POST BLANK


coverart by Albert Oehlen

Oliver Augst : mixer, voice, harp, keyboard
Rüdiger Carl : claviola, drum-machine, keyboard, percussion, voice
Christoph Korn : guitar, electronics, melodica, voice
Music by Augst/Carl/Korn
Words by Werner Büttner (20/26), T.S. Eliot (12), Augst (16/32),
Carl (8)
Recorded and edited 2002/03 by Augst/Carl/Korn in Frankfurt/Germany.
Coverart by Albert Oehlen


Blank - Post
Improvisation not a fetish, but rather as material, as an object of process, as a means to save past gestures, those hardly left in memory – this is the musical procedure of the Frankfurt trio Blank.
Blank consists of Oliver Augst (voice, no-input mixing board, harmonica, etc.), Christoph Korn (guitar, live electronics, melodica, and voice from time to time) and Rüdiger Carl (claviola, a small keyboard with rhythm functions, a little accordion, no clarinet this time around, but with voice, a world premier!). The Frankfurt-based group has been working together for seven years, and not only musically. For five years they curated the experimental music festival Pol. They have long left the realm of the Aha-effect, since an improviser from the very beginning (Carl) has met up with two younger musicians (Augst, Korn).
They are a group that has developed a dream-like understanding among each other. And it hasn’t happened via the classical path of free jazz noise, but rather via a highly reflective method of always questioning themselves: this year they have released a LP, Duden (on Eventuell/a-Musik), which exists solely of endless grooves, loops in other words, each of which lasts less than a second. Whoever buys this LP, buys a current working instrument of the band. In the last few months, they performed, each with an LP and record player, and mixed the loops to a complete texture live. Post appears as a logical consequence of this working method. The CD contains 33 tracks with a complete time of 52 minutes; the tracks are based on loops for the most part. The material that forms the basis of the music was played spontaneously (“improvised”), but was arranged later on a computer into miniature songs.
Post is an exemplary expression of working antitheses. The music seems static and diverting at the same time; there are virtually no references and concessions on the zeitgeist, and yet Post is saturated with historical gestures – punk, techno, the proletariat song tradition, trace elements of blues and new wave.
And history, by the way. It’s exactly the opposite of what one’d expect: first Post was recorded, then Duden. Due to current reasons the last was published first. But it’s unimportant – Blank master their material, playfully not dictatorially. The strict logic of their work is always broken by the involuntary spontaneity and free imagination. Improvisation can’t be entirely subjugated.
The cover was designed by Albert Oehlen.
(Felix Klopotek)

01 parken
02 revenge
03 twister
04 spartakus
05 brot
06 pill
07 herero
08 bleib
09 radio
10 poke
11 bullit
12 old
13 ash
14 rag
15 trap
16 pace
17 blade
18 vage
19 blut
20 green birds
21 broom
22 kerouac
23 bote
24 hoheit
25 coal
26 runover
27 tin
28 brut
29 home
30 welt
31 jam
32 konto
33 bye babe

-home

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Untitled Document