Concept 1 96:VR (Thomas Brinkmann variations) CD

Over 10 years down the line, it's safe to say that Richie Hawtin's 1996 "Concept 1" series stands out as a body of work that perfectly represents the spirit of the time. Marking a year long correlation between musical development and the progression of time, the original series consisted of 24 tracks spread over twelve monthly 12" singles and was strictly limited to 2000 copies per release. However, before the release of the "Concept 1 96:CD" in February 1998, Thomas Brinkmann made the trip from Germany to Windsor to play Hawtin some of his "Variations" of the series. The results were mind blowing - even by Hawtin's standards - opening up a space where emptiness and substance neatly overlapped to conjure up sounds that no one had ever heard before. It started back in Cologne where Brinkmann had employed the "Concept 1" series as part of an experiment together with his own custom built turntable system (including a 30 kilo plate and 2 SME 309 tone arms utilizing both Ortofon and Van Den Hul moving-coil pick-ups). By playing Hawtin's original compositions on his two-arm turntable - slowing down the speed of the records and separating the left and right channels - Brinkmann identified previously unheard dynamics within the recordings and a melodic displacement between the channels. Even the imperfections of the vinyl pressing process added new character to his variations. Essentially the "Variations" contain the same information as the original "Concepts". Like the idea of cloning twins, Brinkmann has taken Richie's DNA and nurtured subtle mutations to create a strangely familiar but altogether different set of grooves, allowing us to hear what he hears by enhancing something that was there but unheard until now in a triumph of sensibility over creativity. In the true spirit of Minus, he has used an unorthodox technique based on theories of alternative listening and experimentation to produce a startlingly different perspective. A scientific yet natural way of revealing the complexity of what was originally deemed minimal. 2007 would appear to be an optimal year in which to re-visit and to re-listen to these groundbreaking pieces, collected here together in a very limited CD double pack and especially remastered by Stefan Betke (aka Pole) from the Berlin based label Scape.

I.A. Bericochea