Zeitkratzer
Zeitkratzer is a Berlin ensemble for new and improvised music, founded in 1997 by the pianist Reinhold Friedl, who still leads it. Its players come from contemporary music, noise, pop and folk, and the group is known for acoustic versions of electronic and noise works, above all its transcription of Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music. In 2002 the ensemble played an acoustic transcription of Metal Machine Music in Berlin with Reed on guitar; the recording came out on Asphodel in 2007, and a full four-part version from two Italian concerts in 2012 followed on the group's own label.
![Noise \ ... [Lärm]](https://cdn.soundohm.com/data/products/2025-05/MTgyNy5qcGVn.500.jpg)
Noise \ ... [Lärm]
2002 release ** "noise\ ... [lärm] consists of five performances from the avant-garde ensemble for compositions created by three Noise musicians: the legendary Masami Akita (who performs on his two compositions, "Crack Groove" & "Yahowa Stackridge"), the equally as legendary Zbigniew Karkowski (responsible for "Monochromy" & "White," the latter of which Karkowski remixes), & Dror Feiler (responsible for "L'extension du domaine de la lutte")."
Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation
2007 release ** "Reinhold Friedl’s “Schoenberg Pierrot Lunaire Cheap Imitation“ is exactly what the title says: an endless funny parody of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire, a composition often taken far too seriously. At the same time, it is a compositional condensation of Schönberg’s techniques, conducted in a great way by trumpet player Franz Hautzinger from Vienna, a longtime-member of zeitkratzer; sung by the soprano Marcus Weiser, who succeeded already in Berlin as a singer under the name Mark …
Scarlatti
zeitkratzer director Reinhold and his ensemble present new compositions, grounded on Domenico Scarlatti's piano sonata F-minor K.466. Commissioned by the dance company Rubato and dedicated to Mario Bertoncini (1932-2019).
James Tenney
By Zeitkratzer director Reinhold Friedl's personal request now available on vinyl for the first time: Zeitkratzer's critically acclaimed interpretations of groundbreaking compositions by James Tenney.James Tenney (1934 - 2006) was a composer, music theorist and pioneer especially in the field of microtonal music, being an influential part of the so-called New York avantgarde scene (Cage, Feldman). Besides his compositonal work, Tenney was teacher at various universities with students like Charle…
Alvin Lucier
Alvin Lucier (1931 – 2021) was one of the most influential American minimalists. Some call him "sound physician" as his compositions are often based on acoustic research settings. His pieces tend to turn inside-out the properties of space and instruments: poems based on acoustic settings! zeitkratzer worked with the composer in Dijon, France in 2008, and presented his music in various places. These recordings have been realized at Philharmonie Luxembourg that turned out to be the ideal space for…
Electronics
Presenting a third volume of collaborative works between European avant garde ensemble Zeitkratzer and modern electronic composers. On this release, Zeitkratzer cooperates with legendary Japanese noise artist, Keiji Haino. The Berliner Zeitung had the following to say about this mind-melting collaboration: "They had only rehearsed for three days, but the result was mind-blowing. Haino made music on the guitar and on the drums, on electronic devices, on two Theremins and with his wonderfully chan…
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The Shape of Jazz to Come
Zeitkratzer keeps on being good for a surprise and finally goes jazz! Looking at the line-up of the "modern composition supergroup" (The Wire) it seems astonishing that it took so long: Saxophonists Frank Gratkowski and Hayden Chisholm both won independently the German radio SWR Jazz award, the French horn virtuoso Hild Sofie Tafjord grew up with jazz, as her father and uncle are members of Norwegian jazz group Brazz Brothers, Hilary Jeffery toured with numerous jazz musicians, as did drummer Ma…
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Performs Songs from 'Kraftwerk 2' and 'Kraftwerk'
**500 copies** Not to be confused with the first volume released by Karlrecords in 2017, here comes the second installment of 'modern composition supergroup' - as nailed down by The Wire - Zeitkratzer's re-interpretations of early compositions by electronic pioneers Kraftwerk. Founded in 1997 by Reinhold Friedl, Zeitkratzer have since been creating an impressive broad catalogue of recordings, from the obligatory (20th Century avant-garde composers like Cage, Stockhausen or Lucier) to the unexpec…
Agitation | Stagnation
Double CD, the first one containing Zeitkratzer's instrumental interpretation of Kasper Toeplitz's electronic score from Disc 2. Though these works are intended to be heard separately, the two discs can also be played simultaneously"The idea behind the composition for the Zeitkratzer ensemble, "Agitation / Stagnation", was from the very beginning to work in the pure sonic domain, and not to give to the musicians a score written on paper (be it in traditional notation or some more fancy graphic w…
Plays PRES
“CD • 12-page multifolded insert • digipack. Polish Radio Experimental Studio is the first official series of CD releases dedicated to the music produced in the legendary Studio. Established in 1957 by Józef Patkowski, it was among the first institutions of that kind in the world with only Paris, Cologne and Milano preceding the Warsaw one. Despite that, unlike their foreign colleagues who quickly became the most important figures of the XX century music, Polish composers working in the Studio a…
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"Kraftwerk" And "Kraftwerk 2"
