In the late '70s and early '80s, German-based art collective Head Resonance Company used throbbing electronics, bass guitar, and metal percussion as a major component of its multifaceted endeavors, which included multimedia installations, performance art, graphics, and concerts. This CD/DVD set collects tracks that were originally released only on vinyl a few years back and documents the group's wide-ranging activities throughout the various stages of their fascinating history.
Peter Elsner and Benjamin Heidersberger founded the Head Resonance Company in 1978 as an interdisciplinary art and research project concerned with studying how ideas are realized in space and time. Under the umbrella of the HRC, they also explored vocals as simply Head Resonance, orchestral samples as Organon, and German new wave as Peter Pixel. It's a combination of the latter and HRC proper that's on this CD. A motif of alarm runs through the fourteen untitled HRC tracks as pulsing electronics, delayed saxophones, bass guitar, and other percussion crash against each other in an atonal frenzy. They also play with beats and voices, trying something different with each track. These songs are brief experiments that are unpredictable but thrilling. Less interesting, however, are the five Peter Pixel tracks appended to the end. A deliberate send-up of Teutonic new wave, the purposeful repetition on these tracks simply becomes too monotonous and militaristic to engage my attention for long.
On the other hand, the DVD included in this package is even more tantalizing than the HRC tracks on the CD. The program is a tour through the collective's archives and activities, presenting snippets chronologically alongside music from each experiment. Yet the overview is also a bit frustrating because each segment lacks depth and context, instead focusing superficially on the visual and musical aspects of their projects without going into too much detail. I would have loved to find out more about the time they used a false demo to get an invitation to play at a jazz festival, where they proceeded to play their dissonant anti-jazz unabated, or else the time different members of the group visited a gallery opening wearing pig masks and carrying radios playing different music. Their vocal experiments also sound pretty amazing, and I wish they had included selections from that period on the CD. As a teaser, however, the DVD succeeds marvelously.
19 Tracks is a great introduction to this decades-spanning collective. Their music is enthralling on its own and supplementing it with a DVD of historical highlights makes for an irresistible package.
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