reviews
EM411 | 08/2004
Konrad Bayer is based in Munich and has put out tracks on a few compilations, an album called Dreams Of Leaving on the Genesungswerk label and a pair of albums on his own CDr imprint, Digital Folklore. More intriguing yet is his work with author Mathias Hirth, with whom he recorded "an audiobook, Al Wahid,... about getting lost in North Africa". Well, it's a big place. He now has an eight-track collection, Shall We Go To The Park? on the Autoplate netlabel, with a new release apparently to follow soon. And I can't wait to hear it, because Shall We Go...? is an absolutely fascinating lo-volume listen. It's just a delight, the way that Bayer toys with loops - often field recordings - in creating textures that at times start out as being somewhat difficult to get to grips with, but subtly pan out into deft, melodic pieces constructed mainly around acoustic guitar phrases punctuated with electronic blips and hits: in effect, it's indietronics but with a dose of collage-based abstraction. As an example of a style of music that is constructed using a real range of techniques and sound sources, this is superb stuff, and while I might be more of a stay-at-home-with-a-cup-of-tea-and-a-nice-piece-of-homemade-cake guy than Autoplate's suggestion that this is "best enjoyed while picknicking underneath the trees in the park, relaxing on a quilt," it still makes me hungry for more.
So when is that new release coming out? Get to it, Autoplate.
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Denis Kolokol | 09/2004
A Munich based guitarist Konrad Bayer is one of the fresh hopes of the experimental scene. Certainly Konrad makes music that works over a long period of time and he makes it without exotic complexity, with a high level of simplicity. There's something wise, pedantic and inscrutable, but at the same time quite understandable: for brain or body, no matter.
The basic musician's instruments are a guitar and an old game console Atari. They generate tones of loops, few rhythms; classic guitar passages are not in the least classic. There're many post-guitarists who produce endless melancholic howls or senseless abstractions. For sure, there're some interesting representatives of the guitar independent amongst them: Derek Bailey, Olaf Rupp, Joseph Suchy; moreover I like much guitar works of The Moglass. But they all dwell on their own orbits, which are hard-hitting by common dwellers, who can only be delighted with insanity and strangeness of their music, but no one moves on to the way of understanding it. So Konrad Bayer stays within the limits of sensible sounding, packing his own guitar feelings with it, penciling it with the non-importunate electronics. In my opinion, Shall We Go To The Park? is an example of the fundamental electroacoustic, which wouldn't mind to pretend to be comeliness so that one could understand it. And I appeal to the whole Mesoamerica pantheon, he does this very reasonably.
http://www.indie.kiev.ua/
BR | 11/2004
Konrad Bayer is a German artist from Munich who has released a CD album before on a less known German label Genesungswerk, a nice album with very decent personal ambient music and a good cover design. Now this year the net-label Autoplate released 8 mp3 tracks by Konrad Bayer, a release called 'Shall we go to the park?' with a length of almost 28 minutes. It's quite personal music, similar to Manual's sensibility, or Pub, although different in sound. The mellow guitar sound is often present here, mixed with well chosen other electronic sounds, soften beats sometimes, chimes more often, blurred voice
samples... Looped little melodies, catching the attention repeating through the tracks, which are like sketches, catching a moment to
present it through sound. Some tracks are a bit stripped down and don't have the full sound of some previous Bayer's releases. Very
good intimate music with sketch and ambience qualities.
http://www.staalplaat.com/vital
Bernhard Straub | 11/2006
Neu ist das nicht mehr so ganz, das Release von Konrad Bayer. Gerade hat es sich in meinen Player gemogelt und schleicht sich zum frühen Abend angenehm in die Hörgänge. Es findet sich viel akustische Gitarre in den acht Titeln, die von merkwürdigen Klangfetzen und gelegentlichen Beats umgeben sind.
Absorbed beginnt mit einem irren Jahrmarks-Drehwurm, dem sich sarkastisch ein Beat hinzumogelt, die Gitarre plunkert dazu, ein bemerkenswertes Stück zum Auftakt. Viel stiller wird es dann mit Dewy, irgendwie ein Sommer-Stück, grüne Wiese und so. A time and a place for everything wirft ein paar vermuffelte Sprach-Samples in die Runde und leitet über zum Monday afternoon, das von der akustischen Gitarre dominiert wird. Tomorrow we’ll see ist mein Lieblingsstück auf diesem Release, es erinnert in der Stimmung an Titel von The Moglass. Dragonflies flirren über dem See, ziehen sich aber dann zurück und hinterlassen eine stille Landschaft. Small thing bleibt aber nicht der Weite verhaftet, sondern schaut mal, was so alles im Kleinen krabbelt und wuselt, natürlich auch hier interessante Entdeckungen möglich. Mit Us two klingt Shall we go to the park aus, und jetzt ist die Umwelt so gut wie ausgeblendet, zurück bleiben wir beide…
http://www.windwalzer.de/?p=35
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