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LP
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DIAL 026LP
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Gatefold LP version. Dial presents another album from Germany's Thies Mynther and Dirk von Lowtzow aka Phantom/Ghost. "We started out writing new material to perform on stage, after we had found out it was great fun to refrain our instrumentation to vocals, piano and bad acting. Originally very attracted to the -- as our label told us -- very clandestine idea of releasing three 12"s with very limited playability for DJs, we agreed not to ruin our Dial friends and work on an album instead. The topics we have always been drawn to are those with a bouquet of rather ominous sweetness, but this time to get rid of some of the ghosts conjured up during our séances proved not as easy as it is hopefully now easy on the ears to listen to this condensed summary of our insights. Some wonderful guests helped us through the mirror: our associated member, visual artist Michaela Meise, lends us her bell-like voice. She joins in the second bird hymn in the history of Phantom/Ghost, 'In The Tittery,' and embodies the role of the lonely concubine in our micro musical 'Phantom Of The Operette.' The amazing violoncello player Boram Lie, founding member of the Kaleidoskop Ensemble, currently also performing with Brandt Brauer Frick and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, gave the dead golems of cello arrangements we handed her so carelessly a life and expressivity we would not have dreamed of. Always operating on the verge of our capabilities ourselves (sometimes you might hear a groan on the piano track), we needed to finish the album with a rusty trombone performed with the fragile resoluteness of someone experienced in self-display, but just getting acquainted with the instrument. We found the perfect cast in actor Thomas Niehaus who accepted the challenge in the most elegant way. But we invite you herewith to decide for yourself whether you would like to join us for the ride..." --Phantom/Ghost
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CD
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DIAL 026CD
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Dial presents another album from Germany's Thies Mynther and Dirk von Lowtzow aka Phantom/Ghost. "We started out writing new material to perform on stage, after we had found out it was great fun to refrain our instrumentation to vocals, piano and bad acting. Originally very attracted to the -- as our label told us -- very clandestine idea of releasing three 12"s with very limited playability for DJs, we agreed not to ruin our Dial friends and work on an album instead. The topics we have always been drawn to are those with a bouquet of rather ominous sweetness, but this time to get rid of some of the ghosts conjured up during our séances proved not as easy as it is hopefully now easy on the ears to listen to this condensed summary of our insights. Some wonderful guests helped us through the mirror: our associated member, visual artist Michaela Meise, lends us her bell-like voice. She joins in the second bird hymn in the history of Phantom/Ghost, 'In The Tittery,' and embodies the role of the lonely concubine in our micro musical 'Phantom Of The Operette.' The amazing violoncello player Boram Lie, founding member of the Kaleidoskop Ensemble, currently also performing with Brandt Brauer Frick and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, gave the dead golems of cello arrangements we handed her so carelessly a life and expressivity we would not have dreamed of. Always operating on the verge of our capabilities ourselves (sometimes you might hear a groan on the piano track), we needed to finish the album with a rusty trombone performed with the fragile resoluteness of someone experienced in self-display, but just getting acquainted with the instrument. We found the perfect cast in actor Thomas Niehaus who accepted the challenge in the most elegant way. But we invite you herewith to decide for yourself whether you would like to join us for the ride..." --Phantom/Ghost
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12"
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DIAL 049EP
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This is the first single from Phantom/Ghost's full-length Thrown Out Of Drama School (DIAL 014CD). Thies Mynther's prepared piano and Dirk von Lowtzow's voice are the only ingredients on "The Shadow," a tribute to the great actor Peter O'Toole. You'll find the original song in two main parts plus another two gorgeous remixes: Carsten Jost comes up with a version as deep as the sea, and Pantha Du Prince produces another epic piece of contemporary dance music.
