Potomak is an artist-run record label from German industrial pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten. Originally founded by front man Blixa Bargeld in 1988, the label has devoted itself to releasing remastered, deluxe reissues of the band's catalog on both CD and vinyl, including genre-defying early works such as Kollaps, Zeichnungen Des Patienten O.T. and Halber Mensch. Additionally, Potomak has released various side projects from band members Alexander Hacke, Rudi Moser, Jochen Arbeit, Bargeld and collaborator Ari Benjamin Meyers.
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2LP
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POTOMAK 256091
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Double LP version. Yellow color vinyl. Einstürzende Neubauten present their new album Rampen (apm: alien pop music). Since the band was founded on April 1, 1980, Einstürzende Neubauten have been shifting the parameters of mainstream and subculture to make the inaudible audible -- perhaps the unheard as well. This experimental field research, spanning more than four decades, is now entering the next stage. In its 44th year of existence, the band is going back to its roots while redefining itself. It's a change in self-image, for which the Berlin quintet plus one has created its own genre -- alien pop music.
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POTOMAK 254752
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Einstürzende Neubauten present their new album Rampen (apm: alien pop music). Since the band was founded on April 1, 1980, Einstürzende Neubauten have been shifting the parameters of mainstream and subculture to make the inaudible audible -- perhaps the unheard as well. This experimental field research, spanning more than four decades, is now entering the next stage. In its 44th year of existence, the band is going back to its roots while redefining itself. It's a change in self-image, for which the Berlin quintet plus one has created its own genre -- alien pop music.
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POTOMAK 254751
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Restocked; double LP version. Einstürzende Neubauten present their new album Rampen (apm: alien pop music). Since the band was founded on April 1, 1980, Einstürzende Neubauten have been shifting the parameters of mainstream and subculture to make the inaudible audible -- perhaps the unheard as well. This experimental field research, spanning more than four decades, is now entering the next stage. In its 44th year of existence, the band is going back to its roots while redefining itself. It's a change in self-image, for which the Berlin quintet plus one has created its own genre -- alien pop music.
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CD
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POTOMAK 195992
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After more than 12 years, Einstürzende Neubauten's long-awaited new studio album Alles In Allem is finally going to be released. The album marks the quintessence of the band's output, opening yet another unexpected door in 40 years of ongoing sound research by a very experimental group of musicians around Blixa Bargeld. This band, like nearly no other, has managed to create a musical cosmos. It has, in fact, built up its own genre by uniquely combining edgy sound with sophisticated poetry. Appropriately, in the Year of the Rat -- the symbol of ingenuity and versatility according to the Chinese zodiac -- the band is not resting on the laurels of its last four decades. Instead, it curiously continues to explore everything that the sound universe has to yield, with one eye on the future and with boundless playfulness The unique sound and textual landscapes of the band, founded in 1980 in Berlin, reveal the timelessness that Blixa Bargeld, N. U. Unruh, Alexander Hacke, Jochen Arbeit, and Rudolph Moser have continuously maintained. And yet, through experimental approaches to songwriting, instruments developed over four decades and collective input, the band sounds remarkably cutting edge within its own time. In fact, through its individual brand of music the Einstürzende Neubauten seem to always command each and every manifestation of the here and now -- whether industrial in its early years, the driving beats of the 1990s or its more considered later work. The verse "Wir hatten tausend Ideen / Und alle waren gut" (We had a thousand ideas / And all of them were good) from album track "Am Landwehrkanal" could easily be perceived as the band's description of itself. The sum total is a special compilation: Alles In Allem, Einstürzende Neubauten's first regular studio album in 12 years, presents an incomparable band that defies categorization to create a genre all its own.
