Thomas Schulz – In the Voices of the Material

From escaping the confines of his Berlin home at 16 to signing on at sea and traveling the world only to be thrown overboard in a disagreement with older sailors, Thomas Schulz has always had his very own point of view.

By 1977 he is working as a stonemason, when he is invited by Shinkichi Tajiri to study fine arts at Berlin’s Hochschule der Künste. He thus begins his journey into sculpture where, while working on a series of figurines, he realizes that the conventional sculpting with stone and bronze is not suitable to match his vision of art. He destroys his unfinished figures and begins to look deeper, fascinated by the appearance and disappearance of all material. And his investigations and reflections now often start with a sound that crawls into his ears first and points to a subject.

He starts, as he explains, playing with everything that gets the attention of his hands, his ears and his eyes. Over time he creates a large body of work that is less defined by single pieces of art in any of his numerous exhibitions from New York’s PS1 to Hamburger Bahnhof in Berlin, to Kyoto’s Art Space Niji. 

 

Thomas Schulz and sculpture
Thomas Schulz at Neu West Berlin Gallery 2016

It is an always growing large organism that manifests itself only when he places it at a specific space to be exhibited, performed, photographed, filmed, written down, or put into a radio broadcast vessel. An organism that materializes at the very spot it will be seen or heard.

The year 1981 marks the first creative explosion of his research. In ‘Faced Mirror’, filmed at DAAD Gallery Berlin, he outlines a human body with screws in a bare wall. The screws are connected with 180 steel wires to 360 points to the walls of the room. In the final act he tightens the tension of the wires until the figure is ripped off the wall with a deafening noise, transcending the boundaries of the body, the room and the connection in between.

In ‘Vom Eiskeller zur Osterweiterung’ (roughly literal: from ice store to the enlargement of the east) he not only shakes the limits of the material at hand but also the very real borders that surround the enclave of West-Berlin. He spans a net of wires and glass along the Berlin wall and starts to play the installation as an instrument, with a cello bow and various construction tools. In the face of the no man’s land separating the two Germanies he suddenly turns into an intrepid reporter interviewing voiceless East-German soldiers who are busy burning the grass between the spiked field on one side and the bricks of the Berlin wall at the other.

Sculptures of steel wire and geometric glass panels are a subject Schulz is faithful to through all of his artistic life. They span rooms of lost warehouses and exhibition spaces, at times expanding into the surrounding landscapes. They are abstract room-filling sculptures, moving paintings, architectural and topological comments to the man-made cultivation of the space on earth, and not the least, oversized musical string instruments and reverberation chambers, all at the same time.

Installations are but one of his methods to explore spaces and buildings. When he has to leave the temporary home Schulz used to inhabit with fellow artist Ronald Steckel, amongst others, a feature long audio piece remains as a memorial of the location, using found sounds of the building, everyday noise of the inhabitants, sounds collected from in-house performances and spoken word experiments. A later version of ‘Das Haus Spricht‘ (the house talks/the speech of the building) will then finally be projected to Berlin‘s Mies van der Rohe Haus (2020). Speakers turned against the outside of a large glass front now make Mies‘ building literally tell the audience from Schulz former and lost residency at Wannsee. 

In ‘Vektor 1’ he tightens wires through ice blocks on the frozen surface of Lake Wannsee to observe the crashing noise of the slowly moving ices. In ‘Kleine Eiszeit’, Ice Blocks hanging in a mesh of steel wires in the garden of Hochschule der Künste, “make the wires sing, (…) and the melting of the ice audible”, as art historian Shin Nakagawa describes in an essay (Heibon-sha, Tokyo 1997). Further research later finds Schulz at very different places like the Bundesamt für Materialprüfung (Federal Office for Materials Testing), recording very low level sounds – termites – as well as the extremely heavy sounds of huge bursting metal plates. 

