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previous record label:
 gonzo circus 
there are 9 titles on grob in stock.
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 ground fault 
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january 25th, 2008

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august 9th, 2006


grob (germany) #grob 649 cd

günter müller / norbert möslangboom_box” compact disc

  • jogger_jump 10’21”
  • freelance_frontier 4’03”
  • overtime_ozonizer 17’05”
  • respire_resume 13’38”
grob press release...
müller_möslang - boom_box

günter müller: selected percussion, md’s, ipod, electronics
norbert möslang: cracked everyday-electronics

boom box is one of the first recordings of norbert möslang after the break up of voice crack, his legendary duo with andi gühl which lasted a good 30 years. it was performed in october 2001 in cologne’s loft with günter müller.

back then voice crack still existed, and möslang’s gig with müller would seem to be something frivolous. would it work? to perform in another duo? without the trusty colleague? obviously norbert möslang and günter müller didn’t care much about these questions. boom-box is not about how much or how little it sounds like voice crack. not only, because günter müller – drummer, percussionist and live electronics performer in the last ten years – brought along a complete instrumentarium (with this in mind, one could just as easily ask how much or little this recordings has from müller’s other recordings?). the focus has shifted – with voice crack we did not only hear improvisation, but rather the sound of manipulated, half-kaput, destroyed or decoded electronic devises from everyday life. on boom-box, möslang also plays his cracked everyday-electronics, but their tonal surroundings is a different one. it is a wide, ethereal tonal ambience, the structures are lucid, the music is transparent. again and again there are foregrounds and backgrounds, individual tonal configurations stand out clearly and distinctly, specific sounds are repeated, thus creating a scaffold through which other sounds are elegantly woven.since the early 90’s, müller and möslang have played with all the greats of electro-acoustic improvisation: with otomo yoshihide, jim o’rourke, borbetomagus, jérome noetinger, lionel marchetti, keith rowe, erik m., toshimaru nakemura. the two count as (voluntary/non-voluntary) co-founder of this scene. in the presence of these impressive musical biographies, boom_box is not a summary, it’s not a ”concentration on the essential,” but rather something new, a next step and a very elegant one at that.

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grob (germany) #grob 648 cd

keith rowe / oren ambarchi / robbie avenaimhoney pie” compact disc

  • honey pie (39:46)
grob press release...
keith rowe/oren ambarchi/robbie avenaim - honey pie

keith rowe: tabletop guitar, electronics
oren mabarchi: guitar, electronics
robbie avenaim: percussion, electronics

honey pie, recorded live in france in may 2001, is the second part of our three-part series with recordings documenting the cooperation of keith rowe and oren ambarchi. part 1 was the cd thumb (grob 432, recently re-released, rowe/ambarchi/avenaim in a quintet with oren ambarchi/sachiko m and otomo yoshihide); part 3, which will be released in nine months, will document the first real-time duo gig of ambarchi and rowe.

if thumb was about something like ”absence in presence,” about, well, the artsy trick of improvising like a quintet and sounding simply like a duo, then honey pie is a dynamic, powerful 40-minute recording. the static intimated at the beginning and lasting for four or five minutes is cautiously preserved by the musicians – rowe and ambarchi on guitars, avenaim on percussion, all three on live electronics – and this static is transformed in a constantly changing process. on thumb, the tension was produced using static (via an endless extension of a ”something”) and therefore ”disappointed,” we hear on honey pie tension sans phrase. at first there is no drone, no great sound, upon which the musicians can comfortably retire (the great sound, which then originates in the process of the improvisation is rich and complex in itself). they improvise without flourish, develop small structures of a nearly motive-like character. thanks to this, the stringency, too, of rowe’s flatness is questioned, albeit softly. honey pie thus leaves the impression of a near playful, loose session. listen to it loudly!

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

file under:
free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 540 cd

alessandro bosetti / annette krebs(06.2003)” compact disc

  • (07.27)
  • (09.50)
  • (09.02)
  • (05.53)
  • (08.28)
  • (05.05)
grob press release...
alessandro bosetti/ annette krebs (06.2003)

in the summer of 2001 we got a recording from alessandro bosetti, saxophone player, improviser, composer of musique concrète and at that time having lived in berlin for less than a year. the recording has pieces that he had just recorded with the guitarist annette krebs. the decision to release this recordings was made quickly, and in the summer of 2002 it should have appeared. due to an unlucky chain of events, the recording is appearing only now, nine months later. but nothing has changed about its radical nature, its unconditional modernity.

