Staubgold is an avant label with music that is all over the map. Here is an overview of some of their latest releases.

staubgold 87 – Heaven And – “Sweeter As The Years Roll By” cd/lp

Tony Buck – drums, percussion
Steve Heather – drums, marimba, percussion
Martin Siewert – guitars, lap steel, electronics, keyboards
zeitblom – bass, keyboards
Alexander Hacke – vocals

Elements of the diverse musical styles from the last five decades are clearly discernible. Listening to the first track “as if a star”, one can make out a vast range of influences: A psychedelic backwards guitar cuts through the whir of a cymbal reminiscent of jazz and trance music, while in the second half, a layer of guitar sounds hovers over it which reminds one of the sounds emanating from the Fender amps of the bands belonging to the so-called” Americana”-movement. At the same time, the track comes across as an update of those stoic monster tracks of early seventies krautrock. (And when it comes to minimalism, the bass line on “as if a star” beats any of Holger Czukay’s in terms of sparseness.) The third track “bring back those happy days” with its manic, almost exploding guitar and its rompish, hippie-like percussion orgy is quite another cup of tea. “Art Ensemble Of Chicago meets Keiji Haino”? Or” Pharoah Sanders meets Sonny Sharrock meets Boredoms”? In the course of the album’s duration, Heaven And take their listeners on an unsettling roller coaster ride of styles. Sometimes, elements of the blues stick out, while at other times, elements of heavy metal, post rock, avantgarde, free jazz or noise are up front, so that the listener keeps wondering what (in heaven’s name) it is s/he’s hearing.

staubgold 86 – Jasmina Maschina – “The Demolition Series” cd/lp

Binding the overpass between sensuality and stoicism, ephemera and the sublime, hesitation and intoxication, Jasmina Maschina’s sonic folk soundscape transports you to the world of a familiar song that you are only too pleased to hear again. Her music glows with experience and feelings that are alien to none, and as yet imagines every part of human triviality to be unique and vital in its own subordinate way. It is the gorgeousness of the everyday.

staubgold 85 – Mapstation / Paul Wirkus – “Forest Full Of Drums” lp

A space in which the ancient sounds of the world meet the sounds of civilization. If you stand in one spot it is difficult to recognize where the sounds are coming from and whom or what they belong to. Playing and recording there was very far from being in a perfectly controlled studio situation. First we started hitting the drums we brought and then later on we started picking up sticks and branches, tossing around big logs and becoming curious about what they would sound like. The forest had slowly changed our initial ideas in an elegant way. It enabled us to make music with just what we found and what was there. In the very moment that we wanted to do it, we simply had to dive into it, look underneath. Then the world became a bigger place than it was before.”

staubgold 83 – Pedal – “Pedal” cd

What are they thinking? These guys are doing a record of acoustic piano music in this day and age! And let me tell you something, my prejudice was totally crushed within the first minute of listening to this CD. Just when I was thinking two grand pianos, four hands have nothing to say in this 21st century…

staubgold 81 – Autistic Daughters – “Uneasy Flowers” cd/lp

“Uneasy Flowers” is the second album by Autistic Daughters, the intercontinental trio of Dean Roberts (guitar, vocals), Martin Brandlmayr (percussion, computer) and Werner Dafeldecker (guitar, bass). It is also the fourth in a series of records in which Roberts, having begun in more abstract territory in New Zealand’s mid-1990s ‘free noise’ ferment, has embraced song, lyric and voice as vessels for topographic and psychoanalytic tracings of the impacts of territory and nomadism on the subject.

staubgold 80 – klangwart – “Stadtlandfluss” cd/lp

Since 1999, Klangwart have been experimenting at their concerts with a limited pool of sounds and loops (developed and compiled by Timo). From this, the two generate the concert piece “Stadtlandfluss” in real time, which they have been (re-)creating as a continuous experiment for many years.