Already 32nd release on Recognition Records is a very special one - as two great individuals join forces for a pretty special cause. Produced together with the Goethe Institut in Warsaw, the records aims to celebrate 200th anniversary of the birth of Richard Wagner - the extraordinary composer, whose attitude towards any contemporary music medium was as much shocking, as inspiring.

The label boss Jacek Sienkiewicz invited his companion Uwe Schmidt (known also as Atom ™, Atom Heart, Senor Coconut and a myriad of other disguises) to take a look at Wagner's work - and here we are, with two totally different, but equally challenging variations on a theme. Atom TM's tune is a majestic, classically-composed ambient piece, inspired by the famous Tristan Chord from Wagner's opera, 'Tristan & Isolde". This track goes a way from quiet to almost bombastic, and for any means dramatic, which makes perfectly sense here. A serious, somewhat sordid, electronic tale of loss and separation, driven to o point of stubbornness rather than resignation, it fits the theme perfectly, at the same time being a very special addition to Atom's vast catalogue. On the flipside, Jacek Sienkiewicz goes all deep techno in his epic 'The Phantom Of Bayreuth". So much different than Warsaw producers' recent, complex work, it goes straight for some haunting string arrangement, soon underpinned by a muffled, minimal groove. Both main layers shift and intertwine, illustrating, as Jacek puts it, 'the struggle, the drama, the passion one can find in Wagner's music". Neo-classical approach to a modern club rhythms? Stripped-down Romantic machine music?