When Dave and Sebastian’s paths crossed at djummi records in 2019 and they began exchanging ideas about music through their correspondence, it quickly became clear that an interesting overlap was opening up. John Bonham, for example. Dave found him fascinating as one of those drummers who like to play his instrument sometimes without the rest of the band. Sebastian, in turn, appreciated his uncompromising, expansive sound. Dave sparked Sebastian’s interest in Jon Hassell, and Sebastian inspired Dave with Tortoise and Trans Am. They also agree on the Violent Femmes.

Krautrock is always a recurring theme, but so is ambient. Sebastian didn’t understand this music for a long time because it seemed to dispense with rhythm. Dave instead was looking for the sound for his solo drumming there. The goal: a percussion section that sheds its brutality, achieves a lightness of touch, and is thus capable of telling its own stories. In Sebastian’s previous work, lightness expresses itself more as a playfulness in the handling of ideas than in a reduction of means. His songs are often weighty and rich in sounds, motifs, and ideas.

With suralarm, these intersectional opposites meet and intertwine perfectly. Through a ping-pong of ideas, the two developed the EP’s four tracks. Each musician brought two basic ideas into the ring as a starting point. The title track, “train of thought,” is perhaps somewhat symbolic of the record’s creation process. It corresponds to the equally figurative German word “Gedankengang” (Gedankengang). Just as one thought connects to another during reflection, ideally with the goal of insight, so this track develops throughout the successive musical ideas, like the way this little album came about.

It’s kraut, it’s ambient. At times powerful, at times light. It offers material for the listener’s undivided attention, but certainly also has the potential to be elevator music. If so, then Paternoster, please!