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POTOMAK 195991
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2022 repress; LP version. After more than 12 years, Einstürzende Neubauten's long-awaited new studio album Alles In Allem is finally going to be released. The album marks the quintessence of the band's output, opening yet another unexpected door in 40 years of ongoing sound research by a very experimental group of musicians around Blixa Bargeld. This band, like nearly no other, has managed to create a musical cosmos. It has, in fact, built up its own genre by uniquely combining edgy sound with sophisticated poetry. Appropriately, in the Year of the Rat -- the symbol of ingenuity and versatility according to the Chinese zodiac -- the band is not resting on the laurels of its last four decades. Instead, it curiously continues to explore everything that the sound universe has to yield, with one eye on the future and with boundless playfulness The unique sound and textual landscapes of the band, founded in 1980 in Berlin, reveal the timelessness that Blixa Bargeld, N. U. Unruh, Alexander Hacke, Jochen Arbeit, and Rudolph Moser have continuously maintained. And yet, through experimental approaches to songwriting, instruments developed over four decades and collective input, the band sounds remarkably cutting edge within its own time. In fact, through its individual brand of music the Einstürzende Neubauten seem to always command each and every manifestation of the here and now -- whether industrial in its early years, the driving beats of the 1990s or its more considered later work. The verse "Wir hatten tausend Ideen / Und alle waren gut" (We had a thousand ideas / And all of them were good) from album track "Am Landwehrkanal" could easily be perceived as the band's description of itself. The sum total is a special compilation: Alles In Allem, Einstürzende Neubauten's first regular studio album in 12 years, presents an incomparable band that defies categorization to create a genre all its own.
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POTOMAK 181362
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The Current is the fourth album Alexander Hacke and Danielle De Picciotto have recorded under their hackedepicciotto moniker recorded since becoming nomads in 2010. It is their most powerful album yet. After composing desert drones for their previous album Perseverantia (POTOMAK 125171, 2016) and dark foreboding melodies for Menetekel (POTOMAK 150841/150842), their new album moves forwards, gaining in speed and energy. Alexander Hacke's background with Einstürzende Neubauten can be felt in the many rhythmic tracks. "We had the urge to include more percussive elements and electronic sounds to create a powerful rhythmic feel. A wilder and more danceable element. Something to get all of us on our feet, and moving. Away from depression and hopelessness." The classic background of Danielle de Picciotto has become more prominent as well. Glorious choirs and violin harmonies flow throughout the album giving it an almost symphonic sound. The artist couple calls their music "cinematic-drone" and their album sounds like the film track to an apocalyptic feature-length film, hopefully with a happy end.
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POTOMAK 181361
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LP version. The Current is the fourth album Alexander Hacke and Danielle De Picciotto have recorded under their hackedepicciotto moniker recorded since becoming nomads in 2010. It is their most powerful album yet. After composing desert drones for their previous album Perseverantia (POTOMAK 125171, 2016) and dark foreboding melodies for Menetekel (POTOMAK 150841/150842), their new album moves forwards, gaining in speed and energy. Alexander Hacke's background with Einstürzende Neubauten can be felt in the many rhythmic tracks. "We had the urge to include more percussive elements and electronic sounds to create a powerful rhythmic feel. A wilder and more danceable element. Something to get all of us on our feet, and moving. Away from depression and hopelessness." The classic background of Danielle de Picciotto has become more prominent as well. Glorious choirs and violin harmonies flow throughout the album giving it an almost symphonic sound. The artist couple calls their music "cinematic-drone" and their album sounds like the film track to an apocalyptic feature-length film, hopefully with a happy end.
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POTOMAK 171841
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Rudolph Moser (also known as Rudolf Moser), the "instrument maker and composer, musician and sound artist has provided many great projects with sound design and music" but is known best as the "drummer" of the Einstürzende Neubauten, is now releasing his second official solo album called Metronia on the band's own Potomak label. In 17 tracks, Moser opens the doors to the private collection of his research and work. The music changes in its multifaceted nature from minimalistic motifs, wide sound plateaus to tribal percussion pieces, to the "total wall" and islands of intimate moments and songs. Whether with marble plate, plastic pipes, sheet metal, steel springs, prepared car tires, rotor core of an aircraft turbine, large stone saw blade, timpani, or the reverberation of a steel ball weighing 20 kilos in an empty underground car park... Rudolph Moser knows how to extract a unique, magical sound from every seemingly non-musical object. This gives his music an absolutely personal and independent signature. Every time you listen, you discover new impulses and new levels. The album becomes an imaginary soundtrack and an individual sound cosmos. For some titles, Moser leaves the instrumental level for the first time and adds his vocals to the music. "Heaven" and "Euphobia" show that Moser can also write songs that give the album another color. Particularly surprising in this context is the piece "Cause You", a kind of duet in which Toni Kater suddenly appears and hits the soul with her wonderful and fine singing.
