Gerald Wenzel uses techno language in conjunction with sparse clues to the “real world,” (i.e. snippets of girlfriend’s voices left on message machines, orientalisms, classic avant-garde references, etc…) in order to marry a plastic, synthetic sound with the avant-garde in a clear manner. Ghostly, deliberate, synthetic, technical, mathematical, minimal and abstract, Wenzel’s delicate yet powerful compositions bring out a emotional response but then quickly destroy the emotion’s trajectory by cutting off the source of emotional genesis. This is techno not made for dancing. The romance of the digital arts around the turn of the century is present in Wenzel’s two Phthalo releases, “Hollow Way” (1999) and “Prairie Program” (2000).