Nah Und Fern

This 4xCD box set collects the four albums that Wolfgang Voigt has created under his Gas moniker-- 1996's self-titled record, 1997's Zauberberg, 1998's Königsforst, and 2000's Pop-- and collectively they represent a wondrous high point in the history of electronic music.

If the notion of a German enterprise tasked with alchemizing sound into something like vapor doesn't excite you, it should. That was effectively the premise behind Gas, one of many projects marshaled by Wolfgang Voigt before he started the epochal electronic label Kompakt. From its inception in the mid-'90s, Gas music…

Nah und Fern (Near and Far) bundles Wolfgang Voigt's four ambient techno albums as Gas originally issued on Mille Plateaux: Gas (1996), Zauberberg (1998), Königsforst (1999), and Pop (2000).

If ever there was a time to write an essay about the futility of attaching scores to record reviews, this is it.