Browse by Artist: KLIMEK

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Dedications
Label:	ANTICIPATE
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	ANTICIP 004CD

Sebastian Meissner of Frankfurt/Main, is a conceptual media artist, composer, sound designer and photographer, and this is his third full-length release under his Klimek alias, and his first for the Anticipate label. Klimek has been building up his reputation through a slew of releases and compilation appearances on Cologne's revered Kompakt -- an institution as much as a label. Always one to embrace change and a new challenge, Sebastian Meissner realized that the Anticipate label would be an ideal home for the follow-up to 2006's Music To Fall Asleep -- an album that cemented Meissner as one of the most interesting post-Eno composers of narcoleptic yet enthralling drift music. With Dedications, Meissner devotes each track to two of his musical idols, from Michael Gira to Steven Spielberg to Marvin Gaye. But these influences are not simply conglomerated and rehashed into a form of faux-originality; instead, they are distilled and deconstructed until only their purest elements remain. On "For Mark Hollis & Giacinto Scelsi," the opening chord of Hollis' "Colour of Spring," from his faultless self-titled album, is held in stasis to breaking point, exposing every beautiful nuance of what could be described as a "perfect" chord. This slowed-down perception of time is something that haunts all of Meissner's work as Klimek, when he is not busying himself under another of his many aliases including Bizz Circuits, Random Industries and Random_Inc. Rather than just focusing on an aesthetic beauty, upon listening it feels as if there is a greater purpose to this music -- perhaps it exists to remind the listener to slow down and focus on the finer details of their own life, perhaps it is simply a tool to relax the listener into contemplative sleep. Whatever its purpose, in its hazy soundscapes and muffled pianos, Dedications is music with a message.

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Movies Is Magic
Label:	ANTICIPATE
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	ANTICIP 008CD

This is Klimek's (Sebastian Meissner) second full-length release for the Anticipate label, the follow-up to 2007's Dedications. Movies Is Magic deals both directly and peripherally with ideas of film music: its purpose, its meaning, its uses. Though the music is furthered by the concepts underpinning it, it stands on its own two sonic feet with swathes and swells of cinematic, expansive melodies: from the bold to the understated, the shades of grey to the brightly direct, the string-laden to the piano-driven -- some with sprinkles of subtle percussion and others which run through the barest of themes in order to produce giant results. Movies Is Magic renders itself as a comment on the idea of cinema sound, which brings it into a present-day home-listening experience that is more concerned with conjuring new images than accompanying existing ones. Resonating in myriad directions, the traces of its musical, conceptual and visual inspirations remain, haunting the complete work. This confluence of cultural influences and sound productions is an indication of where Movies Is Magic takes both the listener and the artist behind the experience. Like an orchestra restructured in the digital domain, the remnants at the core of each piece lend themselves less to conservatory comparisons than filmic ones. Ambiences reside inside, but are never left untouched or undeveloped, subverting expectations and leaving trails of themselves long after each song ends. Large, picturesque settings produce emotionally-compelling mini-narratives, while warm, open progressions balance with the multi-layered shadows that are expected from a Klimek album. A careful percussive phrase, the occasional menacing horn, a tentatively sustained tone, or vocal murmurs arrange these pieces between intersecting musical camps, while rustling backgrounds creep up to remind one where they stand. The material is the product of a variety of allegiances and alliances: from soundtracks to the range of electro-acoustic and electronic sensibilities that produce such works as these, the multiples of moods and directions all further the frame of the project and the Klimek sound. The CD comes packaged with a 14"x9" fold-out poster with an alternate cover photo image -- revealing another layer of the release -- and an essay detailing the full scope of Movies Is Magic.

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Movies Is Magic (Extended Version)
Label:	ANTICIPATE
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.50
Catalog #:	ANTICIP 010LP