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CD+DVD
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POTOMAK 158682
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With Grundstück, a real rarity is being released on the commercial market for the first time: Originally issued in 2005 as a small limited edition, the much sought-after album is now officially available as a CD and also for the first time ever as an LP, each including a DVD with previously unpublished film recordings of the project and an extensive booklet. With their noise-laden anti-pop, Einstürzende Neubauten has established itself as one of the most radical, unpredictable and unconventional avant-garde bands in the popular music scene. Looking back to the year 2002: To make itself independent of the record industry and keep full artistic control, the band became early pioneers of crowdfunding with an internet-based fan action for the financing of their next album, which came to be known as the supporter project. An interim work consciously conserved in its unfinished condition, Grundstück is the missing link between 2004's Perpetuum Mobile and 2007's Alles wieder offen. Grundstück represents what the album title asserts: One's own lot. Aside from material that was produced in the band's own Berlin studio, some parts of Grundstück were played live while on tour, matching the experimental character of the project's genesis: In addition to Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, N. U. Unruh, Jochen Arbeit, Rudolf Moser and Ash Wednesday, a 100-member choir made up of supporters can be heard. Grundstück opens with the noisy and propelling "Good Morning Everybody," based on engine sounds of air compressors and accompanied by rhythmic steel plate beats. The seven-part title track shapes its core, which in its atonal experimental spirit represents the non-conformism and nihilism that the name Einstürzende Neubauten stands for to this day. Closely connected to the album, an accompanying DVD was also produced with the help of a supporter. It was filmed on November 3, 2004, during a special supporter gig at East Berlin's Palast der Republik; the earlier political apparatus of the former GDR state leadership. Exclusive live recordings were made at a historical location, which was torn down shortly thereafter to make way for a demonstration of the power of the freshly reunited Federal Republic of Germany. Einstürzende Neubauten in the gutted control center of a collapsed state -- a witness of the times with the greatest possible symbolic value: Einsturz (collapsing), Neubau (rebuilding), Grundstück (lot). DVD is NTSC all-region format.
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LP/DVD
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POTOMAK 158681
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Gatefold LP version with DVD. With Grundstück, a real rarity is being released on the commercial market for the first time: Originally issued in 2005 as a small limited edition, the much sought-after album is now officially available as a CD and also for the first time ever as an LP, each including a DVD with previously unpublished film recordings of the project and an extensive booklet. With their noise-laden anti-pop, Einstürzende Neubauten has established itself as one of the most radical, unpredictable and unconventional avant-garde bands in the popular music scene. Looking back to the year 2002: To make itself independent of the record industry and keep full artistic control, the band became early pioneers of crowdfunding with an internet-based fan action for the financing of their next album, which came to be known as the supporter project. An interim work consciously conserved in its unfinished condition, Grundstück is the missing link between 2004's Perpetuum Mobile and 2007's Alles wieder offen. Grundstück represents what the album title asserts: One's own lot. Aside from material that was produced in the band's own Berlin studio, some parts of Grundstück were played live while on tour, matching the experimental character of the project's genesis: In addition to Blixa Bargeld, Alexander Hacke, N. U. Unruh, Jochen Arbeit, Rudolf Moser and Ash Wednesday, a 100-member choir made up of supporters can be heard. Grundstück opens with the noisy and propelling "Good Morning Everybody," based on engine sounds of air compressors and accompanied by rhythmic steel plate beats. The seven-part title track shapes its core, which in its atonal experimental spirit represents the non-conformism and nihilism that the name Einstürzende Neubauten stands for to this day. Closely connected to the album, an accompanying DVD was also produced with the help of a supporter. It was filmed on November 3, 2004, during a special supporter gig at East Berlin's Palast der Republik; the earlier political apparatus of the former GDR state leadership. Exclusive live recordings were made at a historical location, which was torn down shortly thereafter to make way for a demonstration of the power of the freshly reunited Federal Republic of Germany. Einstürzende Neubauten in the gutted control center of a collapsed state -- a witness of the times with the greatest possible symbolic value: Einsturz (collapsing), Neubau (rebuilding), Grundstück (lot). DVD is NTSC all-region format.
