Stahlwerk 9

INSANITY IS FREEDOM COMFORMITY IS DEATH

Home
Contents
Feedback

"MEIN GOTT, HILF MIR, DIESE TODLICHE LIEBE ZU UBERLEBEN"

ПОЮЩИЕ В ГУЛАГЕ

STAHLWERK 9: "BLUTMUHLE" (SCHACHT 31/GULAG 361, demo)

Пугающие, по началу приводящие в оцепенение заголовки подпольной домашней студии на далекой немецкой земле Stahlwerk 9 - Гулаг 361, Шахта 31, рождающие ассоциации с "Архипелагом ГУЛАГ" или "1984" Джорджа Оруэлла, безошибочны и при более близком знакомстве оказываются стартующей нитью идеи этого проекта.

"Although it look a little bit "extreme" I do have no extremistic intention. Stahlwerk 9 is just satire on all the projects that handle ideology just as a fetish to draw attention on them without thinking what all these things really mean. Besides, I want to simply make music, or "noise" of course..." Reinhard Hopfe [Stahlwerk 9]

Несмотря на многократные заверения авторов проекта в пародийности данного творения на нынешнее т.н. "правое немецкое нойз-индустриальное крыло", материал, представленный на "Blutmuhle" выдержан строго в тотально-подавляюще и неизбежно-разрушительной эстетике, раннее в бытность проявившейся в лучших работах Laibach ("Cловянский акрополь", "Opus Dei"), а позднее - идеологических экскурсах немецкой волны (Soldnergeist, P.A.L.) и австрийcкой (Allerseelen). Таково, вероятно, духовная единность всех тоталитарных эстетик - германских ли или русских. И замена на сэмплах обращений и речей одних полусдохших героев на других истории не меняет.

"About me and my project: I do not only make noise (like most of my fellow "musicians" do), but want also to have a philosophical background. In my case it's a kind of parody on the projects which use fascistic elements to simply shock the listeners without thinking about what they really do (you might know "Rosthof Dachau" or "Leibstandarte SS"-telling names!). In fact there is no project using left-wing material, and so I decided to mainly use material of the former east (samples of W.Ulbricht, Stalin, Lenin etc.) but always with some ironic meanings in them. At the moment I have a little creative crisis, because I do not really know how to go on and in which direction I should develop my sound. I have reserved a copy of my "Blutmuhle"-Tape for you. This tape represents in a way my past, because it bears some of my older material which I already used on my CD's. I have improved that on my younger material, which I want to released hopefully in December." Reinhard Hopfe [Stahlwerk 9]

"Blutmuhle" представляет собой некую ошеломляющую ораторию "Briefe Aus Der Heimat" в девяти частях, записанную (или селекционированную из более ранних записей, переработанных и сведенных сызново в 1997) в русле пост-индустриальной и нойз-электронной деструктивной механики, смешанной с упомянутыми сэмплами из радио-обращений и цитат германских политиков, рассуждающих (насколько я смог понять) о проблемах Восточной Германии, национал-социализме и настальгирующих по былому имперскому могуществу. Кассетный релиз, задокументированный автором проекта - немецким студентом Рейнхардом Хопфе (Nuath) в сотрудничестве с Wulf'ом, содержит необычный, в ручную созданный пластиковый бокс, опутанный стальной проволкой и окрашенный в серебристый с пурпурно-красным цвета, обильно снабженный печатно-архивными материалами окопно-фронтовой тематики, разбомбленных руин и немых каменных остовов.

