Bureau B, the Hamburg based label which releases past and future classics unearthed from genres including (but not limited to) electronica, avant-garde, post-rock, neoclassical and (kraut)rock returns with an interesting compilation: “Eins, Zwei, Drei und Vier – Deutsche Experimentelle Popmusik 1980-1986” on CD, double vinyl and as download.

On the compilation you get the sound of Germany’s musical youth let loose on cheap synths and pawnshop guitars and who redefined German music in the first half of the 1980s. You’ll hear bands such as Der Plan, Die Partei, P!OFF?, Palais Schaumburg, Dunkelziffer, Populäre Mechanik, Andreas
Dorau, Pyrolator, Träneninvasion, Deutsche Wertarbeit, Asmus Tietchens, Die Fische, Conrad Schnitzler, Carambolage, Xao Seffcheque, Foyer des Arts, Die Zimmermänner, Östro, Die Radierer and Holger Hiller.

You can check out the tracks below.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil.

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Genre/Influences: Experimental, abstract-music.

Background/Info: German artists Asmus Tietchens is 69 years old and constantly reinventing his own creation, but maybe not his perception of music. This veteran of the ‘experimental’ scene creates what he calls ‘concrete music’. “Parergon” –which is a Greek word for ‘collection of texts’ is totally appropriated to this work. The main idea is  recycling, recycling of recycling and to give listeners ‘simply something to listen to so it’s up to him how to handles this offer.’

Content: I think there’s no better description of this work than a puzzle of sounds and noises. It sounds abstract and a bit surreal. Asmus Tietchens has never been into what we commonly call ‘music’. His work is a collection of ‘recycled’ sounds and noises, which are not exactly creating an entity, which you might call a song, but simply ‘pieces of noises’, which eventually match with each other.

“Parergon” is a new sonic labyrinth, which you have to walk through by using headphones. It’s the perfect condition to notice all little details emerging from this operator’s creative brain.

+ + + : “Parergon” proves that Asmus Tietchens hasn’t lost his original creative mind of experimentalism. This is a fine collection of sounds, which have been annihilated and reconstructed. That’s the true spirit of ‘recycling’ and the main essence of Asmus Tietchens experimental approach.

– – – : You have to be a fan of this artist to fully enjoy his work. “Parergon” is a complex composition without any familiar kind of song structure, which makes it not that accessible for a wider audience… although Asmus Tietchens remains one of the most praised and recognized artists in his genre.

Conclusion: “Parergon” is not the composition of a musician, but the result of a sonic scientist operating in a sound laboratory instead of a studio. Asmus Tietchens created a new antidote to the dangerous virus commonly known as ‘commercial music’.

Best songs: “Nox 2”, “Vektor 4R”.

Rate: (7).

Band: www.tietchens.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Asmus-Tietchens/106156659416187

Label: www.darkvinyl.de / www.facebook.com/darkvinylrecords

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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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