Acker Velvet

Carbon & Chairs

Label: Monotype Country: Poland

"Carbon & Chairs is the second release of Vienna-based musicians and sound artists Andreas Trobollowitsch and Johannes Tröndle, and their first one on MonotypeRec.

Trobollowitsch and Tröndle started collaborating back in 2006 with a series of sound compositions and experimental radio plays, mainly using and manipulating field recordings.

At the same time, the idea of giving their activities a more "direct" shift additionally resulted in forming a live-project: nörz. This electro-acoustic duo, founded in 2007 and still run by the two, focuses on spontaneous interaction, while at the same time trying to shape and structure in a conscious way - more real-time-composition than "pure improvisation". With restricted set-up and minimalistic approach (set-up usually consists of cello and live-electronics, and, respectively, no-input-mixer, tapes and prepared objects), nörz performed about 40 concerts in several European countries up to now, and released in 2009 a critically acclaimed Debut on Berlin label schraum, entitled (also known as) acker velvet.

For carbon & chairs, compositional work and recordings started in 2010. The present album ties in with the last one, nevertheless it follows a slightly different, more "open" direction, extending the duo-project in respect of instrumentation, structural complexity and, maybe also, accesibility. So, up from a certain point in production process, it made sense to separate the album from nörz, and to turn it into something new. The album originated from the duo-project, but went beyond - therefore another artist name, acker velvet, which, still, relates the two albums, turning the first albums´ title into an anticipation of the next.

The 12 tracks on carbon & chairs are based on a series of improvisations, separately performed and recorded, which then were used as material to be restructured and re-arranged on the computer. The results are dense and diversified pieces, colourful and full of tension, settled somewhere between noise and harmony, collage and composition, experiment and pop. One track also features Viennese singer Werner Kitzmüller. In the course of live-performances, selected pieces will be interpreted together with guest musicians.

Bio

Andreas Trobollowitsch is a Vienna based electroacoustic musician, composer and sound artist. He studied musicology and temporarily jazz in Vienna and Paris (thesis about the spatial approach in the compositions of Stockhausen and Cage) In his works he uses mainly tapes, no-input-mixer, objects, prepared musical instruments and field recordings. Recently he is focusing on soundinstallations and conceptual compositions. Since 2007 he is working together with Johannes Tröndle as nörz. In 2009 they released their first album on the berlin based label schraum. He toured and performed in Germany, Austria, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Chile, Argentina and China.

Johannes Tröndle, born in 1981 in Salzburg, lives as a musician, composer, sound artist and writer in Vienna. He studied musicology (thesis about the vegetable orchestra), and, before, quit studying classical cello after one year to focus on a rather experimental approach, treating the whole body of the instrument as a generator for sounds and, especially, noises. As part of the duo nörz, he works with amplification and real-timesampling. Together with Berlin-based electric bassist Axel Haller he forms the electro-acoustic duo inien, who recently released their debut-CD on the label schraum. Besides, he works with language, writing narrative prose on the one hand, exploring combinations of text and sound, words and noises on the other hand, publishes in various literature magazines, making radio plays, doing public readings in a performancelike manner. A text/sound-CD will be released in spring 2012 on Viennese edition audiobeans."-Monotype Records

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