|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
LP
|
|
BB 319LP
|
LP version. "They say that the avant-garde moves faster than light and therefore has to travel under cover of darkness, flying blind, destination unknown. Little of today's realpolitik-related gloom casts its shadow over Strategies, the new album by restless avant-garde auteur Andreas Spechtl. On the contrary. Whereas the two preceding albums Sleep and Thinking About Tomorrow (And How To Build It) (BB 278CD/LP, 2017) documented quietly intimate, personal journeys along the margins of Europe or Iran, casting a skeptical eye on neoteric political shifts, Strategies is an altogether more explosive affair, buzzing with beats, effervescent with the energy of techno, dance, a celebration of resistance. The sense of unease engendered by global politics has given way to a new sense of self, to new strategies, an eagerness to escape into ecstasy, madness, anarchy. Right from the word go, as the first melodies take shape, as the first lines unfold, even as quiet, intimate moments from prior recordings linger on, a piano fades away, a saxophone passes by and then the beats kick in -- an almost anthemic 'yes, we will change the world/because we've done so/many times before' sets the euphoric tone for the rest of the album. And oh, the voice; following its disappearing act on the previous discs, it returns here on a wave of charming dandyism, dancing, screaming, whispering, moaning, striding unwaveringly, casually, aggressively, through techno, tribal and disco beats, scanning lyrics whose palpable, newly-gained coolness might just be a universal antidote against the world's political vacuum. It is also a voice which suddenly switches to Spanish on 'When We Were Young,' joined by Anna Seghers as a ghostly witness. The album was written in Santiago de Querétaro, not far from Mexico City. It was crafted mostly on a modular system and two synthesizers, without VST or digital equipment, the computer downgraded to the status of a mere multitrack recording device. Andreas Spechtl appears to have arrived at the core of his own self, all new, as if he had rewired himself amongst all the modules -- without having even tried to find himself, yet discovering someone in the circuits who had almost been forgotten or would be forgotten again, someone who only existed right there. With the philosophical and musical activism on Strategies he offers us the clearest, most readable signs pointing into the future." --Thomas Köck, January 2019.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
BB 319CD
|
"They say that the avant-garde moves faster than light and therefore has to travel under cover of darkness, flying blind, destination unknown. Little of today's realpolitik-related gloom casts its shadow over Strategies, the new album by restless avant-garde auteur Andreas Spechtl. On the contrary. Whereas the two preceding albums Sleep and Thinking About Tomorrow (And How To Build It) (BB 278CD/LP, 2017) documented quietly intimate, personal journeys along the margins of Europe or Iran, casting a skeptical eye on neoteric political shifts, Strategies is an altogether more explosive affair, buzzing with beats, effervescent with the energy of techno, dance, a celebration of resistance. The sense of unease engendered by global politics has given way to a new sense of self, to new strategies, an eagerness to escape into ecstasy, madness, anarchy. Right from the word go, as the first melodies take shape, as the first lines unfold, even as quiet, intimate moments from prior recordings linger on, a piano fades away, a saxophone passes by and then the beats kick in -- an almost anthemic 'yes, we will change the world/because we've done so/many times before' sets the euphoric tone for the rest of the album. And oh, the voice; following its disappearing act on the previous discs, it returns here on a wave of charming dandyism, dancing, screaming, whispering, moaning, striding unwaveringly, casually, aggressively, through techno, tribal and disco beats, scanning lyrics whose palpable, newly-gained coolness might just be a universal antidote against the world's political vacuum. It is also a voice which suddenly switches to Spanish on 'When We Were Young,' joined by Anna Seghers as a ghostly witness. The album was written in Santiago de Querétaro, not far from Mexico City. It was crafted mostly on a modular system and two synthesizers, without VST or digital equipment, the computer downgraded to the status of a mere multitrack recording device. Andreas Spechtl appears to have arrived at the core of his own self, all new, as if he had rewired himself amongst all the modules -- without having even tried to find himself, yet discovering someone in the circuits who had almost been forgotten or would be forgotten again, someone who only existed right there. With the philosophical and musical activism on Strategies he offers us the clearest, most readable signs pointing into the future." --Thomas Köck, January 2019.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BB 319LTD-LP
|
LP version. Limited edition comes in gatefold sleeve and includes LP booklet; 180 gram vinyl. "They say that the avant-garde moves faster than light and therefore has to travel under cover of darkness, flying blind, destination unknown. Little of today's realpolitik-related gloom casts its shadow over Strategies, the new album by restless avant-garde auteur Andreas Spechtl. On the contrary. Whereas the two preceding albums Sleep and Thinking About Tomorrow (And How To Build It) (BB 278CD/LP, 2017) documented quietly intimate, personal journeys along the margins of Europe or Iran, casting a skeptical eye on neoteric political shifts, Strategies is an altogether more explosive affair, buzzing with beats, effervescent with the energy of techno, dance, a celebration of resistance. The sense of unease engendered by global politics has given way to a new sense of self, to new strategies, an eagerness to escape into ecstasy, madness, anarchy. Right from the word go, as the first melodies take shape, as the first lines unfold, even as quiet, intimate moments from prior recordings linger on, a piano fades away, a saxophone passes by and then the beats kick in -- an almost anthemic 'yes, we will change the world/because we've done so/many times