GUNTER ADLER
Douches Dames
3"CDR, (21:32 min)
© 2008 / 1000füssler 010

6,00 EUR (include shipping)


Douches Dames was part of an ancient indoor swimming pool in Forest/Brussels. Today this elegant Art Nouveau building hosts the eclectic art laboratory Bains::Connective. The music, originally intended as a sound installation, is an amalgam made of field recordings from inside the building, antique heptatonic scales and synthetically produced sounds spread out painstakingly in the first movement, infinitely transposed downwards in the second (Shepard Tones) and finally hidden inside a shady atmosphere in the third, where another stimulating motif is aperiodically interrupted by sudden violent curves. In addition Gunter Adler has compiled a jumbled array of electroacoustic samples forming a zigzagged rather than streamlined path through his archives. During the roaring times, after the melting of the polar caps had begun, visual artist Isabelle Rouquette showed works on this theme from a diversity of sources and engraved them into the trapezoidal patterned floor of the pool. On the day of the opening the interior was illuminated by flowing zebra skin light projections while the music was presented in a sort of live performance, a soundtrack accompanied by a sweeping improvisation on a synthesizer and twiddling with delay effects. It has an opulent and festive character and is at home in both ancient and modern contexts.

Douches Dames 12‘55, mp3 excerpt
Scheppertones 3‘31
Mousse-Touch 5‘00

About the Artist:
Born and raised in Aachen, Germany. At the age of 17 he starts experimentating with synthetically produced sounds (Commodore 64, all data lost). Moves to Hamburg, Germany in order to study physics, philosophy, music theory. From 1992 to 96 works under the nome de plume ANUBIS (see Stora Compilation from 1993). Works out his first sound installations and in 1998 co-founds the GROENLAND ORCHESTER with G.Reznicek.
Invents his alter ego GUNTER ADLER and releases his solo debut on Staubgold. Additionally works on animation film and film scores. Toured continuosly with Groenland Orchester and Gunter Adler and teams up in the duo-improv group AUGSBURGER TAFELCONFECT with Sebastian Reier since 2002. The same year he releases a split album with Klangkrieg, again on Staubgold. Following up to this his next record Minutemusic is released by the polish Mik.Musik label [run by Wojt3k from Retro*Sex*Galaxy] in 2003. Since October 2003 he is running a net label for exquisite electronic music plakatif.net .
http://hall.plakatif.net

Video: Scheppertones by Deveroe Aurel Langston on Youtube



REVIEWS:


The Soundprojector / UK

German Gunter Adler’s Douche Dames (1000FÜSSLER 010) had field recordings as a starting point, but has ended up as a lush and layered collection of musical sounds. Douches Dames used to be a swimming pool in Brussels in the 1920s; now it’s an arts lab, with no small disposition towards encouraging installations and avant-garde activities to take the place of the breast-stroke, the diving board and the brightly-coloured rubber bathing cap. Adler took his microphone among the culture-hungry crowd and sampled many other fascinating wall-based reverberations to produce this surprisingly rich and dramatic three-incher, a ‘jumbled array of electro-acoustic samples’.

Ed Pinsent / internet preview: thesoundprojector.com/2009/02/01/nocturn



TOKAFI

Persistent changes conjoined with perceptive processing: An installation piece accompanied by trapezoidal patterns.

Douches Dames is a blithe confection of field recordings culled from the innards of an ancient indoor pool in Brussel's of the same name. Today, a spot of plastic surgery has transformed the swimming pool an Art Nouveau that, among other things, plays host to the eclectic art laboratory Bains::Conective. Adler, himself an experimenter with sounds synthetic and otherwise, originally conceived this work as an installation piece, which was accompanied by the trapezoidal patterns of visual artist Isabelle Rouquette. What one finds on this, the ensuing audio document, are hyptatonic scales and long-form sustained tonalities that purse a droning halo of sound. While at first it sounds tightly sequenced, adventitious elements do appear, merge, and drift across the sound-field, creating a breezy forward motion. The atmospherics of the second work, meanwhile, give rise to a sinking feeling, as though a sudden change in air pressure has occurred. While remaining in a similar cloud-space on the third and final piece, impulsive fluctuations bring it closer to an air of frenetic motion. These persistent changes, conjoined with some perceptive processing and satisfying synthesis, result in a short work that is shadowy and precise in its rendering of the ravages of time.

