E2-E4
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| Studio album by Manuel Göttsching | ||||
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admission |
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| Label (s) | Inteam GmbH | |||
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Title (number) |
9 |
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running time |
59:00 (58:38 / 59:20) |
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Manuel Göttsching |
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Studio (s) |
Studio Roma, Berlin |
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E2-E4 is the first studio album by Ash-Ra-Tempel guitarist Manuel Göttsching under his own name. The album is a minimalist piece of music that lasts just under an hour and consists of only two chords , which is divided into nine individual tracks , which are named after the phases of a chess game. The album title is named after a classic chess opening move .
The album was recorded on December 12, 1981 in the Berlin studio Roma von Göttsching as a soloist in a session and was not edited afterwards. The first publication of this improvisation as a long-playing record appeared three years later.
The album is considered one of the most influential pieces in electronic music and a milestone in the genre.
Emergence
After Ash Ra Tempel released the album New Age of Earth in 1976 , Göttsching toured increasingly as a solo artist. At his concerts he played alone on stage with various musical instruments. He increasingly adopted this concept for his studio recordings. During a session in December 1981, in which Göttsching only used a mixer , keyboards , a sequencer and a drum computer , the piece E2-E4 was created , which the musician originally did not want to release as an album. In the first half of the piece, Göttsching played exclusively on electronic musical instruments . Only from the 29th minute of the album does he also use a guitar . The limitation of the piece of music to two chords, which are constantly repeated in a repetitive arrangement and varied only minimally over the entire playing time, are an elementary element of the piece for the artist:
“In“ E2-E4 ”there is actually very little repetition of completely monotonous, there are a lot of small variations in it. I played around with the devices the whole time. It is constantly evolving, but you only notice that if you have the sensors for it and listen carefully "
Since Göttsching did not have a record deal at the time of recording and no longer wanted to release the piece with his former music label Virgin (now part of the EMI Group ), the material was initially not released as an album. Three years later, the musician and producer Klaus Schulze remembered the piece and asked Göttsching if he could publish it on his new label. The album was released in 1984 in a pressing limited to 1000 copies as the fourth release on Schulze's INTEAM label .
Since the album was supposed to be the first release under his name and Göttsching was a passionate chess player, he chose the notation “E2-E4” as the title for an “opening move” from chess. The name also reminded him of the robot R2-D2 from the Star Wars films .
layout
The minimalist artwork of the album only shows a chessboard in the colors beige and brown as well as the name of the artist and the album title.
In 2006 the musician James Murphy released a track called 45:33 for the Nike company under the project name LCD Soundsystem . This led to a legal dispute with Göttsching because Murphy copied most of the cover of E2-E4 for the artwork without having obtained the necessary rights of use.
reception
| source | rating |
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| Allmusic |
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| Pitchfork Media |
 
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Initially only known to an initiated group, E2-E4 developed into an underground hit in the emerging house and techno scene in the late 80s and early 90s . The US-American DJ Larry Levan often played the piece in full length as the end of his DJ sets in the New York nightclub Paradise Garage, thereby helping it to regain popularity.
In 1989, E2-E4 was sampled for the house track Sueño Latino of the Italian formation of the same name . The record became a hit in Europe and has since been released in over 30 different versions and with numerous remixes, including by Derrick May , Bushwacka! and Salt Tank .
The musician Carl Craig published in 1994 under the alias Paperclip People on his label Planet E , the single remake . The piece Remake (Duo) contained on it is a techno reinterpretation of E2-E4 . In the same year, Planet E also released “Remake” Basic Reshape, a remix by the German musicians Moritz von Oswald and Mark Ernestus under their alias Basic Channel . This reinterpretation by von Oswald and Ernestus is an extremely reduced dub-techno variation that no longer uses any known samples of the original. The piece was released in 1995 as e2e4 Basic Reshape on the widely acclaimed Basic Channel CD .
On the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the recording, an E2-E4 - 25th Anniversary Edition of the album was released on Göttsching's own label MG.ART in 2006 . On the anniversary, December 12th, 2006, the artist played the piece live in the Berlin Technoclub Berghain and thus appeared live for the first time with a performance by E2-E4 in Europe. Previously, on August 27, 2006, he performed the piece for the first time in front of a live audience at the Metamorphose Festival in Japan. A recording of the live performance was released on DVD in 2009 under the title E2-E4 Live In Japan .
Track list
- page A
- 1. Quiet nervousness / Quiet Nervousness - 13:00
- 2. Moderate departure / moderate start - 10:00
- 3. … and Mittelspiel / … And Central Game - 7:00
- 4. Approach / Promise - 6:00
- Side B
- 5. Women's Eleganza / Queen A Pawn - 5:00
- 6. Honor Full Fight / Glorious Fight - 3:00
- 7. Highness gives way (not without swing) / HRH Retreats (With A Swing ...) - 9:00
- 8. … and Sovereignty / … And Sovereignty - 3:00
- 9. Draw / Draw - 3:00
The track queen A Pawn includes the English formulation for the pawn to a queen in chess. Draw is the term used for a tie. Small caps are used on some of the original covers, so the “ ß ” is replaced by “ss”; likewise, if at all, times are given without seconds. The English titles are also sometimes not given.
In the case of vinyl editions, the titles numbered 1 to 4 are added to the first page and the remaining titles to the second page. The running times on the record sleeve are stated as 31:38 for the first side and 23:00 for the second side. CD releases give the duration of the album as 59:20.
Web links
- E2-E4 at Allmusic (English)
- Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4 at Discogs (English)
- Electric beats classics on Radio Eins
Individual evidence
- ^ John Bush: E2-E4 Review. Retrieved on December 22, 2009 (English): "... one of the most important, influential electronic records ever released."
- ^ Mark Richardson: Pitchfork Staff Lists: Top 100 Albums of the 1980s. Retrieved December 22, 2009 : "A key piece in the electronic music puzzle that's been name-checked, reworked and expanded upon countless times."
- ^ Tilman Baumgärtel : Very simple. Retrieved December 22, 2009 (German).
- ↑ Carsten Agthe: The ASH RA TEMPEL / ASHRA / Manuel Göttsching - biography. Archived from the original on October 17, 2008 ; accessed on December 22, 2009 (German).
- ↑ Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4. Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ↑ An interview with Manuel Göttsching in Bryan Adams' Zoo Magazine (no 11, 2006). (PDF; 52 kB) Retrieved December 22, 2009 (German).
- ↑ Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4 Artwork at Discogs.com, accessed on December 22, 2009 (English)
- ↑ LCD sound system - 45:33
- ↑ Press Statement from April 1, 2007 by Manuel Göttsching's management , accessed on January 4, 2010
- ↑ Review by John Bush on allmusic.com (accessed January 21, 2019)
- ↑ Review by Mark Richardson on pitchfork.com (accessed January 21, 2019)
- ↑ D. Strauss: Manuel Göttsching Revisits Minimalist Classic E2-E4. Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ^ Sueño Latino - Sueño Latino. Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ↑ Paperclip People - Remake. Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ^ Paperclip People - Throw / Remake (Basic Reshape). Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ^ Basic Channel - BCD. Retrieved December 22, 2009 .
- ↑ a b MomFaxMe: Manuel Göttsching - E2-E4 Images. Discogs , accessed April 15, 2014 .