Asmus Tietchens with Terry Burrows-Watching the Burning Bride ,LP,1986,UK

YUKIO YUNG is the pseudonym of TERRY BURROWS, a London-based singer / songwriter / multi-instrumentalist with an apparently limitless appetite for both pseudonyms and side projects. Aside from his best-known alias, which he first used in the mid-'80s as one third of the psych-pop Chrysanthemums, Burrows has released instrumental prog rock as Push-Button Pleasure, acid house dance mixes as YooKo, and free-jazz-influenced pop-art experiments as the Jung Analysts. To top it all off, Burrows has released albums of avant-garde minimalism under his own name. All of this is in addition to his day job as a prolific author of computer manuals and music instruction books.
Born in Ipswich, England, on January 18, 1963, Burrows taught himself guitar, bass, drums, and saxophone as a teenager, in addition to pursuing a classical education on piano that had begun at the age of five. Although influenced by punk, it was more the anti-record industry D.I.Y. ethos that attracted him than the music. Burrows' influences included Syd Barrett, the Kinks, the Who, and the entire Canterbury progressive music scene that centered around the Soft Machine and its various offshoots, along with other '60s-influenced post-punks like XTC and the Television Personalities. By the mid-'80s, Burrows had started his own indie label, Hamster Records, releasing albums by his first band, the Jung Analysts, and similarly non-commercial artists. A chance meeting with singer/guitarist Alan Jenkins, whose psych-pop cult band the Deep Freeze Mice had just broken up, led to the formation of the Chrysanthemums, for whom Burrows was lead singer and keyboardist between 1986 and 1991; the band name, like Burrows' newly adopted stage name of Yukio Yung, came about as part of his fascination with Japanese culture.
Burrows released three albums and four EPs as co-leader of the Chrysanthemums before the band's original lineup splintered in 1991. Retaining the name Yukio Yung, he released his first solo album, Tree-Climbing Goats, in 1992. A follow-up vinyl-only LP, Art Pop Stupidity, followed in 1993, with a CD of entirely new material, A Brainless Deconstruction of the Popular Song, appearing later in the year. The Jeff Lynne EP, a 7" tribute to one of Burrows' personal heroes recorded during the Art Pop Stupidity sessions, was released in 1994, followed by the single "Keep the Black Flag Flying." The B-side of that single, "Reservoir Girls (Yukio's Dream #6)," is an inspired oddity featuring Burrows recreating the opening scene of Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs in a variety of computer-altered voices, with some parts sung in an operatic voice to fragments of classical music, before swinging into a dead-on cover of Ray, Goodman and Brown's slick '70s soul classic "Girls."
Burrows' next releases as Yukio Yung were a related pair of 10" EPs on the German Pink Lemon label, Goodbye Pork-Pie Brain and Hello Pulsing Vein. These discs found Burrows progressing into a more pop-friendly direction, although Goodbye Pork-Pie Brain did include the Can-like 15-minute drone-song "Yuri Gagarin." Four remixed songs from these EPs were released as the almost Brit-poppy CD EP (Mostly) Water. As Yung, Burrows also collaborated with R. Stevie Moore on the seven-song CD EP Objectivity in 1995, each covering one of the other's songs besides co-writing four others; the EP also includes Yung's lovely version of Robert Wyatt's "God Song." In 1996, Burrows rejoined with his ex-Chrysanthemums bandmate Martin Howells to form a new version of that group, re-christened with the cute visual pun Chrys&themums to differentiate it from the Jenkins lineup.
–Stewart Mason, All Music Guide

Terrence Ashley Burrows (born January 18 1963) is an English multi-instrumental musician and author based in London. Best known as a performer under the pseudonym Yukio Yung, Burrows is also a prolific author of computer manuals and music self-study guides including KISS Guide to Playing Guitar (Dorling Kindersley), Total Guitar Tutor (Barnes and Noble), and Play Electric Guitar (St Martin's Press). His books have been published in fourteen different countries and translated into six different languages.As a writer, his pseudonyms include Terence Ashley, Harrison Franklin, Hans-Joachim Vollmer and Yukio Yung.
Burrows was born in Ipswich, Suffolk and started studying classical piano at the age of 5. When he was 12 he started to teach himself guitar, and as a teenager he took up bass, drums, and saxophone. The anti-establishment attitudes of punk subculture appealed to him but his musical influences included Syd Barrett, the Kinks, the Who, XTC, the Television Personalities, and the Canterbury progressive music scene. In his early twenties, Burrows started his own indie record label, Hamster Records and Tapes, releasing albums by non-commercial acts such as Loch Ness Monster, Rimarimba, R. Stevie Moore and Attrition, and his own solo material under the guise of Jung Analysts. In 1986, Cordelia Records released Burrows' Tree Climbing Goats (and other analysing shanties) LP, his first release under the pseudonym Yukio Yung, chosen because of his love of Japanese culture.
