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SCHRAUM

k-horns
Suboko / Hübsch / Spieth

1. ein
2. tag
3. vor
4. zwei
5. jahren

Carl Ludwig Hübsch - tuba
Roland Spieth - trumpet
Suboko (Bouto & Gully & Regreb) - percussion, metal, turntables, electronics & objects

recorded on Nov 25, 2009 at Kohi, Karlsruhe, mixed by Suboko, mastered by aigle noir.
total duration: 38:29

item no.: schraum14
retail price € 12,30

”Quite an exciting release this one, one that grows every time you play it.”
Vital Weekly (Netherlands)

"Ein Tag vor zwei Jahren" - On a day two years ago – those words are the titles for the five pieces on k-horns, an album that came into being two years ago through the collaboration of two German brass players and a French percussionist trio. Respectively Carl Ludwig Hübsch (Tuba), Roland Spieth (Trumpet) and Suboko which is Pascal Gully (Drums), Regreb (Drums, Electronics) and Bouto (Turntables, Electronics, Percussion). Those five musicians collaborated quite a couple of times live on stage in cities like Cologne, Karlsruhe and Strasbourg but they haven’t brought anything to record – until now!

Schraum’s number fourteen surprises and catches with a well composed juxtaposition of dynamic and expressive passages and minimalistic noisy landscapes.

The interlock of these five musicians catches right away and the sound extract that drips out of the speakers lets you forget thinking about the classic division of work for drummers and brass players. The group is excessively maxing out its musical parameters as well as the possibilities of each instrument. (schraum)

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land           
rant

1. stel
2. radik
3. rasch
4. starrnh
5. hunderer
6. bluhm
7. luen
8. krupunder
9. sterrnh
10. resch
11. rees
12. orlando
13. gees

Merle Bennett – drums, Torsten Papenheim – guitar

recorded, mixed and mastered by Dave Bennett in Berlin 2009/2010

total duration: 33:47

item no.: schraum13
retail price € 12,30

Merle Bennett on drums and Torsten Papenheim on guitar, explore the various possibilities of the duo: concrete statements and abstract sounds, exploding and imploding while never losing the thread.  This play creates the perfect balance between precision and looseness, groove and sound, describing their musical world in form and colour.  After the calm and sound oriented debut seumsund / sundseum (2004) and their experimental pop album a direct sensuous pleasure (2006), rant decided to use both approaches to compose the songs for their third album land. Together with sound engineer and co-producer Dave Bennett, rant also decided with this brand new album to stray from the duo-puritanism of previous efforts; multitracking is to be found in some places. land consists of songs tested in concert, as well as pieces specifically composed for this record.  The album was recorded with a lot of time and patience in several different  studios in order to compose the cuts and cross references which combine and shape the various musical ideas into an album with a sort of anachronistic undertone of depth and composure. The result being an experimental, natural sounding instrumental duo album of finely crafted pop songs and abstract collage, orchestral improvisations and field recordings and dub production techniques.   (schraum)

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favoriten           
inien

1. decin
2. krippen
3. kolin
4. znojmo
5. priper
6. cotta
7. biehla
8. stetzsch
9. mojzir
10. zajeci

Axel Haller – el. bass; Johannes Tröndle – violoncello

recorded by Dave Bennett, September 2-4, 2010 in Berlin
mastered by Christoph Amann in Vienna

total duration: 47:06

item no.: schraum12
retail price € 12,30

If you think Kronos Quartet is too mainstream, this may be one to check out.
Chain D.L.K. (Italy/ USA)
inien is Axel Haller (Berlin) on electric bass and Johannes Tröndle (Vienna) on violoncello and it´s not their first appearance on schraum. Tröndle is part of the duo nörz who released their album (also known as) acker velvet in 2009 whereas Haller can be heard on various schraum releases.
Combining electric bass and cello might seem a little awkward at first, but listening to it drags you into a world of low frequencies, crackling sounds and beautifully set single notes that captures the attention like eavesdropping on a very intense and deep conversation between two philosophical minds.
In order to develop and elaborate this conversation, Tröndle and Haller have creatively extended their techniques to drive the attention away from the actual nature and ability of the instrument straight towards the substance of this duet.

