UP RPF78

Hardboard linen LP box with silkscreened titles, 12 page booklet with photos and text by Robert Fesler and Baudouin Oosterlynck. With an A5 reproduction of an oil on wood self-portrait by Robert Fesler. So delighted with the outcome of this long due 4LP release on Metaphon. An anthology of the intensely arresting work of Robert Fesler (1936-2023), revealing many of his compositions (1975 -1987) created with his self-built synthesizers, with as pinnacle the UP RPF78. Except one, all tracks are previously unreleased
With profound simplicity and devotion, Fesler paints a hermetic inner world with strong emotions of confronting solitude, sensual alienation and traumatic angst. His music was as much a therapeutic treatment as an artistic expression. Fesler quotes, “Building my synthesizers and working with them enabled me to sublimate my anxieties”. Most tracks were played and recorded real time, often with two synthesizers (the Synthese 756 and the ?P RPF78), capturing the heat of the moment in one take, without multitracking. The austere and reductionist approach reinforces the overall spirit of his work, resulting in an engaging, mysterious solitary journey. It’s quite incredible how one person can put so much technical and cerebral content in the development of a machine and use it in such an emotional way
The music of Robert Fesler might be considered as very Belgian. To situate it within a close entourage, one can say it has: the endurance of Oosterlynck, the purity of Lawalree, the mysticism of Souffriau