Florian Hecker - Acid In The Style Of David Tudor

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5...according to our Ant on Fri 01 May, 2009.

When we played Hecker's 'Acid In The Style Of David Tudor' disc in the office the response was mixed. Phil was distracted from his daily tasks which require concentration and it's clear to see why as Hecker's sounds demand/ command your full attention. They're intrusive and in your face, and at high volume your ears are being utilized to their full potential and pushed to their limits, with all other sensory perception involuntarily being put on the backburner. So not easy listening background music at all ,but plethora of full strange sounds that really overtake the space they're played in and change the dynamic of the environment entirely.... So I decided to bring the disc home with me today as I was gonna bag a copy anyway. I thought that on my train journey home I'd read the essay which forms the artwork as a primer to the idea/ concept and got bored within about 4 minutes (although I shall pursue that later) and was instead distracted by a middle aged woman in fishnet stockings having two different conversations on two separate mobile phones (I imagined that on one phone was her pimp and the other her husband). Anyway I get home, scoffed my tea (M&S veggie mousaka, the best ready meal money can buy) and banged the CD on... What a huge amount of fun this album is. You know I've read a lot about Florian Hecker's work and how it's so cutting edge and a lot of academic type stuff has been written about it. For sure it's original and forward thinking but what appeals to me, beyond the obvious physics/ mathematical genius is just the sheer fucking craziness of it all. It's pure machine music, pure synthetic sound, computer music, synthesizer music > electronic music. It fucks with my head and warps my my mind in all manner of freaky ways and as far as I'm concerned that can only be a very good thing. Yes it's difficult, challenging, uncompromising and there's little to grab onto as it just keeps evolving, twisting and shifting around the room. It's like machines communicating to each other in a language we're yet to understand. Some moments remind me of listening to birds communicating in the early hours of the morning as you walk home after spending a night tripping your face off on acid. I like to imagine this is what a nursery class of 3 year old children would create if they were put in a studio full of analogue synthesizers, had their milk spiked with seriously strong acid and had Pauline Oliveros in charge as their teacher ."ASA 2" hits some frequencies that will have all the stray dogs in your neighborhood flocking around your speakers and make you wish you had something to offer them to eat. Shame on you for using the last tin of dogfood to make a toastie when you had the munchies... Some of the squiggling sounds are so absurd and alien that they make you laugh out loud with pure pleasure. It's clever and simultaneously utterly deranged. Track 7 is like Harry Hill falling asleep while tweaking a seriously malfunctioning devil fish circuit bent TB303... My missus asked if I was listening to this because I had to, or because I wanted to. Then proceeded to inform me that it was "doing her head in". The ultimate seal of approval! This will out wonk any of the current wave of so called "wonky" producers...Put a wonk on it.. Out on Editions Mego with a big Ant seal of approval. (Hey if anybody out there knows where I can pick up a copy of Hecker's 'NEU' CD then please let me know as I'd totally love to get my dirty Welsh paws on that one PRETTY PLEASE!!!!!.)

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´Acid In The Style Of David Tudor´ is Florian Hecker´s first full length studio (as opposed to collections and commissions for art installations) album since 2003, when the groundbreaking ´Sun Pandamonium´ was unleashed by Mego. Since then he has collaborated on audio projects with Yasunao Tone, Russell Haswell (as Haswell & Hecker) and a forthcoming live collaboration with Richard James as well a myriad of sound installation works, individually and with numerous artists worldwide. As the title suggests this album is referencing the parallel universes of modern 20th century composition and hedonistic rave culture. A challenging but ultimately rewarding set of Electronic Music compositions which push these two reference points into unknown areas. Set in apparent contrast are the sequence of six pieces Acid In The Style of David Tudor, where hyperchaotic functions are inherently coupled to their sources of manipulation - a Buchla modular synthesizer in combination with a Comdyna analog computer - in opposition to the ASA pieces, fruit of a complex manipulation of distinct auditory patterns into a new acoustic whole. The closing Ten opens with an intense head related localization blur. Here, virtual binaural, stereophonic, biphonic and monaural sound reproduction coexist. All three approaches are displayed into a contrasting dynamics, where non- linear waveforms and psychoacoustic illusions that constantly push our perceptual and representational fabrics.

Following the ideas of Robin Mackay, Hecker´s work reinstanciates the genetic ofness, once proposed by philosopher David Kaplan, cutting both genetic and cultural territories of hearing. This release is available as CD and download with an extensive 16 page essay ´Climate of Bass Hunter: Florian Hecker Acid in the Style of David Tudor´ by Robin Mackay, founding editor of Collapse.

It is recommended to listen to this material on loudspeakers at high volume. Headphone use is not advised.

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