Asmus Tietchens and Thomas Köner exercise a collective marketing geniuswith their decision to end a fruitful collaborative series in brute,anticlimactic style, issuing this limited, (naturally) expensive boxmeant to house the duo's previous four discs. Such closure isespecially disappointing as it arrives just behind last year's n,Kontakt der Jünglinge's most dense and engrossing work to date, ahaunting deepspace symphony of icy gleam and relentless sprawl, one ofmy late-year favorites. For that disc the artists' very individualsensibilities seemed to work side-by-side with a precision bothbeautiful and terrible, for the potent, near-epic quality of thedislocation induced by the music. The fusion of n markedconsiderable progression from the past three discs which, whilecertainly worthwhile, never quite rose above their realities,essentially gallery-space improvs with pieces forming around anelaborate cut-and-paste of Köner's expansive drones, dark fieldcaptures, and Tietchens' industrial ambiance. Recorded live inAmsterdam in 2002, n left me with the hope that I need notshell out for another of Köner's indigestible double-disc drone opuses,or feel pressured into Die Stadt's 18-strong Tietchens reissuecampaign, the hope that I might be duly satisfied by the next Kontaktder Jünglinge disc, sure to be even better than the last. This hope isno more. If, in the very least, Frühruin is an attempt to makeup for the ascetic packaging of the first four discs, it fails.Offering little more than stiffer, glossier cardboard and differentdimensions, the box mirrors the information-less design of it intendedcontents, without a photo, a trace of supplemental artwork, or any kindof text statement from the typically silent musicians. The enclosed 3"disc likewise does little to justify such a costly shelving unit.Lacking any of n's new grandeur, the 15-min., two-track disc isa useless, uneventful, and embarrassingly short document that strugglesto rival the weaker moments of the duo's weaker releases. Forcompletists looking to consolidate the flimsy slipcases of the firstfour discs Frühruin might be an inevitability, but it is stilla shock that not even a full-length disc could have been included,especially given the prolific nature of both artists. If somehow I amwrong in assuming that this box marks the end of Köner's and Tietchens'collaboration, then it becomes an even more meaningless gesture. Read More
