Browse by Artist: PYROLATOR

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Neuland/1
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	BB 082EP

Pyrolator (Kurt Dahlke) is back, after a hiatus of 24 years, on lurid, yellow 12" vinyl. Dahlke is currently using a Monome as an input device, programming a kind of matrix of rhythms, chords and melodies. He likes to work with loops, refining them and piecing them together. The Lightning II enables him to translate the various musical parameters by means of two rods and movements in the air. This allows him to control everything -- pitch, filters, length of the pieces, etc.

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Neuland/2
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$12.50
Catalog #:	BB 083EP

Pyrolator (Kurt Dahlke) is back with pure electronic club music gold, continuing the "land" series of his solo albums (Inland, Ausland, Wunderland, Traumland). As the artist himself describes: "I am currently using the Monome as an input device. I program a kind of matrix of rhythms, chords and melodies. I like to work with loops, refining them bit by bit, piecing them together. Music created through programming is nothing like the music I would come up with on a keyboard."

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Neuland
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 084CD

Pyrolator (Kurt Dahlke) is back, after a hiatus of 24 years! And he delivers pure electronic club music gold. If the name Pyrolator is new to you, here, he explains everything: "I have been a solo performer for a long while already, but the pieces I play are not entirely suited to the medium of LP or CD. They are either created as multi-channel sound or are heavily dependent on visuals. Nevertheless, I have always had a secret love of more club-oriented music. Since the mid-'90s, I have often produced or remixed projects like Antonelli Electr., Repeat Orchestra, Kreidler or Rocket In Dub. I had a lot of fun in the process, so I began to introduce elements like these into my live repertoire. They always went down really well, which gave me the idea of releasing something along those lines." On the title: "First and foremost, it continues the 'land' series of my solo albums (1979's Inland, 1981's Ausland, 1984's Wunderland, 1987's Traumland). Neuland was always pencilled in as the title for my fifth solo album." On constructing the album: "Basically in the same way as all of the other Pyrolator albums. I only played a really small portion of the music on the keyboard. I first used 'Brontologik,' a kind of flexible sequencer, on Ausland. In those days, it still counted as hardware. Today, it's software, something I have developed continuously over the years. I am currently using the 'Monome' as an input device. I program a kind of matrix of rhythms, chords and melodies. I like to work with loops, refining them bit by bit, piecing them together. Music created through programming -- composition, one might say -- is simply nothing like the music I would come up with on a keyboard." On live performance: "For me, it is important that I have the flexibility to intervene in the music, hence I work with two special controllers. The 'Lightning II,' on the one hand, enables me to translate the various musical parameters by means of two rods and movements in the air. This allows me to control everything I need in the computer -- pitch, filters, length of the pieces etc. The other controller, the 'Manta,' reacts sensitively to any contact and thus gives rise to the most delicate of melodies, as well as facilitating other control functions."

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Neuland
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 084LP

LP version. Pyrolator (Kurt Dahlke) is back, after a hiatus of 24 years! And he delivers pure electronic club music gold. If the name Pyrolator is new to you, here, he explains everything: "I have been a solo performer for a long while already, but the pieces I play are not entirely suited to the medium of LP or CD. They are either created as multi-channel sound or are heavily dependent on visuals. Nevertheless, I have always had a secret love of more club-oriented music. Since the mid-'90s, I have often produced or remixed projects like Antonelli Electr., Repeat Orchestra, Kreidler or Rocket In Dub. I had a lot of fun in the process, so I began to introduce elements like these into my live repertoire. They always went down really well, which gave me the idea of releasing something along those lines." On the title: "First and foremost, it continues the 'land' series of my solo albums (1979's Inland, 1981's Ausland, 1984's Wunderland, 1987's Traumland). Neuland was always pencilled in as the title for my fifth solo album." On constructing the album: "Basically in the same way as all of the other Pyrolator albums. I only played a really small portion of the music on the keyboard. I first used 'Brontologik,' a kind of flexible sequencer, on Ausland. In those days, it still counted as hardware. Today, it's software, something I have developed continuously over the years. I am currently using the 'Monome' as an input device. I program a kind of matrix of rhythms, chords and melodies. I like to work with loops, refining them bit by bit, piecing them together. Music created through programming -- composition, one might say -- is simply nothing like the music I would come up with on a keyboard." On 180 gram vinyl; includes free download code.