krebs and bosetti are among some of the most exciting musicians from berlin, both have long been well-known in international circles. annette krebs, who plays an electro-acoustically prepared classical guitar, belongs on an equal basis with improvisers (and composers) such as andrea neumann, taku sugimoto, toshimaru nakemura or axel dörner, with whom she has worked with, she belongs in a category of those musicians who have expanded the concept of improvisation beyond free jazz, post-serialism or the "english school" in the last few years. stillness, minimalism, noise (but the later is not meant in the sense of a racket, but as a kind of unmediated sound), rustling, consciousness of structure and spontaneity, all of these experience a new value through these musicians - above all through annette krebs' way of playing the guitar.

the saxophone player alessandro bosetti has also devoted himself to a radical noise-like way of playing, and yet one always senses how strongly he has been influenced by steve lacy and modern jazz of the 60's and 70's. in their duets, they do not, however, simply extend their work on noise. the music is formed by a pronounced sense of structure. they work on short units, with many pauses and stillness - but never for the sake of a pause (or stillness). each pause has it exactly defined place in the dynamics of the music. bosetti and krebs savor monochrome tonal colors, research the gray behind the gray - and nonetheless this music is not monumental, not simply noise, not a hermetic block. it is a very exact, reflected music that never becomes overbearing or stiff. it has something casual, in the best sense of the word, it's non-ambitious. although one really senses the work involved in it and necessary for it, the music remains unstrained, completely nonchalant and cool.

the artwork is from the musicians, made after a model from franz hautzinger.

alessandro bosetti
annette krebs

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation

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kunst-ton
free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 538 cd

blank / raymond pettibonblank meets pettibon” compact disc

  • i don't go nowhere without my microphone (rehearsal for your pleasure) (02.44)
  • be careful what you pay for/yo! bum rush the show (02.21)
  • put your damn hands up! (02.59)
  • boo hoo
  • i'll tell my baby on you (05.43)
  • we're an american band (04.53)
  • we all did what we could do (02.06)
grob press release...
blank (oliver augst, rüdiger carl, christoph korn) feat. raymond pettibon (02.2003)

the frankfurt trio blank encounters classic improvisation with the sure-footed and subversive gesture of contemporary anarchism. they work on small forms; out of songs, elements of pop music, noise and theatrics (in the true sense of the word) they cut out strange miniatures of free improvisation. clarinetist and multi-instrumentalist rüdiger carl, fmp veteran from the very beginning, has already proven this "coolness" in various groups of his own (with cowws, in duo with red krayola mastermind mayo thompson, with the artists albert and markus oehlen). that he met the frankfurt text, theory and stage worker oliver augst (electronics, voice) and christoph korn (electric guitar) five years ago was only logical. all three curate the already legendary pol festival in the frankfurt mouson-turm and, above all, have released an excellent cd on fmp in 2000.

their music is direct, dynamic, expressive, without thereby perpetuating once again the dead history that is inherent in the adapted cliches. they not only get the form into their music, but they re-liquefy it; they do not understand the citation as citation, but as material.

in the fall of 2001, they met the american art star raymond pettibon in cologne's philharmonic concert hall. (to punks pettibon is no unknown. he drew the black flag and minutemen covers in the 80's.). pettibon was awarded the wolfgang hahn prize from the friends and supporters of the ludwig museum. museum director kaspar könig wanted an appropriate music accompaniment and invited blank. they, in turn, grabbed pettibon and worked with the otherwise so introverted artist on a group performance. and of course, everything ended up in a wild improvisation in which pettibon played the animator and inspirer. this cd is really a full quartet recording! pettibon did the cover work, and in addition, his notes and text fragments are printed.

blank meets pettibon is a gripping hardcore-improvisation (that even gives us a smash hit, "we're an american band!") and documents the highly controversial complete performance in the cologne philharmonic concert hall-after 20 minutes everything was over. every wish had been fulfilled.

oliver augst
rüdiger carl
christoph korn
raymond pettibon

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first in stock on
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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
digital-musics
live-electronic

grob (germany) #grob 427 cd

peter van bergen / gert-jan prins / fenneszdawn” compact disc

  • dawn (41:41)
aquarius gave this one a pretty fierce 2/3 across the chest, we'll be a little more forgiving. alright, maybe there is, suddenly, a flood of fennesz-related-improv release-activity. maybe we'd all like him to spend a little more time in the studio cranking out those gorgeous non-realtime nugs. but dammit, in our book, he's a damn great improvisor. this trio with mid school vet peter van bergen and young upstart gert-jan prins is great to listen to. no surprises there...
grob press release...
prins/ van bergen/ fennesz - dawn (03.2002)

dawn is a classical improvisation record, everything but post modern. it was recorded at the legendary total music meeting of free music production in november 2000. dawn is a composition played off the cuff of nearly 42 minutes. all the highs and lows of a longer composition are on this recording: searching and finding, restrained groping and violent erupting....

