HOLGER CZUKAY – Gvoon | Brennung 1 – CD [MAR 28]

Description

CD

It is a case of pop cultural archaeology. A search for traces in electronic music. After more than30 years, lost tapes by Holger Czukay that he once recorded for free disposal have resurfaced.A sound meditation from 1997, now available for the first time remastered in the original and in aversion by die ANGEL (Ilpo Visnen / Dirk Dresselhaus) and Zappi W. Diermaier from theKrautrock legend Faust.

The works from the Czukay studio are idiosyncratic sound structures that mastering engineerDresselhaus, alias Schneider TM, describes as futuristic gems that are musically far ahead oftheir time. For an abstract sound structure, deep and emotional,” as he says. A compositionthat can only be inadequately described as avant-garde or new music. A real Czukay, after all.

The genesis of these recordings goes back to the free-spirited 1990s, when Holger Czukay wasexperimenting with beats in Cologne with younger techno colleagues such as Dr. Walker from AirLiquide and was otherwise very interested in the quiet explosion of digital media.

It was tech pioneer and media artist Arthur Schmidt, alias Gvoon, who introduced Czukay to the(back then exceedingly futuristic) data machine “RealityEngine, which was used to create virtualworlds. From a full-body tracking system to a mutual prototype of an internet TV channel. Itshowed digitized experimental Czukay videos he equipped with ever more samples and sonicfragments. Later it developed into the contemporary show “Czukay/Gvoon:Magazine and alsointo March 1999s “CanSolo Projects Live, equipped with Gvoons body tracker technology.

The GDR past of his tech buddy Schmidt, who told him about his time in Stasi Prisons, triggereda creative process in Czukay. He translated this trauma into sound. He offered a musical gift:Gvoon-Brennung 1, something Schmidt could use at some point. Just like that. A soundtrackthat was handed over as a simple file on a digital audio tape.

It was over 20 years later, when Schmidt set up one of his art worksan original-sized,hermetically sealed Ministry for State Security (MfS) interrogation roomthat the Czukay giftpopped up again. Now it provided a soundscape for this pitch-black, oppressive room with itsrubber walls.

This is where Dresselhaus came across the material. It became clear that he was hearing morethan just some everyday 1990s recording session. It feels kind of bluesy in a cybernetic andabstract manner, with a very slow groove that keeps your attention the whole way through, saysDresselhaus. He describes the mastering process as well as the reworking process of Gvoon-Version 1 as a balancing act between respecting the historical material and contemporary/up-to-date studio processing.

A respectful bow to Holger Czukay’s 87th birthday in March 2025.
(Ralf Niemczyk)