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CD
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DIAL 014CD
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This is the fourth full-length by Germany's Thies Mynther and Dirk von Lowtzow aka Phantom/Ghost. On Thrown Out Of Drama School, the duo travel light through a cheerfully upbeat world full of amicable malcontents, dallying dream-dancers and carefree loafers. Yet despite this terrestrial cast and the cutback instrumentation of the songs -- (prepared) piano and vocals -- Thrown Out Of Drama School is an exceedingly festive affair, real red-letter day music. Their common passion for the made-up, the thrown-together and the weird and wonderful has paved the way for Phantom/Ghost for the last ten years, and now they have arrived at a point where a dalliance with artificiality, mannerisms, exalted quotations and theatrical poses can be observed in its purest form: on the stage, in drama school, behind and in front of the velvet curtain. Even though Thrown Out Of Drama School is no "real" high-school musical, it loosely follows the concept of a musical -- a small and fantastical concert with nine compositions, albeit with a few rough edges. Even before the curtain rises, a timid waltz resounds. The introduction to "The Charge Of A Light Brigade" is a squint copy of an English march, with all the military rigour removed. "Thrown Out Of Drama School" is uptempo and bawdy -- a frolicsome ode to the art of willful dallying. Mynther's piano is caught up in close complicity with the vocals; at times as demonstratively docile and innocent as a "do-re-mi" finger exercise, only to wander off in the next moment, making a complete farce of its function as an accompanying instrument. Alongside these made-for-the-stage musical numbers, there are also songs that work on a visual level and conjure up film-like narratives. They transport the listener to far-flung regions, to Morocco, Miami, or even further, to surreal dream-worlds. One example is the musical scoring of the literary text "The Process" (after Brion Gysin) that tells of a hallucinatory trip across the Sahara. Sometimes the piano shimmers dully from the background, and then it resembles a laryngitic string ensemble, rasping and vibrating. This duet with the Berlin artist Michaela Meise (who also sings on several other songs) perfects the desert magic. Thrown Out Of Drama School pushes us into a theatre of the absurd, where you aren't sure if you're a member of the audience, or one of the players. Applause, the curtain falls.
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LP
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DIAL 014LP
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LP version. This is the fourth full-length by Germany's Thies Mynther and Dirk von Lowtzow aka Phantom/Ghost. On Thrown Out Of Drama School, the duo travel light through a cheerfully upbeat world full of amicable malcontents, dallying dream-dancers and carefree loafers. Yet despite this terrestrial cast and the cutback instrumentation of the songs -- (prepared) piano and vocals -- Thrown Out Of Drama School is an exceedingly festive affair, real red-letter day music. Their common passion for the made-up, the thrown-together and the weird and wonderful has paved the way for Phantom/Ghost for the last ten years, and now they have arrived at a point where a dalliance with artificiality, mannerisms, exalted quotations and theatrical poses can be observed in its purest form: on the stage, in drama school, behind and in front of the velvet curtain. Even though Thrown Out Of Drama School is no "real" high-school musical, it loosely follows the concept of a musical -- a small and fantastical concert with nine compositions, albeit with a few rough edges. Even before the curtain rises, a timid waltz resounds. The introduction to "The Charge Of A Light Brigade" is a squint copy of an English march, with all the military rigour removed. "Thrown Out Of Drama School" is uptempo and bawdy -- a frolicsome ode to the art of willful dallying. Mynther's piano is caught up in close complicity with the vocals; at times as demonstratively docile and innocent as a "do-re-mi" finger exercise, only to wander off in the next moment, making a complete farce of its function as an accompanying instrument. Alongside these made-for-the-stage musical numbers, there are also songs that work on a visual level and conjure up film-like narratives. They transport the listener to far-flung regions, to Morocco, Miami, or even further, to surreal dream-worlds. One example is the musical scoring of the literary text "The Process" (after Brion Gysin) that tells of a hallucinatory trip across the Sahara. Sometimes the piano shimmers dully from the background, and then it resembles a laryngitic string ensemble, rasping and vibrating. This duet with the Berlin artist Michaela Meise (who also sings on several other songs) perfects the desert magic. Thrown Out Of Drama School pushes us into a theatre of the absurd, where you aren't sure if you're a member of the audience, or one of the players. Applause, the curtain falls.
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