2CD – Cellule 75

In the next future the curators of a hypothetical exhibition focusing on the most significant art works generated during the lockdown due to the Covid-19 could not avoid selecting this MM​∞​XX Vol​.​1 & 2, published by Cellule 75 and strongly wanted by Marc Richter, the label founder, and also credited sound artist, well known in the experimental scenes also for his solo project Black to Comm. The collection is a brilliant example of how to make a virtue of necessity: Richter, although closed in his own studio in Hamburg, was stocking up any sort of audio material, that he requested to his ex-collaborators and old friends, even digging into forgotten relics or sources previously not considered suitable for publication. 33 people answered to this call to action and the virtual orchestra, as it often happens in those cases, started up almost automatically, meaning that the sounds are amalgamated somehow on their own, sometimes in a sort of natural commonality, in other passages in a more unpredictable way, while Richter meticulously collecting layers on layers of recordings. As a result, the whole set, assembled, transformed, and mixed by Richter, was tested and retested in different combinations and formats, until the definitive configuration, presented at the lockdown editions of Rewire and at the Papiripar Festival in 2021. Now the whole contributions are all finally collected in this double CD set generously produced with the mastering by Rashad Becker and some very beautiful paintings by Bora Başkan on the paperboard cover. They are mostly loops, ambient or vocal, field recordings, guitar and organ sounds, noises obtained in various ways, those that pop up between the grooves of the two CDs presented, including contributions by Lucio Capece, Maja Ratkje, Jan van Hasselt, Felix Kubin, Jonna Karanka, Janek Schaefer and Antonia Leukers, just to mention a few of the musicians engaged in the project, who were free to send any kind of sound material. Among the files Richter took under consideration there really was a bit of everything, and also some very “home-made” recordings, as the ones related to cats, children, toilets, people singing, whistling or whispering their ideas for a track. Somebody used some synthesizers, a Buchla Music Easel, a Korg MS-20, or “exotic” instruments, as the buzuk, or simple guitars, clarinets, or pianos. Richter does not miss a beat and it could not be otherwise, because everything resounds in an ordered and coherent way, even when the crosses and the overlaps are the most unusual and eccentric.

 

Marc Richter – MM​∞​XX Vol​.​1 & 2