Sunday, August 17, 2008

HEMATIC SUNSETS-MUSIK AUS DEM AROMA CLUB, LP, 1998, GERMANY





Hematic Sunsets is an anagram of the words Asmus Tietchens, and while much of his vast canon of work that came in the wake of his integration into the post-industrial experimental music landscape (on the heels of the release of his "Formen Letzer Hausmusik" LP on United Dairies) has adopted a somewhat severe and po-faced posture, there's always been an underlying playful and pranksterish dimension to the work of this German master. Having begun his recording career with the quasi melodic synth quease of "Nachtstücke" and followed that with four drop-dead-brilliant instrumental synth pop LP's on the legendary Sky Records, Tietchens adopted a sudden about face stance in the years that followed and was quick to dismiss this early chapter of his work as a brief and awkward dalliance before his Real Work began. How then to explain the emergence of the three LP's issued from the late 90's to the early 00's under the Hematic Sunsets banner? The work found on Hematic Sunsets extends and deepens the giddy and highly melodic strategies deployed on his Sky era albums, and though he might pay lip service to the notion of this dimension of his work being peripheral and minor compared to his primary avant gardish investigations, his re-engagement with his Sky Records aesthetic here even extends to re-adopting the conceit of assigning supposed instrumental duties to fictitious individuals whose names are anagrams of Asmus Tietchens, as was the case on said Sky LP's. Ah...but Tietchens thrives on being a contrarian (his disavowals of involvement in both Werkbund and Mechthild Von Leusch, despite numerous credible sources acknowledging his involvement is a good case in point) and though he continues to trot out his dismissive rhetoric about his Sky-era recordings, these three gems (his second will follow next week) utterly belie this notion. If the Sky-era albums took as their point of departure Cluster's groundbreaking work circa "Zuckerzeit", Hematic Sunsets finds Tietchens situating these sorts of melodic figures in front of fun house mirrors, taffy stretching and woozing out delirious little candy coated and rhythm machine-driven themes by subjecting them to dub-worthy deployments of Mechthild Von Leusch-like floor sucking reverb, tactics that result in some of the most dazzling and auspicious work in this man's vast discography. My first listen to Hematic Sunsets back in the late 90's literally dropped me to my knees. Don't overlook this one, folks...


***************NEW LINK POSTED SEPTEMBER 2012***************

Get it here  


***NOTE: THERE'S A MIRRORED MEDIAFIRE LINK IN THE COMMENT FIELD*** 

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks!

I've been looking for this for quite a while, since I really like Tietchen's early stuff.

Looking forward to further installments.

Anonymous said...

To be fair, this is far from early Tietchens. His first pieces of music date back to the mid 60s and this record is from 1998 -- not too terribly long ago.

fuzztunnel said...

Anything by Tietchens is greatly appreciated! Can't wait to give this one a listen.

vdoandsound said...

anonymous-you've misread my review. I *compared* Hematic Sunsets material to Tietchens' first handful of LP's for Sky Records (released circa 1981-1983). I didn't say this was one of his early recordings. And while he was in fact
recording material from the 60's on, it wasn't until 1980 that his debut LP "Nachtstucke" emerged, and only when that material was issued on CD in 2003 that work from the 60's became available archivally, as the 2nd disc of the set.

Knife in the Toaster said...

Thanks so much for this! I've been waiting for a while to hear this.

I picked up the second and third albums from RRR 3 or 4 months ago, I guess. I ripped the second LP and posted it on my blog (you can get it here: http://newnessbeginshere.blogspot.com/2008/01/hematic-sunsets-rendezvous-im-aroma.html)

I haven't yet ripped the third LP b/c I have a new laptop with a crappy soundcard. I'll let you know if I do.

I also have the 4th Tyndall LP, which I was in the middle or ripping when my desktop crashed. So, if I can get my shit straight I'll send you the link

Cheers,
GP.

vdoandsound said...

Knife in the Toaster-Yer welcome. As you can see from the newest post on MS, rather than post it myself now that you've re-upped it, i've directed folks to your blog to obtain the second Hematic Sunsets LP. I wasn't intending to post the third one, as it's still technically in print, so it's all yours if you decide to.

Looking forward to your eventual post of the third Tyndall LP. It's the only one I don't have....

fuzztunnel said...

Wow, this really is great. "Hinterzimmer Ohne Fenster" sounds like Esquivel playing a supper club in Rungholt.

gesticulador said...

This is sooo good. There is another Hematic Sunset LP!!!!: aroma club paradox.
Is it possible to get it also? I'm addicted to it.
Keep the wonderful work! And join te mutantsounds group on last.fm.

fuzztunnel said...

I'd have to say that the new "Aroma Club Paradox" (4) is certainly the weakest of the four. Seems like this particular direction (i.e., plug a cheap Yamaha keyboard into a bunch of ring modulators) might be yielding diminishing returns.

al66 said...

Mediafire link for this album:

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?9bxmb06l1tstweg