Noise of Cologne 2 - english info

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 

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