New SCHNEIDER TM album EREIGNISHORIZONT out on 26th of May via Karlrecords as 2xLP / 2xCD / DL.

PRE-SALE (from May 5th): Karlrecords bandcamp

LIVE BOOKING: booking@mirrorworldmusic.com

“The event horizon gives the black hole its size; behind it hides the singularity. And the more extended it is, the more massive the black hole is. But the event horizon is also invisible; if matter or light passes through it, there is no turning back.“(Prof. Dr. Michael Kramer, Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie) 

EREIGNISHORIZONT is SCHNEIDER TM’s new and with a duration of over 80 minutes truly epic album: experimental guitar, technological innovations and excursions into musical territories beyond the usual.

Performed on (partly self-developed) electroacoustic guitars + effects through a stereo set of tube amps with sensibilities for the world of modular synthesis and a range of seemingly contrarian musical directions, the 8 tracks present transcendental micro- and macrotonal soundscapes and polyrhythms, a musical cosmology that appears to be located in a sort of idiosyncratic alternate or parallel universe where parameters are slightly shifted, which doesn’t necessarily mean something like ‘otherworldliness’ but certainly offer a view onto ‘reality‘ from a bunch of different angles.

EREIGNISHORIZONT sounds and feels like a soundtrack for a yet-to-be-made sci-fi movie and exposes the essence of Dresselhaus’ artistic approaches, crafted here with a more pared-down set-up, an awareness of advanced musical techniques, the physicality of sound, and an improvisational spirit that is based on the experience that things are strongest when they happen first.

The main tools on EREIGNISHORIZONT are two customized electroacoustic guitars:
# The “FireSchneiderTM“ has sound chambers featuring removable bakelite lids and piezo mics, that can be used as percussion tools, vocal mics, or filled with interesting sounding materials like screws, etc.
# The next step in the long-term collaboration between Schneider TM and Deimel Guitarworks is the “SPARK“:
In addition to conventional magnetic and piezo pickups the guitar also has playable reverb springs, one of which is attached to the tremolo construction and can be tensioned. The different sound sources can be combined via a global selector switch and sent to an integrated electronic LesLee, which oscillates back and forth between the signals and is connected to CV In & Out sockets for integrating e.g. modular synthesizers via control voltage. The “SPARK” can not only be played acoustically, electrically and electronically, but as an electro-acoustic sound object it also offers possibilities for playing techniques that are not typical for guitars.

The sci-fi feel of EREIGNISHORIZONT is complemented by the artwork by SEBASTIAN MAYER who, just a few weeks before Dresselhaus contacted him, got the opportunity to work as a beta- tester with some of the first available AI based image generators (for which Mayer himself prefers the name „neural network image generator“ because there’s no „intelligence“ – yet – in these networks).

Dirk sent Sebastian some tracks of the new album with the note that he was thinking about this particular image when recording them. Mayer listened to his recordings and understood what inspired SCHNEIDER TM about these more-or-less artificial artworks: “there’s a crude weirdness to the image, it’s funny but at the same time a bit frightening, by topic and by style. It’s like an omen of what’s ahead of us in regards to AI – and not only about image generation but in a wider sense. AI will impact our society in ways we can not yet comprehend, and this image is a coarse yet deceptive harbinger for things that are yet to come – for better or worse.”

www.schneidertm.net

Now available at bandcamp as part of the ::: MirrorWorldMusic Archives ::: project ::

This is a live improvisation of the drone & noise duo ANGEL (Ilpo Väisänen / Dirk Dresselhaus) together with the (later) Multi-Award winning Icelandic cellist Hildur Guðnadóttir (Oscar, Grammy etc. for the original scores of Joker, Chernobyl etc.), which was performed in 2005 at CTM in Berlin a couple of months before they recorded their groundbreaking collaboration album KALMUKIA (Editions Mego 2007). It was originally released as CD by ORAL Records in 2006.

Now available at bandcamp as part of the ::: MirrorWorldMusic Archives ::: project ::

This is the first Angel album, which was recorded in Berlin in 2000 at their second ever live appearance, curated by Ran Huber (amSTARt) as an audio-visual performance in conjunction with video works by Videogeist, and was originally released as a CD by BiP_HOp in 2002. It features improvisations by Ilpo Väisänen on typewriter, effects, and CD player and Dirk Dresselhaus on electric guitar, effects, and tube amp.

Schneider TM album “The 8 Of Space” available as LP / CD / Digital via Editions Mego

Schneider TM is the multidimensional music project of Dirk Dresselhaus which has been operating since the mid 90’s. His latest opus is also his first for release for Editions Mego.

With an extensive catalogue under his belt, one may wonder where this one takes us? The 8 of Space orbits the realm of “pop” more overtly than the project has done for 14 years, residing in the line of works that temporarily ended with “Sko- da Mluvit“ from 2006. In the age of scattered streaming listening habits The 8 Of Space champions the classic album format with connected tracks that act like chapters adding up to what could be framed as an ‘audio-movie’. The ‘plot’ revolves around a post-dystopian landscape which posits the make up of reality in the future.

