend Jan Dieterich filled, among great riffs. The result? Eh…Well, Of Entropy Evolution is an extension of Gert Emmens's works, in particular The Nearest Faraway Place, but with musical structures that bring us in corridors of a cosmic rock on 4 long titles modeled in the roots of a progressive Berlin School.

After a hesitating flow opening, where the echo of uncertain pulsations espouses chords of keyboard which ring among a synth to disturbing night-breaths, Uncertainty of Entropy’s intro swirls delicately in a tinkled merry-go-round where loud vaporous strata wed snippets of piercing solos. A brief opening with an intriguing approach where solos howl in a glass menagerie, before the tempo bites at full chords on a slightly galloping sequence, filled by a spectral synth which undulates sinuously. Uncertainty of Entropy deviates towards a heavy cosmic rock with good guitar solos which bite at full riffs under a sequence which hems in cascade and synths in the breaths of mist. Slowly, Uncertainty of Entropy lowers its pace to embraces the arcs of a more conventional EM with a rhythmic a bit uncertain which stifles in the mists of a vaporous synth. A synth which frees superb solos to well ethereal twists on a nervous sequential movement but controlled by synth currents, bringing Uncertainty of Entropy towards a finale of ether.
The opening of Perpetual Chaos soaks in a rhythmic duality with magnificent Mellotron to melancholic strings which bickers with a long synth solo on wriggling sequences. Sequences isolate themselves and mold a tempo that hems in cascade accompanied with beautiful Mellotron pads. Percussions tumble down, introducing a more rock structure where synth and guitar solos tear an electronic heaviness, before succumbing to an ethereal finale.
Beautiful strata of a Mellotron which spreads its mystic mist through beautiful resonant lines, the intro of Entropy’s Evolution soaks in the total mysticism. An intro, heavy and vaporous, with layers undulating with delicacy which flows back a somber and tenebrous approach. A sequence appears and walks stealthily, thwarting fine crystalline arpeggios which sparkle in an atmosphere becoming more serene. Slowly, the sequential movement grows heavy and becomes more insistent, zigzagging on shy sound arcs before drawing a hopping linear movement where limpid chords glean around a heavy Mellotron to padded strata. Jan Dieterich's guitar comes to add a melancholic depth to a title all the same rather ambient, in spite of its heavy rhythm and its sequential line of which chords collide slightly. A good track which bring us back in progressive cosmic rock era.
All Things Lost offers a beautiful sequential approach which winds in ascension. A superb movement which sat on a beautiful synth with felted solos which cross a structure full of arpeggios in suspension, before that the tempo explodes with a languishing heaviness where Dieterich guitar frees good solos.

Between the ambient and the cosmic rock, between Tangerine Dream and Gert Emmens fragrances, the steams of, Entropy’s Evolution is a beautiful find which will easily get its place among fans of Berlin School EM, even contemporary Krautrock. I don't know at all Kubusschnitt musical structures, but I have the vague feeling that on Entropy’s Evolution reigns an ambiance of improvisation which meshes and which finished always to find its harmonious concordance. The mean reason is in the conception of this last Kubusschnitt which was conceived in three steps and by the previous collaborations between Heij, Dieterich and Emmens whom add to this album a touch as cosmic as progressive, thanks to Jan Dieterich's biting guitar.
Kubusschnitt’s Entropy’s Evolution is a very beautiful surprise which I recommend strongly to fans of YD as well as Space Rock and of course Gert Emmens.