Under the guise of I-Wolf, Wolfgang Schlögl, a leading member of the musical collective known as Sofa Surfers, unveils his first solo album.?Soul Strata? is something of a reflection of the artists? personal life. In the past three years, I-Wolf has found himself continually travelling between his hometown Vienna and Los Angeles where his girlfriend lives. On the West Coast, he has got in touch with local musicians, bringing about new collaborations as well as new influences and perspectives.The result is a wonderfully stringent and complete record dedicated to that one eternal theme: Love. ?I wanted to get to grips with the male perspective of love and emotions. I was looking for vocalists who could tackle archaic themes like passion, fear of loss and the notion of transience without descending into cliché, both in their lyrics and their melodies.On ?Soul Strata I-Wolf opens up his inner space and reveals the depths of his emotional universe. It?s his declared intention to tear down the façade of outward reality, uncovering the layers and workings of his soul beyond the realms of consciousness, aiming towards musical semantics which allow him to explore his subconscious acoustically, not only through sounds, but also through words.The vocals and lyrics on ?Soul Strata? were supplied by Ken Cesar, Damon Aaron, DJ Collage, Daelek and Patrick. In his collaborations with these extraordinary vocalists, I-Wolf casts a sublime view onto the roots of soul and R&B which is miles away from the polished hi-tech glamour of conventional mainstream orthodoxy.?I have focussed my album on a particular mood of soul music as it was defined back in the sixties as a revolutionary concept, both aesthetically and content-wise. That was a moment in musical history where political consciousness crossed with society and culture.Schlögls initial inspiration for ?Soul Strata? came through listening to a record by jazz legend Rahsaan Roland Kirk. In 1971, Kirk had recorded a complete album called Natural Black Inventions: Root Strata all on his own, but it still sounded like a virtuoso band session. I-Wolf explains the conceptual link between ?Soul Strata and Roland Kirk?s ?Natural Black Inventions like this:?In the studio, Roland Kirk was completely on his own when he recorded ?Natural Black Inventions?. Just like me, I thought. There?s a certain affinity in our approaches, the attempt to create an imaginary band whose fictional members are assigned certain character traits by their ways of playing. According to this idea, I-Wolf?s virtual drummer would have to be an energetic hothead who likes to combine double-time breaks with a perverse kind of rock feel. The horn section sounds slightly drunk and hardly tight, but they still carry the harmonies. The bass player seems to be a notorious stoner, well versed in jazz and punk, which is evident in the mean way he attacks his instrument. The guitarist, on the other hand, favours a minimal funk feel in the best 1980s tradition. So much for aesthetics? With ?Soul Strata Wolfgang Schlögl aka I-Wolf succeeds, seemingly without effort, in bringing together European electronic culture, transatlantic beat science and the sort of deep, emotional impact of a record which helps to redefine the meaning of ?soul? in the 21st century.