conrad schnitzler-control lp

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"Control was created during a phase of Schnitzler's work in which his friendship with Peter Baumann (formerly of Tangerine Dream) allowed him to try out and use new electronic soun d generators and peripheral technologies. He never used these innovations merely for their own sake, but always put them at the service of his artistic flair for experimentation. His signature style is clearly recognizable on Control. The album seems to be a kind of compilation of different musical approaches. Tracks 5 and 9, for example, are classic Schnitzler: sparkling cascades of electronic sound particles, interspersed with longer and shorter glissandi, constant movement in all directions. But then there are tracks 1, 8, 11, and 12 -- and here I can only speculate -- where it seems as if Schnitzler wanted to combine a few elements of traditional harmony with his own sound aesthetic in these pieces. And why not? He was completely undaunted by new things. Most important was that the music remained within the framework of his strict overall concept. There is no spacing between the tracks on the original LP, released in 1981 by the DYS label in the US. The A and B sides are originally titled simply 'Control A' and 'Control B', and the thirteen pieces are strung together without interruption. Strange. About half of the tracks on Control are apparently faded in and/or out. This could indicate that Schnitzler either drew on 'overlong' archive material to extract passages suitable for the album, or that he shortened the newly recorded music. Speculation is pointless -- we can no longer ask Schnitzler. In any case, he opted for relatively short pieces averaging three minutes in length, some even shorter, others a little longer. All in all, this creates the impression of sketches. Sketches with sharply defined contours, however: as with almost all his albums, Schnitzler gives us listeners clear information about where he currently resides in his musical universe. For Schnitzler, too, the journey was its own reward, and there were many stops 'on the way to the complete Schnitzler'; he never lingered at any of them for long. His artistic restlessness and curiosity were his lifeblood. And to stay with the metaphor, Control is a strong dose of that elixir." --Asmus Tietchens, 2025 Show more