The lyrics are a key component. Holistic, associative poetry acts as interactive trigger points for the mechanisms of exis- tence in times of a paradigm shift that are open to the listeners discretion. Autobiographical elements combine with sci- ence fiction and dreams, protagonists shift where the ‘I’ or ‘me’ is not necessarily the voice of the artist, nor even the same person. Alongside a more naturalised voice another protagonist appears represented by a processed voice. This character, named iBot, evolved around the start of the millennium and has appeared on some previous Schneider TM recordings. It can be seen as a post-human, or even a trans-human character, a combination of human & technology, uncertain of the future, which lends iBot it’s melancholic tone.

In the opening song “Light & Grace“ iBot appears in an advanced form of AI, which managed to hack & hijack a commer- cial space travel program (eg, Virgin Galactic) to invite those rich, who profited most from the destruction of planet earth, for a holiday trip into space to unknowingly fly them directly into the middle of the sun. In this episode it seems to have developed higher ethics than humanity itself with ambition to save the planet with as much of its cooperative life as pos- sible.“Light & Grace“ serves as an intro / opener for this album to be followed by 7 other tracks featuring different win- dows of consciousness represented by diverse characters & protagonists.

All the elements on The 8 of Space, the music, sounds, vocals and artwork fit together as a whole, creating a dazzling electro pop future questioning it’s own certainty. This is experimental electroacoustic pop music featuring glorious melodies dancing along human/machine voices, each track is a small universe that triggers the physical mind and tickles the subconsciousness.

www.schneidertm.net

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Schneider TM – Bingo Merch – Online Store

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Schneider TM

Available now as download at MWM bandcamp!

Damo Suzuki (ex-CAN) : voice
Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM, die Angel) : electric baritone guitar, effects
Ilpo Väisänen (ex-Pan sonic, die Angel) : electronics, effects
Michael Beckett (Kptmichigan, Super Reverb) : electric guitar, effects
Claas Großzeit (Saal-C) : drums, percussion
Tomoko Nakasato (Mio, JINN) : dance, electric rake

These instant compositions were played & recorded on November 24th 2011 at Marie-Antoinette, Berlin (GER).

“I find it fairly difficult to say something about how the music in this concert came about, cause we didn‘t plan or rehearse anything and hardly were able to hear each other on stage. Wherever it came from, the energy and course of this concert is very much based on group dynamics and an almost telepathic sort of communication, like a swarm of fish. When I mixed the sound later on in the studio I discovered a lot of weird things on the separate tracks: for example Kptmichigan‘s guitar signal is changing level for about +/-30 dB once in a while which is a lot and was probably caused by a broken microphone cable. Luckily the fucked up parts made the sound even heavier and more distorted instead of destroying it.” (Dirk Dresselhaus)

2xLP / concert movie stream available at PlayLoud!

Healing music from members of The Fall, Faust & Schneider TM…ready to stream & download now at MWM bandcamp:

These 3 improvised pieces were recorded on 12th of March 2018 in Berlin by NOHE NOSHE (Elena Poulou of The Fall & Petr Step Kišur), Dirk Dresselhaus aka Schneider TM & Faust drummer Werner ‘Zappi’ Diermaier.

Elena Poulou: synthesizer
Petr Step Kišur: harmonium
Werner ‘Zappi‘ Diermaier: drums, percussion
Dirk Dresselhaus: processed electric guitar, cello bow

KPARR DIRÈ – Balafon Music from Lobi Country
(Edition Telemark / MWM)

LP+DVD / download AVAILABLE NOW at MWM bandcamp !

LP plus DVD with full-length movie (125 minutes) of Balafon music of the Lobi
people, recorded in and around Gaoua, Burkina Faso, on a two-week journey in
June 2014, by Dirk Dresselhaus (Schneider TM), Julian Kamphausen and
Arved Schultze. Packaged in a full-colour gatefold sleeve with DVD slide, with
numerous photos and an extensive interview with Dresselhaus, released by Edition Telemark in cooperation with MirrorWorldMusic.

ALL PROFITS generated with downloads & physical formats at MWM bandcamp go to the involved musicians in Burkina Faso !

The Lobi are an ethnic group of about 180,000 people living in southern Burkina
Faso and bordering regions. The primary instrument of their traditional music
is the balafon, played solo or in a duet, usually accompanied by
percussionists. Lobi balafon music serves as a complex language for
communication with the audience but also with ancestors and spirits. Different
kinds of music are used for different purposes and social atmospheres (birth,
death, joy, hunting, war, etc.)

