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2 x 5 . Sack & Blumm

 

staubgold 14
2001. dl . lp

 After their highly acclaimed cd releases on Tom and Gefriem labels Sack (Cologne) and Blumm (Berlin) are back on vinyl with "2x5“, and present themselves as solo musicians, each having recorded one side of this 10" mini album.

Blumm's side is an adventurous collage of loops, rhythms and melodies, arranged in the style of a radio play and echoing the sound world of Sack & Blumm's previous duo work. Sack's five tracks are classic examples of his unique toy techno goes dada pop style.

"Welcome to the wonderful world of Sack und Blumm. Better known to their old folks as Harald Sack Ziegler & Frank Schültge. Often referred to as a threesome working enterprise: Harald in Cologne, Frank in Berlin with the German postal service shipping their ideas back and forth, S&B take usual song structures and translate them into unlikely arrangements. Music at once sophisticated with naïve folk themes set against digital fragments and acoustic instrumentation. Top ten music for the next generation. Open minded music for the future. Love it as your own.” (Boomkat)

Sack & Blumm

Harald "Sack" Ziegler and Frank Schültge "Blumm" are Sack & Blumm. First introduced with a 7" release on Dhyana Rec. ("Die fünfte Dengelophonie") in 1998 Sack & Blumm spread rumours and appeared in a variety of radio and dj charts that year. With their 7" for Staubgold - "Sylvester Orchester 2000"/"Maus-Garage" (staubgold 6) - released in summer 1999, and their debut cd on Tomlab in autumn that year, Sack & Blumm continued a homerecording series that travels between their postboxes in Cologne and Berlin. The duo released it's highly acclaimed second full-length album "Shy Noon" on Gefriem in 2000.

Sack & Blumm, classically trained on their instruments French Horn and guitar, are not a band or a studio project but may be described rather as a homerecording project that was conceived independently in their bedroom studios in Berlin and Cologne. The digital multi-trackers and the German postal service ferrying their ideas back and forth have definitely been playing a major role in the production of their album "Kind Kind" (Staubgold, 2003). Tracks were produced in several steps, e.g. Frank would record an African finger piano for a track and send a DAT to Harald in Cologne who would then layer the recording with his French horn and send the tape back to Berlin.

Instead of sequencing work on computers, the music lives from the experience of two musicians. Folk themes are set against digital fragmentations, and techno tropes are taken up on acoustic instruments. Most of the instruments are played live onto the multi-track and the arrangements of the electronic sounds are produced with Harald's toy instruments. Structures arise from their curiosity in the origin and the physicality of sounds (wood, stone, sheet metal, paper, air... ) and from experimenting and playing with the materials (plucking, beating, rubbing, blowing...).

Harald "Sack" Ziegler was born in 1961 in Berlin and is living in Cologne since 1986. More or less at the same time he started to compose and perform his own music and got involved in the 1980s tape scene. Harald is involved in numerous projects from radio plays to classical music and well-known in Germany for remarkable live performances featuring his collection of toy instruments and lovely underground pop songs. He was a guest musician for Mouse On Mars (contribution to the cd "Iaora Tahiti", brass arrangements for the "Niun Niggung" cd), Faust (live) and Kreidler (live).

Frank Schültge "Blumm" was born in 1968 in Bremen and lives in Berlin now where he is working as a musician and a producer for radio plays. Frank has continously released solo instrumental albums on Morrmusic, Audio Dregs and Staubgold and has collaborated with Bobby Baby in Bobby & Blumm (Morrmusic) and Kat Cosm's Jana in Old Splendifolia (Plop).