In 1986 Burrows met Alan Jenkins, leader of The Deep Freeze Mice, and together they formed The Chrysanthemums, with Burrows as lead singer and keyboard player until 1991. The band released three albums and four EPs.After the Chrysanthemums broke up, Burrows released new solo Yukio Yung material, commencing with 1993's LP Art Pop Stupidity and CD A Brainless Deconstruction of the Popular Song. Over the next few years he released a single and four EPs. In 1996, Burrows rejoined with his ex-Chrysanthemums bandmate Martin Howells to form a new version of that group, renamed with the visual pun Chrys&themums to distinguish it from the original lineup.
Musically, Burrows was uncharacteristically quiet between 1998 and 2004 - a combination of ill health and an increasingly demanding publishing schedule. By 2003, he'd had more than 50 titles published, and was recognised as one of the world's biggest-selling authors of music tuition titles, with sales of over 2 million books in the US alone. During this period he also embarked on an additional career as an occasional university lecturer.
In 2004, Burrows emerged again with a typically colorful selection of music projects, the most significant of which was the resumption of his collaboration with US home-recording pioneer R. Stevie Moore. The resulting album, compiled by Burrows on an Apple Macintosh computer, was released as Yung & Moore Versus The Whole Goddam Stinkin World. The sleeve amusingly depicts the duo as cartoon superheroes about to demolish the planet - a visual metaphor, perhaps, for the antipathy the world at large has shown their music over the years. 2006 saw Burrows returning to the musical abstraction of his earlier career with Tonesucker, a guitar-based doom/drone project that recalls Seattle, Washington's Earth, [9] as well as performing on theremin and VCS3 at Britain's prestigious Aldeburgh Festival.
From Wikipedia

Germany's Asmus Tietchens has been creating music since 1965 when he began manipulating tape-machines. In 1971 he bought a synthesizer and has been exploring its possibilities, and has never looked back. In the 70's he became involved with Sky Records, appearing for example on the album titled, "Cluster & Eno", but it was not until the 80's that Tietchens' own music was released, of which several early Lp's appeared on Sky. These records were of playfully rhythmic, often melodic music, but as is revealed in the following interview not representative of Tietchens' ideas about music. In 1984 United Dairies issued "Formen Letzer Hausmusik", an album of more powerful concrete and industrial compositions, shedding a new light on the composer's work to both listeners and other musicians.unaware of his powerful music. Since then an abundance of material has been issued (close to 20 releases in various formats and about 30 compilation appearances) all in a highly experimental vein.
While having a large influence on the explosion of industrial music during the past 15 years, Tietchens has never belonged to any of its musical, philosophical movements, or styles and has never really attempted to create a "style" of his own. Tietchens' releases are simply the musical exploration of the studio, idea, or collaborative situation at that given time.
"My music is composed of aesthetic and extraordinary events which make statements for themselves, but there is absolutely no message. For myself the music most definitely has a meaning. I am an adventurer in the studio.....my aim is to discover the white dots on the landscape of sound, territories where no others have travelled." (Unsound, 1987)
The following interview transpired through the mail during August, 1991. Questions by Rob Forman and Daniel Plunkett.
N D: Could you start out by giving a general history of your involvement with music and what got you interested in it all?
Asmus Tietchens: I started listening to "experimental" music at a very early age of 12 years. Then one day, I had the feeling that most of the composers and musicians never stepped beyond a certain border. I was very curious of overstepping music. Suddenly I found the solution; I have to make music by myself, because I heard a lot of thrilling music, but I always missed something. So I had to make music which contains this "something". And I did and have done so since 1965.
N D: Your music from the 70's and the early 80's, since the SKY releases, is departed from around 1984's "Formen Letzer Hausmusik" which is more electro-acoustic in sound. Could you discuss the two different musical approaches and how your approach has changed as well as your thinking about music ?
AT: The Sky releases were no more than a stylistic intermezzo which ended abruptly with "Formen Letzter Hausmusik". This album mostly contains material recorded between 1968 to 1978. I always prepared in creating music beyond rhythm and harmony and so "Formen Letzter Hausmusik" and all albums since then continue my work of the 60's and 70's. Actually the Sky period was the experimental one, because I made music with synthesizers and rhythm boxes; which I never did before or after this time. This kind of rhythmic and harmonic music didn't really satisfy me, so I returned to my roots after approximately two years (1983). Just in time, I noticed that it is not my cup of tea to experiment with structures of pop music.
