CD + 16p. Booklet – EKarlrecords

Wolfgang Seidel, born in 1949 in the gray and gloomy postwar Berlin, was the drummer in seminal German anarchist rock band Ton Steine ​​Scherben. He was also one of the driving forces behind the Zodiak Free Arts Lab, a key location in the history of kosmische musik. Drawing on this genre’s influences, he began experimenting with contact microphones and tape delays, and later with a Buchla synthesizer. His long friendship with Conrad Schnitzler, formerly of Tangerine Dream, marked those years and the sunsequent decades – Seidel joined the group Eruption, founded by Schnitzler and worked with him until his death in 2011, before carrying on the legacy of those experiments and the precious tape machines his friend had entrusted to him. Wolfgang Seidel has since continued to experiment with the Buchla, enriching his archive with a considerable number of tracks, derived from an improvisation built upon cut-up techniques. The result of these explorations is Friendly Electrons, a collection of 18 tracks that testifies to Seidel’s free and playful approach to electronic music. Many tracks are based on old ideas and drafts that the author completed during the pandemic, a period when concerts were suspended, and sound-making could proceed without external pressures. The tracks show direct influences from experiences with Schnitzler, especially in the use of sound collage, but also reveal Seidel’s personal sensibility in improvisation, texture building and use of acoustic space. With the exception of two compositions, all tracks come from an experimental process: starting from scratch, exploring the material, reassembling and refining it as needed. The sounds although anchored to an electronic language often perceived as cold or dystopian, retain a bright and positive energy: ‘friendly’ electrons, as the title suggests, where the alternation between drones, hypnotic patterns and rhythmic fragments is never predictable – a musical articulation that invites the listener to move between minute details and broader soundscapes. Friendly Electrons is not only a document of Seidel’s long career, but also a small compendium of sound explorations that combine creative freedom, improvisation and a refined sensitivity for timbre and the spatiality of sound. The album, while rooted in the German experimental tradition, does not limit itself to an exercise in retrospection: it also manages to speak to the present, showing how compositional freedom and the creative use of technology can generate a stimulating and engaging listen.

 

Wolfgang Seidel – Friendly Electrons