27 April 2021: Bernhard Wostheinrich & Tim Motzer: Schloss Tegal

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.



Recorded live on May 27, 2017, broadcast of Frank Somalus' show at RSD-Radio, Berlin, Germany.


"I remember vividly flying past many tall buildings in Bernhard's sister's speeding old blue convertible and the blur of a vast German boulevard somewhere in former East Berlin. It was a long drive and rather dream-like. I had just finished a European tour with Bandit65 with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Gintas Janusonis, and was now here in Berlin visiting my great friend & colleague Bernhard to play a few shows.
This radio broadcast set was quite inspired. We had not improvised together in quite a long time, perhaps a few years. It was so good to be back in Berlin among friends. I still remember the feeling, as it was the last time I've been there since Covid-19 has taken hold of our planet. Listening to this brings back so many memories, and our performance that day went to amazing places. I believe it to be my favorite concert we've ever done thus far.
We hope you will enjoy this magic sonic ride, filled with mysterious melodic and harmonic sequences, ever shifting driving rhythmic terrain, beauitiful transitions and colours like I've never heard or experienced since. We were so in it. This is so ON! This magic duo. This is a great one folks." - Tim Motzer

credits

Materiaal Series, Vol. XLII   released April 18, 2021

Tim Motzer - guitar, electronics
Bernhard Wöstheinrich - keyboards, live-arrangements, electronics
recorded live in Berlin at RSD-Radio

Mastering: Markus Reuter
Artwork by Christine Kriegerowski (duckwoman.de)

Thank you to Frank Somalus!
www.rsd-radio.com
Tags
 


 

I met Richard Schneider (Schloss Tegal) at Klub 007 in Prague in December 2019, right before the pandemic. Having been invited by Jan Kruml to work together on a radio transmission on Radio 1, I stayed in Prague for some days and had the chance to attend a Schloss Tegal live performance; that night, various musicians from the Prague underground played at the club, including Vladimir Hirsch. After the concert I had some talks with Richard regarding his participation in the compilation "Drone Islands – The Lost Maps" which I was going to release a month later, and I congratulated him on the performance. At the time, I couldn’t imagine that our paths would have crossed again till the moment we talked online about the release of “Musick From Madness” (a document of the early Schloss Tegal productions) through the Eighth Tower Records label.
More than a simple release - though one of historical importance that I’m honored to publish - this publication represents the best way to remember some friends whom I had the pleasure to know and collaborate with: people I could hardly meet in person at the moment.

Raffaele Pezzella

Musick from Madness on Bandcamp

Schloss Tegel was a Berlin-based hospital: see below for more information

credits

releases June 4, 2021

Music by Schloss Tegal (RL Schneider, MW Burch).
RL Schneider: Synth, Samples, Electronics
MW Burch: Tapes, Samples, Electroacoustics
Recorded between 1986 and 1990

Edited by Eighth Tower Records
Originally released on C46 cassette in 1991 by State Of Flux
Mastered by Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst)
Artwork by Black Space Industry
eighthtowerrecords.bandcamp.com
© 2021. All rights reserved
  FreeForm Radio thanks Raffaele Pezzella for providing a promotional copy of this release.

Notes:
Tracks “The Father is Omnipotent”, “I Give Everything to the Devil”, “The Red Skull”, recorded between 1986 and 1990, and previously unreleased.

The original cassette, published by State Of Flux, existed in two editions. In the first, an edition of 25, each copy has a bone glued to the inside cover. The second edition is exactly the same, but without the bone.

A State Of Flux was a label, distributor and radio program on WCUW-FM in Worchester, Massachusetts all run by John Collegio. 
 

1.



2.



3.
Smart Drug 04:26



4.