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subsurface           
Ostendorf / Zoubek / Lauzier

Nils Ostendorf – trumpet; Philip Zoubek – prepared piano; Philippe Lauzier – bass clarinet, alto sax

recorded by Stefan Deistler on March 16, 2009 at Loft, Cologne

schraum presents its # 11 this fall with a record called subsurface. Initiators of this first published musical convention are Nils Ostendorf (trumpet), Philippe Lauzier (alto saxophone, bass clarinet) and Philip Zoubek (prepared piano). These three musicians from Berlin, Cologne and Montreal experiment with the physicality of their instruments like as using them as generators for sounds and tones. With a fine sense of resonance, overtones and thanks to advanced tecniques they bring an organic and fused sound into being that, letting vibrant polyphonic textures behind, wander through landscapes of density and dynamic into valleys of silence and space where they might fall into intense backpedaling. The three different individual approaches and tecniques towards music and playing made this exciting and adventurous album possible. (schraum)

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(also known as) acker velvet
nörz

1. mo
2. su
3. so
4. me
5. ra
6. no
7. ka
8. li

Andreas Trobollowitsch – tape, el. guitar, el. bass, prepared melodica, inside radio, feedback
Johannes Tröndle – cello, prepared cello, live elektronics

recorded by Christoph Amann, May 2009, amann studios, Vienna

total duration: 32:26

item no.: schraum10
retail price € 12,30

The debut album from the Vienna duo nörz has been released in November 2009 on the Berlin label schraum. The music on (also known as) acker velvet was created with compositorial, as well as improvisatorial material - fitting perfectly into the concept of the label (which by the way, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year).
Andreas Trobollowitsch and Johannes Tröndle spent one day in Amann Studios, with the intention of gathering solo live improvisations to be used as basic materials. The actual pieces themselves – as to be heard on the album – were developed in a later process of selecting, combining and cutting of these basic materials. Hereby the two musicians dealt very skillfully with the challenge of finding an economic and sensitive way to arrange and re-compose their recorded material resulting in characteristic pieces with clearly developed themes, beautiful contrasts and warm sounds.
On careful listening, one notices the juxtapositon and recombination of two opposing ideas in many of these eight pieces on (also known as) acker velvet - though never in terms of ''acoustic vs. electronic'', but rather through creating a wonderful symbiotic relationship between these two ingredients, the origins of which are sometimes hard to tell…
A very convincing album which speaks through it´s music, without letting the listener start to think about it´s making of.
Andreas Trobollowitsch and Johannes Tröndle began their collaboration making experimental soundworks for Radiostations; starting only last year to play together as a live ensemble. Indeed, listening to nörz reminds one of listening to the radio: there isn’t any nervous frequency scanning, but a well selected change of channels. From time to time the transmission is weirdly disturbed by something unknown… (schraum)

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Some Of The Things We could Be
Torsten Papenheim

1. introducing selected characters & tones
2. Harry S. Truman
3. bruxelles pianno lessons
4. a.k.a. you, for example
5. MülheimAnDerRuhr
6. nocturne drei
7. special teeth profiles shifting
8. Mitscherlichs Zoo
9. the use of literature
10. nocturne vier
11. Kargo
12. All the songs you sing

Dave Bennett – guitar, clarinet; Merle Bennett – drums; Christian Biegai – alto saxophone, bass clarinet; Axel Haller – bass; Christian Marien – drums; Matthias Müller – trombone; Torsten Papenheim – guiar, banjo, piano; Derek Shirley – bass; Roland Spieth – trumpet; Michael Thieke – alto saxophone; Clayton Thomas – bass; Gerhard Uebele – piano; Ute Völker – accordion

Compositions and arrangements: Torsten Papenheim
Recordings, mix, mastering: Dave Bennett, June 2008 through March 2009, Berlin
Produced by Dave Bennett and Torsten Papenheim

total duration: 44:22

item no.: schraum9
retail price € 12,30

Delicate, humorous compositions by Torsten Papenheim, many of which are set for large ensembles. ‘Some Of The Things We Could Be’, meticulously co-produced by Dave Bennett, proves the great versatility of the rant guitarist and leaves the listener with a smile on his face.
Dietrich Eichmann

...Chambermusic, jazz and improvised music, non-musical approaches, soundcollage, etc. Dave Bennett is the right producer and partner Papenheim needed for this avant garde project. All pieces have the same charming simpleness and primitiveness that make up their identity. The pieces are very open with sparse instrumentation. Many pieces have an almost weird Residents-like strange atmosphere because the musicians are not playing in tune with the compositions as Papenheim had them in his mind, causing an alienating effect. Also because some instruments are out of tune from time to time (piano). All this is done deliberately by Papenheim. It seems he seeks for a musicality by including disturbing and non-musical elements. This makes ‘Some of the Things we could be’ an interesting and satisfying release.
Dolf Mulder, Vital Weekly (Netherlands)

