“Friendly Electrons” presents the electronic side of the original TON STEINE SCHERBEN drummer, book author and longtime CONRAD SCHNITZLER friend / collaborator WOLFGANG SEIDEL.
Born in winter 1949 in a grey and gloomy post-war Berlin, WOLFGANG SEIDEL’s first encounter with electronic sounds was at the cinema: the music for “Forbidden Planet“ by LOUIS and BEBE BARRON sounded like the promise of a bright, exciting future … but in the 1960‘s, the biggest thing for young musicians was to play in a rock band, and as the friends around him all already played guitar, SEIDEL chose the drums and later co-founded TON STEINE SCHERBEN, the legendary German anarchist band. Around the same time, SEIDEL regularly attended the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, the birth place of so-called “Kosmische Musik / Berliner Schule“ (TANGERINE DREAM, CLUSTER, MANUEL GÖTTSCHING etc), and became close friends with CONRAD SCHNITZLER. Realizing how much more artistic freedom electronic music offers, he grew tired of playing the same songs night after night, left the band after their debut album had been released and started experimenting with contact microphones and tape delay (and later, when he could afford one, with a Buchla synthesizer). SEIDEL joined SCHNITZLER’s group ERUPTION and worked with him till his death in 2011 (sometimes credited as WOLF SEQUENZA) on several albums, and also toured some art institutions presenting SCHNITZLER’s “cassette concerts” (who had dropped his suitcases with the tape machines in front of SEIDEL’s flat door and appointed him the “future conductor”). In the 2000s, SEIDEL started playing drums again, this time in the free jazz / improv scene (a.o. others with ALFRED A. HARTH and HANS JOACHIM IRMLER), wrote books about his former band (“Scherben – Musik, Politik und Wirkung der Ton Steine Scherben“) and Krautrock („Wir müssen hier raus! Krautrock, Free Beat, Reeducation“) … and continued his sonic explorations with his Buchla in his studio in Berlin-Wedding. When we met at a birthday party, Wolfgang told me about his electronic pieces – I was interested right away – so he browsed his archive and sent me a selection of tracks. These are often based on older ideas and sketches that he had completed during the pandemic when there were no concerts to play. The result is „Friendly Electrons“ – a collection of 18 tracks, inspired by SCHNITZLER’s collage technique and SEIDEL’s own experiences with improvisation. With the exception of 2 pieces that are actually composed there were no fixed ideas – simply start from scratch and see what happens, review the result from different angles and refine the tracks where necessary. Whereas electronic music is often considered dystopian, the album title mirrors SEIDEL’s positive attitude towards modernism, so his electrons are of a friendly kind!
tracklist:
Battersea Power Plant
Escalator
Organic Music No.1
Try Harder
Film Noir
Feuerblume
Organic Music No.2
Otto Piene
Streets Of L.A
Art Space
ICC Berlin
EMS #1
Berna Yari
EMS #2
Lichtballett
No Repetition
Easy Easel
Shortwave Radi
credits: All music created, mixed & produced by Wolfgang Seidel Mastered by Ruy Mariné at D&M, Berlin Cover photo by Wolfgang Seidel Layout & design by kaidoh
A new piece by minimalist / experimental composer PHILL NIBLOCK (1933 – 2024), co-composed and performed by ANNA CLEMENTI & THOMAS STERN. Intense, menacing layers of thick drones and alien sounds.
In summer 2022, within just a few weeks and by pure coincidence, 2 proposals regarding PHILL NIBLOCK albums arrived: one suggesting an overdue vinyl reissue of a CD release (more on that when the time has come for it), the other email was from ANNA CLEMENTI saying she and THOMAS STERN were working on new pieces that PHILL NIBLOCK has written for her … when „Zound Delta 2“ was complete, PHILL sent photographs for the two artworks, we met twice to discuss details, but unfortunately he died unexpectedly early january this year so the album now is, sad as it is, a posthumous release … an intense goodbye from one of 20th century most iconic composers.
