Lifelike . Hans Joachim Irmler
staubgold 44
2003. cd . dl . lp
"It's a highly individual, warm, glowing sound-world, and Irmler stitches it all together with a grace and organic continuity that makes you feel like you're being told a story. Or maybe even a fictional aural biography. Beautiful." (Peter Marsh, BBC Music Online).
“Whenever I talked to him over the last weeks, it seemed that wherever he was, he had a version of ‘Lifelike’ running in the background - in his house, at friends’ houses, in his car (very often), and I suspect that once he even persuaded the owner of a pub to put it on. Why he did this? Certainly not to show off, because he is by nature a shy person. My guess is that he wanted to change the record by listening to it. He has been working for a long time on his first ever solo-outing, which also is - if I’m not greatly mistaken - the first official solo album of any of the original Faust members ever to be released.
‘Lifelike’ was conceived by Irmler as 'a biography in sound'. He wanted to describe a person's life through sound, for example: at the beginning you can hear a bubbling primordial soup. Out of this, a simple, innocent theme takes a shy peek. A life is born; melody evolves out of sound. (…) Irmler cunningly disturbs simple patterns and shifts them so slightly that at first it only registers in your subconscious. Thus you are disturbed but you don't know why. This music isn't as hectic as many other productions are nowadays with their clicks and beats. This music gives the listener time and space to step inside. 'Lifelike' even resembles classical music with its recurring and interwoven themes.” (Ralf Bei der Kellen).
Hans Joachim Irmler
Born in 1950, Hans-Joachim Irmler began experimenting with sound-generating technology at a very early age. As a teenager, he built his first organ. In 1969, he moved to Hamburg, where he studied art and worked for television. There, he was drawn into a collective of musicians and filmmakers. Out of this loose group, a band crystallized which would become known as Faust – a band which subsequently became known to people with an interest in avantgarde music all around the world.
After he recorded and released his first solo-album Lifelike in 2003, Irmler has embarked on a long series of improvisations and collaborations with other musicians, among them musician, composer and multimedia artist Alfred 23 Harth (Harth/Irmler/Müller - Taste Tribes on For4ears records), the percussionist Z’ev (on the Fauz’t-CD), drummers Christian Wolfarth and Lucas Niggly (the latter of Steamboat Switzerland-fame), Hans Reichel (guitarrist extraordinaire & inventor of the Daxophone) and trumpeter Franz Hautzinger.
Since 2005, Irmler has been preparing and composing music for an extensive installation called Eroberung des Raums ("Conquest of Space") for the Rem Koolhaas-designed Casa da Música in Porto / Portugal, which premiered on April 7th, 2007.
2010 saw the release of an album which Irmler recorded with his soulmate, the ex-Einstuerzende Neubauten percussionist FM Einheit. He toured with Berlin-based post rock-trio To rococo Rot, on whose latest album he also plays.