Fresh from composing the score for the Wim Wenders film Palermo Shooting, the second Get Well Soon (AKA classically trained multi-instrumentalist Konstantin Gropper) album was apparently inspired by historical philosophy texts.
And it shows. ‘Seneca’s Silence’ charts the forced suicide of the Roman Stoic, while Sartre, Marx and Homer’s ‘The Iliad’ all form the basis for the Berliner’s haunting panoramas.
Stylistically similar to his debut, there’s no doubting the beauty of the arrangements and the disquiet of Gropper’s unearthly vocal, but ‘Vexations’ is overblown in its own self-importance, and consequently easier to respect than love. For Gropper to flourish, he may need more heart and less head. And soon.
5/10
Words by John Freeman