Frankfurt/Main-based conceptual media artist, composer, sound designer and photographer Sebastian Meissner continues his critically-acclaimed Movies Is Magic project (ANTICIP 008CD) with an extended version of the album, containing completely new tracks and alternate versions of several others, all of which are seeing vinyl for the first time. Retaining the qualities at the root of the project, Meissner brings it to new places with the vocal contributions of Ursula Maurer, Marta Collica and Hugo Race (of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds fame), respectively. Adding a bit of pop sensibility to densely-reworked arrangements completes the trajectory, complementing the soundtrack by exhibiting Klimek variations of downtempo and house music -- variations which manage to feel like looming cinematic excursions that are still tethered to the ground by percussion progressions and the complex qualities of the voices who collaborated. Like an orchestra restructured in the digital domain, the remnants at the core of each piece lend themselves less to conservatory comparisons than filmic ones. Ambiences reside inside, but are never left untouched or undeveloped, subverting expectations and leaving trails of themselves long after each song ends. Large, picturesque settings produce emotionally compelling mini-narratives, while warm, open progressions balance with the multi-layered shadows that are expected from a Klimek album. A careful percussive phrase, the occasional menacing horn, a tentatively-sustained tone, or renching vocal murmur arrange these pieces between intersecting musical camps, while rustling backgrounds creep up to remind one where they stand. The material is the product of a variety of allegiances and alliances: from soundtracks to the range of electro-acoustic and electronic sensibilities that produce such works as these, the multiples of moods and directions all further the frame of the project and the Klimek sound. This vinyl package comes with a new front cover, a double sleeve, and includes an essay which was part of the original CD package (now arriving larger, on one side of the inner 12" sleeve). The essay, album and track titles take direct inspiration from Slavoj Zizek, whose analysis of cinema was a strong beginning point for the project.

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Milk & Honey
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	KOM 061EP

"It's so hot that you can neither think, talk, nor even move. Your clothes are sticking on your body like a cheap shower curtain. Your breath is slow and deep. There is a deep silence. Midges are being chased by low-flying swallows. But it's going to happen, soon. You can feel it- first still far away, hardly noticeable. But it will come. The fresh breeze brings the rain. The lightning hurrying ahead of the thunder. This infatuating spectacle uniting force and beauty. Salvation. You'd better listen to this record either before, during or after thunderstorms, At the crack of dawn or dusk. File under: acoustic guitar pop ambient. The artist stays anonym."

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Listen, The Snow Is Falling
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	KOM 125EP

One of the most ambitious and elegant pop ambient artists is back. Klimek is Sebastian Meissner, also known as Autopoieses, from his work with Ekkehard Ehlers on Mille Plateaux. The absolutely artistically precious Klimek seamlessly follows up his album masterpiece -- Milk & Honey -- with the EP on hand, Listen, The Snow Is Falling. While the main subject of Milk & Honey was the guitar, the following five tracks are based on the harp recordings of an art friend.

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Milk & Honey
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	KOMP 033CD

"Sebastian Meissner, living in Frankfurt/Main, is a concept artist, composer, sound designer and photographer and presents his newest musical oeuvre with Milk & Honey. After very considered works for labels such as Mille Plateaux, Sub Rosa, Beta Bodega or Cronica he installs his project Klimek on Kompakt, which also has an optical correspondence from the acoustic expression published as a multimedia performance. Meissner's works are mainly concerned with 'the coincidence in digital music compositions', which in case of his Klimek projects are based on the most classic of all analog soundsources: the guitar. These slow motion-like soundshapes unfold a feeling of boundless width and contemplatively silence. The effect is not far from the Kompakt pop ambient sound: pictures, references, associations appear in front of our imaginary eye. With Milk & Honey they don't live on the memory treasure called pop, but rather from the classical roadmovie or even the best times of the Italian western. Meissner rather refers to the country where milk and honey flows, which is reflected on the coverartwork and in the Quicktime movie contained on the CD version. His photographs also form the raw material for the multimedia installations. The least common denominator of roadmovie and western is the desert; this album sounds as if a lonely guitar -- scattered to the four winds -- escapes the ear. It is a perfect soundtrack for a sultry night of thunderstorm, one of the nights we may expect again next summer. Music for the romantic side of the climatic disaster."

Artist:	KLIMEK
Title:	Music To Fall Asleep
Label:	KOMPAKT (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	KOMP 050CD

Sebastian Meissner (aka Klimek), living in Frankfurt/Main, is a concept artist, composer, sound designer and photographer, and this is his second full-length release on Kompakt. The follow up to the critically-acclaimed 2005 full length Milk & Honey, Music To Fall Asleep breathes new life to the world of indie-folk and ambient. Meissner's perseverance to the progression of contemporary music and use of found sounds has taken listeners on journeys to Jerusalem, deep inside the turmoil of the Palestinian conflict as his alter-ego Random Industries, and inside his diverse record crate with an ironic deconstruction of the post-digital genre as Bizz Circuits. Also, Meissner grapples the task of defining Noir in digital music alongside Ekkehard Ehlers in Autopoieses. Klimek follows in the traditional vein of pop ambient, while convincingly creating a scenario where one could imagine Gas in a recording session with David Grubbs putting together the soundtrack for a future David Lynch film. The acoustic guitar returns -- a mingling of harmonious picking alongside the soothing tide of his subtle strums. As the title suggests, Music To Fall Asleep paints the picture of a nocturnal landscape -- envision the faintest whispers of twilight as the hue of the sun falls below the earth, as the sandman beckons you to bed.

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