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LP
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COUNT 019LP
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Counterchange presents Eigenlicht by Portuguese-German multi-instrumentalist, producer, and award-winning film composer, John Gürtler. Gently teetering between krautrock-influenced synth mantras and saxophone improvisations, down-tempo electronica, sound design experiments, and moments of rich ambience, Eigenlicht is a diverse album of electro-acoustic music. The 11 tracks were recorded between two studios and on location at Berlin's infamous Teufelsberg, the abandoned Cold War era US spy-radio and radar outpost named "Field Station Berlin", surrounded by forest to the west of the city. A document of Gürtler's development, many of the pieces here were first laid down in his bunker-like former basement studios at Drontheimer Straße in north Berlin, before he eventually elevated above ground -- both physically and musically -- building his current Paradox Paradise studio and becoming an established film music composer. In 2019 John won the European Film Academy Award for Best Score, for his soundtrack for Nora Fingscheidt's debut feature Systemsprenger (System Crasher). In recent years John collaborated on a number of projects with acclaimed German producer and composer Phillip Sollmann aka Efdemin, performing live and releasing the Gegen Die Zeit EP on Sky Walking (SKYWALK 003LP, 2017). In part an ode to the Macbeth Systems M5 modular synthesizer, with its three oscillators, much of the album features the towering instrument, whose uniquely rich tone and rumbling, pure bass end characterizes tracks like "Eigenlicht", "M5", "Synthetics", and "Five Voice". John's primary background is in acoustic music, coming from woodwind and keyboard instruments, improvisation and composition. The leap into working with computers and electronic instruments found him exploring ways to make synths and samplers sound as organic as possible. You can hear a polyphonic soviet-built Electronics EM-25 (Электроника ЭМ-25) on "Russia Falling". Part of John's ongoing search took him to amplifying synthesizers in unusual spaces, from the vast basement corridors outside his old Drontheimer Straße studio to the twelve-second-long reverb spaces of the Teufelsberg Station. The track "Old Devil's Hill" is a spontaneous composition played on saxophone, recorded in the middle of Field Station Berlin's highest dome. Through connecting different kinds of old and new wind controllers, John was able to play synthesizers with a controller similar to a saxophone or clarinet, that would recognize lip pressure and intensity of breath.
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