Phill Niblock Phill Niblock (1933-2024, USA) was an artist whose fifty-year career spans minimalist and experimental music, film and photography. Since 1985, he has served as director of Experimental Intermedia, a foundation for avant-garde music based in New York with a branch in Ghent, and curator of the foundation’s record label XI. Known for his thick, loud drones of music, Niblock’s signature sound is filled with microtones of instrumental timbres that generate many other tones in the performance space. In 2013, his diverse artistic career was the subject of a retrospective realised in partnership between Circuit (Contemporary Art Centre Lausanne) and Musée de l’Elysée. The following year Niblock was honoured with the prestigious Foundation for Contemporary Arts John Cage Award. https://phillniblock.com/
Anna Clementi Italian-Swedish singer Anna Clementi grew up in Rome, where she first studied the flute and completed acting training before moving to Berlin and studying experimental vocal music and experimental music theater with the composer Dieter Schnebel at Hochschule der Künste (now UdK Berlin). Anna Clementi sees herself as an “actress of the voice” rather than exclusively as a singer. In this way she also articulates the diversity of her artistic expression, with which she is always searching for new connections between voice, gesture, language, dance and theater. During her decades spanning career, Anna Clementi has performed at the most important festivals, has premiered numerous works, many of which have been composed especially for her, and worked with Fast Forward, Michael Hirsch, Rupert Huber, Christian Kesten, Alexander Kolkowski, Olga Neuwirth, Josef Anton Riedl,Iris ter Schiphorst, Dieter Schnebel, Laurie Schwartz, Elliott Sharp, and many others. A special focus of hers is the work of John Cage, whose pieces she has performed worldwide. https://www.annaclementi.com/
Thomas Stern Born in Bremen, Thomas Stern moved to Berlin in 1984 where he joined Mona Mur with Alex Hacke and F. M. Einheit (both from Einstürzende Neubauten, with which Stern also worked as live sound engineer for many years). Around 1987 he co-founded the Berlin set up of Crime And The City Solution (Mick Harvey, Alex Hacke a.o.). Over the years, he has has collaborated with artists like Ulrike Haage, Phew, Nick Cave, Ton Steine Scherben, Meret Becker, Nina Hagen, Jaki Liebezeit, Ben Becker, N.U. Unruh, Gry, Iris ter Schiphorst, Automat, Swans, Hans Joacxhim Irmler and many more, on the road or in his own Sternstaubstudio. http://www.thomasstern.de/
tracklist:
Zound Delta 2 21:59
Zound Delta 2 (version) 18:55
credits: Anna Clementi: voice Thomas Stern: slide guitar, bass and soundprocessing
Composition by Phill Niblock, Anna Clementi and Thomas Stern Recorded and mixed by Thomas Stern at Sternstaubstudio, Berlin Mastering and lacquer cut: Kassian Troyer at D&M, Berlin Cover photography by Phill Niblock Layout and design by kaidoh
The new album The Commune Of Nightmares by noise artist David Wallraf is a tapeloopbased musical game of cadavre exquis, a technique developed by surrealist artists.
David Wallraf is a noise artist and theorist living in Hamburg. His artistic work deals with the repressed and uncanny sonic residues of quotidian life, crafting soundtracks for the creeping disaster we inhabit. His works have been released on numerous international tape labels. A recent interest of his is the live scoring of silent films, including works by Luis Buñuel, Maya Deren and Jean Genet. His PhD thesis Grenzen des Hörens. Noise und die Akustik des Politischen (Limits of Hearing. Noise and the Acoustics of the Political) has been published in German, an English translation is in progress. The Commune of Nightmares stems from the idea that nightmares are the logical reverse of ‘capitalist realism’: an uncanny undercurrent of daily experiences and an algorithmic haunting of dreams that at the same time is a shared – communal – experience of everybody. All songs are based on tapeloops that were cut arbitrarily from a stash of cassettes, some of which found on the street, others from a stockpile of 4 track tapes recorded in the late 90s and early 2000s – a musical game of cadavre exquis played with random strangers and former versions of DW.
Tracklist: A1 He Bit His Tongue In His Sleep A2 Where Nothing Happens But The Wallpaper A3 She Calls In The Airstrike A4 Behind The Billionaire’s Graveyard B1 They Sidestep Extinction B2 Surrounded By The Smell Of Servitude B3 In Nightmares Screened By Algorithms
Credits: All music composed and recorded by David Wallraf in Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg, first half of 2023
REINHOLD FRIEDL (piano) meets RADIAN member MARTIN SIEWERT (guitar, electronics): Three spontaneous sonic explorations – subtle and explosive!