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Inland
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 097LP

LP version. Pyrolator's Inland (originally released in 1979) provides musical commentary on the late '70s in West Germany, with its undercurrent of paranoia and violence. Inland is one of the most radical, modern and unconciliatory albums of its, or any other, time. The cover for Inland illustrates this atmosphere: tones of grey and brown instead of '70s bliss. The political situation in West Germany is at its most volatile. The war between the Rote Armee Fraktion (RAF) and the State escalated two years before. The spirit of departure which characterized the early years of government by Willy Brandt and the socialist-liberal coalition, dissolved in the so-called "years of lead." Taking part in a demonstration against occupational bans could lead to the very same, and the chances of falling into a terrorist manhunt or staring a gun in the face were not so slim, particularly for young people. Pyrolator's aim was to make a protest album, one detached from all convention. A total absence of common musical structure and an unfiltered rush of sound recordings create a nightmarish, claustrophobic atmosphere. Pyrolator used a Korg MS20, SQ10 sequencer, B20R home organ, a Davolisint synthesizer, a Logan string orchestra and a dual-channel tape machine. Inland is both a rejection of the new form of protest song, the throaty, despairing scream of punk rock, and a rejection of the traditional form of protest song as nurtured far into the 1980s by the bards of the green, alternative milieu. Furthermore, there is another side to Inland: a desire for something new, a passion for experimentation, seeking to extend one's own horizon and that of others. This desire runs through all of Pyrolator's work, from his Inland debut to his 2011 release Neuland (BB 084CD). Thus Inland remains, in spite of its protests and rejections, a positive album. For inherent in every "no" is a "yes" to something else. Maybe something better.

Artist:	PYROLATOR
Title:	Ausland
Label:	BUREAU B (GERMANY)
Format:	LP
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	BB 098LP

LP version. Just two years separate Pyrolator's 1979 debut Inland and the 1981 album Ausland. Nevertheless, they could hardly be more different from one another. If Inland reflects the industrial decay and politically-explosive atmosphere of 1977 and the years thereafter in the Federal Republic of Germany, then Ausland is a buoyant, playful and yet groundbreaking pop album. There had been some significant developments since 1979. The Ata Tak label, which Pyrolator had co-founded, had hit a rich vein of form with the debut album by Der Plan (Pyrolator was also a band member), Andreas Dorau's hit single "Fred Vom Jupiter" and Holger Hiller's debut single. Pyrolator made his first trip to the USA, travelling the land from east to west over a period of three months. This all paved the way for the production of Ausland and pointed the way ahead for the Ata Tak label as well. On the West coast, Pyrolator met up with the Los Angeles Free Music Society (LAFMS), a collective in the process of exploring the frontiers between noise and industrial on the one hand and easy listening on the other. It was the influence of such free spirits which opened up the Ata Tak world and that of Pyrolator to "Schlager" and its American equivalent, easy listening. This mix of electronic elements and supposedly left-field pop music of times past runs through the Ata-Tak oeuvre and, with the benefit of hindsight, can be identified as the label's trademark. A further difference to Inland is that a long list of musicians participated in the Ausland recordings. In the USA, Pyrolator played together with designer Chris Lunch and his brother as support act for the likes of DNA and X. This moved Pyrolator to decide that he would not produce his next album alone, but with other musicians and technicians. With the help of the genius Werner Lambertz, inventor of "Brontologik," a forerunner of midi systems, and Ata Tak and Der Plan cohort Frank Fenstermacher, Pyrolator recorded the backing tracks on which other musicians would subsequently play their overdubs. The critics were in agreement when Ausland was released. From the progressive Sounds to the rather more traditional Musikexpress, all the way to the British New Musical Express (NME), the album met with universal praise. NME heralded Pyrolator as a "great pioneer" and quite right, too. He is still a pioneer today. Vinyl contains 6 bonus tracks, mastered from the original tapes.

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