SPLITTER ORCHESTER & FELIX KUBIN:
Shine On You Crazy Diagram

A1. Diagram 1
A2. Diagram 2

3. Diagram 3 (bandcamp bonus track)

B1. Lückenschere
B2. Lichtsplitter

Triggered by the 2015 edition of the Labor Sonor Festival "Translating Music" in Berlin, this split album between the Splitter Orchester and Felix Kubin offers two sides of the same coin, sometimes appearing like the rendering of an identikit picture.

Taking up side A of the album, the Splitter Orchester remains faithful to its trademark technique of improvised composition. Their sound carries the spirit of artists like Jani Christou, John Cage, Franco Evangelisti and the Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza, taking it further to the 21st century and strictly avoiding any scores. Specially built and prepared instruments add to the complexity of sound layers that slowly unfold, filling both an imaginary and physical space. Starting with a short piano loop, Diagram 1 turns into a darker drone cut by crashing glasses, giving it an almost Hörspiel-like character. Diagram 2 is a piece about transformation and metamorphosis which starts with airy highest tones that unravel into a sort of chanting before slowly descending downwards, reaching deeper realms of rumbling which culminate in brutal noise.

On side B Felix Kubin reinterprets these tracks, creating a physically closer and blunter atmosphere, which turns the distant dreamlike atmosphere of side A into a state of awakening. His two versions present a more systematic technique, counteracting the subconscious swarm composition of the Orchester. For his take on Diagram 1, under the title of Lückenschere, he uses a sequenced sample of the piano loop which generates different dynamics, spiralling over sequencer variations. Much rawer and with aspects of minimal music is Lichtsplitter, a pure electronic blueprint of Diagram 2, that involves a b/w score drawing turned into sound with an 8-channel light scanner.

diagram 1-3 were recorded in 2015 at nalepastrasse, berlin
recording engineer: jean szymczak
mastered by werner dafeldecker

coverdesign: felix kubin

gagarin records   lp gr2036, d 2017



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