Siegmar Fricke
Although I do not believe I was in direct touch with German musician, Siegmar Fricke in the 1980s, I had heard his music on some compilations at the time. And from what I now know, he had been working in the electronic music field for a long time and had appeared on many releases.
I recently discovered his new project, Pharmakustik which is really fine electronic music with drones, stuttering glitches and an interesting use of texture and arrangement. You can see more information and hear his music here
His latest Pharmakustik vinyl-album NEUROCHEMIE wil be released in June on the French label Rotorelief.
Above, a cassette Siegmar released on the Spanish Toracic label and below, a tape he self released (I believe).
My earliest musical experiments have already been recorded in 1981 on a small cassette-recorder combining shortwave-radio-signals with acoustic noises. At that time I have not published any music but these historical recordings remained part of my personal archive.
After having met the electronic artist Conrad Schnitzler in Berlin (founder of KLUSTER) in 1986 my decision was to take part in the complex international tape-scene; he gave me a sheet with around 100 addresses of musicians all around the world who I contacted… and that was the real start.
Between 1986 and 1993 I exchanged and distributed many cassettes and in that whole period I received about 500 tapes or more…I still have them all. The covers were photo-copied or handmade.
A particular event was in the Netherlands: in 1990 a big tape-festival was organised and around 150-200 people travelled to HULST where it took place…it was a sensational experience to get directly in contact with so many people we already knew from the tapes. There were several live-events there and I took part with a short gig of 10 minutes.
In 1993 the tape-scene ended more or less because there was a new medium: the compact-disc. I remember in 1993 when I contacted a firm to burn one copy of my own music on CD I paid 30 (!) euro:).
Now, 15 years later, the tapes have become a new retro-cult-object…I still love this medium and also the old reel-to-reel-magnetophones that I still use on my newest recordings. Their analogue warmth cannot be reproduced by computers.