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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
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
 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. 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 |
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