[PD-announce] Noise of Cologne 1
Frank Barknecht
fbar at footils.org
Tue Sep 14 11:50:08 CEST 2010
This new CD will be available soon showcasing some
electronic/noise/impro/... music from Cologne, Germany. See below for
the press release.
At least two tracks were made with Pure Data:
03. Frank Barknecht - Beauty
04. Siegfried Koepf - Square
Maybe others tracks use Pd as well, but that I don't know
Press release from http://noiseofcologne.blogspot.com/
Here you will also find the latest reviews. I posted about this CD a
while ago as well on my site:
http://footils.org/2010/08/24/noise-cologne/
You can listen to my track "Beauty" there. It's a track I also
performed at the pd~convention in Montreal.
Now the press release:
Noise of Cologne 1 - Various Artists
Label: Mark e.V. / Vertrieb: a-Musik
Release date: 15.10.10
There is hardly another city where the local musical activities are so
thoroughly documented as they are in Cologne. In the home of the Rhein
and the Cathedral, they are proud of the „Sound of Cologne“, which
usually refers to electronica or minimal techno. And this is exactly the
kind of music that the compilation series „The Sound of Cologne“ is
devoted to. This sound had its heyday in the mid-90s with record labels
like Kompakt or the EMI offshoot Harvest. Now that the buzz surrounding
Cologne's club music has slightly died down, the path is clear for less
popular music, but music with a more far reaching tradition.
Of course, the title „Noise of Cologne“ (NoC) refers to the above
mentioned Cologne sampler, and so to a trademark that the city bestowed
upon itself. But NoC is not proclaiming the identity of some scene;
rather it is highlighting a musical creativity that has so far been
drowned out by the club sound. That said we are not just referring to
noise as a musical style, with its raw energy and physicality. It's not
just about noise in the literal sense of the word. Frank Dommert, owner
of the Cologne based label sonig, co-manager of a-Musik and curator of
the NoC compilation, doesn't want to construe the term “noise” that
strictly. NoC is much more designed to show the variety of experimental
- often noisy, music from Cologne. It is thanks to Dommert's enormous
knowledge of and sensitivity for music that this representation does
not for one come across as boring. Quite the contrary, the wealth of
composed and spontaneously improvised music from Cologne is so rich
that it's one pleasant surprise after the other. For example, Harald
Muenz's backwards version of Ravel's Boléro, which builds in tempo
just like the original. Or Volker Hennes' synthesizer-sirens. Track 6
is a concept-piece; a very tangible piece of new music for piano,
small ensemble and electronics - with theme and variation. Or there's
curious but friendly synthesizer music. Then we have travelling music
in the form of C-Schulz and F.X.Randomiz's train-composition „Das Ohr
am Gleis“ (Trans. ear to the tracks). The energetic, eventful
„Überschreitungen des Pragmatismus“ (Trans. Transgressions of
pragmatism) by Lehn and Schmickler. Or the quite simply marvellous
piece by Bernd Härpfer for six spoken voices.
All this makes NoC a sensory and intellectual treat of the very finest
kind. For on the one hand one can let oneself get carried away by this
constantly surprising collection. On the other hand, there's a special
enjoyment to be had from the eye-opening liner notes by Joachim Ody,
which will allow you to discover new composers or understand
composition techniques.
It is a credit to the Cologne composers Herbert Eimert and Karlheinz
Stockhausen that electronic music has become such a significant part
of the pallet of modern composition. In this sense, NoC documents the
extrapolation of a firmly rooted Cologne tradition. The number “1” at
the end of this compilation title bears hope: another instalment will
follow.
Pressrequests: AUTOPILOT, Guido Möbius, guido (at) autopilotmusic (dot) com
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