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01. Henrik Schwarz - Unknown Touch
02. Henrik Schwarz - Affect Structure
03. Henrik Schwarz - I Am Not Responsible for That
04. Henrik Schwarz - But Then I'm Different
05. Henrik Schwarz - When Things Are Difficult
06. Henrik Schwarz - Couple Are Strong
07. Dettmann/Wiedemann - Part 1 - Accelerando
08. Dettmann/Wiedemann - Part 2 - Martellato
09. Dettmann/Wiedemann - Part 3 - Spiritoso
10. DIN - (prelude)
11. DIN - Creation
12. DIN - Variation
13. DIN - Oscillation
14. DIN - Division
15. DIN - Generation
16. DIN - Conclusion
ARTIST
TITLE
Masse
FORMAT
CD

LABEL
CATALOG #
OSTGUT 026CD OSTGUT 026CD
GENRE
RELEASE DATE
6/11/2013

A whole evening of contemporary dance which has been set up by three different choreographers is in need of three different sound producers. That's the set-up of Masse, the sound underlying the gesamtkunstwerk. Masse as a whole event has been triggered by renowned state ensemble Staatsballett Berlin and Club Berghain right in the center of the German capital. Plus there's even more to it: the Staatsballett and Berghain access new territory by staging Masse at the huge Halle am Berghain, a former combined heat and power station beside the club. The painter Norbert Bisky has been chosen to create the stage design. At the core of the dance night lies a tryptichon made out of pure sound: the music of Henrik Schwarz, Marcel Dettmann, Frank Wiedemann, and DIN was taken as the starting point for the whole event. Henrik Schwarz opens his suite with "Unknown Touch," a dense exposition made from acoustic guitars and pizzicati strings floating on an atmosphere. The subsequent tracks let the bass lines wander amongst throbbing electrified guitars, both characterized by their clearly structured arrangements. Creating a narrative break, a synthesizer cuts into the groovy moves of "But Then I'm Different," accompanied by a sighing violin. To top things off in the final track of "Balletsuite #1 - Masse," a dreamy and summing-up house piano is aired. The solo piano ends with a quiet closing sequence slowing down the keys more and more to a final nothing. Marcel Dettmann and Frank Wiedemann are also close associates of the Ostgut Ton family and are in charge of the second part, "Menuett." Theirs is a 25-minute long sonic tryptichon: "Accelerando" sounds like two space observation centers having a chat, while "Martellato" is juggling the filters until the polyrhythms somehow transform into a circling movement. A syncopated beat and some shrewd filters bring light into "Spiritoso" -- like fundamental electronic research into sound. DIN are Efdemin (Phillip Sollmann) and Marcel Fengler, who created this new alias for Masse. Similar to Dettmann/Wiedemann, the Berlin musicians utilize ever new parts of their machine park to create musical abstractions. Out of the humming virginal cosmos of "Creation" and "Variation," mid-range bass drums take shape until they poke a rattling rhythm pattern. In a similar way "Oscillation" first takes a bath in the primeval soup until the drums of an unheard-of tribe are arranged by an invisible hand to engineer a gentle, flowing movement. This progression becomes more delicate in "Division" and "Generation" until it unwinds at the stage of "Conclusion" to fade out as a nocturne with an urban touch. Given the different aesthetics of the producers that built Masse, it's an uncanny pleasure to hear how its music as a whole shapes a fine sonic entity.