Photo JOHANNES HASLINGER
Longtime fans of The Notwist have several LPs to look forward to this fall. On deck first through Sub Pop/Alien Transistor on October 14th: the previously announced Superheroes, Ghostvillains + Stuff, a live 3xLP album that chronicles the group’s Leipzig residency from late 2015 and muscular renditions of gorgeous songs like “Pick Up the Phone,” “Pilot” and “Neon Golden.”
Hitting shops a month later through Morr Music is A Beat of Silence, the latest solo excursion from singer/guitarist Markus Acher and his Rayon project. According to a press release, the “sparse, intoxicating LP of instrumentals” references everything from Javanese gamelan music to orchestral drone tones.
Here’s what Acher had to say about the effort and today’s #selftitledpremiere, followed by selections from both records:
But finally, it again became a very personal piece of music….
This special track, “A Beat of Silence,” refers to the idea that every note played is equally important. Also the not played notes—the silence. They all work together and build the whole.
The title became a theme of the album, standing for the unpredictability of life. Like The Clean once sang, “Everything could happen, and it could be right now.” There is a lot of structures that get overlaid by others, fall into pieces, or make space for something else that you haven’t realized before. Sounds get distorted and processed like the fading of memories.
Played by the following musicians, who made big contributions to the whole album:
Sachiko Hara – piano, harmonium
Cico Beck – marimbaphone, percussion, electronics
Karl Ivar Refseth – vibraphone, percussion
Anton Kaun – electronics, objects
+ recorded, mixed and processed by Tadklimp
A Beat of Silence
(Morr Music, November 11th)
1. Kona
2. A Beat of Silence
3. Cuts
4. Dots
5. -Kona
6. Zombi
7. But For One Minute
8. On The Quiet
9. –Kona
Superheroes, Ghostvillains + Stuff
(Sub Pop, October 14)
1. They Follow Me
2. Close to the Glass
3. Kong
4. Into Another Tune
5. Pick Up the Phone
6. One with the Freaks
7. This Room
8. One Dark Love Poem
9. Trashing Days
10. Gloomy Planets
11. Run Run Run
12. Gravity
13. Neon Golden
14. Pilot
15. Consequence
16. Gone Gone Gone
11/5 Weissenhaeuser Strand, DE – Rolling Stone Weekender
11/6 Berlin, DE – Lido
12/12 Düsseldorf, DE – Zakk
12/13 Luxembourg, LX – Atelier
2/2 Zurich, DE – Rote Fabrik
2/13 Leipzig, DE – Conne Island
2/14 Hamburg, DE – Rosse Freiheit
2/15 Amsterdam, NL – Paradiso
2/16 Gent, DE – Vooruit
2/18 Reutlingen, DE – Franz K
2/19 Frankfurt, DE – Batschkapp
