by Reichenhall

With Motormorla, the Berlin-based formation Reichenhall releases a concept album about standstill, traffic noise, backward motion, and the peculiar comfort that can lie in remaining still. The music reflects on lost time and on that strange calm that emerges when nothing moves forward and one inevitably arrives later than intended.

At the center of the album is Motormorla, a mythical creature that has lingered for aeons in the fog of the traffic jam between Kamen and Bergkamen, two cities at the outer perimeter of the Ruhr area. The Ruhr Area is a massive, interconnected metropolitan population center in Western Germany.

Motormorla lives in a moss-covered car, laboriously winding down the windows by hand when it rains and tending to the plants inside. The vehicle is at once a place of retreat, an archive, and a resonant chamber.

Again and again, Motormorla turns the dial of an old car radio. Between hiss and crackle, unfamiliar voices emerge: chants and fragments of ambient sounds from other parts of the world. In this way, transcendent connections arise beyond the limits of reception. At times, she is accompanied on the back seat by hitchhikers, among them a Hare Krishna guru who spent years living with her in the car.

The story behind the album was conceived by the artist Christine Kriegerowski.

The album culminates in a 18-minutes track in which Uschi Hugo lends her voice to Motormorla – an invitation to let the hectic bustle of the present moment come to rest, if only briefly. Uschi Hugo is a German voice actress, dialogue director, and radio play and audiobook narrator.

credits

Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Sequencer, Keyboards & Synthesizer (bernhardwoestheinrich.bandcamp.com)
Lukas Radiomodul: Loopmachine, Edit & Production
Mathieu Sylvestre (SONUS EORUM): Looper and Electronics, Real-time Sound Transformations
Volker Lankow: Soundscapes & Loops

Mastering: Mathieu Sylvestre

Voice: Uschi Hugo
Artwork & Story: Christine Kriegerowski