Sebastian Meissner is a Berlin based artist who works across a number of different, yet related, mediums – photography, video, and sound art. His audio explorations, largely built around sampling and digital manipulation, have been released under a number of names: Random Industries, Random Inc, Bizz Circuits, Autokontrast, and Autopoieses (with Ekkehard Ehlers) – names which may be familiar with those who remember the experimental/conceptual Mille Plateaux label.
At the moment Meissner’s main musical project, and the one which drew my attention to him, is Klimek. First appearing on Kompakt in 2002, and every year since on the label’s annual Pop Ambient series, Meissner’s Klimek tracks are restrained pieces of beauty built from shimmering samples of plucked guitar strings (and other organic instruments). No doubt because of the Kompakt connection, Klimek is usually described as an “ambient” project, although the term – all too often used in connection with aural wallpaper or music to just relax to – fails to describe the tension that exists at the heart of Meissner’s carefully measured compositions. While the music is undoubtedly beautiful, there are moments of melancholy – even iciness. And if the music is meditative, it is because there are real-world issues and tensions that Meissner would like us to meditate and reflect on.
Consider, for example, the cover art of the 2004 ‘Milk and Honey’ album – it’s a photograph of Israel’s West Bank barrier.
Or the fabulous 2007 album ‘Dedications’ on Ezekiel Honig’s Anticipate Recordings, where every track is named for the two people Meissner has dedicated it to, thereby creating a link between them. For example, the last track on the album is titled “For Steven Spielberg & Azza El-Hassan”, which may not mean much at first glance – that is, until you put Azza El-Hassan into Google and realize she’s a Palestinian filmmaker. In this interview, Meissner said, “I want to draw attention to the relationships and tensions between two characters symbolizing opposite values, different discourses or personalities.”
It’s clear to see that Meissner’s work is intensely political – political in the sense that his work seeks to actively engage with, question, and open a discourse on various cultural, social, and historical scenarios. For example, he is concerned with Israeli-Palestinian issues, particularly with how these issues are represented and portrayed. For his 2002 Random Inc release “Walking In Jerusalem” Meissner built his tracks around field recordings he had made in the city. His platform Intifada Offspring is for “artists from Palestine, Israel and other regions who have dedicated their work to the artistic deconstruction of the so called Middle East conflict.”
For his ssgmix Meissner presents a narrative that flows fluidly across a wide range of styles and sounds. His thoughts on the mix:
This is sort of a personal selection of tracks which I regard as timeless (boundless) in terms of styles and sounds and I intended to mix across the various production years, but still to achieve a coherent and fluent listening experience. Also because I hope that through the recent changes on the global music markets and digital music formats listening and the perception of music (productions) generally becomes more free and independent of trends and time aspects (which were to my experience in all the past years very much dominated by short-living press coverage). There are sometimes up to 4 different tracks playing at the same time.
mnml ssgs mx20: Klimek (click to dl)
Rapidshare Mirror
In keeping with the current ssgmix philosophy we’ll hold back the tracklisting of the mix until next week to encourage you (as George Michael once urged us all) to “listen without prejudice.”
You can find out much more about Meissner and his various artistic projects at his website, as well as listening to some of his Klimek tracks at his Myspace. You can explore his visual art at Ghetto Ambient and Autokontrast. Finally, many thanks to Sebastian for providing such a thoughtful and fascinating mix.
awesome, can't wait to check this after work !
ReplyDeleteah fantastic, thanks! i loved that random inc / bizz circuits stuff, especially walking in jerusalem, but somehow totally missed the klimek project so this is really exciting to reconnect with mr meissner's work.
ReplyDeletealso i think your new tactic of withholding tracklists for a few days is working great, especially in this case :)
A ssgs mx with a Butthole Surfers track. Well I never.
ReplyDeletehad hopes for this as a fan, and it has some good moments...but on the whole not really feeling it.
ReplyDeletethis is an absolute listening delight. from l. cohen to a sample of werner herzog in mister lonely, how can you go wrong? thank you ssgs.
ReplyDeleteI love the singing at the beginning. I keep going back to listen to it.
ReplyDelete"No doubt because of the Kompakt connection, Klimek is usually described as an “ambient” project, although the term – all too often used in connection with aural wallpaper or music to just relax to – fails to describe the tension that exists at the heart of Meissner’s carefully measured compositions."
ReplyDeleteNot sure about this. Virtually all the (good) ambient music I've heard relies on tension and melancholy. Klimek is an exceptionally good producer, but I disagree with the notion that he's too sophisticated to be called ambient. Plenty of ambient artists have impressive ideas behind their work, and besides, "ambient" is simply an accurate way to describe Klimek's music.
And while I wouldn't say that Klimek is music *just* to relax to, he's about as soporific as it gets. After all, he did author an album called "Music To Fall Asleep," whose title really couldn't be more accurate.
Hi Will,
ReplyDelete"Virtually all the (good) ambient music I've heard relies on tension and melancholy."
Actually, I completely agree. Speaking personally, the best ambient music has some tension or drama at work, even the stuff that I consider to be extremely relaxing - because otherwise there's no "hook" and the music just floats off into the ether.
But (and it's a big but) the problem that I was trying to get as is that for an awful lot of people the word "ambient" is synonymous with "relaxation". Music that is primarily used for chilling out to - which is to say music that has no "bite". Aural wallpaper.
(Of course, this is the point that somebody pops up to say that Erik Satie deliberately intended his music to be not listened to directly, and Eno designed his pieces to be listened to both directly and indirectly.)
Now, there's absolutely nothing wrong with using ambient music to relax to (or come down to) ... God knows I've "used" the music for that purpose often myself! But I think that with this being the main image people have of "ambient", the notion that such music can have bite, tension, drama, and *actively* engage with the listener and the world around them is kinda lost.
"Klimek is an exceptionally good producer, but I disagree with the notion that he's too sophisticated to be called ambient. Plenty of ambient artists have impressive ideas behind their work, and besides, "ambient" is simply an accurate way to describe Klimek's music."
Another reason why I wanted to avoid using the word "ambient" in connection to Meissner's Klimek productions is that he himself is very uncomfortable with the word. I just posted an interview with him where he explains his views on the word, along with his intended meaning of the title "Music to Fall Asleep to".