TTW#42 - Steinbrüchel - Sinus
Cassette only – limited edition of 150 copies
SOLD OUT AT SOURCE
Track listing:
A1: Sinus 1
A2: Sinus 2
B1: Sinus 3
B2: Sinus 4
Illustration – Ordner, assisted by Max.
A simple synthetic-based, sine wave generating freeware program was used as sound source for creating single pulses and long static tones in several different tonal pitches. No additional sound design or other analogue or digital processing was used during the creation of the sounds. The single sound elements were layered and sequenced into different movements of varying shapes and colours focusing on the pure essence and aesthetics of sound. Each track interweaves longer, stretched, tonal segments and rhythmic patterns into sine-curved compositions.
The four Sinus tracks were sequenced at one hundred and twenty beats per minute in nineteen ninety nine by Steinbrüchel. They were previously released as a personal CD-R edition of 10 copies. Digital music kindly released by The Tapeworm on analogue cassette in two thousand and twelve.
Sinus 5 can be downloaded as a bonus track via soundcloud.com
Biography:
Steinbrüchel’s musical work deals mainly with the texture and atmosphere of sound. In the studio he works relentlessly towards the creation of new sounds. The accumulation, collection and the arrangement of those sounds is revealed during his live sets. The sounds one hears in his music form both intricate patterns and spacious landscapes. In his experiments with electronically created sound, Steinbrüchel portrays an acute awareness for beauty. His productions follow a distinctly sophisticated aesthetic. Flowing calmly through the listener his music invokes a glowing space which invites the listener to travel within the sound. Steinbrüchel’s compositions and conceptual arrangements connect him to the genre of New Music rather than club music, locating his work more in the realm of digital sound art.
Ralph Steinbrüchel, born in 1969, studied Communication Design at Central Saint Martins School in London, where he acquired a Masters of Arts and Design with distinction. He now lives and works as a musician and graphic designer in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2002 his composition «zwischen.raum» [Domizil, Zurich, 2002] was distinguished with the Max Brand Award for Electronic Music [phonoTAKTIK.02 Festival, New York]. In the same year he received a compositional scholarship from «Pro Helvetia», Arts Council of Switzerland, to work on his release «circa» [LINE, New York, 2003]. Last solo release in 2011 was the CD «narrow» [room40].
Reviews
Aquarius Records (US):
One of four new tapes this week on weirdo UK tape label The Tapeworm, and as much as we love all of them this time out (and we do), this one we find is fast becoming our favorite, but then we’ve never been able to resist deep, dense, dronemusic.
Sinus is a collection of sprawling sine wave tones, which produce the sort of drones, that with headphones on, make your head feel like it's being filled with some sort of thick liquid. Or, if played through speakers at high enough volume, will probably set your whole house to resonating. Lush and layered, the main component a pulsing soft swell of extreme low end, nearly rib cage rattling in its power, but strangely serene, a deep black hole pulse, that throbs glacially, while over the top, other tones offer subtle sonic colorations, and wistful barely there melodies, soft turbulence and bleary slightly blown out textures.
An utterly immersive sonic experience, meditative, bliss out deep drone dreaminess, with just a bit of sinister sonic malevolence, which gives these pieces the feel of some strange arthouse soundtrack, it’s not difficult to imagine an empty expanse of deep black space, or some bottomless cavern reaching all the way to the center of the earth, or even a crumbling abandoned city, the perfect score for the end of the world, and with just the tiniest bit of black dub throb, and abstract ambient techno vibe, a murky buried otherworldly propulsion, which at times make Sinus feel like the bleakest, most haunting Pop Ambient jam Kompakt never put out.
