★A-Musik
Timekeepers II
a-Musik, the Cologne-based bastion of sonic exploration, unveils a new chapter in their quest for boundary-pushing sounds. Timekeepers II, a split LP featuring recordings of two duos by Marcus Schmickler with Jaki Liebezeit and Hayden Chisholm. Side A bears the imprint of Liebezeit's rhythmic flow fusing with Schmickler's digital Shepard Tone interpretation. A studio recording taken before a performance at Moers Festival in 2014. On side B, Schmickler's electronics converge with Chisholm's bagpi…
Magic Moments
FSK (Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle, German meaning "voluntary self control") is a German band that was formed in Munich in 1980. It became involved in the underground-part of the German New-Wave-Scene of the early 1980s.
Magic Moments was originally released in 1982 on ZickZack Platten, this EP includes the four tracks "Wir steigen ein", "Trink wie ein Tier", "Herzschuß Melodie" & "Viel zu viel". The reissue is accompanied by a booklet with liner notes by Tim Klütz (in German).
Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle / Teilnehmende Beobachtung
Before their debut album "Stürmer", originally out in 1982 and reissued by a-Musik, there were two 7" by Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle. Both the eponymous 4-track EP (1980) by Justin Hoffmann, Thomas Meinecke, Michaela Melián and Thomas Meinecke and the 7-track EP "Teilnehmende Beobachtung" from 1981 were released on Alfred Hilsberg's legendary Zickzack Platten. With "Moderne Welt" and the literally endless "Deutschland, Deutschland", the rare "Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle" single contains two of t…
Porphyr
** Edition of 200 ** A-Musik is delighted to present Titanoboa's debut album as the first a-Musik release of 2021. "Porphyr" contains eight tracks of delicate Electroacoustic Noire and contemporary Post-Industrial chamber music that were produced in her Cologne based studio. Being equally into rumbling noise, experimental turntablism, angelic singing, organ improvisation and a lot of studio wizardry, these recordings somehow remind of a combination of Pharmakon's raw power, Maximim Bérangère's l…
Formationen
"The A-Musik label is back with a very special release by Jan Werner who played already an important role for the beginning of the label in 1995. His first release back then was the debut LP by Microstoria, werner's collaboration with Oval's Markus Popp that became a milestone in the history of experimental electronica. The sources for Formationen are early solo recordings by Werner which he produced with synthesizers and tapes in 1992 and 1993, during his collaborations with F.X.Randomiz and hi…
The Present is Missing
a-Musik is honoured to present a new album by one of our all-time favourites, Anthony Moore. We've been faszinated by his work, both with Slapp Happy and solo, since quite a long time now, and are happy to release this LP with wonderful live recordings he did with The Missing Present Band in Cologne in late 2015. "In a surround-sound melee of songs, soundscapes and electrickery, time is sonified in an affectionate tribute to Laika, Belka, Strelka and the rest of their canine comrades who …
Timekeepers
ten years after their "variety" cd a-musik present the brilliant second release by John Tilbury (piano) and Marcus Schmickler (computer). Recorded in january 2012 at Loft, Köln, mixed in december 2014 at piethopraxis.
Rule Of Inference
next to his prolific work as an electronic composer, improviser and producer, "rule of inference" once more features schmickler's as yet less known yet marvelous work as a composer and arranger for classical instrumental settings. similar to his widely regarded album "param" (2001), the album is a collection of various settings, all of them recorded over the course of the last years. "rule of inference" unveils a conception that marks various departures along the history of music: the alb…
Navigation in hypertext
Lehn and Schmickler's 1st recording, Bart is considered one of the best synth improv albums ever made. Since Bart, dating back to 2000, the duo has toured frequently through Europe, Japan and the USA. This double-release, features some of the best performances the duo recorded over the course of 15 live concerts. A brilliant amalgam of the two musicians' strengths, Navigation in hypertext utilizes both improvisation and studio postproduction techniques to create a lasting work, combining the fee…
House of national dog
"the first joint release of hamburg-based all-around artists felix kubin (music, sounds) and mariola brillowska (lyrics, vocals). for brillowska's 2006 theatre play of the same title, kubin composed a soundtrack in order to mess up this infamous musical by twirling colourful little building bricks around in it. this then became an album in its own right, where constructivist orchestra- and plunderphonics-collages meet gameboy-disco while melancholy-laden chansons rub against weill/eisler-like hy…
Variety
"the piano's harmonic figures meet with computer sounds unexpectedly within a slowly changing acoustic environment. piano pixies sing and dance serenely in a virtual space while the noises from the instrument insitage dialogues with the computer. the music is tranquil, never aggressive and is at almost every moment polyphonic in the good old sense of the word. pretty often, the two musicians play on two different planes so that in spite of the slowness of the whole thing, the resulting complex r…
Demos (for choir, chamber quintet and electronic music)
""demos" is schmickler's most ambitious work to date. it has been performed at the renowned cca in glasgow, where it was performed in the course of a three day festival organized especially for schmickler. "demos" deals with nietzsche's thoughts expressed in his "zarathustra" on the extent with which language could be dealt with as music. marcus schmickler transcends the classic mythic emblems of ancient greek choirs such as recitative and declamation by employing contemporary means. "demos" is …
Wabi sabi
wabi sabi is a staggering sounding, beautifully packaged and simply significant contemporary electronic album by marcus schmickler out of the thriving german underground music scene. schmickler has one release under his own name on the odd size label in france, and was a contributing member of pol and kontakta on the same label. most recently he released the exceptional pluramon pick up canyon album on the mille plateaux label (which featured the guest drumming of jaki liebezeit). this cd consis…
Sator rotas
marcus schmickler aka wabi sabi (a3) aka pluramon expands his electronic experimentations, creating a surreal, open music that enraptures the listener with raging soundwaves and maximum density. expect the unexpected from the new school of improvised music: hybrid wooshings, subsequenced crackles, microharmonical adventures. strange, tense, cool and rich of superb pranks.
Gorymaaz
new discovery on a-musik. debut release by braunschweig's filmmaker andreas gogol. a collection of 19 tracks he recorded over the last decade mainly at home using multi-track recordings and available only to a few friends as self-made cd-r releases. renaldo & the loaf or early chrome in their 'alien soundtracks / half machine lip moves (the 'slower tracks!') era came in my mind while listening to go:gol's tracks. sometimes unbelieving it's all done by one guy on 4-track machine. lots of tracks a…
Villiger
"apparently they're an all-laptop quintet from lille, france (although i could be wrong about the geography), borne out of the ashes of sub rosa recording act/post-rock entity tone rec. this, their third release (see tracto flirt on skipp as well as a fat cat split single with process) works it wisely, mixing the glick-beats with the glitch-melodies and sounds, with (what i'm told is) a sexy live show on the festival circuit. the first of certainly a growing wave of contemporary 'computer bands'…