After a lengthy hiatus, German producer Stephan Bodzin is back with his first full length album in 8 years. The album entitled ‘Powers of Ten’, a 10 track album which dropped on June 12th on Bodzins own Herzblut Recordings is certainly the talk of the month but the big question being, was it worth the 8th year wait?

The album is a personal voyage that brings the listener on a journey into the mind of one of technos greats.

Bodzin says:
“‘Powers of Ten’ has been with me all my life and is named after a book that has been my background hiss, its confusing truth is my only real faith and its infinity shows me its finiteness.
The album is about harmonies, melodies, rhythms. It is an homage to Bob Moog, full of techno beats and sounds and space and party and ecstasy and dancing and listening, and crying and feeling. It is a journey, a philosophy of life, a view of the world, a vague perception. It is my wife, my children, my family, my friends, my passion, my enemy, my greatest fulfilment, my fear, my deepest peace, my power, all my love”

Bodzin’s ‘Powers of Ten’ captures a rich emotion that engages the listener through beautiful melodies and synths and ultimately creates an album like no other. The album kicks off with ‘Singularity’, a track heavy in synths that transition into a heavy beat, all of which is pulled together with some warm rich melodies and a deep bass giving it an almost spacey vibe. The groovy ‘Blue Giant’ and ‘Wir’ pumps out an impressive energy into the album. ‘Zulu’ is quite soothing with minimal tones and beautiful produced melodies.
The album’s title track ‘Powers of ten’ kicks the album and listener into a dream like state with a slow melodic groove and soft vocal harmonies towards the end. ‘Odyssee’ one of my favourites, created with powerful melodies and rhythms that captivates you through the tracks heavy hitting bass line, claps and alien like synths.

So to answer my question, was ‘Powers of Ten’ worth the 8th year wait? It most certainly was, this album is out of this world and I can honestly say that I could listen to this on repeat for days. Bodzin has produced an absolute gem here and when it comes to producing music his talent and attention to detail really shines through. Let’s just hope we don’t have to wait another 8 years for another album.

Words by Ian Blount