|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD
|
|
BB 048CD
|
2016 re-release of Bureau B's 2010 reissue. Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank got to know each other through their work on Cluster's 1971 album (BB 058CD/LP) and remained close friends until Plank's death in 1987. They made a congenial pair as musicians, as amply demonstrated by their first album as a duo, Rastakraut Pasta, originally released on Sky Records in 1980. On this album, drums, electric guitars, and bass are the cornerstones of every track; they provide the framework to which Moebius adds fresh color and life with his synthesizers. Thanks to the technical merits of Plank's studio, the keyboards sound barely distinguishable from one another. No samples -- strictly analog from start to finish. Holger Czukay (Can) plays bass on three pieces and his consummate professionalism sees his virtuosity finely tuned to the concept of Moebius and Plank. Moebius has a predilection for surrealist cascades of noise, heard throughout the album, grotesque yet playful. An enigmatic form of pop music came into being on this album, a breakneck, elegant mix of diverse elements -- a touch of Krautrock, some avant-garde pop, new German electronica, even sporadic echoes of reggae. Includes liner notes by Asmus Tietchens.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BB 120LP
|
LP version on 180 gram vinyl. "En Route was created in 1986, when the era of analog synths and rhythm machines seemed to be drawing to a close. Drum computers, samplers and digital instruments such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMS would shape the immediate future of electronic music. Naturally, these wonderful machines formed a part of Conny Plank's arsenal and were used extensively by him and Dieter Moebius. The duo explored the new devices with their inimitable, cheerful sense of abandon, but were wise enough not to rely on them entirely. Analog instruments resurface time and again, such as trumpet (!), guitar and other sonic sources which are less easy to identify. Nor had Moebius packed his analog synthesizers away in mothballs. Rhythmic throughout, the music is wholly free of the darkness which characterized the fashionable industrial or new wave scenes of the period. A tendency to descend into enraptured sonic abstraction is similarly absent. The pieces almost sound as if they are the product of real-time improvisation -- airy and self-evident, ballast-free and without unnecessary embellishment. En Route is hip electronic music, yet it steers well clear of the mainstream. The fact that three tracks were remixed for a commission by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) did nothing to change that. Stewart was planning a film project (which never came to fruition) and hired producer Manu Guiot, who reshaped the tracks together with Dieter Moebius shortly before release in Conny's studio. Moebius and Plank were en route, "on the way," so to speak. Sadly, it was to be the last in a sequence of five albums they recorded and released together. Conceived in 1983, Ludwig's Law was the fourth album in chronological terms but only appeared in 1998. Debilitated by severe illness, Plank was no longer able to mix the recordings himself. His studio colleague Bruno Gebhard took on the task, together with Moebius. Shortly afterwards, in 1987, Conny Plank died. The common path of the two friends was now at an end. But En Route was certainly not intended to mark the conclusion of their lengthy collaboration. For how much of the future, how much optimism is implicit in the certitude of being en route?" --Asmus Tietchens
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
BB 120CD
|
"En Route was created in 1986, when the era of analog synths and rhythm machines seemed to be drawing to a close. Drum computers, samplers and digital instruments such as the Synclavier and Fairlight CMS would shape the immediate future of electronic music. Naturally, these wonderful machines formed a part of Conny Plank's arsenal and were used extensively by him and Dieter Moebius. The duo explored the new devices with their inimitable, cheerful sense of abandon, but were wise enough not to rely on them entirely. Analog instruments resurface time and again, such as trumpet (!), guitar and other sonic sources which are less easy to identify. Nor had Moebius packed his analog synthesizers away in mothballs. Rhythmic throughout, the music is wholly free of the darkness which characterized the fashionable industrial or new wave scenes of the period. A tendency to descend into enraptured sonic abstraction is similarly absent. The pieces almost sound as if they are the product of real-time improvisation -- airy and self-evident, ballast-free and without unnecessary embellishment. En Route is hip electronic music, yet it steers well clear of the mainstream. The fact that three tracks were remixed for a