N D: You refer to the Sky period as a stylistic intermezzo, yet these are your first releases. Why was it so long for your material to be released?
AT: It was in fact an intermezzo. As I mentioned, I have been making "experimental" music since 1965. The first relevant results have been recorded approximately around 1970. They were consequently atonal, and I continued making such music in the 70's. Who should release it? Who was willing to release it? No one! 75% of the material of "Formen Letzter Hausmusik" has been recorded between 1969 - 1977. In 1980 I tried to record some so called Electro-Pop, impressed by the possibilities of a rhythm machine together with a synth. After three years of doing that I nearly died from boredom. I abruptly stopped making this kind of music and went on from what I developed in the 70's.
N D: "Formen Letzter Hausmusik" seemed to bring your music to a new segment of listener and artist. What about the impact for yourself?
AT: "Formen Letzter Hausmusik" was my first release containing music I'm really interested in. Lucky me to finally have passed the lowlands of Sky.
N D: What about the project which you are working on with Jšrg Thomasius?
AT: Two years ago I met Thomasius in Berlin and a friend of his did an interview with me for the GDR broadcasting. We talked a lot, Jšrg and I, and finally we had the idea of a collaboration. Jšrg sent me some basic material a year ago, but I still didn't work with it because I had to complete a lot of other projects first. I collaborated with David Myers (aka Arcane Device) from New York, last year by mail. He sent a lot of basic material of his feedback music. I treated and processed these sound excessively, but did not add any new sound source. I strictly derived the final pieces from David's basic sounds. This kind of collaboration works fantastically, it is a kind of creative recycling. Our collaboration will be released by Curious Music (Iowa) late '91 as a CD. The collaboration with David Myers differs a lot from the one with Terry Burrows ("Watching the Burning Bride"). In that case we exchanged semi-completed tracks to be completed by each other. We also collaborated by mail (and telephone), but never met. Maybe we'll meet for the first time this spring when Terry will perform with the Chrysanthemums in Germany. My collaboration with Okko Bekker ("E") again differs from the two latter ones. We worked together in the studio for three weeks. It was a very close kind of composing, programming, recording, and mixing. This year I'll collaborate, again by mail, with Vidna Obmana.
N D: Over the course of many recordings you have continued to collaborate with a wide variety of composers and musicians. Could you comment on this and what attracts you to them?
AT: The variety is not as wide as you assume; Terry Burrows, Okko Bekker and C.V. Liquidsky. And the not yet released collaborations with PGR/Merzbow, PBK, Vidna Obmana and Arcane Device. The Vidna Obmana collaboration is still in progress. The others will not be released before 1992, if ever. Except the one with Okko Bekker (whom I met in the studio), all other collaborations are kinds of recycling the material the artists delivered to me by mail. I didn't play any additional stuff. Much more I de-composed the material totally and then re- composed the particles in my very own way. The basic sound sources are always material for my free disposal. Collaborations with me are not really mutual, because I always take, but never give basic material. Of course, I only take material of musicians whose music I respect highly. There must be a certain potential of relationship.
N D: Have you ever worked with Conrad Schnitzler?
AT: I have never worked with Conrad Schnitzler, though I like most of his records. His concept differs totally from mine. Obviously he has only one concept - a very productive one. I have different concepts and they nearly change from year to year. Schnitzler regards himself as an artist - himself, his work and life together is the work of art. I admire this attitude, but it is very alien to me. Listen to his music (strictly electronic through the years) and listen to my music. It is nearly impossible to find a common sense.
N D: When working on a new work, what is the working process like for you?
AT: An interesting noise mostly is the cause for a new piece or series of pieces. Firstly I have to "research" the sound material. Is it worth it to be processed? Can I handle it? Does it fit with my aesthetic aims? The research work often takes a long time, but this work has to be done, otherwise I would muddle along at random.
N D: Do you ever score or graph out your music?
AT: No, I just listen to the first track I've recorded on the 24-track machine and then construct and derive all other tracks from the initial one. Each piece is based on an idea which I am to realize. It is not necessary to score it; I have the composition (structure) in my head.
N D: "E", with Okko Bekker, is one of your more diverse records. Could you discuss this and your relation with Okko Bekker?