... It's an unusual album... The music isn't jazz either but rather through-composed experimental pieces — accompanying info characterizes them, not inaccurately, as "avant-garde folk music and noise jazz collages" — that have more in common with contemporary classical composition than jazz (Muhal Richard Abrams' writing comes to mind as somewhat of a comparative example).
On this distinctive album, each piece takes a new left turn and the surprises keep coming until album's end.
Ron Schepper, textura (Canada)

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discard hidden layers?
Hughes / Scherzberg / Wiese

1. neither shivering nor calm
2. lungwire
3. infraredemption
4. infra_texture 2.0
5. discard?
6. choke chamber revisited
7. choke chameleon choke
8. exit choke chamber
9. hidden disbalance

John Hughes - double bass, Lars Scherzberg - alto and sopranino saxophones, Nicolas Wiese - sampler & computer
recorded by Gilles Aubry, 15 June 2008, Vivaldisaal, Berlin

total duration: 58:07

item no.: schraum8
retail price € 12,30

Discard hidden layers? is what photoshop asks when you´re about to unwittingly delete invisible picture-layers. One may ask what this conotation has in common with the music of Hughes/Scherzberg/Wiese. Listening to the album, it is easy to understand that they are in fact dealing with quite some many layers of sound information, directly or abstractly.
A trio based in Hamburg and Berlin, these three musicians have played together for three years now. A very specific group sound has emerged, as well as an optimised technical approach, out of their necessity to find a common language between acoustic and electronic information. The acoustic material that Nicolas Wiese recycles on the computer is exclusively what he records from Lars Scherzberg and John Hughes during the show. This is quite interesting; while improvising on their instruments they are constantly confronted with their electronically alienated reflections.
On a Sunday afternoon in June this year in Berlin, the three gave a live example of this process in the Vivaldi Saal which was to create the basis of their album Discard hidden layers?.
The trio drives this layer game even further on this album - it’s not just a live recording - but a much deeper reflection of their system: instrumental improvisations, information processing, recording practice. In supplemental compositions comprised from selected trio-pieces, Wiese focuses on single aspects of the material; akin to using an acoustic magnifying glass. The concept behind the trio evolves, as we listen. Indeed, hidden layers. Thoroughly embedded in the album, these adaptions skillfully tie in with the live recordings.
Hughes/Scherzberg/Wiese present an almost one hour long album which creates a slick blend of improvisations between three heterogeneously musical voices and artful electronic compositions

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sieben mal solo
Bennett / Haller / Hubweber / Marien / Scherzberg / Völker / Vogel

1. 0:49
2. klangbrief – one night mein fahrrad the mauer entlang / Dave Bennett – ogrephonique
3. pulsphonogramm / Lars Scherzberg – alto saxophone
4. ürnotö / Axel Haller – electric bass
5. l.k.w. / Paul Hubweber – trombone
6. evolute / Ute Völker – accordion
7. metamorphosis / Sabine Vogel – bass flute, live electronics, tapes
8. zopilote / Christian Marien - percussion

recorded by Dave Bennett & Henning Röhrborn, 9-10 June 2007, Atelier Cri du coeur, Berlin

total duration: 62:00

item no.: schraum7
retail price € 12,30

In June 2007, Schraum invited seven musicians to perform solos in the wonderful atelier of Fine Kwiatkowski and Willehard Grafenhorst, called "Cri du coeur", in Berlin Wedding, on two subsequent evenings, before a very interested audience.
Dave Bennett (ogrephonique/Berlin), Lars Scherzberg (alto saxophone/Hamburg), Axel Haller (electric bass/Berlin), Paul Hubweber (trombone/Cologne), Ute Völker (akkordeon/Wuppertal), Sabine Vogel (bassflute, electronics and tape/Potsdam) and Christian Marien (drums/Berlin) present seven different ways of creating a ten minute solo.
The audience experienced a broad variety of performance practice and extended technique: some instruments primarily acoustic in nature, some electronically amplified, processed and mutated, and some interestingly diverse objects used in an ogrephonique way.
The dialogue between musicians, and with the audience provided a link far more profound than the mere fact that very different pieces had been performed in the same room.
Schraum is proud to have won such extraordinary musicians for “seven times solo”.