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2LP
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POTOMAK 150841
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Double LP version. Includes bonus tracks, download code, and signed photograph. HackedePicciotto are Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto. Both are legends of their own making: Danielle de Picciotto moved from New York to Berlin in 1987, to become the lead singer of the band Space Cowboys, co-initiator of the Love Parade, a collaborator of the Ocean Club with Gudrun Gut, and Alexander's partner in crime. Alexander Hacke is an original member and the bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten. The artist couple, romantically married in 2006, has creatively interacted with countless international projects for almost two decades. Their live shows are, to put it mildly, intense. Danielle specializes in unusual instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, the autoharp, and the kemençe besides playing the violin and piano; Alexander is master of the bass, guitar and drums. Together they create beautiful, existentialistic, acoustic soundscapes, which roar and vibrate simultaneously. Menetekel is darker than their last masterpiece Perseverantia (POTOMAK 125171, 2016). The title is another word for "the writing on the wall" and the artist couple is projecting our collective despair of what is happening worldwide momentarily into a monumental symphony of sound. "All Are Welcome" whispers in harmony but very quickly the shadows grow deeper and the mood becomes wilder, the trumpets sound and the fall of "Jericho" is eminent, or is it the exile from Paradise? Danielle and Alexander gave up their home in Berlin in 2010 and have been touring the world ever since trying to find a sanctuary comparable to the artist haven the city used to be in the eighties. But times have changed. The icy winds blowing are everywhere and thousands of homeless souls are wandering the roads, their personal search becoming a universal cry for deliverance. "The great rains have begun" Danielle exclaims on "Prophecy", a whirlwind of oriental and western sounds dancing with each other faster and faster until they are morphed into the minimal "Crossroad". The symbolic and spiritual questions asked supply an unusual depth to the album, giving it a universal and very poignant touch of the human quest.
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CD
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POTOMAK 150842
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HackedePicciotto are Alexander Hacke and Danielle de Picciotto. Both are legends of their own making: Danielle de Picciotto moved from New York to Berlin in 1987, to become the lead singer of the band Space Cowboys, co-initiator of the Love Parade, a collaborator of the Ocean Club with Gudrun Gut, and Alexander's partner in crime. Alexander Hacke is an original member and the bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten. The artist couple, romantically married in 2006, has creatively interacted with countless international projects for almost two decades. Their live shows are, to put it mildly, intense. Danielle specializes in unusual instruments such as the hurdy gurdy, the autoharp, and the kemençe besides playing the violin and piano; Alexander is master of the bass, guitar and drums. Together they create beautiful, existentialistic, acoustic soundscapes, which roar and vibrate simultaneously. Menetekel is darker than their last masterpiece Perseverantia (POTOMAK 125171, 2016). The title is another word for "the writing on the wall" and the artist couple is projecting our collective despair of what is happening worldwide momentarily into a monumental symphony of sound. "All Are Welcome" whispers in harmony but very quickly the shadows grow deeper and the mood becomes wilder, the trumpets sound and the fall of "Jericho" is eminent, or is it the exile from Paradise? Danielle and Alexander gave up their home in Berlin in 2010 and have been touring the world ever since trying to find a sanctuary comparable to the artist haven the city used to be in the eighties. But times have changed. The icy winds blowing are everywhere and thousands of homeless souls are wandering the roads, their personal search becoming a universal cry for deliverance. "The great rains have begun" Danielle exclaims on "Prophecy", a whirlwind of oriental and western sounds dancing with each other faster and faster until they are morphed into the minimal "Crossroad". The symbolic and spiritual questions asked supply an unusual depth to the album, giving it a universal and very poignant touch of the human quest. CD version comes in a centerfold digi-pack cover.
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POTOMAK 133951
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2022 restock; double LP version. 140 gram vinyl. Includes download code. Einstürzende Neubauten have discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies; Hardly another German band has characterized the music landscape as lastingly. Their influence on the music world was, and is, as great as their timeless character. Once fully set in motion - by West Berliners Blixa Bargeld, NU Unruh and Alexander Hacke in the early 1980s - Einstürzende Neubauten have pressed on regardless. Indeed since percussionist Rudolf Moser and former Die Haut guitarist Jochen Arbeit joined in 1997, the current Einstürzende Neubauten line-up has not only been their longest lasting; going on the evidence gathered here, it's arguably their broadest ranging and most fruitful partnership, with Rudi and Jochen always gamely responding to the musical challenges posed by NU Unruh's battery of invented instruments and devices. Along with multi-instrumentalist Alex Hacke, who took over bass after the departure of Mark Chung (after their 1992 album Tabula Rasa) and FM Einheit (during the recording of 1996's Ende Neu (POTOMAK 919821/919822)), they willingly switch between their chosen instruments and NU Unruh's inventions, sounding the depths, tapping, scratching and hammering out beats, or drawing haunting tones from the seemingly most unforgiving of source materials presented to them, invariably in the service of the song. The earliest track here is a newly mixed version of "Haus Der Lüge", the title track of their 1989 album Haus Der Lüge (POTOMAK 820001/820002); except it's now adorned with freshly recorded trombone and string parts, which the group wanted on the original but couldn't afford, so had to use synth simulations instead. Five tracks are taken from their 2000 album Silence Is Sexy (POTOMAK 957051/957052). During the 2000s, Einstürzende Neubauten's resourcefulness extended beyond the stage and the recording studio into the economics of alternative music practice. Two Greatest Hits tracks, "Dead Friends (Around The Corner)" and "Ein Leichtes Leises Säuseln", originated on their Supporters Album #1 (2003), which in publicly modified form became Perpetuum Mobile (Mute, 2004). Now as then as always, declares Greatest Hits's newest track "How Did I Die", "The difference makes the song".
