Modelbau : Buchstaben

 

"They smilin' in your face.  All the time, they want to take your place. The Buchstaben (Buchstaben)" to misquote The O'Jays, but when I read that Modelbau were releasing an album called "Buchstaben" I couldn't get the song out of my head. Buchstaben is not Dutch for Backstabber, it is German for letters, as in letters of the alphabet ... not letters of correspondence. 

"Buchstaben" is a 6 cassette release with 5 x C30 tapes and a C40 tape. There are no titles to the pieces, they are all listed A to L. (Buchstaben). It's packaged in an oversized vacubox with art by Frans de Waard and a metal stencil. All pieces were recorded between 2019 and 2021. 

There is around three hours of sound in "Buchstaben". Buchstabe A : Mainly sounds of lo-fi industrial rubble and rumble. A swill around the wasteland. Buchstabe C : 15 minutes of sensible peace. There's birdsong and animal sounds, field recordings of a Dutch countryside (?). A shortwave radio provides voices and a church service. Moog patterns move around the clicks and glicks and tonal drop ins (and outs). This has become one of my favourite Modelbau pieces already. Buchstabe E : These fifteen minutes brings us back to lo-fi ('live-fi'). A recorded piece of spacious drones, sounds from the turbines. All with deft modulations and subtle increases of layered noise. A great sound. It brought back memories of Ferial Confine and the 'The Full Use Of Nothing' LP, memories of hearing Kapotte Muziek for the first time and a hint of early recordings by MNEM. Buchstabe G : A crystal clear sound after the mid 80's blast of Side E and a sound that is very .. er .. Modelbau. Pulsating waves and moving drones. The piece has a below the awareness vibration, a frequency playing a very calming tune. Subliminals? Again, it's very good. It plays at the same pace throughout, proper ambient drone music. Buchstabe I : This 15 minute piece is a game of two halves. It begins with looping in a Dillowayesque style. Contact mic's on various objects and body parts manipulated and looped, then it all slows down in pace with the ending of the looping and the introduction of (dark) synth waves. The sound of distant (distanced) ordnance and sirens. Gunfire to bonfire to home fire. The piece ends on one of the finest long fades I have heard in a long while. Buchstabe K : This is the sixth and final cassette in the collection and is a C40. Probably taking inspiration from NASA / ESA / Arecibo space recordings this piece is plays like a message from space. There are tones and waves and very delicate spaces explored playing like it could be a language. As the piece progresses the spaces close and we are left with clicks, warbles, pulsebeats and frequencies. There is an overall sense of melancholia. 

I have not written about the cassette sides B, D, F, H, J and L because these are all 'source' sounds, sounds to be used and manipulated by the listener at their will. 

It's a fascinating idea, perhaps I will resurrect my Dieter Müh project and construct a live set around these sounds ... I could call it Mühdlebau. Just a thought. 

The cassette is released by the German Maneki Neko Tapes label and is limited to 23 copies. Maneki Neko Tapes have also released "Buchstaben" as a 12xWAV file release. They can be contacted via SoundCloud here : https://soundcloud.com/maneki-neko-tapes I think they have a Facebook page too for all of you who are that way inclined.