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CD
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KK 060CD
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Static is Berlin-based musician and producer Hanno Leichtmann. Besides his work as a member of the trio Groupshow along with Jan Jelinek and Andrew Pekler, and Denseland with David Moss and Hannes Strobl, Static is his main solo project. While thinking of how to follow up his 2005 release Re: Talking About Memories (CCO 031CD/LP), Leichtmann kept busy with his many other projects. Then, during a festival for improvised music in Berlin, he struck upon the idea of working with free improvising musicians, but to deploy them in a pop context. The main collaborators for the production of Freedom Of Noise were harpist Clare Cooper, the trumpet player Axel Dörner and the saxophonist Tobias Delius. In this way, Leichtmann was able to perfectly combine Static's loop-based methodology with the additional expressive possibilities of having all those great musicians involved. So Static was able to move freely between arrangements and improvised passages. Leichtmann also brought the following players on board to enrich the compositions: Nicholas Bussmann on cello, Zoe Irvine on electronics, Magda Mayas on organ, David Moss on voice, Andrea Neumann on inside piano, Gert-Jan Prins on analog devices, Maura Rougieux on background vocals, Clayton Thomas on double bass, Kassian Troyer on table guitar and Sabine Vogel on flutes. All these musicians help to bring the vibrancy of a full live band to the album to make for a richly detailed tapestry of sound. On top of all these talented instrumentalists Leichtmann invited the vocalists Falko Teichmann from Berlin and Yanira Castro from Madrid to sing on a number of tunes, adding to the pop element of the album. The result of Static recruiting such a diverse host of other musicians is striking. Musically, the record is extremely multifaceted, ranging from moments of eclectic pop, to experimental periods of neo-folk ambient and cut-up electronica. No doubt, Leichtmann has succeeded in his goal of creating a new direction for Static. Freedom Of Noise is a refreshing and adventurous musical journey.
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LP
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KK 064LP
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LP version. Static is Berlin-based musician and producer Hanno Leichtmann. Besides his work as a member of the trio Groupshow along with Jan Jelinek and Andrew Pekler, and Denseland with David Moss and Hannes Strobl, Static is his main solo project. While thinking of how to follow up his 2005 release Re: Talking About Memories (CCO 031CD/LP), Leichtmann kept busy with his many other projects. Then, during a festival for improvised music in Berlin, he struck upon the idea of working with free improvising musicians, but to deploy them in a pop context. The main collaborators for the production of Freedom Of Noise were harpist Clare Cooper, the trumpet player Axel Dörner and the saxophonist Tobias Delius. In this way, Leichtmann was able to perfectly combine Static's loop-based methodology with the additional expressive possibilities of having all those great musicians involved. So Static was able to move freely between arrangements and improvised passages. Leichtmann also brought the following players on board to enrich the compositions: Nicholas Bussmann on cello, Zoe Irvine on electronics, Magda Mayas on organ, David Moss on voice, Andrea Neumann on inside piano, Gert-Jan Prins on analog devices, Maura Rougieux on background vocals, Clayton Thomas on double bass, Kassian Troyer on table guitar and Sabine Vogel on flutes. All these musicians help to bring the vibrancy of a full live band to the album to make for a richly detailed tapestry of sound. On top of all these talented instrumentalists Leichtmann invited the vocalists Falko Teichmann from Berlin and Yanira Castro from Madrid to sing on a number of tunes, adding to the pop element of the album. The result of Static recruiting such a diverse host of other musicians is striking. Musically, the record is extremely multifaceted, ranging from moments of eclectic pop, to experimental periods of neo-folk ambient and cut-up electronica. No doubt, Leichtmann has succeeded in his goal of creating a new direction for Static. Freedom Of Noise is a refreshing and adventurous musical journey.
