Con-Struct Series

CON-STRUCT
Conrad Schnitzler / Frank Bretschneider

Bretschneider on his con-struction:
I read the name Conrad Schnitzler for the first time in the arti- cle about Tangerine Dream in the Rowohlt Rock Lexicon from 1973 (back then, at 17 in the GDR, an indispensable guide). The first time I heard his music was only in 1980, when his wave track "Auf dem Schwarzen Kanal" was played on the ra- dio, an RCA 12" Super Sound Single in disco remix. Then the man was gone and stayed under the radar again, in spite of his almost inflationary number of releases. Maybe his mate- rial was too obscure or his approach too radical to be noticed by the general public. It wasn't until 1988 that I heard from Schnitzler again, a tape on Jörg Thomasius' East Berlin Kröten Kassetten label. And again almost 10 years later his Plate Lunch CDs "Rot" and "00/106". But it was all too rough and raw for me, both in terms of sound and organization, kind of mechanically and not really cool. Only after I heard Wolfgang Seidel at the NBI around 2002 with one of his tape concerts, I came slowly closer.
Schnitzler's early role as co-founder of two influential bands is one reason for the ongoing reception. Another is his con- sequence as an artist. "I'm not interested in having publicity or a public feedback" he declared in an 1996 interview. It remains an open question whether one has to completely refuse to do so. But I was always fascinated by this almost extinct way of being an artist in its full independence. Just as I feel connected, as a self-taught person and as someone who prefers to look forward instead of looking back: "I don't want nostalgia." After all it was Jens Strüver who inspired me to work with Conrad Schnitzer's material.
I had the idea of flowing music in which patterns develop, shift, dissolve and finally reorganize. A modular system seemed the most suitable to connect Schnitzler's world with my own by triggering and modulating his sounds via a sampling module and supplementing them with my own. Perhaps I have not always succeeded in merging both worlds congenially, sometimes they orbit, sometimes they collide, but they never stand still. As Conrad Schnitzler says in his "Context" manifesto: "The sounds don't come to stay."

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CON-STRUCT
Conrad Schnitzler / Pole

Pole on his con-struction:
To be honest, in earlier times I never quite warmed to Conrad Schnitzler's work. Back then, in the middle of the 80s, we were still occupied with traditional band projects. We played hip-hop, jazz, avant-garde, but with guitars, drums, etc. We still asked ourselves the question: "How can we actually get away from these instruments and structures?" They seemed so outmoded. Then came my first contact with Conrad's productions: a Tangerine Dream album that he co-produced and on which he played violin, synthesizer and typewriter. It wasn't a good start. I didn't much like the album. Nevertheless, something had happened. I made a unilateral decision for the band, brought a TR-808 and a Minimoog to rehearsal and announced: "We're going electronic." After that, everything happened all by itself. I found out more about this Schnitzler from Berlin who always impressed me with his complexity, his humorous nature and almost absurd variety. So years later, when I was asked if I would participate in the Con-Struct series, there was no way I could refuse. His influence had since become too important for me. Contrary to the original Con-Struct concept, however, it was my idea to do it half and half: 50 percent sounds from Conrad and 50 percent from me. The collaboration went according to the following rules: I myself use four things – a modified old rhythm machine, two old synthesizers, and my modular system. From Schnitzler come four complex sounds, which are always run through a modular patch. Coincidence should play an important role. Then I sent everything through my mixer – for dubbing. It worked almost automatically. His sounds led and I joined in. It felt a little bit like we could understand each other. The two of us. I would have liked to have met him.

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CON-STRUCT
Conrad Schnitzler / Schneider TM

Schneider TM on his con-struction:
I am very happy and honored to be invited to do an album for the Con-Struct series and wanted to do something special and genuine in this posthumous collaboration with Conrad Schnitzler. I wanted to get as close to his spirit as possible, so I created a musical situation as if we were actually collaborating together in the same room, with Conrad playing his pre-recorded sound-files or modular system and me dubbing and processing it live on the flyÖ almost as if it was a live-concert situation. Next to many other aspects of Schnitzlerís vast oeuvre, I am fond of the noisy, polyharmonic, polyrhythmic and sometimes quite humorous minimalism of his music, as well as his way of using chance, which often leads to magical and raw beauty. There are no other sounds on this record except for ones created by Schnitzler, sent through my system and processed live. During the sessions I had the feeling of being in a conversation with him. And when I met his widow, Gisela Schnitzler, she told me that they still talk every evening, more than five years after his death, and that heís still around for sure. So, Conrad, thanks a lot for this experience!

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CON-STRUCT
Conrad Schnitzler / Pyrolator

The German pioneer of electronic music Conrad Schnitzler (1937–2011) amassed a vast archive of sounds for use in combination with each other in live performances. In 2011 the idea came up of con-structing new compositions, not remixes, from this material. The Con-Struct series was born. Our release features con-structions by Pyrolator, co-founder of the legendary German label Ata Tak, solo artist and member of various seminal post-punk bands such as D.A.F. and Der Plan. "My prime objective was to present a side of Conrad which I had always heard in his music but one which often goes unnoticed: a darker, technoid side. Conrad has always been one of the great pioneers of classic Berlin techno music", says Pyrolator. Convince yourself!

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