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FRANK
NIEHUSMANN - LIVE (CD by Nur Nicht Nur)
"The music of Frank Niehusmann is made with open reel
analogue tape machines, and that is not a fancy plug in,
which pro-tools offer you. Frank uses an eight track reel
to reel on which there is one loop running, with eight different
sounds, which he mixes in a live situation ... Almost like
a DJ, but with strictly his own input. "Schnitt"
is a recording of such a live thing, in eight different
movements. Needles to say that this music, regardless of
the input has a repetative element, from machine like structures,
environment recordings, sine waves and Morrocan drumming.
Quite a vivid play of sounds ... Also on this CD is a piece
called 'Untertagemusik Nr. 1' ... Apperentely the sounds
were recorded 1000 meters underground, with very special
recording-equipment. Since Niehusmann is from the highly
industrialized Ruhr area in Germany, he went down old mines
to do his recordings. Later on he manipulated these recordings
via his analogue and digital working methods. The recording
here is part of his usual programm for playing live ...
Highly industrial music with machine like sounds (that me
think are impossible to record at such a depth, but who
am I to disagree?), ... a nice piece indeed."
Frans de Waard,
VITAL WEEKLY, number 378 - 2003;
Vital Weekly is published by Frans de Waard and submitted
for free to anybody with an e-mail addresss. Snail mail:
Vital Weekly/Frans de Waard - Acaciastraat 11 - 6521 NE
Nijmegen - The Netherlands. The complete archive of Vital
(1987 - 1995) and Vital Weekly (1995 onwards) can be found
at: http://vital.staalplaat.com
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Frank
Niehusmann "LIVE"
Format CD
"Using two open-reel 8-track analogue tape machines.
Skillfully Manipulating, mixing, real time, a noise and
sound composition, with prepared sounds, tones and noises.
It's a mix of environmental recordings from everyday-life
from different parts of the world recorded from his own
travels, machines sounds, rewind fast forward squealing,
trains, chanting, hypnotic singing, church bells mix with
heart beats and sine tones, creating a dense, rhythmic
network of cut-ups and noise, his mixes and knack of combining
sounds set his work apart. I saw Frank perform a year
ago, his tape machines are laid out in front of him with
the tape loops hanging around him on hospital type drip
stands, he calmly walks back and forth changing the loops,
and manipulating the sounds it was a mesmerizing, and
moving performance, which I think also works on CD."
Noisegate
Magazin,
PO BOX 15149,
LONDON WC1XOHJ9,
http://www.noisegate.org.uk
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Frank
Niehusmann: Live CD
"This CD contains two works the first of which is entitled
Schnitt! - a work in eight parts and the second is entitled
Untertagemusik Nr.1, which won an award at the 29th International
competition of electro-acoustic music and soundart in Bourges,
France 2002.
Niehusmann works in the tradition of musique concrète
by mainly using live manipulations of analogue reel to reel
tape recorders. The opening piece Machinenpark is a crashing
explosive mixture of found sounds some of which are very
raw and unprocessed sounds such as swishing water along
with helicopter noises and other looped soundbites. Other
sounds are not so
easy to identify and provide the almost destructive sound
of metal being struck by some implement and crunching machinery
giving a rhythmic feel to the piece.
Each section of Schnitt! seems to have its own theme for
example the second piece transport is a live-loop-scratch-concert
based mainly on parts of a radio play as well as noises
and sounds such as that of a train which introduces the
piece. It also includes many laughter samples, crows cawing
etc. creating an interesting and somehow amusing soundscape.
Other sections include mixtures of samples of drummers in
Marreksch, car horns, German industrial mills, synthetic
FM, Scottish bagpipes and all manner of everyday found sounds.
Niehusmann combines all these fragments, cuts and passages
into complex rhythmic and layered soundscapes and is not
afraid to use naked un-manipulated samples to produce this
musique concrète environment in the original old-style
way. An interesting barrage of sound is constructed using
loops, scratching, forwards and reverse movement, starting
and stopping.
The last piece on the CD Untertagemusik Nr.1 shows a more
intricate composition based on samples recorded approximately
1000 metres deep in a Coal mine. The samples were digitally
manipulated and prepared afterwards and later copied back
onto an 8-track analogue tape loop where rhythmical structures
were assembled. What results is a complex view of this underground
world.
The wealth and range of sounds on this album make for a
colourful and stimulating listen." Paul
Bijlsma, Phosphor Magazine 2003,
http://www.xs4all.nl/~phosphor |
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CD
"LIVE / Frank Niehusmann":
"Live presents two works, "Schnitt!" (in
eight movements, 34 minutes) and "Untertagemusik_nr.1"
(11 minutes). They were created using the same technique.
Frank Niehusmann first digitally prepares a collection of
samples and sound bites which he then aligns on a reel of
tape. In performance he uses one open-reel tape machine
as a crude sample playback device and an 8-track open-reel
tape recorder to loop the sounds, add, bounce and delete
material, building the pieces in real time. The technique
may sound crude, but it adds a visual, physical element
to the live performance that laptop artists can only dream
of.
"Schnitt!" consists of eight separate "scenes",
each featuring its own sound theme: industrial machines
in "Maschinenpark", cars, subways and trains in
"Transport", field recordings from Marrakech in
"Marrakesch Medizin". There's even a reel of Microsoft
Windows sound files. Some of these settings are far from
being innovative, but Niehusmann's original approach yields
interesting results. The precision required to cue the source
tape, extract a specific sound, punch it in and later edit
it out, keeping track of eight sounds at a time while keeping
the whole thing cohesive and exciting is no small feat.
"Untertagemusik Nr.1" is an apple from the same
tree. Here, the sounds on the source reel have been recorded
one thousand meters underground, in a mine. Mineshafts clank,
rock drills buzz and a synthesizer adds an odd (and not
always welcome) touch to this symphony from another era
of industrialization." François
Couture,
AMG - All Music Guide - 2003,
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS805131359&sql=Aagt67uy030jh |
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May
Way Magazin - in german + PDF-format only:
"Frank Niehusmann - live"
[ open My Way
review ] |
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