With over a dozen releases on Karlrecords, and a total output of more than 100 albums in general, Reinhold Friedl doesn’t need much of an introduction to anyone interested in contemporary music / avantgarde: his ensemble zeitkratzer is as respected as it is feared for its radical approach on music, and it seems redundant to mention all collaborators and projects. Friedl is known for his unique piano sound, his advanced techniques, and his musical intensity paired with precise exuberant sound constructions and consistent compositional thinking. He cooperated with musicans from Phil Niblock to Lou Reed, Mario Bertoncini (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) to Whitehouse, Laurie Anderson to Rashad Becker and works as guest professor at various universities across Europe. The “multi-talented renaissance man” (as Naut Human turned it) is also known as a specialist for Iannis Xenakis, and curates the Perihel series on Karlrecords.
„Lichtung“ is the collaboration of Friedl and no other than Vienna-based Martin Siewert, himself a highly prolific and reputated innovative guitar player and producer in groups like Radian or Trapist. Martin Siewert played with the who is who in experimental and improvised music and celebrated his strong musical identity in international collaborations with Otomo Yoshihide to Oren Ambarchi, Meg Stuart to Christian Fennesz, Sainkho Namtchylak to The Necks. Siewerts guitar play at the intersection of acoustic / electronic generated sounds is unique, evoking echoes of krautrock and musique concrete to electronic jazz and avantgarde.
“Lichtung” was recorded in Vienna: Several studio meetings condensed to three intense tracks, a statement and musical adventure between noise and silence, subtle and explosive! Two musicians, who couldn’t be more diverse, here – in every sense – they act in concert.
credits: Reinhold Friedl: piano Martin Siewert: guitar, electronics recorded on june 22nd 2021 in Vienna mix and mastering: Martin Siewert cover photo: Thomas Herbst layout & design: kaidoh
zeitkratzer director REINHOLD FRIEDL and his ensemble present new compositions, grounded on DOMENICO SCARLATTI’s piano sonata F-minor K.466. Commissioned by the dance company RUBATO and dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (1932-2019).
Little is known about Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757). His music is, so to speak, left to its own devices: free, cheeky, playful, sonorous, surprising. Harmonically strolling again and again into unforeseen regions, the ear leads, not the theory; and also the fingers get their right: playful and haptic it goes. Scarlatti explained, „since nature has given me ten fingers and my instrument provides employment for all, I see no reason why I should not use all ten of them.“(1) Freedom, friction and listening pleasure instead of convention: „He knew quite well that he had disregarded all the rules of composition in his piano pieces, but asked whether his deviation from the rules offended the ear? He believes there is almost no other rule than that of not offending the only sense whose object is music – the ear.“(2) Reinhold Friedl applied this principle and composed the music for a choreography by dance company Rubato. Dance music drawn from Scarlatti, who was so inspired by dance music. The material of the piano sonata F-minor K.466 is twisted anew in all its richness, shifted back and forth, declined, frozen, noisified, sound structures extracted, floating. Those who know the sonata, will more than smell it’s shadows. Dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza) who was particularly fond of K.466, on which all the music presented here is grounded. „Wild flowers“(3), Barbara Zubers had once called Scarlatti’s music. Let them bloom.
(1) Charles Burney, Tagebuch seiner musikalischen Reisen. Zweyter Band. Hamburg, 1773. Bey Bode., p 183f. (2) Charles Burney, Tagebuch seiner musikalischen Reisen. Zweyter Band. Hamburg, 1773. Bey Bode., p 183f. (3) Barbara Zubers, in: Musik-Konzepte, Heft 47, München, 1986, p 3–39.
Frank Gratkowski: clarinets, flutes Hild Sofie Tafjord: french horn Reinhold Friedl: piano Maurice de Martin: percussion Burkhard Schlothauer: violin, viola Ulrich Phillipp: doublebass Martin Heinze: doublebass
credits: all music composed by Reinhold Friedl drawn from Domenico Scarlatti’s Sonata f-minor K.466 commissioned by Tanzcompagnie Rubato recorded Oct 13, 2021 by Klaus Dobbrick at Uferstudios Berlin mixed 2022 by Nik Hummer at minusgroundzero Vienna mastering & lacquer cut by Kassian Troyer at D&M Berlin layout: kaidoh
The 75 DOLLAR BILL – Power Failures preorder started on today’s bandcamp friday, shipping next week & there’s a summer sale throughout august as well & some small restock of Karkhana, Konstrukt & Otomo Yoshihide and the Konstrukt / Thurston Moore vinyl:
First ever, remastered vinyl version! The core duo plus guest collaborators expand its sonic palette of RICK BROWN’s elemental percussive patterns and CHE CHEN’s ecstatic modal guitar style to a new musical richness.