"Something about the equipment that I use: Unfortunately I do not own a synthesizer (You do not have that much money as a student in Germany!), so I do all my work with an old Commodore Amiga 500 and a 486/66 PC, an old radio receiver, a broken record player and a lot of guitar amplifiers and distortion. Wulf, the man I mentioned on the tape is a friend of mine, who helped me to put all of my material on a master CD from which I reel of the copies. Besides he provides me with a lot of samples I can use. I try to avoid samples of Hitler, because I think that everybody who wants to sound "extreme" uses this kind of stuff. Due to this you can hear words of the "Fuhrer" on nearly every second Industrial record! Besides, I am not fascist and want to do something different. I use samples of different kinds of persons (In this case: Kaiser Wilhelm II- Declaration of war, Stresemann-Speech in the "Volkerbund"...I do not know the english word for it!, E. Honnecker, W. Ulbricht, F. Ebert and other people concerning German history)." Reinhard Hopfe [Stahlwerk 9]

Стартуя в первой части, "Briefe Aus Der Heimat" вторгается в ваш слух грубой неистовой силой затяжной низкочастотной атакой, уже в продолжении прорываясь странной параллизующе-нервной рефлексией и эсхатологическим ощущением пульсирующего на грани статического power-электрошока - ограниченной, психоделической, цикличной массы, таинственной как шепот, разряженной как боль, продолжаясь дегуманизированным крестным ходом в потаенные миры вашего осознанного и бессознательного. И если вы еще храните надежду на тайм-аут, забудьте, смело схоронив эту идею - где бы вы не находились, призрак внутренней физической боли спазматически-удушливо продолжит вас преследовать попятам. Проржавевшими перекрытиями заброшенной сталелитейной фабрики конструкция альбома какой-то собственной технологической органикой выстроена так, что лишь относительное, временно возникающие из ниоткуда "спокойствие" (? уместно ли здесь вообще это определение) - лишь сжатая пружина, в любой момент готовая обрушиться собственным звуковым геноцидом на ваш слух вновь.

"What do I do if I don't make noise? I have to spend a helluva lot of time here in University, because I want to finish my studies somewhen next year and therefor have a lot of work. What else? I sometimes organize parties here in Regensburg (4 to 5 a year) in the dark scene and try to find a compromise between my own personal style and the horrible crap the people want to hear. (Actually there is a shift towards the so called "Neue Deutsche Todeskunst" which means bands like Lacrimosa, Umbra et Imago, Das Ich, Goethes Erben, Relatives Menschsein etc., a kind of music I hate like hell!) I prefer of course Industrial, Ritual, Neo-Folk (but I do not like Current 93 too much!) and Minimal sounds." Reinhard Hopfe [Stahlwerk 9]

Технократическая промышленная оргия, многократно закольцованная, угрожающая, панически перезаряжающая свой ритмически-грозящий tribal-noise затвор, индустриальными минималистическими племенными танцами под монотонно вбиваемый в голову кол, продолжается на безжизненных просторах второй стороны. Опустошенные безжизненные пространства германской космогоники и death-ambient'a, еще недавно так увлеченно процетированные на дебютном "Aldebaran" соотечественниками по Inade - лишь переженный пепел от предыдущего экзорсизма низких и средних частот, лишенный надежды и беспощадно осядающий внутри вас. Умирающим ретро где-то звучит щемящий фокстрот. Учитывая неизбежно низкий уровень записи "Blutmuhle", вам не удастся насладиться его техническим совершенством, оставляя тем не менее при полном осознании скурпулезно изложенной идеи в глубоком ожидании новых многообещающих свершений от новой немецкой шумовой волны уже в ближайшем будующем.

IGOR VAGANOV

THE INTERVIEW WITH REINHARD HOPFE (STAHLWERK 9)

Could you tell me about sources of your inspiration (and your activity)?

Good lord! I sit in my room, in front of my "equipment" and try to make something one can listen to. Mostly I throw all of my material away, after a while! The concepts for new releases come up a little earlier (by reading books, newspapers, watching films, etc.) After the TITANIC-wave throughout western Europe I thought of creating a noise-opera handling the LUSITANIA, sunk by a german submarine in 1915, but I dropped that idea fairly soon. My last tape dealt with WW II (once again...) and now I finally want to make something different (maybe about Sergej Eisenstein, I'm quite impressed by his films).

When you started your project?