commission by Dave Stewart (Eurythmics) did nothing to change that. Stewart was planning a film project (which never came to fruition) and hired producer Manu Guiot, who reshaped the tracks together with Dieter Moebius shortly before release in Conny's studio. Moebius and Plank were en route, "on the way," so to speak. Sadly, it was to be the last in a sequence of five albums they recorded and released together. Conceived in 1983, Ludwig's Law was the fourth album in chronological terms but only appeared in 1998. Debilitated by severe illness, Plank was no longer able to mix the recordings himself. His studio colleague Bruno Gebhard took on the task, together with Moebius. Shortly afterwards, in 1987, Conny Plank died. The common path of the two friends was now at an end. But En Route was certainly not intended to mark the conclusion of their lengthy collaboration. For how much of the future, how much optimism is implicit in the certitude of being en route?" --Asmus Tietchens
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
CD
|
|
BB 049CD
|
On their second album Material, originally released on Sky Records in 1981, Moebius & Plank ventured far, far away from the double coordinates of the Harmonia world and pop music cosmos. Amazingly, they did not find themselves floating in space, but made an exemplary landing, avoiding getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Material saw them generate a form of genre-busting electronic music, more radical than anything one might have expected to come out of Germany, not even from the likes of Cluster or Harmonia. Having said that, one should add that the album is in no way a copy of the new wave and industrial scenes that were enjoying such prominence at the time. Material is, in the best sense of the word, without style, that is to say, it cannot be aligned with any of the conventional styles available. On their two first albums, Moebius & Plank take up their place in a lengthy list of musicians and composers who, from roughly the end of the 1970s, gave up caring about which stylistic category their music might belong to, no longer looking upon experimentation as a strategy of reckless abandon, but as a perfectly normal course of action.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BB 049LP
|
2023 restock; LP version. On their second album Material, originally released on Sky Records in 1981, Moebius & Plank ventured far, far away from the double coordinates of the Harmonia world and pop music cosmos. Amazingly, they did not find themselves floating in space, but made an exemplary landing, avoiding getting caught between a rock and a hard place. Material saw them generate a form of genre-busting electronic music, more radical than anything one might have expected to come out of Germany, not even from the likes of Cluster or Harmonia. Having said that, one should add that the album is in no way a copy of the new wave and industrial scenes that were enjoying such prominence at the time. Material is, in the best sense of the word, without style, that is to say, it cannot be aligned with any of the conventional styles available. On their two first albums, Moebius & Plank take up their place in a lengthy list of musicians and composers who, from roughly the end of the 1970s, gave up caring about which stylistic category their music might belong to, no longer looking upon experimentation as a strategy of reckless abandon, but as a perfectly normal course of action. 180 gram vinyl LP housed in a printed inner sleeve with full-color photos and notes by Asmus Tietchens.
|
|
|
Artist |
Title |
Format |
Label |
Catalog # |
|
|
LP
|
|
BB 048LP
|
2023 restock. Vinyl release. Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank got to know each other through their work on Cluster's 1971 album and remained close friends until Plank's death in 1987. They made a congenial pair as musicians, as amply demonstrated by their first album as a duo, Rastakraut Pasta, originally released on Sky Records in 1980. On this album, drums, electric guitars and bass are the cornerstones of every track; they provide the framework to which Moebius adds fresh color and life with his synthesizers. Thanks to the technical merits of Plank's studio, the keyboards sound barely distinguishable from one another. No samples -- strictly analog from start to finish. Holger Czukay (Can) plays bass on three pieces and his consummate professionalism sees his virtuosity finely-tuned to the concept of Moebius and Plank. Moebius has a predilection for surrealist cascades of noise, heard throughout the album, grotesque yet playful. An enigmatic form of pop music came into being on this LP, a breakneck, elegant mix of diverse elements: a touch of Krautrock, some avant-garde pop, new German electronica, even sporadic echoes of reggae. 180 gram vinyl LP housed in a printed inner sleeve with full-color photos and notes by Asmus Tietchens.
|
|
|
|