With some tape releases and their first album „Wooden Bag“, 75 DOLLAR BILL quickly introduced themselves as one of the hottest, most unique and essential groups at the heart of NYC’s underground – the following “Wood/Metal/Plastic Pattern/Rhythm/Rock” (2016) made the duo known internationally, and the 2019 double vinyl “I Was Real” turned out a major success at the critics and audience alike with the #1 spot in The Wire’s albums of the year list! Then came the pandemic, and in lack of opportunities to actually perform in public, the core duo of RICK BROWN and CHE CHEN released several bandcamp only albums in digital format, one of these being „Power Failures“. BROWN’s elemental percussive patterns (often simply played on a wooden box) and CHE CHEN’s ecstatic modal guitar style (often under the influence of his studies with Mauritanian guitarist JEICH OULD CHIGALY) are at the core of the tracks with guest collaborators like YO LA TENGO’s IRA KAPLAN (guitar), SUE GARNER (violin) or STEVE MAING (saxophone, guitar) expanding the sonic palette to a new musical richness. Trance-inducing psychedelia, “placeless, gripping grooves” (The Guardian), collaged rehearsal and field recordings, mantric percussion, microtonal guitar sounds – 75 DOLLAR BILL sound as deeply rooted in traditions as they sound fresh-of-today, a kind of future music from the past. Hard to grasp by words, and impossible to resist!
„Hypnotic and excessive!“ Musikexpress
tracklist: A1 Power Failure #2 12:14 A2 Snow Jumper’s Harp 8:57 B1 15 (IRA) 11:25 B2 15 (YASI) 5:39 C1 Another Jumper’s Harp 10:08 C2 ∞WZN / Montreiul / Gcona / In The … 9:44 D … Noguchi Garden in Long Island City 19:42
credits: Rick Brown: plywood crate, maracas, cowbell, funnel horns, computer Che Chen: guitars, cowbells, temple block, tamborim, maraca, conga, flute, bass recorder, soprano saxophone, casio sk-1, digital delay, radio, microcassette, samples Sue Garner: violin and shaker on Power Failure #2 Ira Kaplan: guitar on 15 (IRA) Steve Maing: alto saxophone, guitar on Power Failure #2 Yasi Perera: Buchla/presence on 15 (YASI) Barry Weisblat: snare drum on Gcona Recorded and mixed by Rick Brown and Che Chen Editing and cover design by Che Chen Mastered by Steve Silverstein Remastered for vinyl and lacquer cut by Anne Taegert at D&M, Berlin
the third and closing chapter of the „raum“ trilogy by an moku and stefan schmidt – „raum im raum“ serves finely crafted ambient / soundscapes, and is the most intense and darkest album of the series.
as written in the previous infosheets, the „raum“-trilogy (named after and inspired by a sentence from david foster wallace’s unconventional bestseller novel “infinite jest”) is a child of the recent pandemic: when public life more or less came to a hold, dominik grenzler aka an moku, a sound artist and bass player based in zurich, contacted stefan schmidt (guitarist, composer and improviser from baden-baden) with the idea of collaborating. It turned out a fruitful idea and within just a couple of weeks they not only managed to craft “raum” but indeed had so many ideas that it was impossible to put them all in just one album, a trilogy was the logical consequence. this series now sees its 3rd and final part with „raum im raum“, maybe the most intense and darkest chapter of the trilogy that deals with the abstraction of a possible space within a possible space. grenzler and schmidt continue their adventurous sonic trip into abstract voids, crafted by finely processed sounds of different origins like synthesizer or fretless guitar, field recordings and a vast array of electronic equipment – like they did before, but without simpy re-cooking the approved recipe, instead adding new spices like a kalimba or saz (schmidt being a vituoso on many stringed instruments). the atmosphere is dark and alien, with references to hauntology and musique concrète, and yet organic, and rich of details.