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2LP
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POTOMAK 134001
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Limited double LP version. 180 gram vinyl. Includes lyric sheet, download code, and five 12" posters. Einstürzende Neubauten have discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies; Hardly another German band has characterized the music landscape as lastingly. Their influence on the music world was, and is, as great as their timeless character. Once fully set in motion - by West Berliners Blixa Bargeld, NU Unruh and Alexander Hacke in the early 1980s - Einstürzende Neubauten have pressed on regardless. Indeed since percussionist Rudolf Moser and former Die Haut guitarist Jochen Arbeit joined in 1997, the current Einstürzende Neubauten line-up has not only been their longest lasting; going on the evidence gathered here, it's arguably their broadest ranging and most fruitful partnership, with Rudi and Jochen always gamely responding to the musical challenges posed by NU Unruh's battery of invented instruments and devices. Along with multi-instrumentalist Alex Hacke, who took over bass after the departure of Mark Chung (after their 1992 album Tabula Rasa) and FM Einheit (during the recording of 1996's Ende Neu (POTOMAK 919821/919822)), they willingly switch between their chosen instruments and NU Unruh's inventions, sounding the depths, tapping, scratching and hammering out beats, or drawing haunting tones from the seemingly most unforgiving of source materials presented to them, invariably in the service of the song. The earliest track here is a newly mixed version of "Haus Der Lüge", the title track of their 1989 album Haus Der Lüge (POTOMAK 820001/820002); except it's now adorned with freshly recorded trombone and string parts, which the group wanted on the original but couldn't afford, so had to use synth simulations instead. Five tracks are taken from their 2000 album Silence Is Sexy (POTOMAK 957051/957052). During the 2000s, Einstürzende Neubauten's resourcefulness extended beyond the stage and the recording studio into the economics of alternative music practice. Two Greatest Hits tracks, "Dead Friends (Around The Corner)" and "Ein Leichtes Leises Säuseln", originated on their Supporters Album #1 (2003), which in publicly modified form became Perpetuum Mobile (Mute, 2004). Now as then as always, declares Greatest Hits's newest track "How Did I Die", "The difference makes the song".
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CD
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POTOMAK 133952
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Einstürzende Neubauten have discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies; Hardly another German band has characterized the music landscape as lastingly. Their influence on the music world was, and is, as great as their timeless character. Once fully set in motion - by West Berliners Blixa Bargeld, NU Unruh and Alexander Hacke in the early 1980s - Einstürzende Neubauten have pressed on regardless. Indeed since percussionist Rudolf Moser and former Die Haut guitarist Jochen Arbeit joined in 1997, the current Einstürzende Neubauten line-up has not only been their longest lasting; going on the evidence gathered here, it's arguably their broadest ranging and most fruitful partnership, with Rudi and Jochen always gamely responding to the musical challenges posed by NU Unruh's battery of invented instruments and devices. Along with multi-instrumentalist Alex Hacke, who took over bass after the departure of Mark Chung (after their 1992 album Tabula Rasa) and FM Einheit (during the recording of 1996's Ende Neu (POTOMAK 919821/919822)), they willingly switch between their chosen instruments and NU Unruh's inventions, sounding the depths, tapping, scratching and hammering out beats, or drawing haunting tones from the seemingly most unforgiving of source materials presented to them, invariably in the service of the song. The earliest track here is a newly mixed version of "Haus Der Lüge", the title track of their 1989 album Haus Der Lüge (POTOMAK 820001/820002); except it's now adorned with freshly recorded trombone and string parts, which the group wanted on the original but couldn't afford, so had to use synth simulations instead. Five tracks are taken from their 2000 album Silence Is Sexy (POTOMAK 957051/957052). During the 2000s, Einstürzende Neubauten's resourcefulness extended beyond the stage and the recording studio into the economics of alternative music practice. Two Greatest Hits tracks, "Dead Friends (Around The Corner)" and "Ein Leichtes Leises Säuseln", originated on their Supporters Album #1 (2003), which in publicly modified form became Perpetuum Mobile (Mute, 2004). Now as then as always, declares Greatest Hits's newest track "How Did I Die", "The difference makes the song".
