asmus tietchens: 4k7+

Asmus Tietchens is a German electronic synthesist and musician whose interests in experimental music and musique concrète began during childhood. He began recording sound experiments in 1965 with electronic musical instruments, synthesizers, and tape loops. In the 1970s he met producer Okko Bekker, and the two formed a decades-long partnership. In 1980 Peter Baumann of Tangerine Dream heard a recording of Tietchens's music and offered to produce an album; the result was the 1980 release of Nachtstücke (BB 155CD/LP), which was followed by several releases on the legendary German label Sky Records between 1980 and 1983. At the same time, Tietchens also began releasing on several international cassette labels. He released Musik Aus Der Grauzone (1981) and Musik An Der Grenze (1982) on the British YHR Tapes (York House Recordings) and Musik Im Schatten (1982) and Musik Unter Tage (1983) on the American label Aeon. These four outstanding limited tape releases, now highly in-demand, are included in this five-CD set, an expanded reissue of a four-LP set released in 2007. The fifth CD, Musik Von Der Halde, contains additional audio material recorded during the '70s, including the two tracks included on a bonus 7" with a limited edition of the original vinyl release of 4K7. Except for the tracks from that 7", all of the material on Musik Von Der Halde is previously unreleased. While Tietchens's recordings from before 1984 (including the recordings found on this set) feature accessible synthesized music, his focus shifted to more abstract sound-collages, as can be heard on Formen Letzter Hausmusik, released in 1984 on Nurse With Wound's label United Dairies. This set chronicles the transitional phase between the poppy Sky releases and the more noise-based style of releases like Formen Letzter Hausmusik. Tietchens later pursued "absolute music" through an almost mathematical process of rigid formal exercises. With strong ties to Karlheinz Stockhausen's early electronic work, Tietchens started specializing in irregular patterns of sonic abstractions suspended in gray drones to create cold textural space, void of external reference.