Names on maps are often more than mere geographical terms. They are sound and colour, dream and memory, mystery and magic, and it is a moment of wonderful gracefulness when one day you look at them with your own eyes and they are taking shape. A way to find the day is the first album of Mapstation at full-length and it comes along as a flamboyant soulful piece of music. While the pre-released 12" 'New direction' managed to raise high expectations, A Way to Find the Day picks up the tension and gives way to 43 minutes of attentive and curious dynamics, rhythmic irrealities and gently warm disorder. Since a bit more than two years Mapstation has been the imprint of Stefan Schneider who is also playing bass and electronics with the Dusseldorf/Berlin trio To Rococo Rot. Mapstation's music is closer to minimalist techno but brings the euphoria of the genre together with charming slow-downs of pace and bpm. Did the tracks on the preceding minialbum Sleep, Engine Sleep predominantly explore the shifts from daylight to dream, A Way to Find the Day is effortlessly able to impress with even more subtle shapes of resonance plus slightly unexpected and chliche-free branchings to reggae music. This dimension to Mapstation comes from the influence of recent Jamaican dancehall reggae, with Schnieder citing its corporation of electronic sounds, and his own practise of mixing reggae acapellas into his dj sets. On A Way to Find the Day Schneider takes the idea further into a stunning collaboration with reggae singer Ras Donovan.