„..soon, i loose the ability to distinguish between the two kinds of darkness. i can no longer tell if my eyes are open or closed. but as my eyes became used to the darkness, though, i began to pick out slight differences…“ – h. murakami
the musicians:: dominik grenzler (born 1977) is a sound artist and bass guitar player with a spot for experimental and ambient soundscapes. In 2008, after years of playing e-bass in several bands or being hired for concert tours, he began with the initial recording sessions for an moku. the literal translation of the japanese word “anmoku” is “tacit, unsaid, implicit” conveying that an idea or thought cannot be put into words but is subconsciously understood. inspired and animated, with this approach, dominik’s abstract, cinematic music gives the listener room for imagination and interpretation. his approach to ambient is highly personal, as he manages to generate tension with a hidden musicality, drowned in a miasma of organic, yet manipulated sounds. dominik’s primary interests lie in simplicity, repetition and the relationship between sound and art. privately, dominik grenzler lives and works in his adopted hometown of zurich where he co-owns a café with an artisan cake bakery section. www.anmoku.net
stefan schmidt (born 1974) is a guitarist, composer, improviser and teacher. he gathered his first musical experiences as a member of various punk bands and later studied classical guitar at the hochschule für musik trossingen with professor andreas higi and at the conservatorio juan josé castro in buenos aires with victor villadangos. while early projects (e.g. farang) and several collaborations put focus on distorted sounds and rhythms, recent works center on slowly evolving structures, sound design and free improvisation, giving more emphasis on his main instrument, the classical guitar, and the exploration of other stringed instruments such as tenor ukulele, fretless bass ukulele, fretless classical guitar, electric guitar, [d]ronin & ronin, stringed psalter, cello and baroque lute. www.musicforoverexposedcelluloid.com
credits:: all tracks composed and produced by an moku and stefan schmidt mastered by weldroid www.weldroid.net cover artwork by stefan schmidt modular, microphonic soundbox, bass guitar, obsolete recordings by an moku synths, saz, fretless guitar, kalimba, field recordings by stefan schmidt
„The event horizon gives the black hole its size; behind it hides the singularity. And the more extended it is, the more massive the black hole is. But the event horizon is also invisible; if matter or light passes through it, there is no turning back.“ (Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie)
EREIGNISHORIZONT is SCHNEIDER TM’s new and with a duration of over 80 minutes truly epic album: experimental guitar, technological innovations and excursions into musical territories beyond the usual.
Schneider TM is a multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which oscillates extensively between adventurous electronic pop-music and experimental, sometimes improvised freeform music, while occasionally bringing these and other opposing elements together. Performed on (partly self-developed) electroacoustic guitars + effects through a stereo set of tube amps with sensibilities for the world of modular synthesis and a range of seemingly contrarian musical directions, the 8 tracks present transcendental micro- and macrotonal soundscapes and polyrhythms, a musical cosmology that appears to be located in a sort of idiosyncratic alternate or parallel universe where parameters are slightly shifted, which doesn’t necessarily mean something like ‘otherworldliness’ but certainly offer a view onto ‘reality‘ from a bunch of different angles. Since the mid-Nineties, he has been exploring unknown musical territory on practically each new release, solo or in diverse short- and long-term collaborations and projects with the likes of ex-Pan Sonic member Ilpo Väisänen (as die ANGEL), Zappi W Diermaier (Faust), Reinhold Friedl (zeitkratzer), Oren Ambarchi, Hildur Guðnadóttir, BJ Nilsen, Lucio Capece, Elena Poulou (ex-The Fall), Damo Suzuki (ex-Can), John Duncan (LAFMS), Einstürzende Neubauten’s Jochen Arbeit & Andrew Unruh, Günter Schickert as well as to numerous works in the field of film music, radio plays, (performance-) theater, contemporary dance and general studio production. Over the last years, Dirk has been moving SCHNEIDER TM in the direction of instantly composed freeform music, employing varying equipment like processed guitar & sound objects as well as field recordings, as documented on albums like ‘Construction Sounds’, ‘Guitar Sounds’ or ‚‘Con-Struct’, a posthumous collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler, all released on Bureau B. EREIGNISHORIZONT, SCHNEIDER TM’s new and with a duration of over 80 minutes truly epic album, sounds and feels like a soundtrack for a yet-to-be-made sci-fi movie and exposes the essence of Dresselhaus‘ artistic approaches, crafted here with a more pared-down set-up, an awareness of advanced musical techniques, the physicality of sound, and an improvisational spirit that is based on the experience that things are strongest when they happen first. The main tools on EREIGNISHORIZONT are two customized electroacoustic guitars:
# The „FireSchneiderTM“ has sound chambers featuring removable bakelite lids and piezo mics, that can be used as percussion tools, vocal mics, or filled with interesting sounding materials like screws, etc.
