Bestandteile (Zeno Gabaglio mit elektrischem Cello, Luca Xelius Martegani mit analogen Synthesizern, El Toxyque mit amplifizierten Objekten) bietet es eine originelle Herangehensweise an elektronische Musik, die bisher in mehreren Alben und zahlreichen Soundtracks für Film, Theater und Installationen zum Ausdruck kam”. Das zum zehnjährigen Bandjubiläum erscheinende “11″ kann als eine Art Wendepunkt in der Diskografie des Trios angesehen werden, die Gründe dafür erklären auch seinen Titel: “Zum ersten Mal entscheidet sich Niton für die Zusammenarbeit im Studio mit anderen Künstlern an jedem der 10 Tracks.

Die Gäste sind 11 internationale Künstler mit unterschiedlichem kreativem Hintergrund: Meryem Aboulouafa und Vanni Bianconi, Julian Sartorius, Boris Hauf, John Butcher, Peter Kernel, Olivia Louvel, Béatrice Graf, Andy Bluvertigo, Andy Moor und Achille Ateba Mvondo”. Das Album, das dem entsprechend ausgesprochen vielgestaltig ausgefallen ist und von Henning Schmitz (Kraftwerk) gemastert wurde, erscheint als LP und digital.

Foto © Veronica Colonnello

“Building on his practice of site-specific performances and percussive sound walks, Julian Sartorius captured sounds and patterns at eleven locations: the train station and cemetery, on the banks of a stream, on a bicycle path, and in an intimate cavern above the village’s lake, amongst other locales. Sartorius documented the soundscape of the village in field recordings, recorded samples of objects and captured percussive patterns by playing on the architecture and vegetation found on-site. Feldermelder then processed these recordings into eleven compositions, preserving the locations’ acoustic identities, but expanding on Sartorius’ material. Besides the bassline on ‘Veloweg’, Feldermelder used only sound reactive synthesis and resonators to create additional sounds, layers and tracks, thus multiplying the spectrum and rhythms of the original material. ‘Bonn Route’ is a musical journey rooted in the emittance of sound, and our resonation with the world around us.” (-OUS)

@ -OUS

“Since his Beat Diary debut (a 12xLP box set comprising 365 beats recorded daily over the course of a year), Julian Sartorius has immersed himself in unique and ambitious projects – trekking the path not travelled to arrive at rhythmic life forms through found objects and prepared instruments. Equally as mighty are his two other escapades, the most recent being Locked Grooves – 112 beats cut as endless loops on vinyl spanning 56 dense 1.8 second compositions per side. Preceding that is his auditory hike into the mountains (Hidden Tracks: Basel – Genève), wading through and playing the landscapes around him like a lithophone.

While Julian’s previous releases focus on innovative and conceptual approaches to realizing an album, his new venture on Marionette (titled Mux) is a culmination of all his efforts thus far to mimic a synthesizer and drum machine. This seemingly impossible feat challenges Julian to experiment and develop a musical language that bridges the gap between organic timbres and electronic music. When listening to Mux, one might simply forget that the seemingly electronic sounds are only constructed organically via hand movements. The common thread in all his works thus far is that the drums are treated as resonant bodies – free to flow and form rhythm and harmony in spacetime.” (Marionette)

Foto © Patrick Principe

“Julian Sartorius aims to test infinity. Focussing on reduction and repetition, the versatile artist, drummer, and percussionist has recorded an album capable of suspending time. Exploring the potential of a repertoire performed under rigorous conditions and regulated by a loop length of 1.8 seconds, Sartorius responds with a disciplined focus on tonal nuances, micro expressions and shifting time signatures. The 112 locked grooves of this album — or 112 one-minute loops on the digital release — unveil an abundance of rhythmic forms, some vigorous, some frail, others impulsive, alluring, and adrift.

Sartorius’ precise, multi-layered rhythmical patterns are incisive excursions into the hidden tones of found objects and prepared instruments, concise arrangements which bridge the gap between sound art and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. On Locked Grooves Sartorius interrogates the idea of a ‘static’ groove, unfurling an endless, meticulously gradated percussive suite. This is the point at which intangible structures materialize, becoming four-dimensional, sculptural, solid. ” (-OUS)

@ -OUS