Noise of Cologne 2 - english info
Around 40 years ago, just as the world of new media was taking shape, a particular phrase was much bandied about to describe one aspect of this world's artistic possibilities - we talked of “music as cut-up time.” Karlheinz Stockhausen adopted the idea with his “Hymnen” and “Kurzwellen,” as did the representatives of Musique concrète and the utopian brigades who championed a progressive musical language going beyond compositional principles. The phrase traced a mutual feedback loop between political and aesthetic experience - staking this claim in a forthright, even stubborn manner. The renowned music critic Rudolf Frisius formulated the statement that music is “cut-up time” to take in the whole spectrum of sound, notes and noise - and thus the formulation heavily depends on revolutionary developments in montage, including segments of collage.
In such a context, white noise and the associated visual imagery do not indicate the breakdown of the machine or the monitor screen, the television tuned to a dead channel, but rather total sound, the most immense noise imaginable, the optimum of acoustic Nothingness. What have its effects been, four decades on and more, after this Cologne audio piece and after all the recordings made meanwhile, the many mix-tapes cut together - most of them, and for very good reason - in the studios of Cologne? Suppose, just hypothetically, that we were to try to unpack that white noise in our own day, prise open that “sphericality of time” (let's leave Frisius for a moment, and use a phrase from the Cologne composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann), open up some airways, make it more porous, split it into its integral parts, take it to pieces and then set each fragment in a frame that shows off its facets - perhaps we would find just what we find showcased here on “Noise of Cologne.” This second release in the series opens up another glorious grab-bag of contemporary music from Cologne, turning aside for a moment from the folksier forms of musical tradition to look at the B-side of the city's distinctive sound, the many and varied activities of the free scene. There are still hints of the contrast with the old-established Neue Musik ideals of the past, such as could be heard at moments on “Noise of Cologne”, Part 1, but the artists assembled here have shrugged off much of the burden of the past - we can certainly see this as the latest phase or face of a creative scene that does just as it pleases. Electronica is the common element here, but these artists use modern media, including computer and laptop technology - playing with the tech without needing to break new ground at any price. 16 recording artists, each in his or her own way creating a diverse mash- up from the colourful, kaleidoscopic world that is made in Cologne: Short compositions and miniatures spat out from the computer, sound sculptures and scattered improvisations, Pop Art ornaments and vocal experiments, bone-shaking blare and chilled-out ambient noise, concrete tone poems and unorthodox performances on classical instruments and “found objects.” We are on familiar ground in the here and now, and then in the blink of an eye we are in terra incognita. To an extent, “Noise of Cologne 2” is by now a tradition in its own right, but if we are to hear and make new discoveries, we should keep an open ear. “Noise as cut-up time anno 2013.”
Joachim Ody (Translation: Samuel Willcocks)
Format: CD, Audio
Published by Mark e.V.
Distributed by a-Musik
Sponsored by Kulturamt der Stadt Köln
Releasedate June 2013
P/R Autopilot Publicity
Tracklist:
01.) Andreas Wagner - Schwarm der Mischwesen
P/R Autopilot Publicity
Tracklist:
01.) Andreas Wagner - Schwarm der Mischwesen
02.) Titanoboa - Ante Sapina
03.) Nils Quak - Momente des fragmentierten Lebens
04.) Anthony Moore - Trans Cologne Tramway
05.) Natalie Bewernitz / Marek Goldowski - Heterodyne Visuals 1xy2
06.) Echo Ho - The Song You Hear Is The See
07.) Merzouga - HARBOUR
08.) Gregor Schwellenbach - Timon of Athens
09.) Volker Zander - Reise ins Risorgimento
10.) Lu Katavist - Alsonac
11.) Achim Mohné - LiveSet@Studio672,Cologne (Excerpt)
12.) Harald Sack Ziegler - MFF 100
13.) Bettina Wenzel - plan_b
14.) TreeSpeedMusic - Luziolenschrauber
15.) Therapeutische Hörgruppe Köln - Nectar of the Gods
16.) Hannes Hoelzl - arleBots