At Neu West Berlin Gallery 2016

While Schulz has predominantly been perceived as a visual artist, he has continuously been as much a sound researcher and sound designer and a musical improvisor as well. He performs with Marino Zappelini (Sax) and opera singer Jane Smith at J.J.Donguy (Paris 1982)  and meets Shelley Hirsch, with whom he shares a longtime friendship, at Büro Berlin. In a late performance 2016 at Galerie Neu West Berlin, a former supermarket turned to a temporary gallery space, he plays a sculpture that extends from entrance door to the very back of the former market space. The program of the evening also lists Peter Brötzmann, Olaf Rupp, Kalle Kalima and Michael Wertmüller.

Late 70s Schulz had started to search scrap metal heaps for recyclables he could use in his work. He welds scrap into pieces of seemingly unstable, but actually usable furniture, kinetic sculptures and musical instruments as well, that then become objects he treats in his performances. Sculptures that are reminiscent of Calder as much as of Tinguely, as he likemindedly and playfully sculpts material, form and sound. 

Early 1980s he performs at the same places and times with other artists who channel the desperate situation of Berlin’s west into art. Die Einstürzenden Neubauten also play on used metal, yet mostly out of the necessity to find affordable instruments (later writing more conventional songs, when they have the means to do so). Die Tödliche Doris, as Wolfang Müller explains, “suddenly got unexpected interest by the pop world”, and thus begin experimenting with pop culture. Schulz, however, is always an explorer in the material itself and in the pure nature of sound.

Thomas Schulz mentions listening to John Cage and attending an early concert of the Seesselberg brothers in his youth, as  being an awakening for his interest in sound and composition, but when asked, claims, that he has had no interest in using electronic instruments “as long as we haven‘t explored the endless possibilities the acoustic sounds of the materials offer when you put your efforts into listening and into treating them.“ And matter, to Thomas Schulz, always has its own voice, as one of his titles points out: ‘Die Rede in den Stimmen des Materials‘ (the speech in the voices of the material).

 

Thomas Schulz and Sculpture, Neu West Berlin Gallery 2016
Thomas Schulz and Sculpture, Neu West Berlin Gallery 2016

Schulz’ biggest and rather monumental endeavour is what he calls ‘The European Sculpture‘. A reflection on the growing European state-like building, which he studies in a two year accreditation with European Parliament vice president Hans Peters in Brussels and Strasbourg, and in repeated visits on the construction site of the Eurotunnel from 1989 to 1996. 

At the European Parliament he photographically documents the construction of the new buildings necessary for the growing union and records simultaneous translators. Material he later uses in various  arrangements and cut-ups in audio pieces and in installations he calls Mikrophonien (mircrophonies): grouped microphones that, instead of listening as they are intended to, are talking to the visitors. 

At the Eurotunnel he gets access to all areas of the construction site, guided on the French side by representative William Coleman. Schulz then records large parts of his visits on a field recorder and documents the construction process with his two-eyed 6×6 camera as well. ‘The European Sculpture  …not here but under the sea‘ (Bayrischer Rundfunk, BR, 1992), tells the story of a trip on the site where England and France would eventually be connected, underneath the sea, a story of the workers who make this happen and of the construction machinery that talks and sings to us but will be buried there forever.

Thomas Schulz incredible large library of unusual sounds, from field recordings to recordings of performances, to the echo of his own heart, as heard through an ultrasonic medical device, to language experiments, are the basis for a series of compositions, most of them commissioned by German public radio stations. As a composer and performer he’s also been invited three times to Musiktage Donau-Eschingen, Germany’s most important festival for contemporary classical music. ‘Die Vier Seiten in 23 Sätzen‘, produced by the Studio Akustische Kunst of WDR (Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Köln, 1990), in cooperation with SFB (Sender Freies Berlin), is the exemplary masterpiece showing Schulz’ perception of the audible world “in the voices of the material”: acoustic landscapes, his involvement with materials and people, to eventually taking an unexpected turn into a fragment of a light pop song with a strong beat, composed of samples from his collection.

In memory of Thomas Schulz (1950-2021)

Manuel Liebeskind, Berlin 2023, with thanks to Eugene S. Robinson, Veronika Kellndorfer and Helga Lutz.

