ARTICLES
Ten Questions: Fat Jon
MUTEK 2006

ALBUMS
65daysofstatic
A Cloud Mireya
Ambarchi and Ng
Another Elec. Musician
Derek Bailey
Band Ane
Barzin
Black Gold 360
The Blow
Boduf Songs
Childs
Darc Mind
Dosh
Duopandamix
Fat Jon & Styrofoam
Liam Gillick
Shuta Hasunuma
Tim Hecker
Ilkae
Jack's Son
Richard Jäverling
Jazzkammer
Junior Boys
Last Days
Hanno Leichtmann
Luomo
Mandelbrot Set
Mountaineer
N.Phect & Dizplay
Part Timer
Karsten Pflum
Benoît Pioulard
Plus Device
+/- {Plus/Minus}
Relay
Saroos
Seht
Shedding
So Percussion
Sybarite
Trio Vopá
Marshall Watson
Weather Report
Donato Wharton
Christopher Willits
Xela

COMPILATIONS/MIXES
ESL Remixed
Four Tet
Garnier & Craig
Ginglik Saturdays
Michael Mayer
Henrik Schwarz

3"/7"/10"/12"/EPs
Colleen
Delano and Xpansul
Detritus
Ed Devane
Eskimo
Feathers
Goldmund
Ezekiel Honig/Graphic
Ezekiel Honig
Eliot Lipp
Robert Lippok
Alejandro Lopez
Evan Marc
Porter & Carr
Sebastian Russell
Somone Else
Spaceships & Pings
SplitEP3
Simon Whetham

Hanno Leichtmann: Nuit du plomb
Karaoke Kalk

Why is Nuit du Plomb released under Hanno Leichtmann's real name and not his better-known Static moniker? Perhaps the Berlin-based composer wanted the music to be broached free of any associations with his past work, or perhaps because he created it to be experienced as a sonic illustration of Hans Henny Jahnn's novel The Night of Lead—an electronic soundtrack, as it were. Or maybe the music's slightly more ambient (not to mention onomatopoeic in the case of the rustling “Wind”) character had something to with it. It's a moot point ultimately, as the music bears his melodic imprint. Hear, for example, how deliciously the vaporous synth melodies glisten in “Fenster” and, though the song's churning machine rhythms evoke Pole, the array of lovely minimal melodies that glides so breezily through “Elvira” reveals Leichtmann's touch.

One of the album's most interesting aspects is that some pieces begin in ambient mode but gradually lose their background character as they build into vibrant, imposing settings, the seething doomscape “Reiter” and “Anders,” whose steam-driven horn noise revives memories of Jon Hassell's elephantine trumpet style, two cases in point. At other times, noisy intrusions pierce the Cluster-styled quietude (“Keller”). Like the album in general, “Abspann” entrances, regardless of whether it's attributed to Static or Leichtmann and classified as ambient or instrumental electronica.

November 2006