Marc Richter of Hamburg here with his Coh Bâle (CELLULE 75 CELL-11) album…we’re told it’s a follow-up of sorts to his Alphabet 1968 album, released in 2009 – we did note it at the time but evidently I didn’t quite get it, as it was a very intricate melange of old cylinder recordings and vinyl record samples, plus broken electronic gear and (inevitably) field recordings, all layered together.
Richter employs similar methods here – he’s a bit coy about exactly how he does it, but I suspect it’s all blended inside the computer, regardless of where the sources come from. The sources for Coh Bâle include folk music and ethnic music from around the world, medieval music, religious music, and kosmische / German electronic music from the 1970s…presumably all lifted from a voluminous record collection – indeed the record labels Ocora and Nonesuch Explorer are name-checked in the press release. There may be some original recordings too collected by Richter on his travels across Europe, though it’s far from clear if they were “found” sounds or performed by him in some capacity. The assembly and editing is the key process though. On that account, Coh Bâle is a pleasant enough listen, but feels oddly lightweight and inconsequential…perhaps it’s because all these recordings are presented with very little context, or perhaps because the actual compositions aren’t all that strong.
I’m all in favour of a fellow exploring the past histories of recorded music, and proposing alternative lines of enquiry by exposing parallels and seeing meaningful connections that weren’t evident before, but Richter isn’t really offering any of that; no new insights, nor is he demonstrating a convincing knowledge of musical history; it’s more like riffing on a record collection and producing insipid, watered-down tunes. Unsatisfying. (07/08/2023)