The title means “seven times solo”, giving out the content of the record: seven solitary improvisations recorded at Cri du Coeur, a Berlin atelier where the involved parties were invited by Schraum to perform in front of a “very interested audience”. This is one of the best “various artists” album that I came across in recent times; tracks that might be classified as under average are absent, several of them being quite beautiful instead. Dave Bennett opens with a “ogrephonique” patchwork which indeed sounds like a cross of neo-folkish lute music and factory noise. Lars Scherzberg executes a coherent and lively improvisation for alto sax, bodily and airy at the same time, while Axel Haller mostly wanders around the drone territory with the e-bass. Paul Hubweber’s trombone needs no introduction here, his chattering style always funny to hear - and what a technique. Ute Völker squeezes and hits her accordion in a muscularly dissonant piece; Sabine Vogel confirms a major inventiveness with a creation for bass flute and electronics that mixes alien birds and reminiscences from desolate settings. Christian Marien seals the disc via a concentrated percussive elaboration, every element perfectly disposed in regulated freedom. There is no necessity of recurring to special effects or bell-and-whistle pyrotechnics to guarantee a hour of pleasurable listening, and this CD really deserves attention - both as a release in itself and as an excellent calling card for deepening the knowledge of the featured musicians’ output.
Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes

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a direct sensuous pleasure
rant

1. stelze / 2. verwirkt / 3. ember / 4. tinkla eins / 5. rauhn / 6. schley / 7. oberlicht / 8. tinkla zwei / 9. spanmenge / 10. weile / 11. spule

Merle Bennett – drums, Torsten Papenheim – guitar
recorded by Rainer Robben, June 2006, Audio Cue Tonlabor, Berlin

total duration: 41:49

item no.: schraum6
retail price € 12,30

In October 2006, two years after their critically acclaimed debut album „seumsund / sundseum” (schraum 2), duo rant release their second cd „a direct sensuous pleasure”.
Still the amazing duo of drums and guitar, rant enters new territories of music and form without leaving the former spirit of their music forgotten. There is an auditory segue from „seumsund / sundseum” to „a direct sensuous pleasure” to connect the two. The first few seconds of the new album are exactly the same as the last few of the first – they took the tail audio and used it as the beginning of the first song “stelze”, a piece that wouldn’t have had any chance of legitimacy in the very chambermusic-like approach of the debut album – but shows elegantly the new direction the duo has taken.
„a direct sensuous pleasure” is consquently a very matured work of music which explores the more rhythmical and extroverted path of the duo. The new songs were not only developed and worked out in the studio, but as well, and more importantly, tested and fine tuned in live performance.
„a direct sensuous pleasure” is more than a collection of songs. It is a very conscious and well arranged album. There are three blocks of three songs, each put in order regarding their dynamics and structural sense. The blocks are musically seperated by two pieces – „tinkla eins” and „tinkla zwei” – which slightly differ in instrumentation and sound pretty different from the other nine pieces.
Once again rant shows what „popmusic” sounds like when there is no „popband” – just rant.

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Fauxpas
Trio Vopá

1. suc / 2. malaise / 3. ruade / 4. tromperie / 5. melenc / 6. 21 st Century Groove / 7. humer / 8. Badischer Markt / 9. rspah / 10. bas / 11. cor / 12. fern / 13. electrified guitar / 14. quine / 15. Dans

Roland Spieth – trumpet, Cornelius Veit – electric guitar, effects, Axel Haller – electric bass, cardboard, walkman
recorded by Jen Galli, April 2006, Sternberg Studio, Karlsruhe

total duration: 49:13

item no.: schraum5
retail price € 12,30

For three years Trio Vopá has played live and has decided to finally release its debut album "Fauxpas", which was recorded during two days in April 06 at the Sternberg Studios, Karlsruhe, Germany. Vopá is first and foremost an improvising trio which plays with the different formations a trio presents: trio, duo or solo, as well as the different possibilities of playing their instruments - either traditionally or with extended techiniques, i.e. using objects like postcards, brackets or brushes to play their instruments. Building soundstructures that morph and develop in and out of each other, Trio Vopá creates a very concentrated and exciting atmosphere in which a lot of space for sounds, often in the background, as well as the special space between the notes, are to be heard.

