Tupelo | Mirko Uhlig
GrDl 084 | Gruen Digital > [order]
MP3 & FLAC
Seven years after the first public musical outing. What a crucial phase. The first album planted flowers in an abattoir, this new one throws leaves on a grave. I guess for the running people a persevering man seems to be leaving.
The teeth are loose, we need a brace!
Two boys buried, I’ll travel with you to Tupelo. Towards Bright Music for Lulubelle.
„Don’t listen to Rock’N’Roll, it’s contaminated by death’s bite!“
1) Soot
2) Loosing Teeth
3) Lurking Teeth
4) Soot Toe
5) Losing Teeth
6) Soot Tea
Soundscapes
6 Tracks (39′57″)
Tupelo’s vultures were recorded bit by bit 2009-2010 at an equatorial compost heap.
The microcosm of birth and decay.
Digital for digital!
The musical windfall was composted, performed and edited in 2010.
Soundscape Series by Gruenrekorder
Gruenrekorder / Germany / 2011 / GrDl 084 / LC 09488
Todd Robinson | Musique Machine
You know that feeling you get, when you are roused from a deep slumber quite suddenly and the realm of dreams bleeds through to your waking existence, resulting in a constant battle of wills to keep yourself from slipping back into that comfortable cocoon of blissful catharsis? That feeling could be used to sum up the effects of this digital release from German soundscape and drone artist Mirko Uhlig perfectly.
Patching together digital synthesis with organic sound-bytes Mirko Uhlig enthrals us with his almost masterful ability to steal you away from the mundane and tangible, taking you by the hand and leading you on a deep and meandering journey through another reality entirely. Co-founder of Ex Ovo Records, Mirko Uhlig performed earlier works under the guise of „Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf“ (Catching Eels with a Horse’s Head) focusing more on rawer sounds and a straight up sound collage approach, before refining and toning down his sound to create the works we bear witness to here.
If you are looking for something which shatters the boundaries of modern composition, this is not the place you will find it, but what the album does capture is the absolute essence of pure, undiluted minimalism and breath-taking atmospheres combined with a rich tapestry of intriguing sounds and otherworldly notions. Soothing tones signal the start of the album, before breaking into the first of two epic tracks which both push over the ten minute barrier, blending field recordings with ethereal drones and digitised fleets of fancy. Sitting somewhere between the more transcendent moments of Cindytalk, Asva and Fennesz, „Loosing Teeth“ certainly is on par with such works by these exemplary artists of the experimental scene and sets up the album perfectly. „Lurking Teeth“ is by far one of the most alluring pieces on the release, a constant battle between crackling bursts of electricity and uplifting, pastoral ambience form the basis of the track, whilst small snippets of reality are shown to the listener to develop that sense of earthly connection amongst the dreamlike melee. Towards the end of the release we have two tracks which work together as a whole, namely „Losing Teeth“ and „Soot Tea“, winding down the release with more relaxed waves of synth like pulses and stripped back ambience, slowly becoming less disorientating that the pieces that preceded and leaves you feeling at peace, like you have undergone some kind of spiritual cleansing process through digital means.
Overall there are some very interesting techniques and ideas at play here and the production is clean and to the point, making for a very pleasurable listening experience, you can grab yourself a copy of this digital only release now from the good folk at gruenrekorder.de
Guillermo Escudero | LOOP
German composer and musician Mirko Uhlig has been active since 2004 under the alias of Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf that cultivates musique concrète-techniques.
Since 2006 he works under his own name in the field of ambient, drone and field recordings and “Tupelo” in this direction. An amazing almost 40 minutes long disc that belongs to the digital series of German Gruenrekorder label.
The composition weaves birds, flies, found objects, oscillators like, layers of sounds processed that create both abstract soundscapes and drifting melodies sparse in a moody ambient.
Axel Ganz | Jahrgangeräusche – Popkultur und unbedingte Zonen
Das Bröckelige trifft das Glatte. Das Raue begegnet dem Schmeichelnden. Das Verzögernde zieht am Dynamischen. Konträre akustische Stofflichkeiten werden in Enge übereinander gefächert. Es entsteht dichte Konfrontationen. Aber keine Seite gewinnt. Gegensätzlicher kann das genreübergreifende Arbeiten kaum sein.
Ein äquatorialer Komposthaufen als Ort für Fieldrecordings ist durchaus ungewöhnlich. Und wieso liegt die Betonung auf der geografischen Verortung? Sind in den Tropen die stofflichen Zersetzungsprozesse intensiver und deshalb akustisch reizvoller? Ist dort etwa die Insektendichte höher? Oder die Artenvielfalt, und damit auch die klanglichen Varianten? Das Entstehen und Vergehen des Lebens als Universalmetapher auf jeden Fall wird weiterhin ein unabgeschlossenes Kapitel bleiben, auch bei Mirko Uhlig.
Somit überrascht diese Metapher im Einsatz einer kompositorischen Arbeit eher nicht. Jedoch wirkt die aktuelle Arbeit des aus Aachen stammenden Klangkünstlers um so komprimierter, je weiter man in die Melange aus Fieldrecordings und ausladenden aber sehr feinen Ambiencen eintaucht. Dramatisierende Bereiche werden ausgelotet, wenn brummende und summende Insekten schwarmartig über feinen Drones ihre unkonzentrischen Kreise ziehen. Das Konzept des Dialogs von geformten und ungeformten akustischen Elementen geht in einer ebenso überzeugenden wie subtilen Komposition auf. Beide Elemente werden gleichwertig und mit Gespür für die feine Abstimmung behandelt. Wegweisend.
„Tupelo“ ist am 15.05.2011 bei Gruenrekorder erschienen.