These are the original liner notes for the Thomas Schulz Album not here but under the sea, released by Skin and Speech Records, November 2023

Thomas Schulz Website

Thomas Schulz record cover "not here but under the sea"

Thomas Schulz – not here but under the sea
Skin and Speech Records 2023

16-17

16-17 - Utrecht

Basel, Switzerland, early 1980ies. The local punk scene was not a scene really. Too small. But for the remainders of those who kept their interest in the attitude, 16-17 were the fathers of the true spirit. The do-it yourself idea, the no-musical-boundaries-for-nobody attitude, the forward thinking, experimenting musicians, leaving everything else behind. 16-17, in their original line-up, Knut Remond on drums, Alex Buess on saxophone and bass clarinet, and Markus Kneubühler on guitar, have been pioneers in what was later called jazzcore, noisecore or avantgarde jazz-punk, all helpless attempts to put a genre label on something that has successfully escaped all genre descriptions. At the time a fully improvising trio, they introduced electronic elements early on, electronic percussion, tape loops or guitar sounds shaped by modular synths.

16-17 performances were rare. If you happened to attend one of their shows, it was an experience that called on your full body and mind. Their shows were loud, very loud, an intense live experience that resonates to date. Their exhaustive playing seemed to include the whole venue. The room became one large instrument. Walls seemed to be additional players, giving you a true immersive, 3-dimensional experience, long before that would become a thing. Something  I would otherwise perhaps only witness later, at performances of Borbeto Magus at the Museum of Fine Art Berne or at an appearance of Suicide at the Camden Palace, London 1986.

But 16-17 have not only been an inspiration to the local scene, they have been a predecessor and inspiration to many of the most known actors of forward looking, experimental and powerful music of the last 30 years. The likes of John Zorn or Painkiller, most notably the Flying Luttenbachers, whose main anchorman Weasel Walter later appeared as a (re-)mastering engineer for the early 16-17 albums, eventually released on CD by the french record label Savage Land

Kevin Martin (God, Ice, The Bug, Zonal), had been a follower of 16-17 for many years, when he and Alex Buess met whilst recording Alboth!’s Liebefeld album. Their common ground was obvious. Both shared their love for a most dense sound, an urge to going beyond common boundaries. Inevitably this led to the production of  a 16-17 album that would take the band to new ground. 

Yet, 16-17 releases had been carefully chosen tracks from live recordings, collections of most significant moments of improvisation, provokingly intense, meaningful, and certainly ahead of their time. Now Kevin and Alex took a more granular approach to further condense the sound. Loops of live recordings were arranged to tracks and Alex‘ horns were recorded carefully to the necessary spots in the composition. In addition, Kevin brought in G. C. Green of Godflesh, who added a bass fundament to the trio. The next step in 16-17 history, and certainly a milestone in the realm of Jazz, Noise, Avantgarde and their relatives: Gyatso

16-17 Rehearsal
16-17, Damian Bennett, Alex Buess, Michael Wertmüller, rehearsal room, Basel, Switzerland

The Production of Gyatso, the change to a temporary studio project as well as personal changes  led to significant signs of fatigue within the band. Alex Buess consequently continued the work alone. He developed a somewhat more controlled sound, introducing elements of songwriting and of classical composition. In Michael Wertmüller (Alboth, Full Blast, Higgs) on drums and Damian Bennett (Khost, carthage, Gauge, Deathless) on bass, he eventually found two extremely talented and powerful musicians to complement the work.

Alex now used stripped down elements of longer pieces, and methods of his complex and polyrhythmical contemporary classical compositions as a skeleton for new 16-17 tracks. The live outline incorporated midi sequences and samples. In some passages the band would play along very tightly, while improvising within pre-practiced free forms in other parts, and then completely free in further parts. The result was – again – a hyper dense sound, yet perhaps a little more comprehensible to a wider audience.  It included the complexity of contemporary classical music, absolute free forms, as in free jazz, but pushed over the edge, as well as the pure power of hardcore – without fitting in any of these genres. Although, to some extent, performing a much more controlled sound, 16-17 remained recognisable in its very own style. 

