Born in 1991, Niklas Rehme-Schlüter (aka. Cass.) only started self-releasing music in 2010. To date his work has been released on small tape and vinyl editions, with his new release for Home Normal being the first CD pressing of his work. Featuring common collaborators Altars Altars, Miriam Jolene, Emily Cross, Emil Hewitt, Moritz Leppers, ‘Magical Magical’ is a playful album of electronic music, brimming over with melodies, ideas, and youthful tenderness. A near filmic equivalent would perhaps be the work of Hayao Mi- yazaki with his focus on the hidden depths of spirit through the innocence of childhood. It marks quite the turn from his previously meditative work as seen in ‘Loops & Farewell Sketches’, and shows just how talented this super artist is.
For a more specific note, the concept of 神隠し (Kamikakushi which literally translates as ‘hidden by spirits’ or ‘spirited away’) really comes into play. Again this is stealing the idea from the genius of Miyazaki, but the idea basically stems from the concept of a liminal journey through a realm of gods and spirits, specifically the unknown journey taken by children as they are taken by gods, often re-appearing after this physical dis- connect at a temple or shrine days later. This pre-modern Japanese concept is often more modernly repre- sented as the path from childhood through to adulthood, but the pre-modern focus of innocence, the un- known, and ethereal antiquity, somehow encompasses the aptly titled ‘Magical Magical’ so accurately with its focus on such ideas as light, dreams, love, and finally, death (as finite or infinite as that may well be).
