PRICE:
$17.00
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1-2 Weeks
ARTIST
TITLE
Liedgut
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
R-N 099CD R-N 099CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
2/3/2009

This is Atom TM's (Uwe Schmidt, Señor Coconut, Atom Heart) debut full-length release for the Raster-Noton label. From a contemporary point of view, Liedgut may be considered a Romantic work. While researching his own past, the artist found himself in the Austro-German time, space, and way of thinking and feeling. Between Nietzsche, Helmholtz, Schubert, and many other guidelines, Atom TM absorbed a universe striving for clarity and simplicity, where science and irrationality, ornament and mathematic purity were the key elements of a (still) oscillating social and mental order. Liedgut therefore oscillates between those poles: scientific exercises on Schubert chord progressions, digital waltzes and romantic lyrics. This research consistently led him to the post-Romantic works of Oskar Sala, Kraftwerk and others, who could be seen as direct heirs of the Romantic movement. Upon completion of the album, Florian Schneider of Kraftwerk contributed a spoken epilogue, commenting that the leitmotiv of Liedgut lies in the track called "Weißes Rauschen" ("White Noise"). For Atom TM, the phenomenon of "white noise" perfectly served as an analog expression of the Romantic dualism: scientifically defined on the one hand, it is also described in a poetic manner, seeking for a more profound meaning. "Wellen und Felder" ("Waves and Fields"), which directly connects to "Weißes Rauschen," similarly refers to both scientific models and philosophic/poetic ideas. Consequently, Atom's research does not stop here, thus managing to convey Liedgut into the present. Both form and content appear to be explicitly new and contemporary, yet "ex-temporary" at the same time.