Max Schaefer / Tokafi, 15. January 2009



Vital Weekly / Netherlands

After reading the press text that comes with this release, I must admit I still have not much idea what it is about. It was originally intended for a sound installation and uses field recordings from ancient indoor swimming pool in Brussels. The text also mentions something about the opening, a live performance and a soundtrack, but Gunter Adler lost me there. Adler is perhaps best known as a member of Groenland Orchester (together with G. Reznicek), and later with Augsburger Tafelconfect and solo as Adler (which is not his real name). The three pieces on this release are made of highly processed field recordings, of which we no longer recognize the origins. Gliding tones, sine wave like, objects that fall to the ground and sound effects working overtime. This is quite a nice, sweet, short and highly enjoyable release, for those who love their microsound to be much more free and not tied to the strict conventions of that scene. Nice indeed.

Frans de Ward / Vital Weekly 654



Bad Alchemy / Germany

© Jürgen Hall? Bei so einem musikalischen Namen hätte man sich doch nicht so nibelungendeutsch umtaufen müssen. Der mit dem Grönland Orchesters (mit G. Reznicek) und Augsburger Tafelkonfekt (mit S. Reier) und Soloreleases auf Staubgold und Mik unter seinem Nom de plume bekannt gewordene Aachener, der nach seinem Studium in Hamburg hängen geblieben ist, steuert zur 1000füssler-Reihe drei überdurchschnittlich attraktive Tracks bei. Das 13-min. Titelstück entstand für eine Installation im Brüsseler Bains::Connective, das in den Räumlichkeiten eines einstigen Jugendstil-Damenbads untergebracht ist. Das hat Adler offenbar zu entsprechend spritzigen und zu Unterwasser-Sounds angeregt, durchsetzt mit knackend rumorendem Klingklang, zunehmendem Stimmengewirr und Plantschgeräuschen und einer ganz feinen harmonischen Zierlinie, zu der punktuell heptatonische Skalen getupft werden. Das kurze ‚Scheppertones‘ danach meint eigentlich einen Tauchgang auf der Shepard-Tonleiter, jenem scheinbar unendlich absinkenden Glissando aus Sinuswellenfrequenzen, das auch schon Komponisten wie Tenney oder Risset reizte und das Adler mit furzelndem Geprassel durchsetzt. ‚Mousse-Touch‘ schließlich lautmalt einen nuanciert bebenden Fond, mal flirrend aufgehellt, mal wummernd abgesenkt und von Pfeiftönen durchschwirrt aus Zeiten, als Weltraumfahrer noch Nick oder Laika hießen.

Rigo Dittmann / Bad Alchemy 61



Quietnoise / Austria

3"-CDs sind Musik im Scheckkartenformat. Sie besitzen etwas akutes, eine inhärente Unmittelbarkeit, der ich mich nur schwer entziehen kann. Das Hamburger Label 1000füssler verwendet dieses Format fast ausschließlich, im vorliegenden Fall wieder inklusive hübschem Hochglanzcover auf Fotopapier und schwarzem Rohling, haptisch also eine sehr ansprechende Veröffentlichung.
Musikalisch darf als zentrales Stück wohl das Titel gebende »Douches Dames« gelten, in dem Jürgen Hall aka Gunter Adler aus Field Recordings und synthetisiert erzeugten Klängen über fast dreizehn Minuten ein gleichsam verwirrendes wie hypnotisches Klanggeflecht ausbreitet. Wie in einem akustischen Tagtraum ziehen Erinnertes und Gedachtes als Sci-Fi-Sounds und Sepia-Töne vorüber. Geräusche und Feldaufnahmen wirken entrückt, Fragmente tauchen immer wieder auf, während man selber, durch diese eigenartigen Klangräume schlingernd, langsam und bequem die Kontrolle zu verlieren scheint.
Mit »Scheppertones« folgt darauf noch ein kurzes Intermezzo, in dem mit der akustischen Täuschung der Shepard-Skala gespielt und so der Eindruck eines unendlich absteigenden Klangstrudels erzielt wird, bevor der Ausklang mittels einer kurzen aber feinen Ambientverdröhnung unter dem Titel »Mousse-Touch« geschieht. Was es mit dem antiken Schwimmbad in Brüssel auf sich hat, aus dem offenbar einige Aufnahmen stammen, weiß auch der - eher Verwirrung stiftende - Begleittext zur Release nicht weiter zu erhellen, macht diese angenehm verschrobenen Soundscapes allerdings nicht weniger hörenswert.

Tobias Bolt / Quietnoise 2008-12-22

















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