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POTOMAK 125171
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The German-American artist couple Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke are internationally known, Danielle as the founder of the Love Parade, Alexander since over 35 years for his work with the seminal Berlin group Einstürzende Neubauten and both together as members of the band Crime & The City Solution. Since 2001 they have been creating interdisciplinary projects on stage, in theaters and museums as a duo. Perseverantia will be issued on Neubauten's very own label Potomak. Their last joint venture, the album Hitmans Heel was released in 2011 and a video to the track "Time Is Passing", shot in Mexico under Danielle's direction soon developed into a cult classic. "Perseverantia" means "endurance" or "persistence" and the artist couple, otherwise known for their adventurous lifestyle and unusual experiments are obviously concerned with a different theme this time around. Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke have been leading a nomadic life since 2010, with no permanent home and travelling from one city to the next. The reason for their restlessness is the overall gentrification, the annihilation of individualism, the rising costs of living and the relentless sellout by the mainstream entertainment industry. "Artists need to find new ways of working now-a-days in order to upkeep integrity and autonomy. The old patterns no longer function." The uncompromising decision to abandon their home has since determined their work. Their search for external & internal clarity, researching archaic principles and philosophies has helped them master the rigors of the road. For the attentive listener, Perseverantia reveals a treasure of their truisms. The album was recorded in the Californian Mojave desert and is mostly instrumental, with a few spoken-word lyrics by Danielle. Together with the throat-singing by Alexander Hacke, the purring and squeaking of the hurdy-gurdy and an ether-plucking harp, melancholic violin melodies and the hum and growl of bass and guitar, one is placed in an acoustic world of mysteries, which floats out of the loudspeakers like an epic movie, both disturbing and mesmerizing. "Perseverantia ad finem optatum" they sing in the title track, and is their main consequence of importance: To successfully achieve a positive goal, we need one thing above all: endurance. No matter how stony the road or wild the storm - we must continue following the path of our destiny. Liebe Li Surrender is not an option - for none of us. Limited to 500 copies worldwide.
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POTOMAK 825171
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2022 repress. Includes a large format 12-page booklet. Originally released in 1981, Kollaps is the seminal, form-destroying debut album by German industrial pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten (trans. "Collapsing New Buildings"). The band's use of junk metal, power drills, jackhammers and other surprising instrumentation would come to define their challenging and continually inventive career, making them not only one of the originators of industrial music, but one of the world's most influential and far-reaching forces at the intersection between avant-garde and rock music. Formed in 1980 in the wave of the Dadaist movement Die Geniale Dilletanten, after a series of devastating live performances and personnel changes (one of which briefly involving electronic musician Gudrun Gut), the band's line-up cemented itself with core members Blixa Bargeld, F.M. Einheit (previously of Hamburg-based post-punk band Abwärts) and N.U. Unruh. On Kollaps, a violent collision of urban primitivism and punk sensibilities, the trio declared war on every conventional way of listening, combining an intense mess of atonal guitar drones with brutal scrap metal percussion. At a time in Germany in which the wall encircling West Berlin transformed the city into a state-subsidized, near-paradisiacal freak-enclave for artists, Einstürzende Neubauten offered cathartic cascades of noise, employing steel parts, tin drums, drills, hammers, saws and untuned electric guitars, all crowned by Bargeld's bloodcurdling screams and feverish, apocalyptic texts. Kollaps, with its atonal essence, embodied exactly what the title suggested: decay and destruction, illness, doom and death. Years later, with the fall of the Berlin wall behind it, Kollaps still sounds as radical and extreme an artistic statement as ever.
