OM GOSSIP #20
The End (Is Not The End). Today Is A Window. Tomorrow I'll Escape.
Otomatik Muziek started on 21.4.2016. Otomatik Muziek will end on 21.3.2024.
Version: Could we have started out with something wiser than NEW DARK AGE? It was well before Covid, the new global wars, and James Bridle’s book of the same name. But it felt fitting. It had to be put out. 2016 was the year the thin ice broke and the amount of racist physical violence throughout germany rose to a non-ignorable height. It was released on on the death date of poet Paul Celan. I sweated this record out.
Another version: It all started back when we had a need for a new vessel for our outpourings - Martin wanted a medium for all the graphic ideas he had which didn’t fit into the work with his client-based DICEY STUDIOS; and I wanted to put out music I liked by artists I felt had a similar vibe, and also for the music I made. So OM was one part radical self fulfillment and one part network-building, a means to communicate. It also was way of being, a way of keeping in touch. At that time I became the father of a child, touring wasn’t possible (because I wanted to be as present as possible), and OM was a perfect tool to reach out. And to fuel the kinship between Martin & me. It was also clear that OM would be (mostly) limited to tapes: cheap & fast in production, and back then still an unacceptable medium for the pretentious purveyors of musical taste - they seemed apt for our mission.
I still dream of that yoga zombie: I remember when Nils Verougstraete of Steward Martha and tape label KERM passed through town, played an astonishingly disorienting noise set, and it was clear I wanted to do OM#2 with him; or when I stumbled across a recording by Julius Gabriel (listen to his new album!) and thus the idea for the ECHONOMY SPLITS took shape - this was heading somewhere good.
When the pandemic hit in 2020, two of our tapes by Savvas Metaxas and Fließgewässer kind of went under - sadly, as I consider both as effing good. Yet, nothing sold as bad as this tape, but who am I to say, I might be a bit biased. We also found a fair and patient distributor in ANOST and paid a short visit to Spotify, only to find out it diminished the tape sales without any positive effects for anyone. Maybe this also marked the beginning of the end.
On the one hand, we started to work with artists from all over the place, like London’s Lucia H. Chung, incredibly quirky sound artist Susanne Dundler, or Night Foundation from Miami, selecting music that was affiliated with the noise underground, but took twists in different directions, from free jazz (Lucia Schmuck’s video is still so mind-melting) to ambient folk. But the signs for a change accumulated. Tapes got more expensive. Printing the inlays got more expensive. Postal rates went crazy. When we started out, it was possible to send a tape for 7€ + 5€ postal service to almost wherever. Now, we are at a point where we have to sell them for roughly 9€. And who the fuck pays 15€ or more additionally just for the postage? Tapes were great because they were affordable. For a lot of people. This isn’t the case anymore. As a result, even with our small editions of 50-100 tapes, the tapes don’t sell out.
The definite turning point came two years ago. The digital benefit sampler FOR THE LACK OF BETTER WORDS features 20 tracks by such diverse artists as Laure Boer, Tintin Patrone, Phantom Horse, Son Of Buzzi and many many others, but nearly nobody purchased that one, for the lack of interest. Over the years, we’ve sent out tons of press packages, but no one took notice. The work we put into that thing didn’t equal with the outcome. Then: why the fuck should we go on?
So eight years and 40 releases later, it feels like it’s the right time to end this thing for good. We released a ton of stuff, worked with so many inspiringly tripping people, had a lot of great discussions and some more toxic disputes, put up a few shows, put out scarfs, a trilogy (by Joachim Nordwall) and even one LP by Maria Bertel & Nina Garcia together with Kraak and No Lagos Musique. Over the years, I have seen too many grumpy old scenesters complaining - and I have no need to stand in that line, so we are going to end this episode with a smile.
The smile: two last releases. The final tape in Joachim Nordwall’s HEALING MUSIC tryptichon, and a new antifascist space jam from my own improv unit DRNTTCKS.
Joachim’s latest recording is exactly what I am up to these days - distilled rhythms reduced to their core, selected sounds from an endless array possible noise, mindfully put into order. Joachim says these were part of a personal healing process - as austere as these pieces are, they are instantly touching.
DRNTTCKS’ DUNKELFELDER is one dark chimaeric jam cut into five parts. It feeds itself from a small array of returning melodic and rhythmic structures, guitar echos, tape/voice loops - variations on a theme. Back to the first version: We finished that one right when in another part of germany a majority of people voted for the neo-fascist “Alternative für Deutschland”, and as this country has a long tradition in burying racist crimes and concealing altright structures, it felt apt to put this out as one big fuck you, because OM, as well as our music, was and always will be a means against hate. Thank you all for your time.
This earth is finite, but space is still the place. Stay tuned for one last update in the coming weeks.
We are ugly, but we still have the music.
Ambassador Kaputt