Lawrence, real name Peter M. Kersten, purportedly hails from Germany’s rainy north – Hamburg. Already the producer of two wonderful albums for his own Dial imprint and Ladomat his growing reputation as one of Germany’s most sought after producers has yielded praise from Kompakt’s notable, Wolfgang Voigt amongst others.
Currently enjoying residencies at Hamburg’s Golden Pudel Club and Click the gently prodigious Lawrence has also been known to release the odd 12” single on the Dial label under the name of ‘Sten’ in a similarly minimal but techno stylee. Another alias sees him as Lloyd – abstract loony hipster and another as Bordeaux – an ambient guitar project. So does courting as many alter egos as a directory of superheroes hinder the artist in any way? Not on your Nelly Duff (that’s a.k.a Nelly Duff, obviously). ‘The Night Will Last Forever’ fuses a glowing, tender mixture of all his incarnations: a little bit of house, a substantial dose of ambient, a little minimal techno and a pinch (actually a large pinch) of experimentation. Following in the footsteps of Warp fledglings like Plaid, the title-cut from the album follows a peculiarly rigid techno thread that ripples with some typically well-lubricated soft keys and sound effects. It’s soft, flowing and fluid without being at all safe, if you know what I mean. And though the rumbling and hypnotic ‘Swap’ might be as funky as it gets, tracks like ‘Happy Sometimes’ and ‘Attracted By Fire’ approach some of the swamping angularity you might find in his other guises.
A journey in sound, no more, no less. Half the fun was getting there.