CD + audio cassette in a boxset – Gagarin

Chromdioxidgedächtnis is the new release by Felix Kubin for Gagarin Records, featuring a boxset that includes both a CD and an audiocassette tape for a decidedly vintage flavor. In the early minutes of recording we take a look at the booklet accompanying the release, which is full of fascinating retro images.Without a doubt the experience of home-taping has marked a generation. Indeed, it was the first medium that allowed a general public to record its own (or other people’s) sounds. Arguably the magnetic tape is a forerunner of all interventions around the consumption, production and distribution of music technology that follow. Chromdioxidgedächtnis – literally ‘chromium dioxide memory’ – is the product of fragments of magnetic recordings, investigating the characteristics and effects specific to the tape medium. Fragments of sound are taken and developed with the intention of reinterpreting rather than simply representing the found magnetic recordings. The effects produced by the degenerative processes are effectively combined with new post-digital compositional techniques, at times pushing the envelope of the lo-fi aesthetic towards glitch.The work also features improvisation in cooperation with the Ninon Gloger pianist and drummer Steve Heather. Finally it is not surprising that the project is also enjoyable as a performance, as a video on Vimeo clearly illustrates, enriched by carefully framed monochrome shots.

 

Chromdioxidgedächtnis – NDR das neue werk