"The sound they make blends the contemporary and the traditional, stitching-together archaic instrumentation and modern electronic production techniques, all wrapped up in the influence of folk songs and nursery rhymes, fantasy, and myth. Its makers—who release their surreal and dreamlike music under names like Brannten Schnüre, Kirschstein, and Freundliche Kreisel—sing in their native German about strange and eerie things: hauntings and silences and absences. This sense of mystery is further cultivated by the fact that the people who make this music prefer not to speak publicly about it, refusing conventional press interviews. Perhaps they fear that added context will weaken the unusual energies that move through their music. Ghosts, after all, can’t thrive under the cold light of scrutiny.
Gespensterland's "distinctive cover.... the blurry image seems to capture a scene from some pagan festival: a flower-wreathed Green Man transplanted onto the streets of suburban West Germany."
"This is meticulous, occasionally mischievous music, dotted with distinctly German cultural reference points. Schoppik’s self-titled debut solo album under the name Läuten der Seele, released in 2002, took samples of Heimatfilme—a post-war genre of German cinema consisting of sentimental morality tales—and gently twisted them into something distinctly unheimlich. There are scattered references to the supernatural and occult. Writing of the experimental sound manipulations he performs as Baldruin, Schebler invokes the psychokinetic activity of the poltergeist, a German term that translates as “noisy spirit.”
The whole compilation is also audible here
All this reminded me of the German actually already on the roster of Ghost Box - ToiToiToi, whose Vaganten I particularly enjoyed, making me think of "Der Plan if they'd formed in 16th Century Swabia"
That is pretty funny that the title of the article is "The Mysterious Music on the Compilation “Gespensterland” Captures an Eerie Sound That Evades Definition"
ReplyDeleteIt screams a definition.
I get the feeling Louis is being pretty disingenuous to the point where one might speculate as to whether he has some kind of animosity towards you, Mark Fisher or somebody else within that milieu.
Not at all Tim - I love both Simon and Mark's writing. Title not author's own, as per usual with these sorts of articles, although I'm happy enough with it.
ReplyDeleteNot sure why I didn't invoke hauntology in the article - there are certainly parallels, especially the Freundliche Kreisel record, which as I say has strong Broadcast/Focus Group vibes. Hmmm... perhaps because a lot of the hauntological stuff has very English/Brit reference points, and this stuff feels so rooted in its Germanness? Dunno.
Thanks for posting Simon, hope you enjoyed the music.
H-ology is very British but then I think it's probably the case that every country or nationality has its own version of H. A sort of cultural substrate of common experience that you don’t really notice until it’s gone. The fabric of life, mundane details of typography and packaging and the look of things. Phrase and fable, catchphrases, slogans... ways of doing things, bureaucracy, appliances, etc
ReplyDeleteThis Polish web-TV cult phenom Kraina Grzybów is a good example
https://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.com/2021/02/polska-hauntologia.html
I did enjoy Gespensterland although obviously not picking up even half of its memoradelic vibrations..
French hauntology, or at least the kind of thing that would inspire a French hauntology
ReplyDeletea reissue titled Outremusique pour enfants 1974-1985
https://lancepierre.bandcamp.com/album/chevance-etc-outremusique-pour-enfants-1974-1985
In the land of Presidents Giscard and Mitterand, thermal clothing and elbow pads, Sautet films and Sunday roasts, the carpeting of a nursery is strewn with a handful of 7-inches. There, exotic birds and courteous elephants guarding a castle built with cakes form a Front for the Liberation of the Imaginary: colourful, systematically framed illustrations standing out against the cream background of gatefold sleeves… doorways to a maze of sounds at the crossroads between the neatest form of chanson and the most prospective jazz.
Founded in the course of the 1970s by Philippe Gavardin, the small collection named Chevance is above all the story of buddies who were out and about between the twilight of the Trente Glorieuses and the disenchantment that followed the socialists’ rise to power, gravitating around this mentor known for his kindness and curiosity. Originally a linguist, Gavardin was one of these open-minded intellectuals, with one foot in the Contrescarpe cabarets and the other in step with the avant-garde, combining his apparently classical tastes with a keen interest in the novelties of his time. It is notably with Jean-Louis Méchali—a drummer from the free jazz scene who became Gavardin’s team-mate and arranged a good deal of the releases—that he forged the identity of this series of recordings for the younger generations: musically janus-faced, definitely literary, impregnated with a surrealism that echoed the decade’s psychedelic and libertarian experiments. The label developed a real editorial policy disregarding commercial constraints. Each record took a clear direction: modern fables, bestiaries, musical tales, cookbooks… Words were the backbone and every release was both carefully designed and perfectly manufacture...
Another release by this label could be real or could be one of those fictitious 'avant music made by schoolkids' releases like D.D. Denham's Electronic Music In the Classroom
https://lancepierre.bandcamp.com/album/prends-le-temps-decouter-musique-dexpression-libre-dans-les-classes-freinet-tape-music-sound-experiments-and-free-folk-songs-from-freinet-classes-1962-1982