Karaoke Kalk is a record label founded in 1997 in Cologne, run by Thorsten Lütz. The name comes from the „Köln-Kalk“ district where the label started out. Over the past 25 years the label has amounted a superb catalog totaling well over 60 releases by a dazzling array of artists spanning the broadest possible spectrum of musical output. In 2004 the label relocated from Cologne to Berlin. Karaoke Kalk releases wonderful electronic and indie sounds beyond the cliches. It’s one of the true joys of Karaoke Kalk that one just never knows that the label is going to release next.
The between Copenhagen and Berlin based composer and musician Rolf Hansen explores the sonic possibilities of the electric guitar by opting for a radically different approach and putting great limitations on himself as a performer. Experimental in the truest sense of the word, he is eschewing conventional modes of playing the instrument and instead turning the guitar into a sound source for compositions that are at once abstract and concrete.
»Tableau« is Rolf Hansen’s second full-length album under his given name and acts as a sequel to his solo debut »Elektrisk Guitar«, both released via Karaoke Kalk.
Already on »Elektrisk Guitar«, he found a different approach to playing and composing, but on »Tableau« Rolf Hansenwent even further and created a set-up in which the electric guitar becomes a different instrument altogether. This is also expressed in its title: a tableau is, broadly understood, an image-forming momentary bodily pause in a dramaturgical or narrative process. In the context of the album, tableau is the form and sound that emerge when the musician’s usual approach to playing and the compositional practice is halted and transformed. To achieve this, the guitar is placed on a table with microphones installed around it and tuned in a static microtonal modality thanks to wooden replacement frets that have been inserted under the strings. This alters how the sounds are being generated with the instrument, which is now played from above, occasionally strummed or stroked with a tool.
As Golden Diskó Ship, the Berlin-based multi-instrumentalist Theresa Stroetges moves through the fringes of experimental music, but also explores the possibilities of tried and tested formulas since 2008. Often described as a as a one-girl orchestra, her imaginative soundscapes shifting from delicate melodic lines steeped in nostalgia to the feedback arcs and textured distortion of machine abuse, evoke lucid dreams and have won critical praise for their fresh, eclectic collages of electronic and acoustic sound.
»Oval Sun Patch« is the fifth album of Theresa Stroetges und her solo-moniker Golden Diskó Ship, her second release on Karaoke Kalk and perhaps the catchiest to date. Drawing on influences from club culture and advanced electronic music, her unconventional pop sound is beat-driven, playful, atmospheric, and at times thoroughly anthemic. As an album about change, it concisely captures the multi-instrumentalist’s own artistic transformation.
Thorsten Lütz, performing under his music-moniker Strobocop, completes the evening for lovers* of cultivated underground eclecticism. Expand your comfortzone with his sounds. In advance. Intermediate. Thereafter.
Golden Diskó Ship + Rolf Hansen + Strobocop
Friday, 17th May 2024
ausland | Lychener Straße 60 in 10437 Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg
goldendiskoship.com | Event @ Facebook | Ausland
