The Unknown Music series is a vehicle for the German guitarist Steffen Basho-Junghans to release his ?private excursions into the unknown?, as he describes it in the notes to this album. Starting in February 2005 with Part I on the Italian Sillyboy label, here?s the follow-up.

What makes the Unknown Music releases so different from Basho-Junghans? other albums is that he usually records them in one session. You can definitely hear it on "Unknown Music II." Even though the seven tracks on the album vary significantly in style, ambiance and playing technique, there is a common thread holding them together. It?s not just the Bozo 12-string-guitar he uses, but also his unlimited desire to explore sound and make things possible with his guitar.

The first track, entitled ?I?, recalls early electronic experiments, some of the more synthesized based Krautrock bands and even electro-acoustic music. Using an unidentifiable tuning for his 12-string-guitar and playing high notes with an echo effect and a lot of tremolo together with a monotonous scraping bass line, Basho-Junghans creates a sound that?s outright amazing. When you consider that it?s all played with an acoustic guitar, it?s almost unbelievable. The subtitle of the album ?Transwarp meditation? is especially appropriate on this track. On Track 3, SBJ plays minimal techno with his guitar. A fairly long intro with flirring strings and pointed bass notes leads into the main part with SBJ tapping his hand on the guitar and contrasting it with an out of space sounding string picking. I had to think of Thomas Jirku and the Kid 606 album on Mille Plateaux, but that might be a too adventurous comparison.

Tracks 2, 5 and 6 enter a wholly different terrain. Next to Fahey, Basho and others, SBJ cites Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti as major influences to his work. Those influences are very present on ?Out of the time? and ?Nothing, but Nice? with their modern jazz based harmonies. ?V? is probably my favorite tune on the record. It slowly builds up and has a good two minutes of compositional freakout before it gently fades out.

The last track, entitled ?VII? starts out with a soft resonating background sound. Over it Basho-Junghans strikes loud and bent single notes. After a few minutes, the background resonance gets louder and all of a sudden SBJ?s guitar sounds like a whole orchestra with the bass string serving as the kettle-drum. The effect is really powerful and concludes one hour of intense and challenging music. 8/10 -- Stephan Bauer (17 October, 2005)