blank plays duden

coverart by Tobias Rehberger

3 men, 3 record players, 3 records

Ruediger Carl is one of the most important figures to have emerged from European free jazz. Musicians Oliver Augst and Christoph Korn, who are a generation younger, work at the cross-roads of improvisation, installation, electronics, and theory. Theory and sound fit the piece “like a made-to-measure suit”, writes music magazine Spex. Oliver Augst, Ruediger Carl, and Christoph Korn have appeared as “Blank” in different projects and releases from FMP and GROB international. Most recently they produced a wild mix of post-punk and rock ‘n’ roll with renowned American artist Raymond Pettibon. (CD: "blank meets Pettibon", live from Philharmony Cologne, GROB 2003) Their latest project takes the theme of “collection” as a starting point. Oliver Augst, Ruediger Carl, and Christoph Korn have sifted through their own recordings and releases from recent years, and have broken them down into microscopically small parts, creating countless strange and colourful fragments. These fragments are then recorded on vinyl in the form of so-called “locked grooves”. On a “locked grooves” record the grooves form concentric circles, which means that the pick-up
arm remains in the same position in a revolution, producing a loop of exactly 1.8 seconds. Over 200 of these loops form the musical material for the DUDEN performance, which include short songs, sounds, and stories.

DUDEN is released in May, 2004 on vinyl by Cologne-based label “eventuell”, part of the a-Musik company. The sleeve has been designed by Tobias Rehberger. In March 2004 the new CD “Post-Blank”, designed by Albert Oehlen, will be released by GROB in Cologne.

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