At its core, this music is hundreds of years old and knowledge of its mastery
is passed on from generation to generation, with different styles emerging in
different regions and outside influences picked up on the way. The first
well-known recordings of Lobi balafon music were made in 1961 and published on
the Ocora LP “Musiques du pays Lobi”. While the tunes heard there clearly show
their ancient roots, the music on this release is not isolated from current
influences and carries traces of modern African electronic pop music and
Contemporary R&B that is widespread in the region. This has led to a new
minimalist, poly-rhythmic and breakbeat-laden style prominent in Gaoua, to our
knowledge recorded here for the first time. Yet the pieces are the same
traditionals, played differently from generation to generation and from day to
day.

Musicians on the LP are Martin Kensiè (Da Toh Alain) and ensemble, and Palé
Goukoun. Their fathers – Kambiré Tiaporté and Palé Tioionté, respectively – had
been recorded in the 1990s for the Ocora CDs “Pays Lobi, Xylophone de
funérailles” and “Pays Lobi, Xylophones du Buur” that served as the starting
point for this journey. The DVD features a full-length movie by Arved Schultze,
documenting the trip through various localities and villages, with numerous
performances also including other musicians.

RELEASE PARTY:
22.03.2020 – 17:00 CET @ ausland, Lychener St. 60, 10437 Berlin, Germany – cancelled / postponed !

Screening / Talk / Performance
w/ Schneider TM, Sarata Diallo Koné, Tomoko Mio, Maurice de Martin, Arved Schultze, Edition Telemark & DJs Phonosphere (Werner Durand & Jens Strüver) / Timmytim

Facebook Event

:::

KPARR DIRÈ – Balafon Music from Lobi Country – long story short
(by Dirk Dresselhaus, Berlin 22.02.2020)

When I entered an Afro shop in the train arches near Alexanderplatz in Berlin in spring 2003, I had no idea what this moment would trigger in the years after. So I entered this shop and saw two strange percussion instruments that were unknown to me: a kind of prehistoric xylophones with a lot of calabashes underneath. The nice owner of the shop explained to me that they were balafones that he had brought from an old man in northern Ghana. We quickly agreed and I bought one of the two instruments that I used for the next few weeks while recording a new Schneider TM album. After a while I got curious and went to the world music department of Dussmann, a book and media retailer, to research balafon music from West Africa. Much of the music from Ghana, Ivory Coast etc. I found was great, very pentatonic and sometimes a bit cheesy, but it was only when I discovered the two Ocora releases of Lobi music from Burkina Faso (“Pays Lobi, Xylophone de funérailles” and “Pays Lobi, Xylophones du Buur”) that it really blew me away. The open (dis-)harmonies, very similar to the tuning of the balafon I had at home, and syncopated polyrhythms moved me deeply and were somehow the most futuristic thing I had ever heard. In the years that followed, I often incorporated the two CDs into my DJ sets and mixed some of them with drone & noise music, which somehow complemented each other perfectly. Like two long lost relatives who suddenly see each other again.
In 2013 I received a call from Arved Schultze and Julian Kamphausen regarding a possible study trip to Africa, funded by the TURN fund of the German Cultural Foundation, to look for musicians or artists with whom there should subsequently be an African-German cooperation as a cultural exchange. I immediately thought that we absolutely have to go to Gaoua, Burkina Faso, to find out if the Lobi musicians were still around whose music I had sucked in all the years before and about whom you could otherwise hardly find any information on the Internet etc. The two initiators were immediately enthusiastic and in June 2014 the trip took us via Bamako (Mali) and Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso) finally to Gaoua:
 TRAVEL BLOG

As luck would have it, my sister knew a university friend who was to build a street for an NGO in Gaoua in 2001 and since then had a good friend in Burkina Faso who had lived in Gaoua for a long time and worked there as a German teacher. We met this friend, Issaka Yameogo, at a bus station on the way to Gaoua, and on the same evening he introduced us to his old friend Somda Desiré, who was very well connected in the capital of the Lobi people and in turn directly brought us together with the balafonist Martin Kensiè. Martin turned out to be the son of one of the musicians who unfortunately had already died at that time and who had played on the Ocora CDs from the 1990s. All of this happened immediately after arriving in Gaoua and was the start of two intense weeks in which we were introduced to the music and culture of the Lobi and Dagara people and deep friendships were formed. This was when the recordings took place that are now released as LP & DVD by Edition Telemark / MWM and that originally were intended only for documentation as preparation for future collaboration. Since there never was a collaboration between Martin Kensiè, his ensemble and us experimental musicians from Europe due to a lack of follow-up funding, we have at least managed to make these unique and magical recordings available to the public after a long period of preparation.


Schneider TM & Jochen Arbeit of Einstürzende Neubauten release an album of ‘urban cosmic freeform music’ on the US label Erototox Decodings featuring musical contributions by Julia Kent (cello), Lucio Capece (bass clarinet) & Claas Großzeit (cymbal).
The album, which almost became an abandoned treasure, was already recorded in winter 2011/12 and stretches out it’s harmonic dissonances between heavy drones, strange noises, industrial-like metal percussion, feedback-ish flutes, melodic freeform drums and organic cello arrangements.

Also available now as LP / CD / download at Erototox Decodings !