Pitchfork

Alexis Georgopoulos, the sole member of Arp, used to be in the instrumental funk outfit Tussle. His former band, who are still going strong, made their name channeling the lean, driving sound of early 1980s New York outfits like Liquid Liquid and ESG; Arp, though a very different animal, is just as heavily indebted to the music of a specific time and place. The most obvious inspiration for this project is West Germany in the first half of the 70s, when the artistically inclined kids born around the time of WWII began to hit their stride creatively. Think early Kraftwerk on Phillips, Cluster, Popol Vuh, Tangerine Dream; though each has a hugely varied body of work, all were electronic music pioneers with their eyes and ears trained on the future.

To Georgopoulos' credit, In Light doesn't come across as a retro exercise so much as an attempt to capture a certain spirit. Titles allude to his forbearers (hard to see a track called "St. Tropez" without thinking of Pink Floyd's 1971 LP Meddle, "Premonition of the Sculptor Steiner" references a Werner Herzog film and, by extension, an accompanying Popol Vuh score) and vintage synths abound, but the overall mood doesn't feel overly tethered to the era. What Georgopoulos capturers most of the age is an approach to sound that made electronics seem warm, friendly, natural, perhaps inevitable, and above all optimistic.

The post-moonshot days of the early 70s-- like the 50s and the 90s-- were a time when it seemed as though technology might save us yet. In Light reflects a grounded, idealistic mindset; the music is not especially psychedelic, and clarity is prized over drugginess. The percolating "Potentialities" is the spaciest track, its fat, sequenced bass made for either stargazing or a show at the planetarium, but it still has an innocent cast. Even further in this direction is the clean, bright pulse of "St. Tropez", which brings to mind Raymond Scott trying to engineer the ultimate aural environment in which to raise babies. Only the 15-minute drone piece "Odyssey (For Bas Jan Ader)", its midrange-heavy synths burred with distortion, flirts with an unsettling atmosphere, but even here it's more a sense of anticipation than dread. All tracks are simple, effective, and easy to grasp, letting a few elements and subtle changes do loads of work.

Most subtle of all is "The Rising Sun", which is perhaps the best example of Georgopoulos hearing the music of the past in a fresh way. Sometimes overlooked in discussion of the kosmisch pioneers is that they unwittingly invented new age. These acts weren't above teasing out a pure mood piece, something placid and meditative that was unashamedly in tune with Aquarian-age spirituality. "The Rising Sun", built with resonant piano clusters that seem to tumble down waterfall-style and a soothing whistle-like tone that brings to mind Florian Schneider's flute, strikes me as sort of brave in its delicacy. It flirts with a sphere of music many consider verboten and then, eventually, Georgopoulos brings through a bassy drone to shake up the calm and give the track some bite. The track's free use of acoustic instruments and familiar textures shows a pragmatic side also in evidence back in the day. Georgopoulos has a very specific vibe in mind for Arp, and he uses whatever works; though a small, simple record on the one hand, In Light, on its own terms, is a big success.