You Make Me Real
Brandt Brauer Frick have no time for cultural pessimism. These three guys are way too busy actualizing their own unique vision of purely acoustic dance music “that sounds as if you created a common denominator for Steve Reich and Theo Parrish” (Groove Magazine). It makes sense then that You Make Me Real is the name of their debut LP – a dialogue between work and artist, a thank-you to the comrades-in-arms, a declaration of love to the listener. And a bow before the spiritual fathers.
“Using the tonal richness of classical instruments to play techno feels very natural for us, one can say that our music has grown organically out of our backgrounds. We had felt for years that most instances of combining techno and classical music lack an authentic approach. Instead of using only the typical epic orchestra or piano sounds, we love to explore the dirty and percussive sides of those instruments, adapting techniques from composers like John Cage or Helmut Lachenmann: preparing our piano with screws and rubbers, knocking against every single part of an instrument, until we find that one great sound.”
Whereas Daniel Brandt and Jan Brauer had already met in the Jazz Band of their school and later founded the project “Scott,” playing jazz-influenced club music, Paul Frick had studied classical composition with Friedrich Goldmann at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK). When the three met in 2008, they discovered quickly that they should make music together. After releasing EPs on Tartelet Records and their self-founded labels Doppelschall and The Gym, their debut album You Make Me Real on !K7 is most intense manifestation of their unique chemistry so far.
Too often, the acknowledgement of influences succeeds only in manifesting superficial crossovers, a (re)combination of styles, of dead material. Not so with Brandt Brauer Frick. When different worlds are confronted within their music, be it the pulse pattern minimalism à la Steve Reich dissolving into a deep house panorama, or a polymetric layering of sounds until the kick-drum finally reinstates the principle of the collective hip-shake, you can always be certain of one thing: no matter what disparate elements come together, it always sounds like Brandt, like Brauer, and like Frick.
And just what is that sound? The sound is in their method, the precise selection and straddling of techniques. Their fuel is nothing less than the history of music, and their goal is to create a sound aesthetic which adapts itself to a club as well as a concert hall. At night, it can be flung at the party pack. During the day, the home listening experience reveals new facets.
On “R. W. John,” BBF perpetuate John Cage’s influence, employing 1:1 the piano preparation of his Sonatas and Interludes. In the title track of the album, they interweave the kind of syncopation and darkness typical of the much talked about intersection of dubstep and techno, but create something else, really, with their signature interpretations of percussion and piano concepts.
For the epic polymetric house track “Bop,” Daniel Brandt and Julian Schleef have shot a spectacular video that shows the piece performed by an ensemble of 11 musicians, accompanied by ballerinas. The “Bop” video has already been widely spread on the internet; even Kanye West posted it on his blog. Another highlight of the album is called “Teufelsleiter,” which means “devil's ladder,” being the name of an expressive harmonic model rooted in baroque music. Brandt Brauer Frick's slow-motion interpretation comes with timpani, pizzicato strings and a tuba, pushing the boundaries of what techno music can sound like. “Heart Of Stone” features Milian Vogel's virtuoso bass clarinet, whose syncopated figures stab into a charmingly wonky beat, produced by knocking against various parts of a piano.
It doesn’t really matter which one of the nine tracks you take; in the end, this band always meets an ideal standard: all those heterogeneous points in sound space gather in an almost frightening conclusiveness, becoming no longer identifiable. They produce something totally new and this says: You Make Me Real.
More news from the BBF camp: after months of gracing stages from Berghain to Mutek as a semi-acoustic/electronic trio, the band has expanded their live line-up. From now on, the Brandt Brauer Frick experience -a purely acoustic affair- is delivered by a 10-headed(!) ensemble. Curiosity is more than appropriate, as the band presents their original vision onto the stages of the world. Stay tuned for live dates!
YOU MAKE ME REAL / OUT NOVEMBER 2010 ON !K7 RECORDS
TRACKLIST
- CORKY PRELUDE
- BOP
- PAPARAZZI
- CAFFEINE
- MI CORAZON
- HEART OF STONE
- R. W. JOHN
- YOU MAKE ME REAL
- TEUFELSLEITER
Supported by the Initiative Musik Non-profit Project Company Ltd. with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media on the basis of a resolution passed by the German Bundestag.