| $23.52
back in stock as of
november 15th, 2011
first in stock on
february 19th, 2008
threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
digital-musics
modern-psych
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| | erstwhile (usa) #erstpop 001 lp
erstpop (usa) #erstpop 001 lpthe magic i.d. “till my breath gives out” long playing record - true holiday (6:25)
- feet deep (4:59)
- wintersong (6:14)
- martin fierro (3:02)
- from the same road (8:13)
- loopstück (12:57)
| february 2008 release ; the debut album by the quartet of christof kurzmann, margareth kammerer, michael thieke, and kai fagaschinski as the magic i.d. ... the formation of yet another erstwhile sub-label (following on the heels of erstlive and erstsolo) specifically for this release is telling, as is the fact that it’s the first erst to be released on vinyl (jon & co have done an excellent job here - the mastering/pressing quality is superb & the whole package is very eye-popping, esp. the gatefold [below] ...)
the reason for all of this? “till my breath gives out” is a pop-record - albeit one composed/performed by key members of the berlin electro-acoustic/free improvisation “scene” & strongly informed by the lexicon of sound-producing gestures that goes hand-in-hand with said. the instrumentation (guitar, laptop, two clarinets panned hard left / right) lends to a certain impressionistic flair ... the use of space & dissonant tonal clusters does remind me of that oft-cited mark hollis solo record, but not overtly so. kammerer’s vocal delivery is lovely & very much indebted to billie holiday, whereas kurzmann’s has more in common with tom rapp (mainly in that it’s a taste that, when acquired, ends up being very comforting) ... his plaintive guitar figures are simple & unadorned, the digital sequences pushed into the background for the most part. even thieke & fagaschinski’s dovetailing upper-register lines are made somehow more pleasant through their association with the breezy art-song herein ...
a very nice record; one of the few blendings of “experimental” music & song-form that i can get behind ... |
| | erstwhile press release... |
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the magic i.d. till my breath gives out
erstpop 001
kai fagaschinski clarinet (right)
margareth kammerer vocals & guitars
christof kurzmann vocals, g3 and lloopp
michael thieke clarinet (left)
the magic i.d. is a berlin-based quartet exploring the juncture of song forms with abstract music. the band, consisting of margareth kammerer, christof kurzmann, kai fagaschinski and michael thieke, formed in summer 2005 after previously being connected via smaller groupings and projects. till my breath gives out is their debut release, and consists of six intricately constructed gems, each with its own individual shape, painstakingly sequenced to form a record that becomes more than the sum of its parts.
kammerer was born in italy and moved to berlin in 1994. she is deeply involved in the worlds of both theatre and music, and has a lengthy resume in both areas. her mostly solo album to be an animal of real flesh was released on charhizma in 2004, featuring collaborative tracks with axel dörner, chris abrahams and tatusya yoshida, as well as remixes from fred frith, philip jeck, bernhard fleischmann and kurzmann. her unique, distinctive voice has been underdocumented previously, but is showcased on till my breath gives out to riveting effect.
kurzmann has been a prominent part of both the vienna and (more recently) the berlin scenes over the past decade. as an organizer, he cofounded the phonotaktik festival, helped found the famous rhiz club in vienna, and runs the prestigious charhizma label. kurzmann has been an essential part of many erstwhile-related live events, in tokyo, berlin and nyc, and was the first to work at amann studios for an erstwhile release, beginning a crucial relationship for the label. his duo with burkhard stangl, schnee, is one of the core projects of erstwhile, with a third release for the label currently in preparation for release, and his duo with ami yoshida, a s o, is an underappreciated gem.
fagaschinski has leapt to prominence in the improv world over the last few years, with well-received duo projects such as los glissandinos (w/klaus filip), the international nothing (w/thieke) and kommando raumschiff zitrone (w/kurzmann). his music is rooted in abstraction, but with an increasingly insidious melodious element. this is his first erstwhile release, and his second is already in the works, a duo disc with stangl.
thieke was born in düsseldorf and moved to berlin in 1993. he works in a wide range of styles in the jazz and improv worlds, from a mingus tribute to a collective trio on ayler records (w/christian weber and michael griener) to his own unununium project on charhizma to the aforementioned the international nothing w/fagaschinski, ranging from free blowing to sparse, pointillistic abstraction, from fully improvised to fully composed.
the six pieces contained here are precise collective compositions, three by the full quartet, and one from each of the three potential “duos” (the two clarinets form one twinned instrument). till my breath gives out expands song forms through the prism of experimental sensibilities and meshes the two remarkably fluidly. the design has been sourced from a photograph taken by gianmarco bresadola in alexanderplatz, berlin, and stunningly reconceived by berlin designer marion gerth.
till my breath gives out is being released simultaneously in two formats: foldout digipak cd and gatefold 180g vinyl. the content and the running order are identical; the lp version was mastered slightly differently to better fit the format. the lp is an edition of 500 copies; the cd is unlimited and inexpensive. |
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