Niko Tzoukmanis - Tales From The Silent City

Having reissued Hope Is The Sister of Despair in 2021 (remarkably found two copies kicking around still just last week), Libreville return to the work of Niko Tzoukmanis for a first time vinyl pressing of the producer's second LP. Arriving three years after that first album, Tales From The Silent City was originally released in 2016 under the name Microphase on Tzoukmanis' own label, Flambient. The shift to his own name for these reissues made particular sense with that debut record, since it was a very personal collection addressing a difficult break up. This second record doesn't come with the same biography, and is not as overtly melancholic as that first collection, but it's still kissed (or should that be hugged?) by a similarly dolorous weltschmerz, a vague feeling of sadness that wordless electronic music is often very effective at expressing. Tzoukmanis first described the titular Silent City as "a metaphor for the inner life" - after the break up comes the self-examination - a construct reflected in these eight lengthy introspective productions, a glacial midnight-blue rebuild of Detroit ala Kyle Hall, Steven Julien (whose Fallen was released in the same year, no less) et al, and early Move D designed for traversing the metropolis alone after dark. Conceptually and aesthetically a spot on companion piece to that first LP and since 2016 wasn't really that long ago, has me wondering about a third edition in the series.