“It is difficult to to break new grounds nowadays. There is a huge amount of young people who now work on Ambient Music, like the Leverage Models, Four Tet or this german guy, Bernhard Wöstheinrich […]” Pete Townshend

Genre, however, sticks out. It is an evocative ambient record that will leave the listener spellbound. Recorded with the intention of being explicit, noisy and at the same time very refined, these six tracks find a dark, and yet playful angle to dub, krautrock, and ambient – like Bill Laswell on Benzos or a Tangerine Dream recorded in an empty space hangar.

The raw material for Genre was recorded in a long day of recording at Horus Studios in Hannover, joined by Markus Reuter. Reuter did not just man the vintage analogue recording deck, but also manipulated the incoming signals in real-time, routing them through a mindblogglingly complex array of guitar pedals. “At the end of the day, I had no idea if it sounded particularly inspired or how much of it was usable,” Wöstheinrich admits.

As it turned out, there were plenty of inspiring moments in those recordings. During weeks of studio work, the tracks were edited and refined into a finished album. Thick ganja clouds are blown over the hypnotic abstract drumless beats. There are long stretches of scratchy soundscapes, bizarre and quirky. Most of all, however, there is a lot of space and listening to be found here.

The song titles picture the intertwining of identities represented by the use of words found in both German and English. However, the words of the song titles have a completely different meaning in each language.

The new music of Genre is to move forward – there is a lot of grid to be found in those sounds, but also featuring a blend of unsettling, haunting melodies, and lush, expansive soundscapes.
It is a audacious statement, carving out its own identity.

It is a music that can feel disorienting at times. But when breaking new grounds, that comes with the territory.

credits

Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Synthesizers, Keyboards, Live-Arrangement

Mixing & editing: Bernhard Wöstheinrich

Produced by Markus Reuter and Bernhard Wöstheinrich

Recorded at Horus Sound Studio, Hanover, Germany, on October 31, 2022.
Recording Engineer: Benjamin Schäfer

Mastering: Markus Reuter

Artwork by Bernhard Wöstheinrich,
From the image ‘Saint John the Baptist’ by Giulio Campagnola, 1505 a. D.

We had just finished all preparations for the release of ULTIMA RATIO, when we received the news of the sudden death of Klaus Schulze. Full of sadness we would like to dedicate to him the piece “Mundane” as a farewell greeting from us to his new cosmic address.

What if a handful of specific genre-defining releases seemed to have already said everything that could have been said? What if a strong suspicion remained that there must be more to be found and more to be explored in depth? Bernhard Wöstheinrich (TaboTago, centrozoon) and Stephen Parsick ([‘ramp]) were facing this very question when they joined forces to cross the Rubycon once more and embark on a journey deep into the still uncharted territories of floating synth ostinatos and mellow choirs, as vague as a mirage.

Having known each other for more than twenty years, Stephen and Bernhard eventually decided it was about time to collaborate. In their own right, either of them has a profound background and reputation in what is commonly called Berlin School. Yet, they have never felt quite satisfied with creating yet another interpretation of this style but, instead, they have been striving for nothing less than a bravura piece.

As much as this release clearly is a treat for die-hard fans of the eerie and krautily spooky sound of 1970s Berlin, it is also a statement of current creative musicianship and of an advanced level of knowledge of how to create music that, on the one hand, is firmly rooted in tradition and, on the other, still has validity and purpose in our very time

credits

• Composed and performed by Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Berlin, and by Stephen Parsick at Dachgeschoss Borgholzhausen.
  
• Mixed, engineered, and produced by Stephen Parsick between January and December 2021.
  
• Mastered by Markus Reuter
  
• Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Keyboards, Virtual Synthesizer, Sequencer
• Stephen Parsick: Mellotron, ARP Odyssey MK. 1, ARP Pro DGX, Elka String Ensemble, Compact Phasing A,
  Roland PH 830 Phase Shifter, Solton and Roland Tape Delays, AKG and Klark Teknik Spring Reverbs.

Artwork “The Procession” by Wolfgang Barkowski
www.facebook.com/Alien-Nature-Art-708742072597565/

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