Dominik Eulberg: Heimische Gefilde

Label: Traum

The world’s greatest deejay/park ranger (we’re not kidding), Dominik Eulberg here combines his love of wildlife and dance music to create an album of exuberant, exciting techno. He’s even coined his own term for it: “wild life techno.” Other than a nice array of nature sounds (birds, owls, waterfalls) and the exhilarating concluding track (more on that later), however, this is just straight-up techno, albeit techno at its very finest. This is Eulberg’s second full-length, combining material from many of the 12 inches he’s released over the years on his Traum label (some on CD for the first time), and the pieces are simply glorious, never cold or repetitive, a perfect synthesis of found sounds and dance rhythms and melodies. Many of the tracks on Heimische Gefilde (“native habitat”) begin with Eulberg introducing the pieces in his native German before launching into the music. The last one, “Stelldichein des Wasterwalder Vogelchores,” is all birds and natural wildlife, qualifying (I’m sure) as the world’s first all-ornothological techno track. (James)