Audiopile Review: As Kompakt approaches its 500th (!!) release, the Cologne-based label does a rare dip back into its catalog, reissuing an early and essential piece culled from its formative years. Released only on CD back in 2001, Triola Im Fünftonraum is the lone album from Jörg Burger’s Triola guise, though he eventually went on to contribute tracks to over a dozen of Kompakt’s ongoing Pop Ambient series. Having previously taken on house as The Bionaut, Detroit-influenced techno as Burger Industries and released the minimal landmark [Las Vegas] with Burger / Ink, his short-lived duo alongside Wolfgang Voigt, Triola would come to embody the early Kompakt sound as he donned this new moniker. Burger’s production skills by this point had shifted toward an acute intricacy that nod to the complexities of IDM but are flourished with fluffy synths and a delicate kosmiche touch that set the album into a reclined position. Also drawing on elements of sun kissed downtempo and leisurely propelled ambient-techno, Burger’s multipronged approach foreshadowed the Kompakt model of releasing albums that co-mingled among genre, unbothered by strict conventions. Though some may have missed this the first time around, the album ranks right alongside boundary pushing classics from the legendary label like Dettinger’s Intershop, The Fields’ From Here Wo Go Sublime, Gui Barrato’s Take My Breath Away or Thomas Fehlmann’s Honigpumpe.

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Originally released on CD only – those were the days – Triola im Fünftonraum counts as one of the most iconic albums of the early Kompakt era. Experience this timeless masterpiece of lush electronica lovingly restored and remastered for the first time on vinyl – 21 years after its inception.