The band was formed to play live, for a short tour to several European countries. Then, the well practiced material was taken back to the studio. The recordings were laid out to use the studio as a superordinated, additional instrument. Before recording, the particles of the compositions were atomized and each of the elements was eventually played in separate takes. This demanded incredibly concentrated and precise performances by the musicians. On some tracks even the drum set was laid down in single, separate tracks, that is, instead of recording a drum set as a whole, each percussion element was recorded successively.

In the following years Alex Buess was busy with various other projects, as a producer and sound engineer for Swiss national radio, amongst others. 16-17 appeared only very rarely as a live act, with different line-ups and including a short time incarnation as the 16-17 Sound System. Further musicians have been Daniel Buess (Mir, Ensemble Phoenix) on drums and Big Rogers Graf on electronics. The last studio  recordings, however, remained unfinished. 

16-17 in Rostock
16-17, Alex Buess, photographer Christian Lichtenberg, Big Rogers Graf, Daniel Buess, on the MS Stubnitz, Rostock, Germany

In 2019 Alex eventually decided to put his hands back on 16-17 and finish the Album: Phantom Limb. Again, 16-17 added guest musicians to the original recordings. Big Rogers Graf, this time on guitar, and for the first time two vocalists, Oxbow’s well known Eugene S. Robinson and Kasia Meow (Maneki Necro, Disco Interiors), respectively. The release was followed by a, de- and re-constructed, more electrified remix EP called The Pandemic Wargames Remixes, released in late 2020 on Berlin’s Praxis Records.

2021 Alex remastered Gyatso for a first time release on vinyl. It has been published on Alex Buess’ own label Skin and Speech Recordings in cooperation with Praxis Records. Thus, it is now again possible to enjoy the incredible power and sheer energy this project has had throughout all of its appearances.

Started mid 1980ies as a musical comment to a narrow-minded Zeitgeist and to a wide spread lack of fantasy in the music world, 16-17 is still more than relevant.

Monzen – The Rauchhaus Tapes

Monzen logo

Early this year i was asked to record a demo for Berlin based metal group MONZEN. We  took an afternoon to record 3 songs live at their Rauchhaus rehearsal room. I used a minimal setup for the recording and mixed it in spring at my home studio.

Alex Buess mastered at wolf281. The band liked the result so much, they released it as an EP on Bandcamp and CD, and they have now published an official Videoclip to promote the release as well. 

The beginning of DISCO INTERIORS

A rainy, grey day in the British Midlands. Sitting in the van on tour with Oxbow. 2 weeks into the tour you are getting used to a trance like state – sleepless, tired and excited at the same time. Keep your brain busy listening to some music of the driver’s favorites while emphasizing the next venue to come and the friendly new aqcuaintances who would bravely let you enter their worlds, and – who would care enough to put on a show.  Thoughts drifting away to potential next adventures you may be wanting to start soon.

Robinson, Meow, Liebeskind
Eugene S. Robinson, Kasia Meow, Manuel Liebeskind

One of those why-not moments. Something inherent to Oxbow touring Europe. Do the things you do because you want to do it, because it seems logical to do it. Try what there is to try, no matter if anybody else would care. I ask Eugene: “Should *we* write a song together?” Seemingly waking up from some far away world, he looks at me  and nods: “why not” and immediately falls back into his half-sleep, that would eventually only switch to total presence when the show was on at night. Eugene probably forgot about the idea right away .

While you get to hear a lot of great music, inspiring performances and meet all those nice and creative people every day, being on the road gives you hardly time and room to actually create. Even less when you’re the sound engineer and tour manager. Back at home I am really hungry to get my hands at a guitar. I write to Eugene, we should give it a try. He sends a few lines back and i have chords and a melody started already.
Twice is born, our very first song. We just naturally keep on writing the next, and another song, and pretty quickly have two hands full of songs that may be worth a whole album.