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POTOMAK 957051
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2023 restock; gatefold vinyl reissue of Einstürzende Neubauten's Silence Is Sexy, originally released in 2000. This vinyl double album contains the track "Pelikanol," first available as a bonus track with the 2000 release of the album and now for the first time available on vinyl. Silence Is Sexy finally receives a long-awaited reissue on the band's own label Potomak. The element of surprise was and continues to be routine for Einstürzende Neubauten. On Silence Is Sexy they masterfully celebrate the unexpected in the exploration of silence. It is a wonderful album in the classical Neubauten sense; lyrical and melancholy. It's a musical coming-of-age from metal-defying scrap iron sound to constructed melodiousness, with a familiar rhythmic undertow -- playful, arrogant, poetic, subversive, dandified and mature. From its first release in 2000 (marking the 20-year existence of the band) to date, it has doubtlessly remained the group's most complex work and the most fascinating in its evolution. It shows the Neubauten universe from both a known, emotionally moving side, as well as one that is deliberately constructive. It clearly breathes the inimitably rough Neubauten handwriting, while Blixa's voice cuts through intellectual and cryptic texts. It is carried by metal sounds, from which individual instruments can almost no longer be extracted -- and by silence. Ultimately, nearly inaudible tones or laughter in the right place can seem more destructive than the most enduring rage. This is an album that won't be ignored; a unique appearance in the history of German rock music. 180 gram audiophile pressing.
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POTOMAK 957052
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2018 repress. Reissue of Einstürzende Neubauten's Silence Is Sexy, originally released in 2000 from singer Blixa Bargeld and his band partners (N.U. Unruh, Alexander Hacke, Jochen Arbeit and Rudolf Moser). A concept of "conceptlessness" was created at that time from a spontaneous idea (many thought it was an April Fool's joke when Einstürzende Neubauten first stood on the stage at Berlin's "Moon" on April 1, 1980; now over 30 years ago), from which the "brilliant dilettantes" developed their own strategy against social and musical architecture using metal pipes, feathers and machines. Blixa Bargeld constructed metaphor-laden poetry around which unique worlds of sound were built up from objects of the most varied origins. The band discovered sounds beyond the pain barrier, the beauty of dissonance and the aesthetics of the scrapyard. They are regarded as the most important engines in the development of new musical strategies. Hardly another German band has characterized the musical landscape as lastingly as Einstürzende Neubauten. Their influence on the music world was and is as great as their timeless character. Silence Is Sexy finally receives a long-awaited reissue on the band's own label Potomak. The element of surprise was and continues to be routine for Einstürzende Neubauten. On Silence Is Sexy they masterfully celebrate the unexpected in the exploration of silence. It is a wonderful album in the classical Neubauten sense; lyrical and melancholy. It's a musical coming-of-age from metal-defying scrap iron sound to constructed melodiousness, with a familiar rhythmic undertow -- playful, arrogant, poetic, subversive, dandified and mature. From its first release in 2000 (marking the 20-year existence of the band) to date, it has doubtlessly remained the group's most complex work and the most fascinating in its evolution. It shows the Neubauten universe from both a known, emotionally moving side, as well as one that is deliberately constructive. It clearly breathes the inimitably rough Neubauten handwriting, while Blixa's voice cuts through intellectual and cryptic texts. It is carried by metal sounds, from which individual instruments can almost no longer be extracted -- and by silence. Ultimately, nearly inaudible tones or laughter in the right place can seem more destructive than the most enduring rage. This is an album that won't be ignored; a unique appearance in the history of German rock music.
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POTOMAK 954952
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Alexander Hacke is known as the bass player of Einstürzende Neubauten and main figure in Fatih Akins' movie Crossing The Bridge: The Sound Of Istanbul. Besides collaborating in countless bands on the side, he has also been composing film scores for two decades. Danielle de Picciotto was a singer for Space Cowboys and Gudrun Gut's Ocean Club and is an icon in Berlin's creative underground. She is also the co-founder of the Love Parade together with Dr. Motte. Her art and film projects are exhibited internationally. Hacke and de Picciotto have been a huge influence on Berlin's underground scene since the '80s and have been touring the world with their collaborations since 2000. This album goes back to the basics. After deciding to give up their house in Berlin in 2010, the couple is on the road in search of new horizons. Celebrating this restless nomadic lifestyle, they decided to go back to classic songwriting, without sequencing or electronic processing. Concentrating purely on their instruments (guitar, autoharp, keyboards, drums), their songs can be performed on any stage and unplugged. Disregarding fashion, conventions or everyday standards, their lyrics speak of the world they are discovering: solitude, magic and freedom. The brew-ballads, gypsy rolls, Italo Western piano tunes, heavy guitar riffs and autoharp transport the audience into the world of the uncompromising explorer.
