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Reviews

Vidna Obmana & Asmus Tietchens — Motives for Recycling
(Soleilmoon SOL 84, 1999, 2CD)

by Mike McLatchey, Published 2000-05-01

Motives for Recycling Cover art

This is the second collaboration between the Belgian ambient and German experimental musicians, the prior effort being much different than this release, in that this is less a collaboration and rather a reconstruction of one musician’s prior albums by another. I am not familiar with much of Tietchens work, although I am familiar with his Sky debut Nachtstucke, of which one disc is a recycling of. Nevertheless, this is perhaps one of the most overlooked albums of the year, an album of excellent sonic manipulation and experimentation. Disc one is comprised of Vidna Obamana’s recycling of the Asmus Tietchens cassette Linea [1+3] from 1988. The result, Linear Writings, is four long pieces of rich modulated sounds, a virtual whirlpool of sounds that range from “vol 4”s relaxing and subtle nature to the dark, more industrial spaces of the rest of the disc. All are mesmerizing. The second disc recycles music from over ten years earlier, and comes up with sounds very different from the source. The new piece, “Nachtstucke Revisited,” is close to twice as long as the original, and the pieces are much different, having more in common with Vidna Obmana’s music than Tietchens’ original recording. Needless to say, the ten pieces that make up the second disc still vary in style, although the music is usually heavily spacious and lavishly layered. It all adds up to a set that is rich in returns — a lot of music to take in, even in several sittings, but well worth the time taken.

Filed under: New releases, Issue 19, 1999 releases

Related artist(s): Dirk Serries / Vidna Obmana / Fear Falls Burning, Asmus Tietchens

 

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