Get Well Soon (de)

The sixth album  Konstantin Gropper mulls over the words carefully as he contemplates the imminent release of AMEN, his latest full-length release as GET WELL SOON. “It’s the pandemic album, of course!” His isn’t the first, and it won’t be the last, but AMEN – much of it written and recorded since the world was forced to shut down in his private basement and an isolated holiday home among the vineyards of Germany’s Rhineland-Palatinate region –– takes its responsibilities seriously. Many artists, of course, used the time to adopt new musical approaches or dig deep into themselves, but Gropper found this self-analysis also led him to pondering the bigger social questions that the last two years – and the accompanying isolation – have provoked: the pros and cons of individualism, the good and bad that binds and divides us, the pursuit of happiness and the purpose of hope, and the wisdom of Chinese fortune cookies. He emerged with a crucial realisation, one that’s as surprising to him as it will be to others: he’s actually an optimist.

Matters like these dominate this magnificent record, but naturally in true Gropper style. AMEN crowbars in references to philosophers, novelists and therapists alongside quotes from self-help books, a treatise on tech-billionaires and allusi-ons to some of the more extreme doctrines doing the rounds. That all of this is overseen by an imperious, anonymous AI assistant is indicative of his wry nature – “OK,” she demands at the conclusion of the album’s grandiose overture, ‘A Song For Myself’, “this needs to stop right now” – and its extravagant musical nature will delight those already familiar with the 39-year-old’s inspired work as much as his perennially witty, literate take on his themes. “I called my musical project Get Well Soon,” he reminds us drily. “You mustn‘t forget the service aspect of the whole thing.” AMEN is, nonetheless, constantly surprising: ‘This Is Your Life’ applies krautrock rhythms to sleek synthpop, ‘My Home Is My Heart’ develops into a Hi-NRG masterpiece which would give Pet Shop Boys’ ‘It’s A Sin’ a run for its money, and ‘Mantra’ concludes with luxurious dream-pop; ‘I Love Humans’ is an increasingly luxuriously orchestrated epic, ‘One For Your Workout’ offers shimmering up-tempo pop whose drums will delight those who recall Pat Bena-tar’s ‘Love Is A Battlefield’, and both ‘Chant And Disenchantment’ and ‘Golden Days’ pay loving tribute to the great producers of the 1960s and 1970s, among them Serge Gainsbourg and David Axelrod. The icing on the cake, though, remains one of the great voices of our time, a lavish croon imbued with a world-weary sense of bitter-sweet compass-ion, as comforting as an arm around the shoulder. For many of us, after the last couple of years, nothing could be more welcome.

Alix Van Ripato (be)

FR · Alix Van Ripato est une sorcière contemporaine venue de contrées lointaines. Elle chante des incantations libératoires, créer des danses réincarnatives, invoque ses idoles personnelles et évoque ses rêves. Sa musique, sorte de techno darkwave, peut se résumer à cette phrase: "Music to dance without being judged ». Son premier EP « Red Spells », prévu pour la fin de l’année sous le label Bruxellois Red Maze Records promet de vous envouter.

EN · Alix Van Ripato is a contemporary witch from far away lands. She sings liberating incantations, creates reincarnative dances, invokes her personal idols and evokes her dreams. Her music, a kind of darkwave techno, can be summed up in this sentence: "Music to dance without being judged ». Her first EP "Red Spells", scheduled for the end of the year under the Brussels label Red Maze Records, promises to bewitch you.

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