Zauberberg (album)
| Magic Mountain | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gas studio album | ||||
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Publication |
December 1997 |
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| Label (s) | Mille Plateaux MP45 | |||
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Format (s) |
CD, LP |
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Title (number) |
7th |
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running time |
65 min 50 s |
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Zauberberg is the second studio album by the German techno musician Wolfgang Voigt under the pseudonym Gas . It was released in December 1997 on the Mille Plateaux label .
title
The title refers to the novel The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann . As with every release of a gas album, the individual pieces did not have their own titles and there was a picture of a photo of the German Forest on the cover .
- Untitled - (7:50)
- Untitled - (14:12)
- Untitled - (12:50)
- Untitled - (6:01)
- Untitled - (8:04)
- Untitled - (7:23)
- Untitled - (9:32)
music
Musically, the compositions move between sound surface music , ambient and minimal techno . The pieces are carried by slow, heavy, dark string sounds, almost consistently underlaid with muffled bass drums in 4/4 time. According to his own information, Voigt used old, dusty records with compositions by Richard Wagner to create some of the melodies on the album.
reception
The album received mostly positive reviews, although Voigt was sometimes criticized for his gas project as an advocate of a German national sentiment. Voigt himself emphasized in this context that he did not want to promote German national feelings, but rather "wants to create something like 'genuinely German pop music'" aside from the usual clichés.
Jason Birchmeier gave the record 4.5 out of 5 points in his review for allmusic and wrote:
“ Zauberberg is a remarkable album that all serious ambient techno aficionados should hear. Not only is it among Voigt's most recognized works, which is a true legend of German techno, but it also set the standards for the future of ambient techno. "
In contrast, Christoph Büscher saw the album more critically in a review of the music magazine Intro :
“In short, one could perhaps say that the monotonous beats and WAGNER sound (alp) dreams get along so well precisely because they come from the same Teutonic spirit. It's miles away from airy sound ambience, let alone sexy dance music, instead it turns your breath away. If that is Mr INK's hidden stroke of genius, I unfortunately cannot understand it. Who really needs something like that remains a secret to me too. "
On the occasion of the publication of the Nah-und-Fern-Box in 2008, Pitchfork Media looked back at Zauberberg as the most dissonant and darkest work by gas, but also described it as the established quintessence of gas aesthetics.
The album was voted # 89 of the 100 records of the century by the spex and VIVA-Zwei editors.
Editions
After the album was originally released separately on Mille Plateaux , Voigt released the compilation Nah und Fern on his label Kompakt in 2008 , which put all four gas albums out there, including Zauberberg , in one box.
Web links
- Zauberberg at discogs.com
Individual evidence
- ↑ Wolfgang Voigt at redbullmusicacademy.com, accessed on October 25, 2010
- ↑ The Anselm Kiefer of Techno? at zeit.de, accessed on October 25, 2010
- ↑ The German Forest in the Disco near Telepolis, accessed on October 25, 2010
- ^ Gas - Zauberberg , Review at allmusic.com, accessed on October 25, 2010
- ↑ English original: Zauberberg is a remarkable album that all serious aficionados of ambient techno should hear; not only is it among the most accomplished works of Voigt, who is one of the true legends of German techno, but it set the standard for ambient techno going forward ...
- ↑ Gas - Zauberberg ( Memento of the original from July 26, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Review at intro.de, accessed on October 25, 2010
- ↑ a b Gas - Nah Und Fern at pitchfork.com, accessed October 25, 2010
