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+ / vs. 01 | Booklet 4/10/02 6:46 PM Page 1 Komet + / vs. Bovine Life Introduction » Introduction Bovine Life» Bovine 2 reciprocal R designers Fehler. Fällt by artwork and features (Fällt) Murphy and Christopher by R work(s). other’s ofeach a remix w w contributing acollaborative assemblers sound two installmentfeatures This first them. between of musicalreciprocality and documenting theprocess assemblers sound of two thework(s) featuring split CDs R Fä with inassociation BiP-HOp by 4 ofchanges. orseries operation 3 orcourse ofsomething. progress otheroperation. or some s a esp. action orprocedure, process complementary. correspondent; eries ofstages inmanufacture eries eciprocess +/vs. eciprocess eciprocess + / vs. isco-curated +/vs. eciprocess of Aseries +/vs. eciprocess a natural orinvoluntary a natural orks; and finally, contributing orks; andfinally, ofindependentork; aseries mutual. (computing) on(data) operate llt are pleased topresent llt are I was in a record shop in my There are boundaries, but it’s as I was very keen that this was Philippe Petit (BiP-HOp) (BiP-HOp) Philippe Petit ofaprogram. means home town of Edinburgh - if the creator of the music has going to be a collaboration Avalanche - when I first heard set up the track like a science forged strictly over the net, so n. +v. 3 adj. +n. adj. Frank Bretschneider’s music. project - tamed the chaos, and we both sent each other inversely I loved it. then put the lid on the sound. economical .mp3 files to fashion 1 into new material. While this a course of I was struck by it’s exacting All this (warm) military precision method of working wasn’t 1 I was in a record shop in my in return. tonal frequencies, mainly is the antithesis of my own ground breaking, it was still 2 because they reminded me of a forays into electronic music - exciting that I could sit in my the hearing test I underwent when they basically resemble scruffy, studio and collaborate with I was fifteen. The shop’s P.A. mutant and promiscuous audio- someone in Berlin. I am the kind broadcasted this electronically one-night-stands. I am not pure. of person that still gets fragile groove with some I am messy and untidy - I think I completely blown away by the homefrequencies just on the border of may betown diseased from my fact thatof the telephone networkEdinburgh - my audible range and I found working practices. You can hear exists and works. myself nodding gently to the this evidence in my stuff - it can pristine sound automatically… be impatient, rude, painful or I really enjoyed collaborating. economic... it playful. Even shambolic, so I Friends would wander into At first, I didn’t think the track reckoned it would be an my studio (a cupboard in my flat) Avwas progressing muchalanche over interesting experiment to fuse and- ask me whatwhe I was doing. n I first call heardrather I’d times. other the five minutes it lasted, but it our stuff together. I would say, “well right now… soon occurred to me I had been right this minute, I am making a engaged in a subtle form of It would either discipline myself track with a German guy. or other music from from music other or electronic meditation for the or disease Frank! There’s this guy in Berlin, right…” f duration of the track. I think the It felt very empowering. I have best way I can describe this Because our styles are different, never met Frank Bretschneider, Frankmusic is that the track doesn’t we hadBretschnei to be speaking some kind yet we’ve made an album! der’s music.term fixed a is This music. appear to go far in the of similar tongue, albeit an traditional (compositional) electronic one. It wasn’t an oil sense, but the listener does . and water collaboration - I think that could have been disastrous, my describe to minimal That’s not to say Frank’s music but I was nicely surprised by the isn’t ever loose. I think one of opening track ‘Riss’ - Frank's the reasons I like this music is remix of my material from my word the use not would I because it marries precise web site ‘kit’ of samples. It's got a syncopation with the freedom of sense of humour - and how much et » a penny rattling around in a jar. glitch/click/cut music has that? Kom + / vs. 01 | Booklet 4/10/02 6:46 PM Page 2 Page PM 6:46 4/10/02 Booklet | 01 vs. / + + / vs. 01 | Booklet 4/10/02 6:46 PM Page 4 Sound micro-economics | SusannaBolle» “I would not use the word incorporate the accidental, It was as a child growing up in minimal to describe my music,” setting-up systems of modules to East Germany that Bretschneider declares Berlin based musician create unintentional, random was first exposed to electronic Frank Bretschneider (aka sequences. “I connect