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POTOMAK 919812
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2008 release. Einstürzende Neubauten guitarist Jochen Arbeit presents a collection of 10 years of his solo works for film, theater, performance pieces, and installations. Some of the highlights include: "Burlesque," made for the film Die Unerzogenen by Pia Marais, and recorded in 2006. The piece was ultimately rejected and was subsequently used in a Stupid Green art performance. "Piece For Adidas" was used in a sound-installation for Adidas at the "Bread And Butter" fashion fare at the "Kraftwerk," Berlin 2007. The company commissioned the building of a wellness room with foot massages, beds, interactive monitors, etc., in a completely white room. This piece ran there for 2 days straight. Arbeit's work is richly detailed and often looped -- dark bass and reedy electronics mingling with rough guitars, Rhodes, vibraphones, Chinese zithers, saarang, computer-generated voices, and other accoutrements. Also included is a DVD containing 4 videos and 3 Surround Sound mixes. Housed in a tri-fold, 6-panel deluxe digipack, including a fold-out poster insert of the cover art, with liner notes on the reverse.
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POTOMAK 919852
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2008 release. This is the first solo album by Einstürzende Neubauten drummer, instrument maker and composer Rudi Moser. These 16 tracks resemble short story miniatures whose range of sounds and tones are developed from associative motifs extracted from feathers, a dulcimer, glasses, aluminum pipes, tires, an out-of-tune e-guitar and a Wurlitzer piano -- all of it backed up by some incredibly solid percussion, and some bracing electronics. Possessing a more pared-down, minimalistic approach to sound composition, but with all of EN's hard-driving force compelling it forward.
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POTOMAK 919808
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2008 release. DVD plus audio CD with 10 tracks. Story: Sebastian Brant's medieval novel The Ship Of Fools (1458) has been an inspiration for numerous seafaring artists throughout the centuries. The image of a ship filled with fools, seafaring through the oceans of life appealed to Danielle de Picciotto and Alexander Hacke, inspiring them to compose a show based on fools described in the book. Deep bass lines, scraping metal, melancholic autoharps, violent guitar riffs, bizarre sound recordings, entwined with Hacke's magnificent singing and Danielle's mystic lyrics are illuminated by intricate projections depicting illustrated scenes of fools' debauchery. This luxurious package contains a filmed documentary of the premiere in Berlin on the 1st of December 2007 and a CD with music from the show. The beautiful visuals and soundtrack of the performance are enriched by inserted interviews illustrating how the artists went about creating the performance while touring the world. Their comments on redefining Sebastian Brant's fools are humorous yet pensive -- an artist's perspective on how mankind has or has not developed, after investigating its medieval history. CD length: 88 minutes. DVD picture format 16:9 color; DVD type: DVD-5; NTSC. Housed in a tri-fold, 6-panel deluxe digipack.
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POTOMAK 919792
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2008 release. Originally released in 1995, this is the solo debut release from legendary Einstürzende Neubauten performer/vocalist/actor/musician, Blixa Bargeld. Commissioned Music collects several of Bargeld's work for theater and film. Features a collaboration with his replacement in the Bad Seeds, Roland Wolf, for the film Jahre Der Kälte and theatrical piece Dumpfe Stimmen (which includes Bargeld's incredible and Lynch-ian rendition of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow"). Commissioned Music features a wide swathe of minimal instrumentation -- chimes paired with bass, lyre with glockenspiel, piano with shimmering slide guitar and droning, static-y electronics to create darkly ambient mood-pieces, and smoky theatrical numbers from behind the black velvet curtain. The music for Jahre Der Kälte is based on a cadence by Franz Schubert. Blixa's vocals cover all his usual spectrums: from parlor-croons, to deep-as-graves intonations, to high death-rattle aspirations. An essential collection for all true Blixa Bargeld and EN fans.
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POTOMAK 826142
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2002 release. This is the third album by Einstürzende Neubauten, also known as Halber Mensch, originally released in 1985. The album opens with the startlingly oppressive, almost fully a cappella title track, with contrapuntal, atonal, en masse chanting. The album progresses to include quite a repertoire of electronically-generated sounds, finding the band developing their mishmash of industrial experimentation matched by terrifying clangs, stomps, and of course, the theatrical, poetic vocal delivery of Blixa Bargeld. An incredibly aggressive album, with insistent, pounding rhythms and razors on metal, and Bargeld's voice dominating your dreams for a month after listening. Members include: Blixa Bargeld, Mark Chung, F.M. Einheit, Alexander Hacke, and N.U. Unruh. Housed in a six-panel tri-fold digipack including an attached 6-page booklet with lyrics in German and English. Includes 3 bonus tracks, including a remix of "Yü-Gung" by Adrian Sherwood.
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