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CD
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BB 223CD
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Latecomers to the krautrock party, Circles created a manifesto of frenzied inertia in the late 1980s, swimming in the same gene pool as Cluster and Popol Vuh. Ambient music for the end of time does not get any more authentic than this. The Structures album is a time capsule unlocked, containing previously unreleased recordings from 1985 to 1989. Music that blends the extremes of end-times foreboding and drifting lightness to beguiling effect. Music that succeeds in sounding more contemporary in 2016 that it did when it was made. Its time has come. Mike Bohrmann and Dierk Leitert's duo first saw the light of day in 1983. Krautrock's twilight phase flickered with a few final successes before sliding into obscurity. For a relatively unknown project like Circles, finding a distributor was virtually impossible, in spite of all the time and effort they had invested in their third LP. "We had already pressed up the album and we didn't want to bin it," explains Bohrmann. "So Dierk simply painted roughly 100 white sleeves and we left the other 400 covers blank. Then we visited all the record shops in the Rhine-Main region and gave the LPs away." Collectors are likely to tear their hair out just thinking about the prices such a krautrock rarity can fetch nowadays. With little prospect of success, further recordings disappeared into the cupboard, unreleased -- until now. The shining treasure of Structures has been opened up and dusted off. Right from the start, the first song decelerates ceremoniously into tones that resound for minutes on end. Guitar figures exude a lightness as they complement and carry the track. Sweeping variations are rare and excursions into harmony even rarer, yet everything connects in a perfectly balanced arc of tension. Each of the following tracks has a magic all its own. Electronic keyboards and guitars are the dominant sound sources. One can hear a Korg Trident, a much-prized analog synthesizer noted for its string and brass section; "for the warm, deep layers and harmonies in the upper ranges and bass," recalls Bohrmann. They also used a monophonic analog synthesizer, the Moog Source -- a classic of space-age industrial design considered by some to be the most beautiful synth ever built.
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LP
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BB 223LP
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LP version. Latecomers to the krautrock party, Circles created a manifesto of frenzied inertia in the late 1980s, swimming in the same gene pool as Cluster and Popol Vuh. Ambient music for the end of time does not get any more authentic than this. The Structures album is a time capsule unlocked, containing previously unreleased recordings from 1985 to 1989. Music that blends the extremes of end-times foreboding and drifting lightness to beguiling effect. Music that succeeds in sounding more contemporary in 2016 that it did when it was made. Its time has come. Mike Bohrmann and Dierk Leitert's duo first saw the light of day in 1983. Krautrock's twilight phase flickered with a few final successes before sliding into obscurity. For a relatively unknown project like Circles, finding a distributor was virtually impossible, in spite of all the time and effort they had invested in their third LP. "We had already pressed up the album and we didn't want to bin it," explains Bohrmann. "So Dierk simply painted roughly 100 white sleeves and we left the other 400 covers blank. Then we visited all the record shops in the Rhine-Main region and gave the LPs away." Collectors are likely to tear their hair out just thinking about the prices such a krautrock rarity can fetch nowadays. With little prospect of success, further recordings disappeared into the cupboard, unreleased -- until now. The shining treasure of Structures has been opened up and dusted off. Right from the start, the first song decelerates ceremoniously into tones that resound for minutes on end. Guitar figures exude a lightness as they complement and carry the track. Sweeping variations are rare and excursions into harmony even rarer, yet everything connects in a perfectly balanced arc of tension. Each of the following tracks has a magic all its own. Electronic keyboards and guitars are the dominant sound sources. One can hear a Korg Trident, a much-prized analog synthesizer noted for its string and brass section; "for the warm, deep layers and harmonies in the upper ranges and bass," recalls Bohrmann. They also used a monophonic analog synthesizer, the Moog Source -- a classic of space-age industrial design considered by some to be the most beautiful synth ever built.
