“Anchor and Burden” goes into the 2nd round. In 2021, the “supergroup” that Markus Reuter put together to set an example of what a contemporary band can actually be, recorded five albums of cutting-edge music that was improvised live in the studio.
In 2022, now with new Germany-based drummer Asaf Sirkis (Shawn Crowder moved back to the US), the group recorded another set of breathtakingly performed pieces. The first album of the second incarnation of the band called KOSMONAUTIK PILGRIMAGE is getting released as a CD and download on Leonardo Pavkovic’s MoonJune Records in January 2023.
Markus Reuter tells us about the background and development of the band over the last year and a half:
“In 1996, Bernhard Wöstheinrich and I started working together as centrozoon and over the years we developed our very own style of uncompromising instant composition. There has been the vision to expand centrozoon to include drums and bass for over two decades, and Anchor and Burden is the embodiment of that idea. My choice to include another touch guitarist (rather than „just“ a bass player) was obvious to me, especially since this was going to be the first band to feature two accomplished players of this versatile instrument. Alexander Dowerk was my first call, as my master-student and friend. Shawn Crowder played with us during the initial sessions that produced the first five albums, which we self-released in late 2021 and early 2022.
Asaf Sirkis, with whom I have recorded many albums since 2016, joined us for the 2022 sessions, and we now have the album KOSMONAUTIK PILGRIMAGE, which to me shows the current pinnacle of achievement that this band originally set out to reach. The music is most intense and the listening and collective composition that is happening in the moment is nothing short of miraculous, even to us as the originators. This certainly isn’t easy music to consume at all, but it should satisfy the hunger of those who are in love with exceptional music. I’m glad and honored that Leonardo Pavkovic is supporting the band, and this first physical release of our music is an important event for us.
This is also the first time that the multichannel Touch Guitars® S8 instrument has been used extensively. Alexander is playing it throughout this album. Each string is being recorded and processed separately, which leads to just Alex on his own already sounding like several people playing. We’ve kept the separation of parts intact in the wonderful mix that our friend Stefano Castagna made in his Ritmo&Blu studio in Italy.
Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, we had the opportunity to capture the whole process of the musical creation on camera, and this footage is going to be made available as promotional material as well as full video performances over the next few months.”
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credits Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars AU8 and S8, Soundscapes Alexander Paul Dowerk: Touch Guitars S8 Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Keyboards and Electronics Asaf Sirkis: Drums and Percussion
All music written and performed by Anchor and Burden Recorded by Arno Jordan at Castle Studios, Röhrsdorf, Germany Mixed by Stefano Castagna at Ritmo&Blu Studio Mastered by Lee Fletcher
Produced by Markus Reuter and Alexander Paul Dowerk
Muschelkalk, which is the German word for shell-bearing limestone, is formed by the processes of deposition and solidification of shells, skeletons or calcareous residues of creatures that formerly lived in salty and fresh water areas millions of years ago.
On a rattling conveyor belt, the combine for self-referencial music recycling from Berlin-Kreuzberg, Reichenhall, hauls the debris from the past into the present day and creates a groovy distillate from it.
The artwork of the cover depicts a disused industrial site in Rüdersdorf near Berlin, where shell limestone deposits were processed.
Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Sequencer, Keyboards & Synthesizer Lukas Radiomodul: Loopmachine Mathieu Sylvestre (SONUS EORUM): Looper and Electronics, Real-time Sound Transformations (on “Muschelkalk”, “Euphotic Zone”, and “Phonolith”)
Edited & produced by Lukas Radiomodul and Bernhard Wöstheinrich Mastering by Markus Reuter
Artwork by studioflokati.de
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Music for the opening of the exhibition titled “Weil es wirklich wichtig ist” (“Because it really matters”) by Manfred Makowski, which took place at the house of the county council Gütersloh, October 27, 2022.
The main subject of this exhibition were historical methods of printing. Manfred has made it his duty to preserve these techniques and to work creatively with them. Hence this present music session includes sounds and noises from various letterpress machines and other ambient sounds from printing plants and the like.
credits
Bernhard Wöstheinrich – Keyboards, Samplers, Synthesizers and Sequencers
Editing & mixing: Bernhard Wöstheinrich Mastering: Markus Reuter Cover drawing: Christine Kriegerowski
Thank you to Kerstin & Wolfgang Hein, Sarah & Manfred Makowski.
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Recording of the live performance by Bernhard Wöstheinrich and Leander Reininghaus on the occasion of the finissage of Christine Kriegerowski and Bernd Riehm’s exhibition “Billions of years before the end of the world, rhapsody for two” at Wolfram Spyra’s Gallery World Wide Window, August 21th, 2022
Leander and Bernhard have picked up the vibes of the detailed, lively, desperately admonishing, but always humorously distanced images by Riehm and Kriegerowski and complemented them musically the with their mesmerising, yet powerful soundscapes, full of atmosphere.
In November 2016 centrozoon, consisting of Markus Reuter and myself, went on a 20th anniversary tour to the US. On this tour we were mixing our space music and experimental electronica in varying ratios, depending on the nature of the context we were performing in. Having started to perform together in 1996, this series of concerts is a personal celebration of a long-term artistic collaboration.
We recorded each of those performances and we are making them available in our 217 series releases.
George Bley, or tour manager, driver and jack-of-all-trades, wrote down a few lines of his very personal reflections for each evening & release.
These recordings are unedited and the mix is just like what was going out to the P.A. that night. That might include clicks and digital dropouts.
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Bernhard Wöstheinrich 