AT: We aimed to record an album in the vein of different styles of so called "Serious Music of the 20th Century". Just for fun, because Okko Bekker and I are far away from being "serious" composers. We did it with quite good success, I think. I met Okko Bekker already in 1962. We were classmates for two years in the secondary school (Gymnasium). We are still best friends.
N D: "Seuchengebiete" is a favorite release. What can we expect from volume 2?
AT: Again this CD will contain 'Hydrophonien', but new versions recorded in 1990 with an advanced know-how in creating structures (composing) and recording technology.
N D: Do you have a favorite Asmus Tietchens release?
AT: No, there is no favorite Tietchens release. To me all my releases have in a way the same value, otherwise I wouldn't have released them. Though I would never record again an album like the Sky albums, they are important to me in a more historical view.
N D: You co-produced the "Neue Deutsche" compilation that was done at the Goethe Institute in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Could you talk about the album and your impressions of its outcome?
AT: In 1986 I toured Brazil with tape concerts in the metropolises of that country. The Goethe Institute Sao Paulo asked me to produce a compilation album for them which shows the recent state of German avant-garde in the field of so called 'Difficult Music'. All contributors I asked agreed. Regrettably only 150 copies of this album came to Europe. All other 2,800 copies have been distributed in Brazil. You can imagine that this album has become a very rare item meanwhile.
N D: In an interview with "UNSOUND" (1987) you mentioned that the music scene in Germany was dead and you were awaiting the new cycle. Do you still feel as such or do artists such as H.N.A.S. and Jšrg Thomasius indicate change?
AT: Of course, we have groups like P16.D4, Werkbund, H.N.A.S. and some others. But there are still not enough youngsters to launch a new cycle of interesting music. Let's wait for a better musical future.
N D: What is your involvement with Werkbund ?
AT: Who told you that I'm involved in Werkbund? When will this silly rumor come to an end? Actually I never collaborated with this group. Of course I love Werkbund's music, it is really great, but nevertheless I have in no way anything to do with Werkbund.
N D: Would you ever be interested in having your music used for film or other visual work?
AT: If a director comes and says, "I would like to make pictures or a film with your music", I would like to give him my music. But the directors always say, "Here are pictures and film. Make some music to it". That's the reason why my music still is not part of any film, dance piece, or performance.
N D: Have you ever performed live?
AT: I never performed live. To perform live would mean that I would have to compromise. I can create my music only with the help of a complete studio. I hate backing tapes on stage, so it is impossible for me to perform live. I did a lot of tape 'concerts' in the past. That means I play complete tapes without any action, visuals, performance or something similar. Just tapes! The classical method of presenting synthetic music since the early 50's. The audience has to concentrate on the music, nothing else. You can imagine that this is very hard, if not problematic, for a contemporary audience.
N D: Concerning the changes which have occurred in your country, do you see changes regarding the musical exchange of artists from both the east and west?
AT: After the re-unification (this horror event) the barriers between East and West are higher than before. The ex-DDR now is a colony of West Germany and the people of East Germany are the niggers of our new glorious Fourth Reich. Ask Jšrg Thomasius. I don't see any changes regarding the exchange of creative ideas from East to West of vice versa. Perhaps I'm wrong.
N D: "Experimental" music is very wide open now, as well as categorized. Where do you feel your music belongs and what do you see happening in the future with your music?
AT: After all the efforts of the early 80's ('Industrial', 'Techno-Pop', 'Ritual Music' etc) "experimental" music (whatever that is) seems to be established. Many people worldwide are interested in the fascinating pluralism of this difficult music. This kind of music has become an antonymous category. Only a few of the pioneers survived (NWW, Hafler Trio, P16 D4 and others), but a lot of new people appeared (John Waterman, Lieutenant Caramel, Werkbund, HNAS to name only a few). For myself I only hope that my music will be accepted by curious listeners.
N D: Are there any myths that you would like to dispel (or perpetuate) concerning yourself or your music?
AT: I only will stress that there is no theory behind my music, that I have nothing to do with Werkbund and that I object to all kinds of myths. I really hate this silly and childish New Age Movement.
From ND magazine
Track titles consist entirely of geometric symbols. Note that tracks are not seperated and was ripped just as side1(9 songs) and side2(8 songs)
Part one of a four-part series: 1. Asmus Tietchens & Terry Burrows, Watching The Burning Bride 2. Asmus Tietchens, Abfleischung 3. Terry Burrows, The Whispering Scale 4. Terry Burrows & Asmus Tietchens, Burning The Watching Bride

a great recording,of experimental electronic music in Asmus Tietchens tradition.

get it here