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Online since 2289 days. First time here? Read this. |
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| Swen's Weblog - The WIRE Magazine and more |
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Online since 2289 days. First time here? Read this. |
Die Tödliche Doris ("Deadly Doris") was a German performance art/music group that were together from 1981-1987, long enough to record a few albums, singles, and enough video tape to warrant a couple of releases. The three band members - Käthe Kruse, Wolfgang Müller, and Nikolaus Utermöhlen - formed in reaction against the suddenly popular Neue Wilde painting in Berlin. Die Tödliche Doris combined rather dadaist theatrics with their music. Even the new wave sound of the band's second album, Unser Debüt, wasn't as straightforward as it seemed; with their next album, Sechs, the band revealed that the two albums were meant to be listened to simultaneously, creating a third, "invisible" album.
A live-streaming of the first event featuring the spectacular discographic project by the japanese Noise artist Masami Akita alias Merzbow: an encyclopedia of noise entitled "Merzbox", containing 50 CDs that, by using low-tech equipment in an anti-conventional way, create a flooding of the senses, negating the opportunities for sound to be distinguished. This collection of manifestations by the "King of Noise" dating from the years 1979-97 was played at the Kunsthalle exhibition "Yayoi Kusama" (www.kunsthallewien.at) in full length in a continuous listening session of approximately 60 hours, introduced and ended with a one-hour live act by Masami Akita.
Noisemakers Masima Akati -- a.k.a. Merzbow -- and Russell Haswell marked the beginning of their Satans Tornade project with this 1999 direct-to-tape recording. Word immediately began to spread, and the two have since revisited the project on several occasions.Those already familiar with Merzbow and Haswell will have an idea of what to expect on here: insane electro-grind, extreme computer music, a frenzy of white noise with little or no discernible melody or rhythms. And you'd be right.The magic of the two is how they constantly manage to reinvent improvisational electro-noise and to push the limits of what noise is and how it can be perceived.
There is no need to argue: Merzbow stands as the most important artist in noise music. The favorite moniker of Japanese Masami Akita appears on 100s of albums. The name comes from German artist Kurt Schwitters' famous work "Merzbau," which he also called "The Cathedral of Erotic Misery." Akita's choice reflects his fondness for junk art (through Schwitters' collage method) and his fascination with ritualized eroticism, namely in the form of fetishism and bondage. All these elements constitute the Merzbow persona.
