KOLLEKTION 04

Doppelschnitt by Dieter Moebius and Gerd Beerbohm, mixed by Conny Plank: pure Proto-techno, an unbelievable song and so ahead of its time. It’s included on Kollektion 04, the compilation I put together for Hamburg’s Bureau B which came out earlier this year, and is available here on triple vinyl and double cd.

“I always listen out for music with a sense a space; where compositions are stripped down to the barest components while retaining the power to conjure emotion. It’s for this reason that I’m so drawn to dub, techno and German avant-garde minimalist music. To me the bands and labels in the Bureau B archive, current and past, were looking to distant lands, their own “Neuland”, whether in the future with bands like YOU and Riechmann, or from a more remote past, like medieval folk band Ougenweide. They were creating something radical and experimental, something that didn’t draw on the same rhythm and blues, Anglo-American rock that was saturating the airwaves at the time. They were pioneers in every sense of the word.

With all due respect for the music that forged these paths, it was on hearing the mental guitar on Faust’s “Herbstimmung” that I knew to look not only at the so-called golden years of this era, but to look at what these artists were doing later, as well as the new bands that were emerging from those schools. Artists who are still creating, still innovating. I hope you enjoy the journey.” RF