the music. “I guess the first time I Komet). “This is a fixed term for different modules - LFO’s, heard electronic music was at other music from other times. I’d oscillators, filters, envelope the age of nine or ten,” he rather call it economic and, generators, logic modules - as recalls, “when I listened to maybe, microscopic.” Later, by unconventionally as possible to science-fiction radio plays and way of explanation, he adds, “I’m see what the machines will do watched sci-fi movies. I was a really lazy guy; I don’t want to (instead of wasting time with really impressed by the have to expend too much to composing). After the system soundtracks, with their simple build a track.” creates some nice sequences, sine waves, echoes and treated I record it to hard disk for further noises. Later I discovered these The result of Bretschneider’s treatment. At the computer, [same] sounds in psychedelic sonic frugality is a cool, intricate I build the track brick by brick rock and the electric music of music, composed of often from the recorded sequences, Miles Davis.” delicate pinpricks of sound (soft like a construction kit. I cut, loop clicks, hissing static, gentle and filter, …using plug-ins to It was only with the explosion of pings) echoing keyboards, and add random structures; again, punk and new wave in the 1980s, the occasional undulating bass hoping some unexpected things however, that Bretschneider line and/or snippet of melody. will happen, looking at what the began making music, software will do.” In the end, experimenting with tape Bretschneider prefers to work however, while Bretschneider’s machines and eventually forming with highly synthetic, artificial work contains many random the band AG.GEIGE, which he sounds. “The basic sounds elements, it’s very much, as he describes as “heavily influenced are created from a computer- puts it, “constructed music,” by Dada, the Residents, and aided virtual modular with its overall structure [Soviet science fiction authors] synthesizer system,” he explains, informed by the conventions of Arkady and Boris Strugatskii.” as he describes his working popular music, most often dub methods. “My favourites are and hip-hop. After the break-up of AG.GEIGE clean sine waves and white in 1992, Bretschneider and noise, which are both simple and “I’ve been making electronic bandmate Olaf Bender (a.k.a. clear. I like precise, short, music since 1984. I started with Byetone) decided to continue impulsive sounds.” Throughout tape machines, treated guitars their musical experiments, but the composition process, which and a Korg MS-20 synth. had difficulty finding a label to he likens to painting a picture, In 1986 I founded a band called release their work. So, in 1995, Bretschneider tries to AG.GEIGE.” they formed their own label, + / vs. 01 | Booklet 4/10/02 6:46 PM Page 6 Susanna Bolle Rastermusic, which forged a the older Raster), as well as aside from the names. “Later,” [.mp3] www.bovine.org.uk ion 2.0 ion Vers distinctive aesthetic, producing constructing art installations and he says, “I thought it might [Film] Screen British/Scottish | Social Electrics Social | Life Bovine | No One Sees Black Sees One No | abstract, yet accessible electronic multimedia performances. The be a good idea to release under Dooks Chris 2000 998 music, such as Bretschneider’s label’s various projects, including different names for different 1 cont. early Komet full-lengths, ‘Saal’ art, design, science, performance projects, but, unfortunately, and ‘Flex’, as well as records by and, of course, music, are I’m not able to maintain such » Tol, Kyborg and Produkt. chronicled and critically strict separations. Every time I [Video Works] [Video BiP-HOp [CD] BiP-HOp [Documentary] TV examined in a recent book, Oacis make music I have to explore S Isis Arts/Millennium Dome Arts/Millennium Isis No More Self Harm Self More No “We had no philosophy [per se], (with companion CD). new things and so my latest Beethovens | Art on the Riverside the on Art | Dooks Chris | Tennis Remix - Remix Tennis | Life Bovine Bedroom Glaswegian | but did have a few ideas about release as Frank Bretschneider, Dooks Chris 999 1 2002 998 [what] our sound [should be]: it For Bretschneider, who trained ‘Curve’, is more comparable to 1 should be purely electronic, as a graphic designer and the Komet release ‘Rausch’ than without the use of lyrics or painter, the points of intersection to the Bretschneider www.bovine.org.uk [.mp3] www.bovine.org.uk [CD+] [Documentary] WT/ITV vocals, simple and clear without between visual art and music predecessor, ‘Rand’.” L ersion 1.0 ersion V ar of The Artist/NRFTA/Isis Arts Artist/NRFTA/Isis The of ar Ye being stupid, rhythmic or techno.