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CD
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MENT 001CD
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In the late 1970s and '80s there was a lot happening in the German post-krautrock underground that few people knew about -- lots of independent artists doing their own thing, either via small labels or no labels at all. Circles was one of these bands. Based in the suburbs of Frankfurt, they consisted of Dierk Leitert (synthesizer, sequencer, drums, bass, guitar, voice, saxophone, flute) and Mike Bohrmann (guitars, bass, synthesizer), plus a few collaborators. Carrying the torch of '70s bands like Cluster, Harmonia, or Liliental into the '80s, Circles were also contemporaries of groups like Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, and Nurse with Wound, so one can also expect some similarities to those artists. Circles is their first album, originally privately released in 1983 on the duo's tiny Einhorn label and housed in a mysterious cover. This little-known but excellent kraut/psych/experimental album is highly recommended for anyone into Harmonia, Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler, NEU!, Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, Irmin Schmidt, Amon Düül II. . . . First-ever reissue, including detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Ultima Thule) telling the band's story for the first time.
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MENT 001LP
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LP version. In the late 1970s and '80s there was a lot happening in the German post-krautrock underground that few people knew about -- lots of independent artists doing their own thing, either via small labels or no labels at all. Circles was one of these bands. Based in the suburbs of Frankfurt, they consisted of Dierk Leitert (synthesizer, sequencer, drums, bass, guitar, voice, saxophone, flute) and Mike Bohrmann (guitars, bass, synthesizer), plus a few collaborators. Carrying the torch of '70s bands like Cluster, Harmonia, or Liliental into the '80s, Circles were also contemporaries of groups like Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, and Nurse with Wound, so one can also expect some similarities to those artists. Circles is their first album, originally privately released in 1983 on the duo's tiny Einhorn label and housed in a mysterious cover. This little-known but excellent kraut/psych/experimental album is highly recommended for anyone into Harmonia, Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler, NEU!, Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, Irmin Schmidt, Amon Düül II. . . . First-ever reissue, including detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Ultima Thule) telling the band's story for the first time.
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CD
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MENT 002CD
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In the late 1970s and '80s there was a lot happening in the German post-krautrock underground that few people knew about -- lots of independent artists doing their own thing, either via small labels or no labels at all. Circles was one of these bands. Based in the suburbs of Frankfurt, they consisted of Dierk Leitert (synthesizer, sequencer, drums, bass, guitar, voice, saxophone, flute) and Mike Bohrmann (guitars, bass, synthesizer), plus a few collaborators. Carrying the torch of '70s bands like Cluster, Harmonia, or Liliental into the '80s, Circles were also contemporaries of groups like Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, and Nurse with Wound, so one can also expect some similarities to those artists. More Circles is their second album, originally privately released in 1984 on the duo's tiny Einhorn label. It's a work of experimental krautrock with lots of psychedelic guitar, keyboards, motorik drums, drones, proto-ambient sounds, and avant-garde/Dadaist touches. RIYL: Harmonia, Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Nurse with Wound, Throbbing Gristle, Chrome, Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler, NEU!, Eroc. . . . First-ever reissue, including detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Ultima Thule) telling the band's story for the first time.
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LP
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MENT 002LP
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LP version. In the late 1970s and '80s there was a lot happening in the German post-krautrock underground that few people knew about -- lots of independent artists doing their own thing, either via small labels or no labels at all. Circles was one of these bands. Based in the suburbs of Frankfurt, they consisted of Dierk Leitert (synthesizer, sequencer, drums, bass, guitar, voice, saxophone, flute) and Mike Bohrmann (guitars, bass, synthesizer), plus a few collaborators. Carrying the torch of '70s bands like Cluster, Harmonia, or Liliental into the '80s, Circles were also contemporaries of groups like Throbbing Gristle, Ilitch, and Nurse with Wound, so one can also expect some similarities to those artists. More Circles is their second album, originally privately released in 1984 on the duo's tiny Einhorn label. It's a work of experimental krautrock with lots of psychedelic guitar, keyboards, motorik drums, drones, proto-ambient sounds, and avant-garde/Dadaist touches. RIYL: Harmonia, Cluster, Fripp & Eno, Nurse with Wound, Throbbing Gristle, Chrome, Heldon, Conrad Schnitzler, NEU!, Eroc. . . . First-ever reissue, including detailed liner notes by Alan Freeman (The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Ultima Thule) telling the band's story for the first time.
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