before' sets the euphoric tone for the rest of the album. And oh, the voice; following its disappearing act on the previous discs, it returns here on a wave of charming dandyism, dancing, screaming, whispering, moaning, striding unwaveringly, casually, aggressively, through techno, tribal and disco beats, scanning lyrics whose palpable, newly-gained coolness might just be a universal antidote against the world's political vacuum. It is also a voice which suddenly switches to Spanish on 'When We Were Young,' joined by Anna Seghers as a ghostly witness. The album was written in Santiago de Querétaro, not far from Mexico City. It was crafted mostly on a modular system and two synthesizers, without VST or digital equipment, the computer downgraded to the status of a mere multitrack recording device. Andreas Spechtl appears to have arrived at the core of his own self, all new, as if he had rewired himself amongst all the modules -- without having even tried to find himself, yet discovering someone in the circuits who had almost been forgotten or would be forgotten again, someone who only existed right there. With the philosophical and musical activism on Strategies he offers us the clearest, most readable signs pointing into the future." --Thomas Köck, January 2019.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
BB 278CD
|
Andreas Spechtl's debut album Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It is a multifaceted work. It is personal -- Spechtl invites his listeners to look deep into the soul of his "I". It is rooted in history -- Spechtl constructs an emotional bridge to the cosmic music of Can and the aural sculptures of Conrad Schnitzler. It's also a modern and hybrid work -- Spechtl mines deep strata of sound and samples in his sonic quarry, layering them over a constant bass drum, capable of launching every DJ set into a new space and time continuum. Traditional Persian percussion and string instruments are sampled by Spechtl, rearranged and treated with contemporary beats, filters, and effects. Aural structures rise up in space, as complex as they are fascinating and disorientating. Nevertheless, even-tempered rhythms mark out a more familiar path approaching narratives in recent electronic music. Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It was composed in Tehran, a metropolis of 12 million people and the capital of Iran, often portrayed in the western world as the "Heart of Darkness" or "The Land of Fear". In the winter of 2016/17, Andreas Spechtl spent two months here, during which time he played ten shows in his Tehran studio. Meanwhile, in his adopted home of Berlin, a terrorist attack took place at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz. In reflecting on the other, Spechtl reflects on himself; ruminating on Tehran turns his thoughts to Berlin, from his own to the unknown. A central motif in these ten new songs, the idea of not living in fear of the future, is articulated throughout. The citizens of Tehran understand that things can only get better. "I have always been enchanted by the beauty of language", explains Andreas Spechtl, who grew progressively quieter on "Africa Blvd" in the Persian winter. The less he spoke, the more music became his language, which is why his new album is predominantly instrumental. The future, so optimistically envisioned in so few words by Andreas Spechtl, is created through friction. Andreas Spechtl left behind the contemporary comforts of a frictionless Berlin for a place where language was elusive, yet the intrinsic friction energy of the place was tangible, transformable into hybrid, at times ambient music. Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It is both document and witness, a grand, opulent field recording collated in ten diary entries.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP+CD
|
|
BB 278LP
|
LP version. Includes CD. Andreas Spechtl's debut album Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It is a multifaceted work. It is personal -- Spechtl invites his listeners to look deep into the soul of his "I". It is rooted in history -- Spechtl constructs an emotional bridge to the cosmic music of Can and the aural sculptures of Conrad Schnitzler. It's also a modern and hybrid work -- Spechtl mines deep strata of sound and samples in his sonic quarry, layering them over a constant bass drum, capable of launching every DJ set into a new space and time continuum. Traditional Persian percussion and string instruments are sampled by Spechtl, rearranged and treated with contemporary beats, filters, and effects. Aural structures rise up in space, as complex as they are fascinating and disorientating. Nevertheless, even-tempered rhythms mark out a more familiar path approaching narratives in recent electronic music. Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It was composed in Tehran, a metropolis of 12 million people and the capital of Iran, often portrayed in the western world as the "Heart of Darkness" or "The Land of Fear". In the winter of 2016/17, Andreas Spechtl spent two months here, during which time he played ten shows in his Tehran studio. Meanwhile, in his adopted home of Berlin, a terrorist attack took place at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz. In reflecting on the other, Spechtl reflects on himself; ruminating on Tehran turns his thoughts to Berlin, from his own to the unknown. A central motif in these ten new songs, the idea of not living in fear of the future, is articulated throughout. The citizens of Tehran understand that things can only get better. "I have always been enchanted by the beauty of language", explains Andreas Spechtl, who grew progressively quieter on "Africa Blvd" in the Persian winter. The less he spoke, the more music became his language, which is why his new album is predominantly instrumental. The future, so optimistically envisioned in so few words by Andreas Spechtl, is created through friction. Andreas Spechtl left behind the contemporary comforts of a frictionless Berlin for a place where language was elusive, yet the intrinsic friction energy of the place was tangible, transformable into hybrid, at times ambient music. Thinking About Tomorrow, And How To Build It is both document and witness, a grand, opulent field recording collated in ten diary entries.
|
|
|
|