From Past To Present – Part 1

In 1995 it all started to change: Somehow i lost the ability to sleep at normal times and so friends gave me the nickname “Dr. Nachtstrom” (in german, *Nachtstrom* describes the electric circuit working in the night), and around the same time i bought an Amiga 500 plus lots of discs with samples & tracker software and started to fill the endless hours till dawn with musical experiments. The year before, my brother Gert (known as “Vger” then) had started to jam with his friends, and theses drug- induced sessions slowly evolved into the anarcho-glitch-punk project “Farmers manual“, which soon had the first of a series of groundbreaking releases on viennas then forefront experimental label “Mego“. Vger introduced me to the Mego label bosses Pita and Ramon Bauer and in 1997 ( after having released several tapes on my own label “Innerlodge Records“) they asked me to join for a release .

 

 

“17 songs after midnight” came out on vinyl in 1999 and was the first beat-oriented record on Mego, which had a strictly experimental, ambient output till then. The years after that first release were filled with many live- performances, i played at festivals like “Batofar” in Paris, “Exit” in Norway (as part of “Cube & Sphere” with Hans Platzgumer and G.D. Luxxe), the “Phonotaktik” in Vienna and at the “Austrian Cultural Forum” in New York, but also at clubs in Denmark, Germany and in my home country Austria. I always had a strong affinity to movies, and in 1998 i composed new tracks for Charlie Chaplins “Goldrush” and presented the music live with screenings of the film in movie theaters in my hometown Graz; i also organized two “A/V collision” events, which specialized in the “anarchic crash of the visual and acoustic” and hosted many very exiting live meetings of artists like Holger Hiller, Chicks on Speed, General Magic and more with local video artist groups. In the years since 1999 i contributed several tracks to compilations and also did some remix work (for Fetish 69s “Dysfunctions & drones” and more).

 

Listen to A Song About Food (from “Leidenschaft“, Mego, 2002)

From Past To Present – Part 2

2002 saw the second (still song- and beat-oriented) Mego- release called “Leidenschaft” (german for “passion“), this time on cd, with collaborations by “Fetish 69″- Singer Christian Fuchs and G.D Luxxe.

 

 

The remix cd (“n8.strom remixed“) followed soon on an (short-lived) Austrian label called “Park” with contributions from Hans Platzgumer, Didi Bruckmayr (Fuckhead), Boutique Meteor, Vger, Tomoroh Hidari, Binder & Krieglstein and more. In this year i also wrote the music for a experimental movie called “Im Anfang war der Blick“, directed by Luxembourg filmmaker Bady Minck.

 

 

In 2004 a sampler called “Rhythmic fission- digital revisions of classic trax” was released on the american label Bluebird (BMG); it was an unusual attempt to squeeze new life out of classical music; besides artists like Dan the Automator, Tracy Young, Sofa Surfers and others, i had five tracks on it with remixes of works by Edgard Varese, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Alban Berg and Max Brand.

 

 

Listen to In The End – Afterlife (from “Leidenschaft“, Mego 2002)

From Past To Present – Part 3

In 2005, after many financial wrong decisions and lots of quarrels, Mego finally went to the gallows. I found a temporarily home at the Graz- based Label Nocords, operated by electronic artist Marufura Fufunjiru. My first release there was the cd-r *Flush* at 12/05 and marked major musical changes, leading to experimentation with free forms and free jazz structures…

 

 

Listen to Schonen (from “Flush“, Chmafu Nocords 2005)

 

In November 2006 i did my second release for Nocords, a first-time collaboration with my brother Gert (aka vger) called “Organicum“. The sessions took place in his studio in Neukölln, Berlin, and lasted uncountable drug-induced hours and days, which we edited later and cutted into shorter pieces.

 

 

After Gert and i played together at the Interpenetration Festival 2007 in Graz, we decided to take fate in our own hands and founded the netlabel bruit, which (as initial release) hosted another collaboration of ours called “Organicum Session“.

 

 

Listen to Ice Age (from “Organicum“, Chmafu Nocords 2006)

From Past To Present – Part 4

Other releases and collaborations in the last years were “Cantatus Pro Mortuum” (with Hans Platzgumer) 2001 on Heimelektro Ulm and the (dance-oriented) “Nachtstrom EP” on the Austrian label Zeiger in 2004. In 2005 – together with pal Christian Fuchs – i founded the electro-dance-outfit Bunny Lake, which has released 3 cds and some 12inches until now; i am not longer a member, but you can find more & current infos about this project on myspace and on wikipedia.

Enjoy Strobe Love by Bunny Lake:

About this Blog

Hello, here is a little bit of information about my musical past. Since i stopped music-making some time ago, there will be no updates here.

If you want to see what i am working on now, please visit www.obskuristan.com.

best,

your doc