Mit unkonventionellen Kombinationen von Drums, Klavier, synthetischen Stimmen und anderen klanglichen Überraschungen erschaffen General Magic ein irritierendes und zugleich eindringliches akustisches Universum. Das Artwork von Tina Frank, einer langjährigen Freundin und Kollaborateurin des Duos, ergänzt die klangliche Dimension mit einem ebenso ambivalenten visuellen Ausdruck – ihr erstes analoges Design zeigt ein undefinierbares maschinenartiges Wesen, das in einer futuristisch anmutenden Landschaft schwebt. Das Album erscheint in wenigen Tagen in einer limitierten Auflage von 300 LPs und zum Download.

Epochen, lassen psychedelisch eingefärbten Techno ebenso anklingen wie krautige Space Rock-Zitate und verrauschte, verzerrte Experimentalklänge. Im Begleittext heißt es: “General Magic set the benchmark in the playful deconstruction of electronic music, setting the pace since 1995 – what else would one expect from such steadfast proponents of the Third Viennese School?”. Das Album erscheint mit Artwork von Tina Frank bei GOTO Records und ist als CD, als Kassette und zum Download erhältlich.

“General Magic, once described as perhaps the strangest, least stylistically constrained project on the Mego label’s roster, pushed the abstraction level of turn-of-the-millennium electronic music forward with audiophonic jewels such as ‘Fridge Trax’ (with Peter ‘Pita’ Rehberg), ‘Die Mondlandung’ and their audacious and joyful debut album ‘Frantz’ (both recently re-released by Editions Mego) as well as the pixel-precise digital sonic journey of ‘Rechenkönig’. With ‘Softbop’, General Magic created a wild and weird beauty of powerful post-digital electronica. The seven track EP will be released in May 2022 via generate and test – the farmersmanual publishing hub for decentralised, incremental, and opportunistic audio projects.” (generate and test)

Burn, General Magic from Tina Frank on Vimeo.

“Listening to the test pressings of the remastered Frantz album for the first time on vinyl, 25 years after the original release on the then still young Mego label in 1997, felt like uncovering an ancient artefact. In those exciting days during the mid-1990s, together with the late Peter Rehberg, we founded a label called Mego to further explore the wonders of electronic music. And that is what we did for the next 10 years until everything became too much with the label in somewhat rough waters. So we dropped out of music business and pursued different things. It was Peter who continued producing and releasing music with the restarted label, now called Editions Mego. Until his unexpected death in July 2021, he developed Editions Mego into the grown-up and much acclaimed outfit for which it is known today. We will forever miss Peter’s inspiring personality and his uncompromising creativity. His legacy will live on in his music and in the vast and rich Mego and eMego catalogues. We are humbled and proud to have played a role in those formative years of the label.

Peter approached us in October 2020 with the idea to do a vinyl reissue of Frantz, just in time for the 25 year anniversary of its release. That came as a complete surprise for us, General Magic had not released any music or performed live for over 15 years. Anyway, we were delighted with the prospect of having that General Magic “classic” remastered (by the exceptional Russell Haswell) and released for the first time on vinyl on Editions Mego.” (Andi Pieper / Ramon Bauer)

@ Editions Mego