ANBB (Alva Noto & Blixa Bargeld)

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4...according to our Brian on Thu 23 Sep, 2010.

God Blixa's looking a little healthier & fuller of face these days. Doesn't look like he's sprinkling heroin on stale cornflakes every morning, like i'm sure he did once. Instead, he's collaborating with Alva Noto (aka Carsten Nicolai) producing dramatic electronic vistas & passages of aural dystopia that are both brittle & expansive, haunting & challenging. There's definately a Neubauten feel to tracks such as 'Once Again' but they've got this weird glitchy, tonal thing on that is prime Alva Noto. It's like Peter Gabriel having a nervous breakdown at a fetish club in Berlin. I think there's summat strangely kitsch about the previous single 'One', he makes a weird crooner does Bargeld. That track also reminds me of Robert Wyatt in a way, yet I don't think the beardy one would smother a song in frosty electronic pulses & glitchy cowlicks. Dave just asked me what "this bullshit" was. I like it when my colleagues wax lyrical about experimental music so eloquently. So if you want some proper deconstructed minimal techno with occasional industrial overtones or just love the sound of stuttering, fizzing machines intermingled with flecks of neo-classicism & the deranged ramblings of one of Germany's most pioneering avant-garde statesmen then get involved. Not as all over the shop as I was expecting & undeniably powerful & progressive to boot.

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Being friends and admirers of each other's work for a long time, electronic music composer / visual artist alva noto (carsten nicolai) and composer / voice-artist blixa bargeld (also known as singer of einstürzende neubauten and guitarist of nick cave and the bad seeds) decided to join forces to initiate a collaborative project in 2007. together they developed a musical concept based on the combination of improvisation and abstraction. the impulsive live performance of blixa bargeld and the elaborated beat structures and sound landscapes of alva noto merge to a surprising and unexpected result. working on their own experimental material that gains its strength from the spontaneity of the live-performance of bargeld's voice as well as rethinking traditional songs in their own special manner, they deliver an outstanding and inspiring musical blend for their audience. “crystalline noise formations. phrases, words, syllables of pure sound isolated until normal sense disappears, leaving new, unexpected abstractions to emerge. […] the most suggestive and nuanced version of 'i wish i was a mole in the ground' since bob dylan.” - sam davies (the wire 12/09, uk) the collaboration first staged in september 2007 when they united for a special appearance in san francisco to perform at recombinant media labs studios. since then they have recorded several tracks, five of which have been released on a preliminary ep on raster-noton (r-n 120) in spring 2010. The double LP version is coming with an additional 75 x 30 cm poster!

Tracklisting:

1. fall 10:06 2. once again 05:24 3. one 02:56 4. ret marut handshake 06:11 5. bersteinzimmer (long version) 04:53 6. i wish i was a mole in the ground - extended 04:03 7. mimikry 05:03 8. berghain 04:20 9. wust 06:10 10. katze (featuring veruschka) 03:45

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