conrad schnitzler/pole: con-struct

Conrad Schnitzler (1937-2011), is one of the most important representatives of Germany's electronic music avant-garde. He was a member of Tangerine Dream and Kluster, and also released countless solo albums. Pole, the Düsseldorf-native musician Stefan Betke, looks back on a two decade career in abstract electronic club music. With Barbara Preisinger he created Scape Records and his own mastering studio Scape Mastering. The Con-Struct series is based off of Schnitzler's daily excursions through the sonic diversity of his synthesizers. Finding exceptional sounds with great regularity, he preserved them for use in subsequent live performances, amassing a vast sound archive. Jens Strüver, the producer of the Con-Struct series, came up with the idea of "con-structing" new compositions, not remixes, from the archived material. A few words from Pole on his "con-structions": "To be honest, in earlier times I never quite warmed to Conrad Schnitzler's work. Back then, in the middle of the '80s, we were still occupied with traditional band projects... We still asked ourselves the question: 'How can we actually get away from these instruments and structures?' They seemed so outmoded. Then came my first contact with Conrad's productions: a Tangerine Dream album that he co-produced and on which he played violin, synthesizer and typewriter. It wasn't a good start. I didn't much like the album. Nevertheless, something had happened. I made a unilateral decision for the band, brought a TR-808 and a Minimoog to rehearsal and announced: 'We're going electronic.' After that, everything happened all by itself. I found out more about this Schnitzler from Berlin who always impressed me with his complexity, his humorous nature and almost absurd variety. So years later, when I was asked if I would participate in the Con-Struct series, there was no way I could refuse. His influence had since become too important for me. Contrary to the original Con-Struct concept, however, it was my idea to do it half and half: 50 percent sounds from Conrad and 50 percent from me. The collaboration went according to the following rules: I myself use four things - a modified old rhythm machine, two old synthesizers, and my modular system. From Schnitzler come four complex sounds, which are always run through a modular patch. Coincidence should play an important role. Then I sent everything through my mixer - for dubbing. It worked almost automatically. His sounds led and I joined in."