Lou Reed: METAL MACHINE MUSIC

Cover MMM ASP 3009 - Asphodel - SOLD OUT!!!

TRACKS:
track 1 - 16:28
track 2 - 16:28
track 3 - 17:47
+ DVD

Recorded live at Maerzmusik, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, March 17, 2002
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"And so here it stands, solo and proud, a survivor none the less through the underground of sound. METAL MACHINE MUSIC." (Lou Reed)

ZEITKRATZER

Reinhold Friedl (piano, artistic director)
Burkhard Schlothauer (violin)
Christian Messer (viola)
Ulrich Maiß (cello)
Alexander Frangenheim (contrabass)
Ulrich Krieger (soprano and tenor saxophones)
Franz Hautzinger (trumpet)
Melvyn Poore (tuba)
Luca Vnitucci (accordeon)
Adam Weisman (percussion)
Lou Reed (solo guitar end of track 3)

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RELEASE SHEET

ARTIST: ZEITKRATZER with LOU REED 
TITLE: Metal Machine Music

FORMAT: CD&DVD
LABEL# Asphodel / ASP3002
BARCODE: 753027300249
MDM# 70722
PC 1221

LOU REED and ZEITKRATZER redo Metal Machine Music and it's seriously "clangorous"
Recorded Live At The Berlin Festspielhaus On March 17, 2002, the new acoustic score created by the german avant garde chamber group ZEITKRATZER, directed by Reinhold Friedl explores the work’s sonic possibilities without diluting its remarkable power.
The performance features LOU REED on electric guitar.

LOU REED’s Metal Machine Music may be the most misunderstood work ever created by a popular musician. The original two record set, released in 1975, was mostly noise - feedback squalls, amplifier hums and the tortured screech of electronic gadgets. The consensus at the time was that it was not music, but a protest by REED to his then record label, RCA. People may not know that avant-garde musicians like JOHN CAGE, LAMONTE YOUNG, IANNIS XENAKIS and his VELVET UNDERGROUND partner JOHN CALE had a considerable influence on the way REED approached composition, even his more accessible rock and roll songs. Metal Machine Music was in some way a logical extension of atonal romps like “Heroin” and “Sister Ray.”

Today Metal Machine Music has become accepted by the avant-garde and highly regarded for its contribution to the “free music” movement in popular culture. The 11-member ZEITKRATZER ENSEMBLE from Berlin gave REED’s album a thorough listen and transcribed the sounds to create an acoustic music score for their ensemble to play live. Those familiar with the oft-criticized two-disc album might wonder how they pulled this off. ZEITKRATZER has the will and the musical ability to give the music the attention it deserves, having already collaborated with artists like KEITH ROWE, LEE RANALDO, CARSTEN NICOLAI and ELLIOTT SHARP.

Says LOU REED: “Let me give you a little background. Metal Machine Music was made over 30 years ago. In the year 2000, they re-released it with a new mastering job by BOB LUDWIG and myself - the 25th anniversary of Metal Machine Music. It was taken off the market three weeks after it was released in '75 Still, time goes by and people get more used to what you call loops and electronics and noise and feedback. Okay? ZEITKRATZER gets in touch with me, ‘Can we play Metal Machine Music live?’ I said, ‘It can't be done.’ They said, ‘We transcribed it. Let us send you a few minutes of it and you tell us.’ They sent it, I played it, and there it was. It was unbelievable. I said, ‘My God! Okay, go do it.’ They said, ‘Will you play guitar on the last part of it?’ So Metal Machine Music finally got performed live at the Berlin Opera House. It’s extraordinary, because all those years ago it was considered a career ender. And it almost was, believe you me.”

“The idea [to play Metal Machine Music live] was born a few years ago in a discussion with ULRICH KRIEGER, the saxophone player of ZEITKRATZER,” says REINHOLD FRIEDL, the group’s director. “We thought Metal Machine Music was a very important piece, comparable with the contemporary music pieces of that time. It’s constructed in a very orchestral way, so we thought this music asks for a live instrumentation. Ulrich and Luca Venitucci created a score and I think it really worked. We had already worked with noise musicians like MERZBOW or ZBIGNIEW KARKOWSKI and we’ve worked with electronics, manipulating and reworking our instrumental techniques with ‘electronic’ sounds. Ulrich’s and Luca’s transcription of Metal Machine Music is a 34 page score, which is a real masterwork of instrumentation. It includes orchestration techniques that you hear in DEBUSSY compositions, like mixtures of sounds.” zeitkratzer was clearly ready for the challenges of performing Metal Machine Music live, and drew packed houses to their presentation of the work. It reinforced their assertion that “rock ’n’ roll as serious contemporary music has been ignored for too long, in too arrogant a way.”

REED’s pronouncements on his most infamous opus have always been confusing, perhaps deliberately so, forcing listeners to come to their own interpretation about what they’re hearing. Of the original four-sided album he once quipped, “Anyone who gets to side four is dumber than I am.” On the other hand, he told rock critic LESTER BANGS that he’d intentionally placed sonic allusions to classical works like BEETHOVEN’s Eroica and Pastoral Symphonies into the mix. Whatever the truth is, there’s no denying the musicality (yes, the musicality) of ZEITKRATZER’s interpretation. With the 11 musicians – BURKHARD SCHLOTHAUER, violin; CHRISTIAN MESSER, viola; ULRICH MAISS, violoncello; ALEXANDER FRANGENHEIM, contrabass; ULRICH KRIEGER, soprano and tenor saxophones;, FRANZ HAUTZINGER, trumpet; MELVYN POORE, tuba; REINHOLD FRIEDL, piano; LUCA VENITUCCI, accordion; ADAM WEISMAN, percussion and LOU REED, solo guitar - spread out over a large stage, the ear is free to wander into and around the music, picking out rhythms, overtones, hints of melody and other nuances that were largely submerged in REED’s original all guitar and amp onslaught. The relentless sound forces the mind to put aside its preconceptions about what music is supposed to sound like, or feel like, or look like. The brain starts to implode, or explode, or dissolve Zen-like into the controlled chaos of the performance, discovering a strange exhilaration, accepting an invitation to explore the outer reaches of texture and timbre and experience a sonic freedom that’s rare in any art form.

Tracks:
Part One
Part Two
Part Three

Running Time: 50:43

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