time for an unplugged version:
ZEITKRATZER feat. LOU REED
METAL MACHINE MUSIC
CD & DVD Asphodel ASP 3002
Release Date: September 4
http://www.asphodel.com/releases/view.php?Id=100
LOU REED and ZEITKRATZER redo Metal Machine Music and it's seriously
"clangorous."
Recorded Live At The Berlin Festspielhaus On March 17, 2002, the new
acoustic score created by the German avant garde chamber group
ZEITKRATZER, directed by Reinhold Friedl explores the work's sonic
possibilities without diluting its remarkable power.
The performance features LOU REED on electric guitar.
LOU REED's Metal Machine Music may be the most misunderstood work
ever created by a popular musician. The original two record set,
released in 1975, was mostly noise - feedback squalls, amplifier hums
and the tortured screech of electronic gadgets. The consensus at the
time was that it was not music, but a protest by REED to his then
record label, RCA. People may not know that avant-garde musicians
like JOHN CAGE, LAMONTE YOUNG, IANNIS XENAKIS and his VELVET
UNDERGROUND partner JOHN CALE had a considerable influence on the way
REED approached composition, even his more accessible rock and roll
songs. Metal Machine Music was in some way a logical extension of
atonal romps like "Heroin" and "Sister Ray."
Today Metal Machine Music has become accepted by the avant-garde and
highly regarded for its contribution to the "free music" movement in
popular culture. The 11-member ZEITKRATZER ENSEMBLE from Berlin gave
REED's album a thorough listen and transcribed the sounds to create
an acoustic music score for their ensemble to play live. Those
familiar with the oft-criticized two-disc album might wonder how they
pulled this off. ZEITKRATZER has the will and the musical ability to
give the music the attention it deserves, having already collaborated
with artists like KEITH ROWE, LEE RANALDO, CARSTEN NICOLAI and
ELLIOTT SHARP.
Says LOU REED: "Let me give you a little background. Metal Machine
Music was made over 30 years ago. In the year 2000, they re-released
it with a new mastering job by BOB LUDWIG and myself - the 25th
anniversary of Metal Machine Music. It was taken off the market three
weeks after it was released in '75. Still, time goes by and people
get more used to what you call loops and electronics and noise and
feedback. Okay? ZEITKRATZER gets in touch with me, 'Can we play Metal
Machine Music live?' I said, 'It can't be done.' They said, 'We
transcribed it. Let us send you a few minutes of it and you tell us.'
They sent it, I played it, and there it was. It was unbelievable. I
said, 'My God! Okay, go do it.' They said, 'Will you play guitar on
the last part of it?' So Metal Machine Music finally got performed
live at the Berlin Opera House. It's extraordinary, because all those
years ago it was considered a career ender. And it almost was,
believe you me."
"The idea [to play Metal Machine Music live] was born a few years ago
in a discussion with ULRICH KRIEGER, the saxophone player of
ZEITKRATZER," says REINHOLD FRIEDL, the group's director. "We thought
Metal Machine Music was a very important piece, comparable with the
contemporary music pieces of that time. It's constructed in a very
orchestral way, so we thought this music asks for a live
instrumentation. Ulrich and Luca Venitucci created a score and I
think it really worked. We had already worked with noise musicians
like MERZBOW or ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI and we've worked with electronics,
manipulating and reworking our instrumental techniques with
'electronic' sounds. Ulrich's and Luca's transcription of Metal
Machine Music is a 34 page score, which is a real masterwork of
instrumentation. It includes orchestration techniques that you hear
in DEBUSSY compositions, like mixtures of sounds." zeitkratzer was
clearly ready for the challenges of performing Metal Machine Music
live,
and drew packed houses to their presentation of the work. It
reinforced their assertion that "rock 'n' roll as serious
contemporary music has been ignored for too long, in too arrogant a
way."
REED's pronouncements on his most infamous opus have always been
confusing, perhaps deliberately so, forcing listeners to come to
their own interpretation about what they're hearing. Of the original
four-sided album he once quipped, "Anyone who gets to side four is
dumber than I am." On the other hand, he told rock critic LESTER
BANGS that he'd intentionally placed sonic allusions to classical
works like BEETHOVEN's Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies into the mix.
Whatever the truth is, there's no denying the musicality (yes, the
musicality) of ZEITKRATZER's interpretation. With the 11 musicians -
BURKHARD SCHLOTHAUER, violin; CHRISTIAN MESSER, viola; ULRICH MAISS,
violoncello; ALEXANDER FRANGENHEIM, contrabass; ULRICH KRIEGER,
soprano and tenor saxophones;, FRANZ HAUTZINGER, trumpet; MELVYN
POORE, tuba; REINHOLD FRIEDL, piano; LUCA VENITUCCI, accordion; ADAM
WEISMAN, percussion and LOU REED, solo guitar - spread out over a
large stage, the ear is free to wander into and around t
he music, picking out rhythms, overtones, hints of melody and other
nuances that were largely submerged in REED's original all guitar and
amp onslaught. The relentless sound forces the mind to put aside its
preconceptions about what music is supposed to sound like, or feel
like, or look like. The brain starts to implode, or explode, or
dissolve Zen-like into the controlled chaos of the performance,
discovering a strange exhilaration, accepting an invitation to
explore the outer reaches of texture and timbre and experience a
sonic freedom that's rare in any art form.
"Played by a live group, Metal Machine Music sounds even wilder and
more frenetic, and Zeitkratzer's act of fandom - countless work-hours
involved in transcribing and orchestrating - moves Metal Machine
Music into a context where, perhaps, it always belonged: as an
avant-garde piece of bristling minimalism rather than a rock
musician's bizarre experiment." NEW YORK TIMES, 2007/05/27
