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SUS

by Metabolismus

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about

SUS is the new LP from Stuttgart, Germany’s Metabolismus and is the third release for Amish from Metabolismus and the twenty-third release from the collective’s twenty-five year existence. This recording features the group’s core of Thilo Kuhn, Werner Notzel and Samara Lubelski.

SUS (AMI-046) is the first in Metabolismus’ long-awaited palindrome recordings, when the collective gathers on a day in the calendar year when the date offers a mirror kind of reflection. These calendar dates function as a kind of index that the musicians use as a conceptual window on both their process and instrumentation.

Metabolismus recorded the basic acoustic material on 21022012 (February 21st 2012). The single side-long track consists of one note on the vibraphone struck by a soft mallet. The same note is then bowed continuously on violin and the sound is processed with an envelope shaper, a narrow-band filter (tube-based) to accentuate some overtones, and the basic tape manipulation techniques of cutting/looping, speed/pitch alterations and change of playback direction. All rhythmic and harmonic processes result from the shifting of vibrato frequencies in the stereo panorama field. No digital technology was used.

The basic conceptual idea behind SUS was one of mirror-symmetry: a sounding (pseudo-) palindrome, a type of anagram that doesn’t sound the same read/listened to forwards as backwards but equally musically valid. This was done by selecting symmetrical musical material, meaning such material that sounds very similar played backwards as well as forwards to avoid clichéd “backwards effects” as they are well known from percussive sounds and voices for example: bowed violin and vibrophonesustain/-vibrato. The recording was done on a Telefunken M15A 16-track magnetic tape recorder on which the tape direction was reversed for the recording of each track by turning the tape over. This means that one half of the acoustic material is always heard backwards, no matter which playback direction is chosen. Therefore there is no back or front side in the usual sense. One side is the other played backwards. To emphasize thins that side of the record plays from the inside out. The needle must be placed at the inner end/beginning of the groove where commonly the center paper label would be found.

The tape speed of the recorder was changed several times during the recording to put tendentially rather static sound material in various dynamic relations and thereby “Animate it”. The audible changes in the music take place through changes in the way the single tracks relate to each other rather than within the tracks themselves. These changes are again not identical but equally valid, independent from the playback speed/pitch. This can be influenced by changing the playback speed of the record player, making it possible - again with non-identical but equally valid results – to play the record at any available speed from <16 to >78 RPM. It is also possible to create intervals or multi-phonics by playing several copies of the record simultaneously, each at a different playback speed. The playback duration at 45 RPM is 12:21. Any further usage of this record for the creation of music is encouraged

The same concept was applied to the sleeve design. The printed text is equally readable from both sides, not identical but with the same value of content. For this reason clear vinyl was chosen and small paper labels were used, to achieve maximum transparency. The clear insert sheet can be inserted in different ways for additional forwards/backwards combinations.

- Metabolismus May 2014

credits

released August 5, 2014

Metabolismus are on this recording:
Thilo Kuhn
Werner Nötzel
Samara Lubelski

used:
vibraphone
violin, amplified violin
EMS trapezoid generator
turntable indicating amplifier - TypeUBM - BN 1212/2
Telefunken M15A tape recorders
ANT and Studer mixers

recorded at Sumsolibatem sound studio : 21011012 / 02/21/2012
mix and mastering : Sumsolibatem
cut : Adam Gonsalves, Telegraph Mastering
SUS Logo : Virginia Genta
playable at any speed
one side of this records plays from the inside out (backwards)

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Metabolismus Stuttgart, Germany

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