From the first graceful notes, it is clear that Inlandish is going to be a work of pure, calming beauty. As it moves along, however, what becomes even more clear is that it is an amazing, almost alchemical blend of growing intrigue, perfectly matching Story’s signature electronic twiddle and atmospheric manipulations with Roedelius’ straightforward, melodic piano. The opener, "As It Were," comes across as a simple duet for piano and cello. At the edges are hints of electronic augmentation but it resides unobtrusively in the background. With the title track, those augmentative elements begin to increase—but slowly and purposefully, wrapping themselves carefully around each new piece. It’s as if Story is saying "Here, let me try...this," and then having it all work effortlessly. The playfulness, the back-and-forth between artists, continues through each new track. I’m particularly fond of the duo of "Serpentining" and "House of Glances," where Story makes his sound-sculptures slither, bop, and curl through Roedelius’ work like anxious animals. "Downrivers" features an unusual array of sounds—one bringing to mind a frantically worked pair of scissors—acting as percussion without actually being percussive while a distant voice sings a quiet aria. "Riddled" is the most upbeat track on the disk, intermittently throwing a crisp beat over a tireless piano riff and Story’s urgent cello. It drips with delicious drama. The final track, "Intermittent Haiku," is contemplative, easing along on a lightly distorted, almost music-box style piano and hushed voices. It ends the disk like a cleansing sigh. Inlandish is quite simply one of the best, most perfectly constructed pieces of work I’ve heard in a while. It demands repeat listens not to discover layers or things missed on earlier passes, but simply for the sheer pleasure of hearing it again. Inlandish is a Hypnagogue Highly Recommended CD .

John Shanahan, The Hypnagogue 31 March 2008

Story's treatments echo and update the work that Eno did with Cluster in the late 70s. Analogue synths drone and parp, laptops stutter and amongst it all, are the calm, measured fingers of Roedelius. Story's background as film composer does make this a somewhat cinematic feast at times; with tracks like Serpentining sounding perfect as an accompaniment to some grainy footage of a lake in autumn, or some deep space opera. Either way it would be a moving experience.

Only when Story strives to insert some beats into the mix (as on Riddled) does the blend begin to jar slightly; as though some clubber with their iPod turned up too loud has walked into a church. Yet, taken as a whole (which is undoubtedly how this album should be experienced) Inlandish is a gem of quietude and subtle musical intelligence.

- Chris Jones, bbc.co.uk  18 January 2008

Immerse yourself in the subtle, mesmerising soundscapes of "Inlandish" 

Most pop music announces itself brashly, so it is always intriguing to come across an album that refuses to play the game. Inlandish, the latest collaboration between the German electronic music pioneer Hans-Joachim Roedelius and the Ohio-based composer Tim Story, does just that. It belongs to the amorphous genre known as ambient, lacking vocals or drum beats and tending towards introspection. The music sounds understated at first; it is only when your ears are tuned in to every subtle rise and fall that it comes alive.

The 12 short pieces are structured around a series of piano and organ parts played by Roedelius, to which Story has added synthesiser, woodwind and string accompaniments. Roedelius's piano-playing is the driving force throughout the album, whether in the slow, melancholy arabesques up and down the keyboard, which bear the influence of Debussy, or in the circular minimalist phrases that Story layers, one on top of the other.

The word "soundscapes" is often lazily used to describe music that lacks an easy hook. Here, however, it is entirely appropriate. Story, whose own music has been acclaimed for its blend of classical instrumentation with electronics, uses synthesised whirring and humming to create an aura around Roedelius's piano. Just as the melodies flit beguilingly between major and minor keys, so the accompaniments become more or less discordant. On the track "Serpentining", a pretty tune teasingly emerges from what at first sounds like atonal mush. On "House of Glances", piano and a faintly distorted chorus of synthesisers underpin a question-and-answer melody, played by what could be oboes, though it's hard to tell, because the sound is filtered through various electronic effects.

This habit of debasing the sound of acoustic instruments runs through the album, creating a sense of unreality. Other composers aim to evoke the aesthetics of the natural environment, but Roedelius and Story's is an internal landscape - as the album's title suggests. The effect is one of being transported into a world similar to, but not quite the same as, our own.