the decisive factor, however, is that this music is played by people who have nothing or very little to do with this attitude, by gert-jan prins (see his solo record prins live, grob210), by the saxophone player and composer peter van bergen (ensemble loos but also projects with georg graewe or wolfgang fuchs) and by christian fennesz, one of the superstars of the electronica jet set (see his current mego cd endless summer; he can also be heard on the grob cd (also on mimeo-electric chair + table). via their strictly "electronic thinking" (one hears a saxophone, of course, but the appearance deceives), these musicians break away from the approach on musical material developed within free improvisation in the last 40 years. on the other hand, this thinking does not lead to a "clicks 'n' cuts" aesthetic, but rather to a musical process that has been worked hard for, provisional, not completed, but gripping at every moment: what will happen next? what is coming? what breaks off and grows anew afterwards? hybrid music.

peter van bergen: windinstruments, ewi, sampling, computer.
gert-jan prins: electronics, fm modulations.
christian fennesz: computer.

dawn is part of violence & precision, a special project by studio loos.
recorded on november 2, 2000 during the "total music meeting" at the "podewil", berlin.

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
digital-musics

file under:
free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 319 cd

werner dafeldecker / boris d. hegenbarteis9” compact disc

  • ei (8:08)
  • is (4:42)
  • si (9:18)
  • es (6:34)
  • ie (2:15)
  • se (7:54)
  • 9 (5:54)
grob press release...
werner dafeldecker / boris d hegenbart - eis 9 (06.2001)

two years ago, the german pop music magazine spex (a bit like option in german) called the viennese werner dafeldecker "a jim o'rourke from the alps." the comparison strikes one as quite distorted but is based on a few things in common. both represent an extended idea of improvisation that does not rest upon parameters like "interaction," "dynamics," or "energy," but rather that appears airy, looser, more comprehensive: (sound in) space becomes more important, the occasion plays a bigger (more existential) role in the foreground. indeed this occasion is not only another situation to improvise together, but rather an expression of a state that one should adjust his/her sensors completely anew. the influence of new music (the new york school and beyond) never seems apparent, but as it were, subcutaneously. just like the improvisations of o'rourke in the 90's, dafeldecker's music is characterized by the logical but constantly surprising intervention that breaks the peaceful current of the music and continues it at the same time.

eis-9 [ice cream 9] is a summer record, no hermetic structures, no gloomy sounds, no wallowing in stagnation and hardening (= cold). ice cream melts.

dafeldecker demonstrates here once more how he dissociates his strict instrumentalism (dealing with the instrument as essential sound material) from his original instrument, the contra bass, and transfers it to others: guitar, percussion, found objects, powerbook. just as gropingly as definite.

eis-9 is above all the product of an intensive cooperation with the berlin/viennese electronic musician boris d. hegenbart. coming out of nowhere, he published the cd hikuito in 1998, music developed in hand made paper that came to fragile melodies once peeling away its (apparent) influences (carl stone, oval).

the groping and the definite flowed into the eis-9 cooperation. improvised music as symbiosis, as something that does not only come into being in the instant, but rather that grows. eis-9 also means "ice cream" is not an unambiguous fixed construction, but one that dissolves in various forms, structures, and, well, states.

werner dafeldecker
boris d hegenbart

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free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 212 cd

ticklishticklish” compact disc

  • demersal (9:44)
  • tapers (5:02)
  • constance (5:13)
  • mezmer's suggestion (4:07)
  • coober peedy (8:03)
  • swizzle nils (4:01)
  • shadow
  • hoop and girl (5:08)
  • fat craftwork (10:23)
grob press release...
ticklish (10.2000)

micro-macro. electronic music between grooves and non-idiomatics. ticklich consists of the distinguished london improviser kev hopper (among others, stereolab, high llamas, cooperation with charles hayward), richard sanderson (cooperation with steve beresford/anna homler, simon fisher turner, peter cusack, kaffe matthews, blixa bargeld), phil durrant (cooperation with john butcher, john russell, thomas lehn, radu malfatti, the music in movement electronic orchestra), and the video artist rob flint.

