It's with great joy that we're announcing a new release by SASCHA FUNKE: his first Kompakt outing under his proper name in more than a decade, ZUG UM ZUG will please fans of both his solo productions and his work with Saschienne - thanks to the artist's knack for stylish and hypnotic techno that successfully combines the straightforward and the uncanny. We could welcome him back, but then again, he wasn't really away. As far as generation gaps go, it's been quite some time since SASCHA FUNKE's last solo offering on Kompakt, 2001's DREI AUF DREI (KOMPAKT 29), but the Berlin-based producer made more than up for it with his input on Saschienne, the project he put forth together with partner in crime Julienne Dessagne. The deep, sweeping techno of their debut full-length UNKNOWN (KOMPAKT 255 CD 98) found its fair share of loyalists, also serving as an ideal primer for Sascha's latest solo output. Title cut ZUG UM ZUG clearly tags the legacy, developing from rather humble beginnings, with just a few drone pads and a straight bass drum to show for - but that's all SASCHA FUNKE needs to establish a rather complex atmosphere. Added percussion and the introduction of sparse piano chords venture further into the eerily calm vortex at the heart of this track, making for a formidable, yet exitingly ambiguous listening experience. The flipside's ALLES IN ALLEM opts for a more direct approach, ditching the embalming pads of the title track for some serious sub bass dwellings and those trademark guitar strums we know and love from Sascha's earliest work. Still, this cut inherits a discernible amount of bizarro synth flourishings taking things in unexpected directions, thus wrapping up Sascha's latest effort with a particularly strong entry into his already impressive discography.