Graham Little on Kai Althoff
Graham Little, Picpus
February 2021

Kai Althoff’s new album Aber mich macht’s traurig (But it Makes Me Sad) is striking, in that a lot is missing. No wall of sound, not even any bricks. A lack of defensiveness; passages that seem low to the ground. Crumbly. Adrenalin has all but evaporated. The rudeness of youth is not involved in this project – the cover photo shows ten teenagers staring up as we float away. But the quietness of this record is not the sprung steel pauses of John Cage or the cotton wool of György Ligeti’s death landscapes. […]