their music occupies an vacant space. they take the best models of danceable, cool catchy electronic music into something free and pulsing. and visa-versa: from the abstract heights of improvised music, as they are scaled only in england, ticklish come across the clicks and cuts of post techno.

their music is groove without the dictate of the beat, cool without betting on the superficiality of a hook. and improvisation without "plink plonk."

this cd is their debut. the cover art is from rob flint.

phil durrant
rob flint
kev hopper
richard sanderson

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threads:
harsh-noise

file under:
free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 208 cd

weasel walter / fred lonberg-holm / jim o’rourketribute to masayuki takayanagi” compact disc

  • for jojo/freebasing styrofoam (31.17)
  • endless corridor of roasted babies (10.52)
  • slitted tit (03.56)
  • give me head 'til you're dead (15.15)
  • triumph of death (12.10)
click the play button to hear an excerpt of "endless corridor of roasted babies"
assorted 1996-2000 blow-outs from assorted combinations of weasel walter (solo on two of the tracks), fred lonberg-holm, and jim o’rourke; assembled in deference/defiance of masayuki “jojo” takayanagi’s “new direction unit” (more on him/them shortly...)

i remember being really amped about this when it came out, but thinking it was almost too “metal” - how times have changed... in fact through the use of huge, cavernous reverb on everything this echoes recent “black metal” sides (especially walter’s 12+ minute “triumph of death” outro...)

a pretty essential link from the free-improv gauntlet of the mid-90s through the short-lived “brutal prog” gambit, clean on through to the current free-metal fascination...
grob press release...
fred lonberg-holm/ jim o'rourke/ weasel walter - tribute to masayuki takayanagi (08.2000)

weasel walter, drums, 12-string guitar
fred lonberg-holm, cello
jim o'rourke, electric guitar, apparition guitar

asides from keith rowe and fully independent of him, masayuki takayanagi was the first guitarist to use the table-top guitar, thereby instigating a purely incomprehensible noise. the japanese priest of noise, keiji haino, otomo yoshihide and merzbow all went to his "school."

for weasel walter, drummer and mastermind of the flying luttenbachers, this was cause enough to dedicate an entire cd to him.

no, one doesn't have to say much about this. this is highly dynamic no-compromise noise, packed in an aesthetic that ostensibly plays with clichés of violence and has o'rourke as "lycanthrovampyr." it rocks, uncontrolled and still on the dot. weasel walter's bottomless black calculation proves right.

we also need not mince words about o'rourke, the todd rundgren of our epoche, or about fred longberg-holm, the inspired cellist, who has played with everyone, from peter brötzmann to anthony coleman.

what else? the cd presents two sessions, one from 1996, one from 2000; there are a few overdubs (on the session from 2000) and o'rourke plays kevin drumms' guitar (on the session from 1996). the cover art, the liner notes and the mix are from weasel walter. and don't get the idea to bother the group with interview inquiries.

fred lonberg-holm
jim o'rourke
weasel walter

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threads:
electro-acoustic-improvisation
analogue-synth

file under:
free-improv
grob (germany) #grob 205 cd

chadlehnc inside” compact disc

  • crossroads 1 (12.59)
  • crossroads 2 (06.34)
  • crossroads 3 (07.13)
  • crossroads 4 (11.09)
  • crossroads 5 (08.20)
  • intersection (01.42)
  • line out (02.42)
grob press release...
chadlehn - c inside (05.2000)

eugene chadbourne, deering goodtimes banjo, modified guild slim jim acoustic electric guitar, various objects
thomas lehn, ems synthi 'a' analogue synthesizer

the virtuous string player eugene chadbourne and the ingenious synthesizer player thomas lehn met in the summer of 1999 to celebrate an impossible event: the confrontation of a banjo with an analogue ems-synthesizer... both know well, as if dreaming, how to move between material extension and its demolition in the best tradition of european improvised music and country songs, as only chadbourne can recite them. as if they had never done anything else...

it doesn't matter if they weave dense interactions and lump them into great noise or consciously go separate ways and seem to play without the other-their exchange is always direct, constantly the other knows the right answer. spontaneous improvisation in full completion: c inside actually documents the first meeting of these master musicians.

thomas lehn
eugene chadbourne

previous record label:
 gonzo circus 
...and that's everything on grob in stock.
(why not take a look at the previous and next labels?)
next record label:
 ground fault 
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... this page was last updated on wednesday, july 28th, 2010 @ 3:56 pm