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KOMMISSAR HJULER & MAMA BÄR - Asylum Lunaticum

Format: CD
Label & Cat.Number: Intransitive Recordings INT033
Release Year: 2009
Note: collection of recordings from rare or out of print releases; suburban drama dadaism at its best !
Price (incl. 19% VAT): €12.00
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"Kommissar Hjuler und Mama Bär wirken in der improvisierten Landschaft der Musik bisweilen wie ein rüder Witz, ein ordentliches geblähtes Aufstoßen sämtlicher nicht-musikalischer Regeln. Das macht ihre Arbeit nicht besser zur kategorisieren, aber mitnichten einfacher zu beschreiben. Wes Kind die beiden Künstler sind, bemerkt am ehesten bei der Zitation ihrer musikalischen Unterstützer, zu denen auch Rudolf Eb.er von Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock gehört. In dessen Umfeld des schnellen Tonschnitts und der leisen Dynamik passen sich Hjuler und Bär geradezu feinsinnig ein, besteht der erste Text der CD (um ein Beispiel zu nennen) aus den aneinandergeschnittenen Fragmenten des Hjuler’schen Atmens während seiner Lesung des Grimmelhausentextes „Simplicissimus“. In der Tat die bemerkenswert schmerzhafteste Art der Sound Poetry in der sich das Klacken der Rekordertaste wie eine Drehradmanifestation am gestörten Funkradio ausnimmt.
Überhaupt liegt der CD ein großer Humoransatz zugrunde. Mama Bär singt und spricht mit herabgezogenen Formanten, mal klar, mal eingeäschert in gedehnte Tonschnittabfolgen, am Tonkopf entlanggezogen. Wenn Kommissar Hjuler auf Dänisch über das reformfreudige Polizeiwesen des Nachbarstaates resümiert, wird klar, dass sich die Idee mittels eingefügter hochgepitchter Stimmfragmente aka Kommissar Hjelium und Spieluhrklingeln wahrhaft traumhaft ad absurdum führen lässt. Absurd ist nicht ganz richtig, trifft die Beschreibung wohl eher nebensächlich den Hjuler/Bär’schen Kern der Sache, denn grundsätzlich entzieht sich ihr umfangreiches Werk dem Betrachter bei genauerer Analyse des klanglichen Sachverhaltes. Sehr speziell aber fein." [Thorsten Soltau, AEMAG]

"Intimate, absurd, feral and aggressive in its homemade weirdness, the music of Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär has been a well-kept secret for too long. Hjuler & Bär have self-published their dada-esque sound poetry experiments on small-edition lathe-cut LPs, tapes, and CDRs for years, usually adorning them with elaborate junk sculptures and paintings. Intransitive is proud to collect their best recordings so far onto a single, widely available CD so that anyone can hear the music without making a major financial investment. The husband and wife duo uses deceptively simple means - typically just their voices, a cassette-tape recorder and a microphone - to create astonishing suburban dramas that are somehow both sweetly charming and staggeringly psychotic, sometimes at the same time. Join Kommissar Hjuler and Mama Bär as they perform acts of banal heroics, like exploring the basement taking their son for a bicycle ride walking with a red shirt into a field of cattle pondering reforms made to the Danish police system all viewed through the unhinged lens. Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär are painters, sculptors, film-makers, and musicians based in Flensburg, Germany, near the Danish border. Their artwork has been exhibited in galleries and at festivals around the world. They collaborated with like-minded artists such as Thurston Moore, Arnulf Meifert, John Wiese, Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock, Jan Iwers, and Af Ursin, among many others." [label info / we corrected the typos, sorry]

"The career of Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär has so far been covered with a blanket. Only those in 'the know' knew about this group from Germany, who have released a whole bunch of CDRs, lathe cut vinyl, acetates and cassettes. Usually limited to a handful copies (7 to 28 for the pieces here), but perhaps that will change now. The seven pieces selected by Intransitive are from those rare releases and may shed a light on what they do. Maybe its incorrect to refer to them as a band as four pieces are by Hjuler and three by Mama Bär. Its not easy to say how this music sounds, but its all heavily based on voices and tape manipulation. Quite incorrect too to say that this is noise, even when parts of it are quite loud, but then 'Meine Erste Zeitmaschine' is very, very soft. Long pieces also here at work. I think its fair to say that Kommissar Hjuler & Mama Bär are outsiders. They don't belong to any school or genre of music, but create a sort of sound poetry of their own. Poetry as voice,
speaking or singing (on a bicycle), is the thing around which things are centered. Henri Chopin like in 'HJCVGrimmelshausen' or simply not of this world in 'Meine Erste Zeitmaschine'. My problem would be that this is all a bit too long, but I can see the potential of getting this out on a regular CD. For many probably a fine first introduction." [FdW / Vital Weekly]


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