Founded in 1997 by Reinhold Friedl, Zeitkratzer have since been creating an impressive catalogue of recordings that embraces 20th century avant-garde composers (Cage, Stockhausen, Lucier) as well as electronic artists (Carsten Nicolai, Terre Thaemlitz) or underground experimentalists like Throbbing Gristle or Column One. In their 20th anniversary year, the critically acclaimed ensemble will release a series of diverse albums that will explore new grounds in the typical, adventurous zeitkratzer w…
Whitehouse
Karlrecords presents the second collaboration between the critically acclaimed ensemble zeitkratzer and the legendary power electronics and afro noise pioneer William Bennett (Whitehouse, Cut Hands). Music with crystal clear, even neurosurgical precision -- pure acoustic power! The floor vibrates with deep bass frequencies, produced by the huge orchestral drum, the beaten bass strings of the piano, and sub-tones of the horns, while high piping sounds from amplified violin harmonics and bitt…
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Oneirika
Reinhold Friedl's Zeitkratzer proves the perfect ensemble for Oneirika, avant-garde veteran Elliott Sharp's composition/soundscape inspired by Cageian tradition that premiered at Maerzmusik Festival 2014. Zeitkratzer worked with Elliott Sharp for the first time in 1997, and have since been releasing several cooperations, including two duo releases of Zeitkratzer mastermind Reinhold Friedl and Elliott Sharp. Over the last 40 years the avant-garde musician has created an immense oeuvre: he ha…
Duft
On their 3rd LP for Poland’s Bocian Records, the Zeitkratzer Ensemble directed by Reinhold Friedl yield two knife-edge pieces recorded live at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, September 30th, 2015. A-side is a performance of Gilles Sivilotto’s Handmade 02, meaning a 15 minute transition from sleigh bells and arrhythmic string scrapes into structuring, creaking rhythms and banks of atonal clangour, developing into a serious caterwaul akin to a busy factory cosign to the end of its day. The …
Serbian War Songs
Zeitkratzer and its special guests Svetlana Spajic (voice), Dragana Tomic (voice) and Obrad Milic (voice, diple, gusle) present traditional Serbian songs from and about World War I. Within its 20 years of existence, Reinhold Friedl’s ensemble Zeitkratzer has proved its interpretatory mastership on a wide range of fields such as contemporary / avant-garde composers, electronic artists, industrial underground – and, probably most surprising on this list, also in traditional music / folklor…
Zeitkratzer + Keiji Haino
One of the most prolific artists of the Japanese experimental noise scene, Keiji Haino teams up for his 2nd album with the critically acclaimed ensemble Zeitkratzer. Frenetic musical material, wild and beautiful. On his second release with Zeitkratzer, the enigmatic icon of the Japanese noise experimental scene Keiji Haino concentrates solely on his voice. No electronics are used except for amplification. Nevertheless, this live recording is even more radical than the first one ('Electronic…
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Zeitkratzer Performs Songs From
Founded in 1997 by Reinhold Friedl, Zeitkratzer have since been creating an impressive catalogue of recordings that embraces 20th century avant-garde composers (Cage, Stockhausen, Lucier) as well as electronic artists (Carsten Nicolai, Terre Thaemlitz) or underground experimentalists like Throbbing Gristle or Column One. In their 20th anniversary year, the critically acclaimed ensemble will release a series of diverse albums that will explore new grounds in the typical, adventurous zeitkratzer w…
Grand orchestra
Grand Orchestra, for mixed orchestra and bagpipes. Composed and directed by Reinhold Friedl. Performed by zeitkratzer & guest at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, August 21, 2011. The score for Grand Orchestra has been developed for musicians, laymen, old people, children, adolescents, for anyone who likes to join in. Grand Orchestra is not for education. It's not about explaining, intellectual understanding or the training of cultural values; rather it's about having faith in the abilities an…
Stockhausen - Aus den Sieben Tagen
180-gram LP version in gatefold sleeve. Includes download code. Edition of 500. The third collaboration between Keiji Haino, one of the most prolific artists of the Japanese experimental/noise scene, and the critically acclaimed zeitkratzer ensemble, comprising stunning interpretations of Stockhausen compositions. When Keiji Haino heard zeitkratzer rehearsing for their Stockhausen performance at the Ruhrtriennale festival, he spontaneously decided to join the group for that part of the program…
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Saturation
Poland’s Bocian reunite with zeitkratzer ensemble to present a difficult but hugely rewarding piece by influential Polish composer Zbigniew Karkowski, backed with Reinhold Friedl’s personal tribute to Ianis Xenakis. Both sides contain important, demanding, and foundational works in the zeitkratzer canon, which now stretches to 15 years of neo-classical interpretation and original composition with some of extreme and forward-thinking music’s greatest.Zbigniew Karkowski’s Monochromy - his first pi…
Column One: Entropium
Five compositions by the Berlin based electroacoustic / industrial collective Column One in stunning interpretations by Zeitkratzer, recorded live at Berghain during MaerzMusik 2012. Within their nearly 2 decades of existence, zeitkratzer have gained high reputation for their unique approach, their outstanding and internationally acclaimed members and their adventurous projects that include collaborations with noise musicians like Merzbow and Zbigniew Karkowski, rock’n’roll experimentalists like…
Lou Reed : Metal Machine Music
