Klangkunst – Sound Art
Klangkorper – Sound Bodies
Klangobjekte – Sound Objects
Germany has a rich history in experimental rock developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
- Can
- Faust
- Neu!
- Popul Vuh
- Tangerine Dream
The term that began to be used for this music was Krautrock, a term given by the British music press. It is also know as Kosmische Musik.
The scene was born out of a rejection of nationalism towards ‘German’ culture in WW2 as well as a rejection of popular American music yet, simultaneously influenced by the avant-garde, experimental and underground scene of places like New York. The West German student movement of 1968 was a series of protests that encapsulated this rejection of traditionalism, and the authority of nationalism.
The scene has been considerably influential in experimental music, despite the limited commercial success of the groups at the time. Techno, post-punkk, ambient and ‘post-rock’ all have at least some krautrock in them.
The band CAN are one of the pioneers of the genre. Members Holger Czukay and Irmin Schmidt were students under Karlheinz Stockhausen. As a band they had many influences from backgrounds in Jazz, the avant-garde, classical music, rock, funk and the psychadelic. Their music was constructed largely through improvised composition, sampling themselves in the studio, and editing the improvisations.
Faust, formed in 1971 are band that use improvisation, disssonace and experimental electronics in their work, that have been influential in industrial and ambient music.
Soundworks/ Exhibitions
Fur Augen und Ohren
Mille Plateaux, founded in 1994, is as record label that releases minimal techno, glitch and experimental electronic music. In 2000 they released the compilation series Cuts and Clicks what established the aesthetics of glitch music. Artists signed on the label included:
- Alvo Noto (Carsten Nicolai)
- DJ Spooky
- Autopoieses (Ekkehard Ehlers and Sebastian Meissner)
- Jim O’Rourke
- Jetone (Tim Hecker)
- Max Eastley
- Merzbow
- Oval
- Pita/Peter Rehberg
- Ryoji Ikeda
- Scanner (Robin Rimbaud)
- Ultra-red
- (GAS) Wolfgang Voigt
- Yasunao Tone
Glitch music is something that resonates with me individually, both aesthetically, and in its process. I find that in the current landscape of music creation, it is interesting that the process of creating music on computers has become a means of replicating older technology, while maintaining the accessibility and more democratic nature of a lot of digital technology. For me, the technology, and digital medium, should be used to its full aesthetic potential so create experiment work.
Germany has a history of classical music – Bach, Straus, Wagner, Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann, Handel, Mendelsson, Pachelbel.
Interestingly, during WW2, Richard Wagners music was used as embodiment of ‘german-ness’ and was adopted as national music.