# The next step in the long-term collaboration between Schneider TM and Deimel Guitarworks isthe „SPARK“: In addition to conventional magnetic and piezo pickups the guitar also has playable reverb springs, one of which is attached to the tremolo construction and can be tensioned. The different sound sources can be combined via a global selector switch and sent to an integrated electronic LesLee, which oscillates back and forth between the signals and is connected to CV In & Out sockets for integrating e.g. modular synthesizers via control voltage. The „SPARK“ can not only be played acoustically, electrically and electronically, but as an electro-acoustic sound object it also offers possibilities for playing techniques that are not typical for guitars.
The sci-fi feel of EREIGNISHORIZONT is complemented by the artwork by SEBASTIAN MAYER who, just a few weeks before Dresselhaus contacted him, got the opportunity to work as a betatester with some of the first available AI based image generators (for which Mayer himself prefers the name „neural network image generator“ because there’s no „intelligence“ – yet – in these networks). Dirk sent Sebastian some tracks of the new album with the note that he was thinking about this particular image when recording them. Mayer listened to his recordings and understood what inspired SCHNEIDER TM about these more-or-less artificial artworks: “there’s a crude weirdness to the image, it’s funny but at the same time a bit frightening, by topic and by style. It’s like an omen of what’s ahead of us in regards to AI – and not only about image generation but in a wider sense. AI will impact our society in ways we can not yet comprehend, and this image is a coarse yet deceptive harbinger for things that are yet to come – for better or worse.”
credits: All pieces instantly composed and performed with electric & electroacoustic guitars, effects & tube amps, recorded (2019-2022) & mixed (09/2022) by Dirk Dresselhaus at ZONE, Berlin Mastered 10/2022 by Kassian Troyer at Dubplates & Mastering, Berlin Published by Edition MirrorWorldMusic Digital artwork generated, composited, and processed 8-10/2022 by Sebastian Mayer Layout & design by kaidoh
11th album by the one-of-a-kind collective: psychedelia and free form jazz (not jazz) trigger a sophisticated excursion into weird textures with drastic turns. Dislocated dense music full of secret connections!
Kammerflimmer Kollektief – »Schemen« Before reason prevails, invoked by those who want everything to remain as it is, Kammerflimmer Kollektief disrupts the established supply chains of sound. It seeks more interesting ways to assemble them. Trusting in this, because of the fact that every sound that still comes out of a guitar, a bass, a harmonium, drums and electronic devices has already been taken into the common mangle of meaning anyway. Enough of all that. Here, nothing is explained. Here we speak in schemes. Polished and jerky. The images that Kammerflimmer Kollektief conjures up therefore happen not in the focus of consciousness, but rather in its outer realms. In those to which one does not give one’s full attention at the moment, but which are nevertheless perceived. For example, when a leaf falls from the ground back up to the tree in the corner of your eye, and for an instant you think this is possible, before you realize it was a small bird flying into the tree; it is in just such irritating moments between perception and realization that the art of the Kollektief also unfolds. On »Schemen«, familiar fragments float gently around their core – a Fender Rhodes tone, a bass figure, a guitar motif, a masterful drum shuffle, a moment of icy stasis borrowed from the harmonium playing of Christa ›Nico‹ Päffgen. Triggering brief associations, they slowly rush off in other directions through free jazz-informed editing work, whereupon such zones can also arise in which perception has a few tricks ready and earlier experience suddenly breaks into the now in a completely different way. Half suspected, half seen. Half-music like Can from Cologne – also masters of improvised editing – sometimes produced a few decades ago in their in-between moments. The first minutes of »Future Days« for example, which fade in gently, sketch a barely graspable figure emerging from all directions of the room. Kammerflimmer Kollektief also engages in similarly open moments of development. Loosely, it eludes the first formative impressions, keeping