About 10 years after their first, critically acclaimed performances of Lou Reed's adventurous album, Zeitkratzer presents an audacious new interpretation of this 20th century avant-garde classic. Here, for the first time ever, all four parts of Metal Machine Music played by Zeitkratzer on one recording! Seriously clangorous! This new version of Metal Machine Music is even more transparent, instrumentally pure and radical than the shortened 2007 release; live recordings from concerts in Rome and…
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Songs
Zeitkratzer releasing "songs"? Isn't Zeitkratzer a contemporary music group? Or a noise band? Songs? These songs actually have been developed over several years and evolved from a fashion show zeitkratzer was making the music for. Marc Weiser a.k.a. rechenzentrum, since then a member of zeitkratzer, sings. Marc has already caused some furore as Mark Markowitch, singing fake songs in fake languages in some hidden Berlin bars. So now all of those together: zeitkratzer's noise, zeitkratzer's…
Neue Volksmusik
he zeitkratzer project Neue Volksmusik (new folk music) is more of a reflex to, rather than a reflection on folk music. This is because the ensemble does not play specific music with any sense of distance. On the contrary, zeitkratzer is taking possession of folk music in its essence. This means that they continue a tradition which folk musics all have in common: constant transformation. No form of authentic folk music can ever be about conservation as a fixed medium, destined for a museu…
(Old school) Karlheinz Stockhausen
This is the fourth release in the series [old school]. The first three CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009], James Tenney [zkr0010] and Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] have been highly acclaimed. London's Wire Magazine wrote: 'The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.' The new release is dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.' 'I do not want a spiritualistic session. I want music.' Karlheinz St…
(Old school) Alvin Lucier
The internationally acclaimed 'hilarious releases' [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records go on. This is the third release in the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] have been highly acclaimed. London's Wire Magazine wrote: 'The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.' The new release is dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier. In 20…
Fresh
The zeitkratzer ensemble performing two tracks by John Duncan in a collaboration promoted last year by Podewil in Berlin. A project started over a year ago, the result of continuous and tenatious work over several meetings between Duncan and the musicians, in charge of performing two originally electronic compositions with their acoustic instruments.The 27 minutes of the first piece revisit NAV-FLEX, a composition published last year by Duncan in the double CD with Francisco López, NAV . In zeit…
(Old school) James Tenney
The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of zeitkratzer with William Bennett /Whitehouse [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille/France and Den Haag/Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more release…
(Old school) John Cage
John Cage’s compositions have been part of zeitkratzer’s repertoire since the very first day. The pieces presented here justify zeitkratzer’s reputation as sound specialists. Avant-garde composer Cage is played in a conservative, precise and sensual way, apart from all philosophical ambitions, and hopefully as seductive as a Schubert quintet! The “Wire Magazine” acclaimed: zeitkratzer convinced us that Cage‘s music can still live with all its complexities, stripped of the debris of its ic…
Volksmusik
The Zeitkratzer international soloists ensemble does their own take on Volksmusik: literally, the "people's music" of the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc. However, Zeitkratzer comes up with their own sound, and their own interpretation, immersing themselves into folk music as still existing today, not some leftover phantom of older days and older traditions. To prepare for this material, they focused their research on the music of the Danube abutters and used every kind of f…
Schonberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation
Berlin's Reinhold Friedl is a practitioner of the inside-piano technique and founder and director of the Zeitkratzer and Piano-Inside-Out ensembles. His piece, Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation is exactly what the title says: an endless funny parody of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, a composition often taken far too seriously. At the same time, it is a compositional condensation of Schönberg's techniques, conducted in a genius way by trumpet player Franz Hautzinger from Vienna, a longti…
Mort aux vaches. Random Dilettantes
Back in stock! 'composition: reinhold friedl this cd should be played with random or shuttle function zeitkratzer will soon be the center of innovative music. This project promises to be endlessly fascinating, the Wire magazin wrote three years ago. Three years later, after a lot of different projects, inluding zeitkratzerÕs already legendary cooperation with Lou Reed, international critics agree: zeitkratzer is the best contemporary music ensemble in the world (entrevista Lissboa, dna Roma).…
Xenakis (A)live!
ASPHODELZEITKRATZER - Reinhold FRIEDL, "Xenakis (A)live!""Equal parts composer, performer and curator, Berlin's Reinhold Friedl is a veritable renaissance man. In conjunction with his highly regarded orchestra Zeitkratzer ("Time scratcher" in German) as well as in collaboration with such artists as Lou Reed, Lee Renaldo and Merzbow, Friedl has helped set new standards for Europe's new music scene, crossing every conceivable line that separates chamber from computer music, and piano from st…