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Spare Parts & The Ideology Toolkit
the same girl

1. CADRAGE MENTEUR / 2. remaining dazzled / 3. riveted nostrils / 4. REPETITION DU MESSAGE / 5. heavy hat / 6. SEDUCTION PAR LE STYLE / 7. silicone sonata / 8. “Leica, we’re loosing speed...” / 9. RECOURS A LA PEUR / 10. tombstone zigzag / 11. dress rehearsal

Gilles Aubry – computer, Nicolas Field – percussion
recorded October 2004, Berlin

total duration: 49:59

item no.: schraum4
retail price: € 12,30

“…these manipulators of reality have their own unique vision which is a pleasure to share.” Touching Extremes, Italien

„…Ultimately, one admires the musicians' energy and the fearlessness of their spontaneous approach…” textura, Canada

Before discovering a common interest in improvised music, Nicolas Field and Gilles Aubry met up during the summer of 1995 as they were trying to seduce the same girl…
The concert played at the AudioArt Festival 2003 in Krakow (CD-R Live at Audio Art Festival 03 on Soundimplant) marks the beginning of their duo work and in 2004 the same girl toured Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. With SPARE PARTS & THE IDEOLOGY TOOLKIT, the duo proposes a new series of constraint improvisations and a small collection of field recordings.
For the recording of their duo improvisations (SPARE PARTS) the computer is played through bass and guitar amps, thus creating more depth and contrast in order to connect better to the same physical space as the percussion.
The set of field recordings (THE IDEOLOGY TOOLKIT), inserted between the improvised pieces, were made in Russia and Croatia. Titles of these recordings refer to procedures used in ideology manipulation, creating ambiguity between the harmlessness of the sound sources and their disturbing descriptions. The music of the same girl deals with an instinctive approach and strong complicity. By contrast as well as by mixture of sounds, Gilles Aubry and Nicolas Field try to capture, surprise and finally to immerse completely in the energy of the moment.

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flowers you can eat
hotelgäste

1. oberfläche / 2. moto / 3. wintermusik / 4. kein stern / 5. sleepy lady / 6. shiny

Michael Thieke – clarinet, alto saxophone, zither, Dave Bennett – guitar, Derek Shirley – bass
recorded March 2004, Berlin

total duration: 38:15

item no.: schraum3
retail price: € 12,30

“... This sound conjures…” Neo-Zine, USA

“…one of the most enjoyable works in the field of free-form music that I've listened to lately…” Chain D.L.K., Italy

The Berlin-based Canadian/German trio hotelgäste draws upon diverse experiences within their environment to explore a new music created in the moment; sonic densities and vast cold silences are juxtaposed to bring architectural like structural integrity to their improvisations. Population and solitude, traffic jams and back country ways, amplification and quietness, acoustic and electric, exploratory and communication, and of course conversations with the many different guests make this hotel one of the most exciting musical experiences of recent past. In August 2005 schraum released their debut album flowers you can eat.

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seumsund / sundseum
rant

1. rundström / 2. nur hier nicht / 3. südwasser / 4. wo wir sind / 5. nordschwimmer / 6. lass das schön / 7. das es gibt / 8. goldt

Merle Ehlers – drums, Torsten Papenheim – guitar
recorded by Rainer Robben, July 2004, Audio Cue Tonlabor, Berlin

total duration: 38:41

item no.: schraum2
retail price: € 12,30

"Great music between Improv and reduced Post-Rock...“ Auf Abwegen, Germany

 "... a release that is well worth checking out by adventurous listeners. “ Cadence Magazine, USA

In december 2004 schraum released the debut-album of rant, titled seumsund / sundseum. rant focuses on the combination of very close and direct duo-playing, with forms and patterns of pop-music. For Merle Ehlers (now: Merle Bennett) and Torsten Papenheim, rant is a way to realize their personal idea of writing and playing songs. Pop-music without a pop-band. seumsund / sundseum is a collection of those special pieces for guitar and drums.

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kainkwatett
Chessex / Haller / Papenheim

Antoine Chessex – saxophones, Axel Haller – bass, Torsten Papenheim – guitar
recorded by Rainer Robben, September 2003, Audio Cue Tonlabor, Berlin

total duration: 46:53

item no.: schraum1
retail price: € 12,30

“… this is really free music…” Vital Weekly, Niederlande

 “… this disc is a more than adequate start.” Fakejazz, USA

kainkwatett is a working group of three berlin based musicians that has been developing a very personal and unique sound over the last years. The music of this trio can't be fixed on paper. The seven pieces of their debut-cd kainkwatett are free improvisations recorded in september 2003. While working on their group-sound and a common idea of music, the musicians of kainkwatett still try to maintain the spontaneity of improvisation, staying open to new and unexpected turns.

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schraum

schraum was founded in 2004 in Berlin and is run by musicians, for musicians. Merle Bennett, Axel Haller and Torsten Papenheim felt the need to document and distribute their music, as well as the music of others they feel should be heard.

schraum’s focus is contemporary music, whether improvised, composed, played by common musical instruments, or by everyday objects.

Each recording is released in an edition of 500 CDs, packaged in cardboard jackets with a design containing only essential information concerning the release.

www.schraum.de

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