The "Plays" project came out over the course of 2001 on Bottrop-Boy(two 7" singles) and Staubgold (three mini-LPs). Each release in theseries consisted of two tracks. This CD is a handy way to get them allat once, and perhaps to understand the project more coherently. Whilethere's little information in the insert for those of us who can't readGerman, it's not hard to guess, given Ehlers's past form—particularlyhis membership of the defunct high-concept Mille Plateaux actAutopoieses—that there'll be some thinking behind it.The Staubgold site helpfully offers this quotation from Ehlers: "The'Plays' series deals with 'reference' ... Everyone is sampling;sampling is the figure of historic devices in digital music. My idea isnot to sample, but to refer to historic places and figures." And so herefers not only to musicians (Albert Ayler, Cornelius Cardew, andRobert Johnson) but to actor and director John Cassavetes, and theenigmatic Hubert Fichte, who is variously documented on the web as aqueer theorist, an anthropologist, and a beat poet.
These referential intentions work well for the most part, reversing theusual process of listening to music based on sampled material: insteadof noticing or just assuming I'm hearing "quotations" from other music,I've tried to decode it using my knowledge—however pitiful at times—ofits subject.
Thankfully, though it may enrich it, knowledge of the five subjects'biographies is not essential to appreciating the music. "PlaysCornelius Cardew", one of the 7"s, and "Plays John Cassavetes", one ofthe mini-LPs, are basically drone and loop-based, using organs andviolins—sometimes as walls of sound, others more sparsely. Ehlers takesa much more interesting approach on the "Plays Albert Ayler" and "PlaysHubert Fichte" mini-LPs, confidently subjecting raw recordings to hisdigital knife. These are the must-listen highlights of the CD. "PlaysHubert Fichte" puts lazily picked guitar from Joseph Suchy in thebackground of a night chorus of buzzing and chirping modifications,like improvisation overheard on a hot evening. The meticulouslyarranged "Plays Albert Ayler" uses similar processing techniques but,being based on Anka Hirsch's cello and other orchestralinstrumentation, is more austere and graceful. You may have heard thissort of thing before, but here it's done with a taste and judgmentthat's far from common.
The CD closes with the "Plays Robert Johnson" 7", one side processedguitar fumbling, and the other a micro-house funk-out that's funny butdefinitely out of character with the rest of the series. Nonetheless,it adds to the diversity of this occasionally inspired collection,which confirms Ehlers as one of the best musicians working at thetheory-heavy end of the post-digital scene.
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