I started somewhere in the early 90's with a project called "Pure Plutonium" A friend of mine had an old "AMIGA" computer and used it to create sounds (somewhere between "Kraftwerk" an some indifferent "noise") I was really impressed, and so I decided, after several split-ups of real bands I played in, to make my own style. In '93 I released a absolutely horrible produced tape called "Lethargia" My "project name" was at that time "Tragedy V.A." and the tape sounded like a mixture between "Front 242" and early "Frontline Assembly" Stahlwerk 9 was born in '94 when I started to make electronic noise with a friend of mine. Actually, there's no material traded from that time. Later on I continued on my own, after my friend lost his interest in going on, and so I was alone after all.

What was been a general idea for your start?

The start was really stupid, because that friend I talked of above had really brilliant equipment ( Minimoog, Korg M1, Alesis Drumcomputer, an 8-Track recording machine, etc. etc...)and no idea how to use it (neither had I) and so we started just to hack on our synthesizers and create harsh noise....(my concepts crept up later on...)

What do you really love from today's German innovative music/bands/projects?

There's a stagnation in Germany at the moment. Everybody listens to the crap I can not stand (like Lacrimosa, Goethes Erben, etc.) Only a few projects are in here, you can really consume. SCHLOSS TEGAL are one of them. The industrial scene is dominated by belgian groups, who do this techno-industrial thing (like SONAR) You listen to that stuff twice and find it boring! Most projects I like are from foreign countries, like Raison D'Etre (Sweden) Bad Sector (Italy) or Les Joyeaux De La Princesse (France). That's where my crisis came from. I hated the things that I did, and I will do more non-rhythmic stuff in the future....

Did you had any contacts with labels about your music realization already?

Yes, but I had no success. I had made contact to S.Alt (Ant-Zen) but he rejected my first CD (Although he said that it is quite o.k....(do I HAVE to continue??)) Furthermore I asked R. Ratzinger from WUMPSCUT if he would release some of my material, but I have nevermore heard something about it. During the last few months I have made contact to more cooperative people (A label of a friend in Weiden, who also runs a very good project called THOROPHON-you will hear of them!), TESCO-productions, GALAKTHORRHOE and STATE-ART in Hannover. Maybe I can release some material through one of them or I will do that by myself (In our capitalistic world it's all just a question of money!)

What do you think about relation between music and ideology?

I think it's a nice change from the normal pattern. I was fascinated by the thing that LAIBACH do. They pick fragments from all ideologies and create an own ideology called "LAIBACHKUNST" In a way I imitated that style. In my opinion LAIBACH is the best satirical band I've ever seen (and heard). Of course they are often misunderstood by people who do not look over the rims of their coffee-cups! (The majority, of course!)

Besides, I think, that music is an ideal medium to transport messages (Love, mostly). I do accept good music without any message as well (The thing TEKKNO does----just sound). The mixture can be dangerous, of course. There's a difference, whether projects want to just affect people by being "extreme", whether they really believe in what they say or like I try to do, use ideology to demask the real thoughts behind them (mostly to legitimize and keep up power to a just small group of people)

What do you think about German right musical movement there?

I can't say anything about right-wing punk bands, but generally spoken all of them are stupid, because they do not reflect on the topic. Most of them simply use the symbols, pictures without any relationship to thought or sounds that just are extreme. I would accept a project to be right-wing, if they would convince with real ideas (like maybe NON or DEATH IN JUNE do. They KNOW what they are talking about!) Mostly the ideology of fascism is grossly misunderstood. It's a movement that is far older that the 30s and roots back somwhere in the 19th century. Furthermore Hitler did not breed his ideas on his own. Most of his thoughts were stolen from 19th century thinkers. Of course I'm fascinated by the aesthetic idea of totalitariansm (fascism is just a part of it). In the 30s art became a mass phenomenon. Music, the media of film and spoken word became available to a broad part of the population. Today's extreme projects select just a few pictures, a few sounds, choose a extreme name without reflecting what they do. Extremism is just a big pool of ideas for them (like horror films, war, nuclear threat, islam fanatics, whatsoever). They choose the most extreme just without thinking.

Igor Vaganov vs Reinhard Hopfe, 1998

CONTACT:

reinhard.hopfe@stud.uni-regensburg.de

http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/church/40