Browse by Artist: PEKLER, ANDREW

Artist:	PEKLER, ANDREW
Title:	Cue
Label:	KRANKY
Format:	CD
Price:	$13.00
Catalog #:	KRANK 109CD

"From Andrew Pekler: 'Typically, library music albums were not available to the general public but were marketed directly to film, TV and commercial production companies. With this in mind, Andrew Pekler conceived and produced Cue. Starting from short expository phrases setting forth a track's instrumentation, mood and development (reproduced on the back cover), Pekler attempted to construct pieces to fit these specific criteria. During the process of assembly, a track would more often than not evolve beyond its prescribed limits (in these cases, the descriptive blurbs have been updated to reflect the changes). This 'dog walking man' method turned out to be a fertile middle ground between the micro-managed jazz miniatures of Nocturnes, False Dawns & Breakdowns (2004) and the expansive improvisations of Strings + Feedback (2005) and may help to explain why Cue sounds very little like its predecessors. On the whole, it is a vibrant, playful album with the occasional somber passage providing some contrast to the predominantly ebullient tone. Piano and analog synthesizer sounds abound while percussion (when used) is typically reduced to a minimum of tom toms, bells and unidentified noises. Feedback can be heard in almost every track but taking on more subtle textural roles, guitars get the occasional spotlight and men are wearing pastels again this spring. It should be noted that Cue is not an attempt to re-create, re-imagine or re-contextualize library music of past eras. It is not a post-modern exercise in citation, juxtaposition or collage. The attempt to re-create the 'style' of library music would be pointless anyway as the music found on library records does not adhere to any distinct stylistic or aesthetic formula. Instead, library music can be defined by the formal constraints pertaining to its mode of production and it is the appropriation and application of these same constraints that have enabled and inspired Andrew Pekler to produce the music for this album."

Artist:	PEKLER, ANDREW
Title:	Station To Station
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 011CD

"On this, his first album under his own name, Andrew Pekler deals with the possibilities of combining the precise funk of machines with the unpolished playing of human hands. With an appreciation for the early jazz/electronics experiments of Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and Sun Ra, but also with an interest in the use of sounds devoid of obvious musical-historical references, Andrew Pekler offers an interesting variation on the theme of man/machine interplay. Until now Andrew, a California native living in Heidelberg, was known for his involvement in Sad Rockets (Source/ Matador) and Bergheim 34 (Klang Elektronik). His relocation to Berlin in the Fall of 2001 brought with it not only a change of scenery but also new acquaintances, contacts and musical interests all of which combined, inspired the making of Station to Station. While tracks like 'First Snow, Last Year' suggest the influence of Berlin´s urban dub history, 'Manchild' is centered around the inspired saxophone playing of Elliott Levin. A veteran of Cecil Taylor's big band, Levin is among Philadelphia´s most free spirited jazz musicians, having played with members of the Sun Ra Arkestra and in various improve and experimental settings. This process of retro-fitting a track onto an improvised performance, (done on several pieces here) is indicative of the changeover from recording in real time onto analog tape, as with Andrew Pekler´s previous Sad Rockets records, to the programming of tracks and hard disk recording, (and the range of possibilities this brings with it) on this album. Similar to the music of Burnt Friedman, the tracks here break up the repetitiveness of their grooves with tiny details and variations. The somewhat static norms of loop based music are relaxed through the use of 'imprecise', (but not random) accents. The music does in fact travel from station to station, but along the way takes detours, shortcuts and a few surprising turns.?"

Artist:	PEKLER, ANDREW
Title:	Nocturnes, False Dawns & Breakdowns
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 025CD

"One and a half years after new Berliner Andrew Pekler, a former Californian and proud purveyor of a solid indie background ('Mucus 2', 'Bergheim 34', 'Sad Rockets'), had surprised the world with his very own atmospheric blend of click & cuts aesthetics and sampled analog jazz sounds on his astonishing, self-titled ~scape debut album, he now presents us with his second, rather more ambitious coup. All 14 tracks on Nocturnes, False Dawns & Breakdowns play with and around different facets of urban noir sentiments. The night has many faces from the promise of excess to social gatherings under the club dictate and the alcohol-induced, melancholy mildness of the 'wee small hours of the morning' (Sinatra), to name but a few of the myriad possible associations. Nevertheless Nocturnes, False Dawns & Breakdowns heads down a different, far more contemplative route. Not only did Andrew Pekler's produce his tracks at night, but he allows them to reflect and reproduce the prevailing nocturnal mood. But unlike the above-mentioned associations, this album is about individual experience, circling around terms like introspection, clarity or concentration. And this is something all of us have experienced at one point or other: the later the night, the less we are assaulted by external input or exposed to ever-present, ambient noise and this changes perception, throwing us back upon yourself. With titles like 'Soft Dissolve', 'Stardusting', 'Leaden Lids' or 'Sleepless' this particular state suffuses Pekler's tracks, leaving a lot to the listener's imagination. As on 'Station to Station' Pekler's language might superficially hint at the heroic phase of late 60s/early 70s electronic fusion jazz. With the drums high up in the mix, accompanied by threatening keyboard clusters, the resulting sound is decidedly reminiscent of the open textures of classic Miles Davis records like In a Silent Way or Bitches Brew, even early Weather Report like 'I Sing the Body Electric'. While Peklar's sound might remind you of the soundscapes of collectively produced (and improvised!) music, he on the other hand prefers to work on a bricolage of found material which in turn helps to artfully open up further spaces. What, at a cursory listen, might seem easily categorizable, suddenly gains depth, indifference and richness. Like motifs, his distinct repetitive brass or vibraphone loops add enough recognition value, but these embellishments only mask a veritable abyss of diversity most of Peklar's sampling material hails from the analog jazz of the late 50s. With this album Andrew Pekler proves that historical sounds cannot be deleted from the memory of a declared fan of music. Everything remains in place, preserved in wax, hidden, but not gone, just like the subconscious. Should we call this electronica? Or jazz, after all? Pop, even? Well, pigeon-holing has never been less important."

Artist:	PEKLER, ANDREW
Title:	Strings + Feedback
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 062CD

California-transplant to Berlin Andrew Pekler's third full-length and first release on Staubgold. On his two previous albums (released on the Scape label) Pekler led his listeners on a random walk through the clear and mysterious air of a metropolis at midnight. There he met with a form of jazz one may be familiar with from French films of the 1950s. He picked up this music's narrative and re-told it to the listener by adding a lively tinge of digital contrasts. Those two albums may be taken as necessary starting points for him to arrive at Strings + Feedback. The ten tracks on this new album embark on an excursion into the direct vicinity of sounds and into the inner life of the mixing desk. It is here where sounds are organized, where they all must pass through, that Pekler develops his breathtaking signal flow. Inside his mixing console, Pekler forces a conversation between a few string and piano samples (taken mostly from Morton Feldman's work in the 1950s), forcing unpredictable encounters, intensification and distortion. If Pekler on his previous albums appeared as a minute observer who knows how to describe even the most delicate atmospheric conditions through music, then on Strings + Feedback he has become an intermediary between sound worlds. Similar to the imaginary circuit diagram on the album's cover, Pekler's pieces leave the safe and beaten tracks on which most specialists tread and instead create open-ended and yet-to-be-discovered paths which cannot be described through the logic of a manual. It may be unintentional that the cover design is reminiscent of the 1960s Situationist's visionary city maps, but it matches Pekler's approach as he creates a new topography by re-organizing existing sound material. In the words of Yoko Ono: "Draw a map to get lost."

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