In the case of the opening track, "As It Were", you can no longer hear the slide of fingertips along cello strings; Story has distorted and drawn out the sound so that it floats above the music, seemingly without origin. Only on the closing track, "Intermittent Haiku", do human voices feature, and even then, it is as a ragged chorus of indistinct chanting, almost drowned out by the music-box melody above.

Elsewhere, simple themes are repeated and drawn out to breaking point, as in the trance-like "Beforst". The rolling piano line on here sounds innocuous enough at first, but its insistence, coupled with a breathy accompaniment and the vaguest hint of a skittering beat, gives the piece a quiet intensity.

Roedelius began his career in the late 1960s as part of the group Cluster, who used synthesisers to make ethereal, spaced-out music and have been a major influence on artists from Brian Eno to Aphex Twin. They belonged to a period of intense creativity in German pop music that lasted throughout the 1970s and was mockingly dubbed "Krautrock" by a British music press more in tune with the down-to-earth stomping of glam acts such as Slade. Along with bands like Can - an "anarchist community" composed of travelling hippies and former students of Karlheinz Stockhausen - and Kraftwerk, ancestors of modern dance music, Cluster pushed the boun daries of pop to breaking point. In its own understated fashion, Inlandish explores new sonic possibilities. Ambient music, by its very nature, always strays perilously close to the tag of easy listening. I have struggled to describe this album to friends in terms that make it sound appealing, and have ended up sounding either inarticulate ("Um, yeah, it's nice, it's peaceful") or woefully nerdy ("minimalist, neoclassical post-Krautrock", anyone?). But that is because it is music  that refuses to reach out and grab you; it waits quietly for your undivided attention.

Story describes Inlandish as "a sort of new or contemporary classical music". I would disagree. There are hints at classical forms - a touch of counterpoint here and there; a familiar chord progression or two - but in essence this remains pop music: spooky, voiceless and abstract, but delivered in discrete four-minute bursts. There is plenty to satisfy the casual listener, but you would be doing yourself a disservice to stop at that. Inlandish is a record you can immerse yourself in.

- Daniel Trilling, The New Statesman 24 January 2008

One half of the Krautrock duo Cluster, Hans-Joachim Roedelius first worked with the American composer Tim Story in 1996.  Inlandish is their third collaboratin, and the best, being fill of heart-melting melodies and subtle backdrops they describe and "emotionally ambiguous soundscapes".  Surprisingly, it's Story who provides the synth parts and additional arrangements, with Roedelius restricting himself to the limpid piano progressions that are at the heart of these pieces - a division of labour that brings quietly spectacular results in "As It Were", whose calm manner recalls the new-age music of Ludovico Einaudi, and "Trouve", where an oboe adds a quizzical edge to the hushed warmth of the organ undulating gently behind the piano.  The "emotionally ambiguous" aspects are represented in "House of Glances", in which the piano arpeggios are lent a little wistful mystery by overdubbed organ and oboe, and "Inlandish", a gorgeous melody dusted with swells of synthesizer.  Faultless.

- The Independent, 11 January 2008 (5 stars out of 5)

Hans-Achim Roedelius & Tim Story, Inlandish  (4 Stars)

Third album in 11 years from acclaimed German/US duo

2003's Lunz was an elegant, atmospheric set but this latest 
collaboration between the Ohio-based multi-instrumentalist 
Story and the keyboard player of Cluster and Harmonia fame 
is even more convincing.  

'Convincing' in a quiet way, that is, but Roedelius is keen 
that Inlandish is not dismissed as just another pleasant 
ambient album.  And he's right; the music is lyrical and 
melodic, but also seems to be born of rapt concentration.  
Roedelius's exquisite piano parts – which sound like a cross 
between Bill Evans and Phillip Glass, or Debussy with three 
quarters of the notes taken out – were recorded first, leaving 
Story to flesh out the melodies with cello, electronics and 
occasional barely-there beats.  

- Mike Barnes, Mojo

Hans-Joachim Roedelius and I are playing at the More Ohr Less Festival in Lunz-am-See, Austria.  The festival runs from August 4th through the 11th, and Ach and I are playing on the 4th.  We'll be playing some tracks from "Lunz" and a few from our upcoming CD, "Inlandish."

Here is the festival site, which includes live audio streaming:

http://www.more-ohr-less.at/

Please come on out and enjoy yourselves at a great festival!

Tim