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CD
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CCO 031CD
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This is Static's third full-length album for City Centre Offices. Hanno Leichtmann has been a pivotal musician in Berlin's burgeoning scene for a number of years -- his list of collaborators, co-conspirators and featured guests ranges from members of To Rococo Rot and Tarwater through to Lali Puna and, most recently, Pole and Jan Jelinek with whom Hanno has been recording new albums and preparing to tour. For his own material Hanno has always managed to inject electronic construction with an element of popular appeal, from the metamorphosis of "track" into more recognizable "songs," or with his use of hooks and central melody lines to capture the imagination of an audience not necessarily fluent in the language of disembodied whirrs, clicks and fractured cuts. For this album Hanno Leichtmann met with longtime collaborators and admired musicians Christof Kurzmann and Martin Siewert, whose contributions on this release form the central identity of this excellent album. Long forgotten melodies are realized through samples of neglected, dusty classical records woven into layers of guitar strums played by Martin Siewert and decorated with Kurzmann's flamboyantly odd vocal delivery. Add to this piquant blend a pop song Hanno wrote together with Tarwater/To Rococo Rot's Ronald Lippok ("Return of She") and Leichtmann's intended theme is realized perfectly -- pop music derived by uncompromisingly innovative means. As if to reiterate the popular fascination at the heart of the proceedings, as well as the album title's preoccupation with memories, Hanno recorded his first-ever cover version -- a daring, beautiful take on The Assembly's '80s hit "Never Never." Talk about memories, indeed.
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CCO 031LP
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12"
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BLOCK 021EP
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"Taken from his current second album for City Centre Offices (Flavour Has No Name), 'Ghost Boy' is another brilliant collaboration with Tarwater's and To Rococo Rot's Ronald Lippok on vocals, what starts in a dark, almost irritating, but at the same time fascinating, atmosphere quickly turns into beautiful popsong. 'A Pleasant Place' is an absolute Static classic, which finally makes it onto vinyl. The b-side kicks off with our soulbrothers Isan, who, if there would be something like a 'Grand Prix of Lullabies', would definitely win that contest easily with their interpretation of 'Ghost Boy'. Finally, Static's long-time partner in crime Nicolas Bussmann aka Resistance delivers a wild, extreme interpretation, which, finally, should wake the ghost."
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CD
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CCO 014CD
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"Hanno Leichtman's Berlin studio is a friendly place. You imagine it in half-light, scattered cushions, open bottles of wine and an opulence of form welcoming his family of collaborators and friends to dip into his world of shimmering pop. Flavour Has No Name sets out the agenda in a multi-coloured display of variation and a love of a melody that will not remove itself from your mind. This is, simply put, a perfect pop record. With guests: Justine Electra, Ronald Lippok, Christoff Kurzmann, and Lali Puna's vocalist Valerie Trebeljahr."
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CCO 014LP
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CD
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CCO 006CD
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"Modular pop, anthemish circuit cuddlings, or maybe simply electronica, always on the verge between song and track: there is a good number of cosy little drawers one could open in order to find an appropriate language to describe Static's music. One can be sure, however, that in a better world, Static's music would be played on heavy rotation everywhere between Iceland and Japan and lucky owners of oldskool jukeboxes would cut dubplate after dubplate to feed their little machines with tracks from Eject Your Mind. Static is one of a few monikers of Hanno Leichtmann, a Berlin-based musician. If not working on Static material, he plays in various other projects like Paloma, Ich Schwitze Nie or DJ Attaché & The Beige Oscillator. On Eject Your Mind, Static combines quiet dsp-stills with a warm, almost investigative pop appeal, resulting in a perfect illusion of a crumbly-glitchy electronica aquarium, in which small sounds, dubby echos, minimal beats and beautiful melodies walk hand in hand. Such music needs vocals. So, Static picked up the phone and invited Ronald Lippok (To Rococo Rot, Tarwater) and Justine Electra to join him in his studio. The CD-version also features a special video application ('type f for fullscreen'), developed by Joshua Goldberg, a New York-based video artist, together with Mr. Static, to give macintosh users the chance to visualize this beautiful, stunning album."
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