We meet Kasia on another Oxbow tour. Her own (hardcore) band is cool. And she puts so much love in having us there. Eugene stays in touch and later plays her some of our music. She returns sending us a ‘tape’ of her singing one of the tunes in the bathtub. She didn’t seem to be able to get away from the melodies anymore. Her vocals are great and add that extra twist.  Suddenly the project is alive, an actual band. And Kasia keeps being the driving force for us to go on – and to go public.

2014 we are ready to start recording in earnest. I lay down the basics in my Berlin home studio. Vocals have been recorded later in San Francisco by Monte Vallier at Ruminator audio, Ivan Katz records drums for On the Sofa in New York. And we finally start mixing with Monte Vallier as a co-producer back in San Francisco in Spring 2017.

Monte Vallier
Monte Vallier controlling Ruminator Audio for Disco Interiors

Monte has always been one of my favourite bass players since i got to know him while beeing on tour with  his band Swell in the 1990ies. He doesn’t hesitate a moment to contribute his basslines to all of our songs, too. His great personality, engineering skills and awesome musical understanding makes him the perfect producer to finalize the recordings.

 

So here we are – very proud to present: DISCO INTERIORS!

Broetzmann Plus w/Full Blast, Underground Improvisation at Akademie der Künste, Berlin

For the 50th anniversary of the founding of the, at the time, revolutionary  artist owned record label Free Music Production, the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, showed a large exhibition related to FMP, the free jazz movement and the development of a tolerated jazz scene in east Germany. The occasion, called Underground and Improvisation also featured a series of discussion panels, talks and concerts, at its center featuring a two day festival like event, called Brötzmann Plus.

A series of concerts with musicians that were part of  FMP from the start and some younger talents that show the ongoing modernization of the free music and improvised jazz movement. Find here some impressions of Peter Brötzmann presenting his  longtime and current trio Full Blast, featuring Michael Wertmüller and Marino Pliakas, as well as guests Heather Leigh and Keiji Haino.

Wertmueller & Mahmoud

April 27, 2017.

A mixed, all ages audience, many respectfully in suits, at the Liebermann House, that touches Brandenburger Tor at its north side.  A pretty impressive classicist building that used to host painter Max Liebermann‘s studio under the roof. Before its destruction in World War 2. Before Liebermann had to leave Germany for his jewish roots. And before its reconstruction after the fall of the wall.

Now home to Stiftung Brandenburger Tor, a foundation that, with its rather conservatively curated exhibitions, does not necessarily lead you to expect that the lively meeting point of a pre-war art scene of the 1920s would revive here. But the foundation is starting something different today. And so you find yourself at the opening of  a new series of forward looking exhibitions of fine art.

Stiftung Brandenburger Tor has invited Daniel Richter to completely freely curate his own exhibit. Richter decides to dedicate the show, alongside of some of of his own rarely shown work, to the hardly known, almost forgotten, Jack Bilbo. And he invites Michael Wertmüller and Thomas Mahmoud to perform – a first live presentation of their work now called Higgs.

In its expressively intense appearance, complex, yet danceable beats, voice and electronic bass in the foreground, an incredible amount of filigrane details woven into the composition, composed, improvised, powerful but emotionally touching, Higgs is not a band nor a sound project. It is a piece of art. A sculpture expressed in instrumental intensity and human energy, channeled through a minimal installation of acoustic and electronic musical equipment.

Unsurprisingly the project was born with a Wertmüller composition commisioned by Gemany’s well known painter Albert Oehlen and the Museum of Art, Cleveland, who presented the piece as part of an Oehlen installment and individual exhibition for their  100th anniversary in 2016. The audio recording has been printed on 7″ vinyl as part of the exhibition catalogue, that is stll available here.

So far my contribution to Higgs has been the studio recording of Sonar Quartett’s  strings and Thomas Mahmoud’s vocals for the Oehlen exhibition in Cleveland as well as the live mixing for them. More plans for a close cooperation are currently growing.

Higgs has been invited to perform at the Hebbel am Ufer Theatre on Sunday October 8, 2017, in a double bill with Zonal (aka Kevin Martin and Justin Broadrick).