Zeitkratzer
Songs
Zeitkratzer releasing "songs"? Isn't Zeitkratzer a contemporary music group? Or a noise band? Songs? These songs actually have been developed over several years and evolved from a fashion show zeitkratzer was making the music for. Marc Weiser a.k.a. rechenzentrum, since then a member of zeitkratzer, sings. Marc has already caused some furore as Mark Markowitch, singing fake songs in fake languages in some hidden Berlin bars. So now all of those together: zeitkratzer's noise, zeitkratzer's…
Neue Volksmusik
he zeitkratzer project Neue Volksmusik (new folk music) is more of a reflex to, rather than a reflection on folk music. This is because the ensemble does not play specific music with any sense of distance. On the contrary, zeitkratzer is taking possession of folk music in its essence. This means that they continue a tradition which folk musics all have in common: constant transformation. No form of authentic folk music can ever be about conservation as a fixed medium, destined for a museu…
(Old school) Karlheinz Stockhausen
This is the fourth release in the series [old school]. The first three CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009], James Tenney [zkr0010] and Alvin Lucier [zkr0011] have been highly acclaimed. London's Wire Magazine wrote: 'The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.' The new release is dedicated to the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen.' 'I do not want a spiritualistic session. I want music.' Karlheinz St…
(Old school) Alvin Lucier
The internationally acclaimed 'hilarious releases' [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records go on. This is the third release in the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] have been highly acclaimed. London's Wire Magazine wrote: 'The rigour and discipline they collectively bring to this compositions make both discs utterly enthralling, from start to finish.' The new release is dedicated to the music of Alvin Lucier. In 20…
Fresh
The zeitkratzer ensemble performing two tracks by John Duncan in a collaboration promoted last year by Podewil in Berlin. A project started over a year ago, the result of continuous and tenatious work over several meetings between Duncan and the musicians, in charge of performing two originally electronic compositions with their acoustic instruments.The 27 minutes of the first piece revisit NAV-FLEX, a composition published last year by Duncan in the double CD with Francisco López, NAV . In zeit…
(Old school) James Tenney
The internationally acclaimed “hilarious releases” [vital weekly] of zeitkratzer records will continue with the new series [old school]. The first two CDs, dedicated to the music of John Cage [zkr0009] and James Tenney [zkr0010] are now released together. The collaboration of zeitkratzer with William Bennett /Whitehouse [zkr0007], recorded live in 2009 in Marseille/France and Den Haag/Netherlands, will follow this summer. Later in 2010, the [old school] series will continue with two more release…
(Old school) John Cage
John Cage’s compositions have been part of zeitkratzer’s repertoire since the very first day. The pieces presented here justify zeitkratzer’s reputation as sound specialists. Avant-garde composer Cage is played in a conservative, precise and sensual way, apart from all philosophical ambitions, and hopefully as seductive as a Schubert quintet! The “Wire Magazine” acclaimed: zeitkratzer convinced us that Cage‘s music can still live with all its complexities, stripped of the debris of its ic…
Volksmusik
The Zeitkratzer international soloists ensemble does their own take on Volksmusik: literally, the "people's music" of the Alpine regions of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, etc. However, Zeitkratzer comes up with their own sound, and their own interpretation, immersing themselves into folk music as still existing today, not some leftover phantom of older days and older traditions. To prepare for this material, they focused their research on the music of the Danube abutters and used every kind of f…
Schonberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation
Berlin's Reinhold Friedl is a practitioner of the inside-piano technique and founder and director of the Zeitkratzer and Piano-Inside-Out ensembles. His piece, Schönberg Pierrot Lunaire -- Cheap Imitation is exactly what the title says: an endless funny parody of Schönberg's Pierrot Lunaire, a composition often taken far too seriously. At the same time, it is a compositional condensation of Schönberg's techniques, conducted in a genius way by trumpet player Franz Hautzinger from Vienna, a longti…
Mort aux vaches. Random Dilettantes
Back in stock! 'composition: reinhold friedl this cd should be played with random or shuttle function zeitkratzer will soon be the center of innovative music. This project promises to be endlessly fascinating, the Wire magazin wrote three years ago. Three years later, after a lot of different projects, inluding zeitkratzerÕs already legendary cooperation with Lou Reed, international critics agree: zeitkratzer is the best contemporary music ensemble in the world (entrevista Lissboa, dna Roma).…
Xenakis (A)live!
ASPHODELZEITKRATZER - Reinhold FRIEDL, "Xenakis (A)live!""Equal parts composer, performer and curator, Berlin's Reinhold Friedl is a veritable renaissance man. In conjunction with his highly regarded orchestra Zeitkratzer ("Time scratcher" in German) as well as in collaboration with such artists as Lou Reed, Lee Renaldo and Merzbow, Friedl has helped set new standards for Europe's new music scene, crossing every conceivable line that separates chamber from computer music, and piano from st…