5.
The Father Is Omnipotent



6.
Ring In Place



7.
Vortex



8.
Natan Speaks



9.
I Give Everything to the Devil



10.
Watch Me Flop Around



11.
The Red Skull
 
 Schloss Tegel was a Berlin-based hospital where disaffected soldiers were treated for exhaustion, depression, and other mental conditions spawned by the very violent and demanding nature of their profession. One would think that, if a post-industrial project known for the darkness embedded in their work chose this as their name, it would be because of the dubious methods used to treat their patients; perhaps the hospital was known for having submitted its subjects to inhumane experiments and practices that were on the verge of being pure psychological and physical torture. Nonetheless, this couldn't be further from the truth. Schloss Tegel was a place where the healing process was approached through music and art therapy. How can a project with such gruesome sound and aesthetics be named after a place of healing and improvement? Can we take it as black humor or as a way to reflect the fractured and foggy state of mind of those who attended such an institution? Having been spawned out of the decaying biomechanical world of early industrial music, which fused technology with primitive impulses to create bleak and harsh soundscapes instead of danceable techno pieces, Schloss Tegal (RL Schneider, MW Burch) released "Musick From Madness" on cassette tape around the early 90s, and despite being their second outing (the first being the Procession of the Dead 7"), it already showcased the elements that would grant them the title of pioneers - or even founders - of the dark ambient genre. We had the paradoxical positioning of harsh and soft textures, obscure samples, a very cinematic presence, and loose song structures that flowed like nightmares from which, as the title of the final track in the seminal "Oranur III" (Tegal Records, 1995) states, you can't wake up. Now, thanks to Raffaele Pezzella’s Eighth Tower Records label, Musick from Madness finally has a proper reissue.
If industrial and some of its offshoots, like the ever-controversial power-electronics, intended to place the listener in the center of a tumbling building being demolished by heavy and rusty machinery, Schloss Tegal aimed to create ethereal wreckage: the structure being explored and subsequently destroyed was not one belonging to an unnamed urban landscape, it was the mind itself. While it still had the raw power of early Throbbing Gristle or Whitehouse, the force with which Schloss Tegal struck was very different; somewhat gentler, but still very unnerving. Every detail and every sample is buried under decaying sound layers that feel as if they are struggling to keep everything underneath, but their presence somehow seeps through the cracks. It is all very subliminal. These suffocating atmospheres came rather naturally to the duo if we are to take into consideration everything they were consuming outside of music. With interests such as the teachings of Satanism, the intricate plots that only conspiracy theories can provide, and a proclivity towards the darker side of human nature manifested in a strong interest in serial killers of the late 70s and 80s, it is no wonder that Schloss Tegal were able to conjure such bleak, yet intriguing, landscapes with little effort. To listen to “Musick From Madness” is to let the darkness take hold and lead us through a slow, overwhelming and spiraling descent into uncharted territory. Beginning with hypnotic pulses and unintelligible samples whose echoes linger through the songs with a ghost-like presence, the album eventually gives in to cacophony; nonetheless, it is all very subtle. It doesn't turn harsh or dissonant, but as it progresses, its persistent, maddening state becomes highly - and dangerously - contagious. The duo were already experts in creating engaging experiences, knowing when to hold back, and when to bring back certain motifs to give us a sense of direction, even if for a brief moment. The goal was never to scare us, but to help us assimilate the darkness within. Parting from that point of view - which one could say is very psychoanalytical - it starts to make sense that this enigmatic duo took their name from a, rather wholesome, mental facility. This is the dichotomy of Schloss Tegal.

Jorge C. Ortega
 



13 April 2021: Ian Boddy, Markus Reuter; Drone Islands

 Be sure to follow FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  This week is the Spring Fund Raiser for Public Radio KMXT; please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.


Outland (DiN66)

Renowned touch guitarist Markus Reuter has been one of the stalwarts of the DiN label, having been there right at the beginning in 1999 with his initial collaboration (Distant Rituals DiN2) with label founder Ian Boddy. Since then he has been involved with several other collaborations with Boddy, as well as with other artists such as Zero Ohms & Bernhard Wöstheinrich.

Looking to do another collaboration with Boddy, Markus composed several long soundscape improvisations over the summer of 2020. The duo realised that with the pandemic they would not be able to physically work together in the same studio this time, as they had with all their previous work. Boddy then took these ambient starting points and using his vintage Roland System 100M modular synthesiser started to arrange, cut up and shape these into a coherent album. As well as a CD release this time both artists wanted this music to be presented on vinyl, so the work was conceived as two long 20 minute suites that would take up one side of a record each.

Each suite is comprised of three distinct sections that seamlessly segue into each other. The music feels like a sonic journey, opening with the grandeur of “Citadel”, before heading off with the rhythmic slice of electronica that is the second track “Parallels”. Interlocking sequence lines and modular rhythmic treatments of Reuters soundscapes propel this piece along overlaid with beautiful guitar parts soaring overhead. The first suite closes with the title track “Outland” with a gentle, yet slightly unsettling atmosphere.

The second side opens with “Brood”, a huge claustrophobic track, before taking a gentle breath before the journey recommences with the beautiful rhythmic piece “Trails” that once again features Reuters trade mark liquid guitar solos. Finally all comes to rest with the end of the album and “Home”. A beautiful pastoral combination of Reuters exquisite guitar playing and Boddys emotive synth solo using his analogue Ondes Martenot style keyboard.

Composed to make the most of the vinyl format the fascinating musical collaboration between Boddy & Reuter continues to produce music of the highest quality.
  
Our thanks to Ian Boddy of DiN for providing a promotional copy of this release.

credits

releases April 16, 2021

All tracks composed, programmed and recorded by Markus Reuter & Ian Boddy
September - October 2020.
Mixed by Ian Boddy November 2020.
Mastered by Lee Fletcher November 2020.


Ian Boddy
Serge & Eurorack modular systems
Roland System 100-M
Moog Voyager & Matriarch
Analogue Systems French Connection
Spectrasonics Omnisphere

Markus Reuter
Touch Guitars® AU and U8 Custom
Electronics
Looping 
 

1.
Citadel 06:24



2.
Parallels 07:32



3.
Outland 06:27



4.
Brood 06:17



5.
Trails 08:33



6.
Home 05:22
 

 
Third volume of the series Drone Islands, "Drone Islands - Stellar" continues Eighth Tower Records' deep explorations into the realm of "drone music". The volume mainly focuses on drones inspired by astronomical events, and were originated through various musical approaches, from the well established synthesizer sounds and onto orchestral arrangements sounding like drones; furthermore, it showcases many young and talented musicians involved in the latest "drone dreamers" wave.
Our thanks to Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst) for providing us with a promotional copy of this release.

credits

released April 2, 2021

REVIEWS

AVANT MUSIC NEWS
avantmusicnews.com/2021/04/03/amn-reviews-various-artists-drone-islands-stellar-2021-eighth-tower-records

Curated and mastered by Raffaele Pezzella (Sonologyst)
Artwork by Francesco Di Stasio
Cat. N. ETR031
© 2021. All rights reserved