itself ready for moments that do not follow any logic of appointment. This looseness in handling makes Kammerflimmer Kollektief so fluidly audible, even when dissonant peaks and free playing arise. What Karlheinz Stockhausen is to Can’s understanding of composition, the recordings of The Cocoon are to Kammerflimmer Kollektief. The Cocoon, a meeting of garage psychedelics from the Hannover area with free jazzers from the Galaxie Dream Band, whose album »While The Recording Engineer Sleeps«, recorded in 1985 in unguarded moments, operates in a very similar way with decentralized perceptual ambivalences and only appeared more or less secretly four years later on Wilhelm Reich Schallspeicher. Other traces of »Schemen« lead to the debut album of Quicksilver Messenger Service. The guitars of Gary Duncan and John Cipollina, which refer to themselves in an unforced manner, are instructions to let go. They don’t want to be traced in every note as a solo, but they give their music a sense that the essential takes place off center, in the mutual and intuitive gift of loving attentions. Consciousness-free. Loving turns like the little guitar phrase that, like a kind of leitmotif, is repeatedly ghosting more or less unchanged through all of the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums. A Coricidin induced, very catchy slide idea filtered out of ancient Æther, which – who knows – maybe even centuries ago found its way from somewhere to America – the old, the eerie – and from there wafted on through the ages to southern Germany, to a smoky studio in the Upper Rhine lowlands. A memory of which even the memory no longer knows what it once reminded. Unsaid, then forgotten. In Kammerflimmer Kollektief you will also find a friend of slowly building, unhurried music, which probably would have been appreciated by the old Franz Mesmer, who 200 years ago, after tranquilizing treatments, sometimes used to play for his patients ambient melodies on the enormous glass harmonica. However, in order not to surrender completely to the flow of one’s own life energy, as Mesmer had in mind with his therapies, Kammerflimmer Kollektief occasionally adds hectic tensions, gently embraced by the droning of a sine wave generator, as if a trance could briefly refesh. This old analog sine wave generator is new in the Kammerflimmer assortment of sounds. So, the art of the Kollektief likes to dock occasionally in modern times, yet with the past in mind. Mental states begin to flicker between imagination and certainty, between culture-bound art expression and coincidences: A cawing and scraping can always just be a cawing and scraping with Kammerflimmer Kollektief, the way Andy Warhol’s mushroom eater just eats a mushroom. Heike Aumüller’s cover works, which illustrate all the Kammerflimmer Kollektief albums, additionally act as amplifiers of unexplained refractions. Her style consists of eye-corner art that remains so, even when looked at directly. Her shots remain disquieting because they do not jolt themselves into a reassuring order, even in retrospect. Rather than evading the fear that arises when looking at them by trying to impose some irrational rhyme or reason, that fear must simply be endured. This strategy of endurance is equally applicable to the music. The trick is to let parts be parts without compulsively seeking delusional patterns that lull us into a false sense of security and in doing so, possibly delude ourselves. In this context, freedom means not having to anxiously attach a fantasized superior meaning to everything. »Schemen« has an conspiracy disintegrating effect. – Werner Ahrensfeld
Tracklist face A Erstes Kapitel [verschliffen] 8:17 Zweites Kapitel [ruckartig] 8:09 face B Drittes Kapitel [ungesagt, dann vergessen] 3:25 Viertes Kapitel [bewusstseinsfrei] 4:48 Fünftes Kapitel [kreuzweis] 0:28 Sechstes Kapitel [herausgewunden] 5:07 Siebentes Kapitel [verflochten] 4:08 Letztes Kapitel [halb vermutet, halb gesehen] 1:47
Gruppo Heike Aumüller: harmonium, synthesizer, sinusgenerator Christopher »Giga« Brunner: drums Johannes Frisch: double bass Thomas Weber: electric guitar, loops, feedbacks
Credits Production, arrangements & collage: Thomas Weber Studio: Kinda real cloudy, Karlsruhe, may 2018 – july 2022 Musick: Thomas Weber & Heike Aumüller, publisher: Future World Mastering: Anne Taegert, D&M Berlin Cover artwork: Heike Aumüller, deep in the woods Stills: Iris Drögekamp Graphic realization: kaidoh
