On Ambiq, Max Lodebauer collaborates with Swiss clarinet virtuoso Claudio Puntin and drummer Samuel Rohrer for an LP of low-lit grooves and ominous ambience that combines live instrumentation and warm desk work to great effect.
max loderbauer
Max Loderbauer, Transparenz
August 22, 2013 – 12:01 AM
With Trasparenz, listeners find perennial man-behind-the-curtain Max Loderbauer step forward and introduce himself to record buyers as a solo artist.
Ricardo Villalobos, Dependent And Happy
September 19, 2012 – 12:01 AM
Across 10 sprawling sides of vinyl, Ricardo Villalobos leaves several years of missed opportunities in the rearview and reaffirms his role as one of dance music’s most peculiar and vital voices.
LWE Podcast 125: Tobias Freund
June 18, 2012 – 12:01 AM
LWE got in touch with Freund to quiz him about his new album with Atomâ„¢, the secret to a good collaboration, and whether we’ll be hearing more from NSI in the near future. He also put together our 125th exclusive podcast, a far reaching collection of influences and favorites that beams you directly into the mind of one of dance music’s most enduring players.
tobias., Remixes
May 9, 2012 – 10:01 AM
Ostgut Ton launches its Underton sub-label, an outlet for remixes, with Efdemin and the duo of Ricardo Villalobos & Max Loderbauer’s takes on Tobias Freund’s debut LP.
Vladislav Delay, Latoma EP
July 21, 2011 – 10:01 AM
The Latoma EP constitutes a pretty sharp left turn for both Echochord and Vladislav Delay, and a pretty stellar one at that.
Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Horizontal Structures
April 19, 2011 – 10:01 AM
Where Vertical Ascent was made up of four discrete and easily approachable tracks, Horizontal Structures works most effectively as an entire set, one you may find a bit difficult to fully digest.
nsi., Sync
April 7, 2011 – 10:01 AM
Sync doesn’t feel like the group’s next logical step so much as a blatant restatement of purpose: these are nsi.’s machines, and this is everything they can do.
LWE Does Unsound Festival New York
February 19, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Since 2003, the Unsound Festival has been about bringing the disparate impulses inherent in electronic music under one roof — a music event urging you to scratch your chin one minute and dance your ass off the next. Presenting itself like a film festival but booked like a forward-thinking summertime weekender, Unsound has consistently showcased brilliant and challenging new sounds without ripping them from their underground trappings. Any music festival as likely to feature Sunn 0))) as Zomby is sure to pique my interest, but by nature of it happening in Krakow, Poland, its ridiculously open bookings stood quite a bit out of my reach. New York City — its population overeducated, overstimulated, and relatively accepting of high-end dance music thanks in no small part to Beyond Booking’s forward-thinking Bunker parties — always seemed like the perfect candidate for something like Unsound, and for a week in February 2010, my fair city got it. And not even a knock-off, either! The Unsound Festival New York brought a truly impressive and deliciously diverse line-up of electronic musicians — asking you to ponder, get down, or do both at once — to underground venues across Manhattan and Brooklyn. And I was lucky enough to trudge through New York’s famous February weather to witness the festival on Little White Earbuds’s behalf. (Very big ups are due to Gamall Awad of Backspin Promotions for making this possible.)
LWE Interviews Moritz Von Oswald
February 5, 2010 – 11:01 AM
Moritz Von Oswald is simultaneously one of the most influential and enigmatic figures in techno. As part of Basic Channel, Maurizio, Rhythm and Sound, and other configurations with Mark Ernestus and a revolving cast of musicians and vocalists, Von Oswald became one of Europe’s first techno innovators. Basic Channel defined dance minimalism early on, both through a love of repetition as a form of change, and a willingness to let the music speak for itself. More recently, Von Oswald has demonstrated that his reach extends far past the dub-inflected electronic soundscapes he helped introduce to dance music, with stunning remixes of not just Tony Allen, but also Ravel and Mussorgsky. Finally, last year’s Vertical Ascent matched Von Oswald with Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay, Luomo) and Max Loderbauer (nsi, Sun Electric) in an improvisational group, yielding a standout release of 2009 by any measure. LWE had the distinct privilege of speaking with Moritz Von Oswald in advance of his trio’s American debut at New York’s Unsound Festival. Like his music itself, Von Oswald’s approach to thinking about music is simple and direct. But like his music, depth and complexity are immediately apparent.
nsi., Eitherway
February 4, 2010 – 11:01 AM
More and more, the recordings of Max Loderbauer and Tobias Freund’s Non Standard Institute seem to parallel the ineffable and absorbing audio artifacts they namecheck from time to time — records like Cluster’s Großes Wasser, Pharaoh Sanders’ Thembi, or This Heat’s This Heat. Like those records, their latest EP sounds as though conceived through exploratory tinker-now, edit-later studio sessions where the ultimate goal isn’t necessarily a new record. All the same, their latest eccentric collection of fascinating, too-brief compositional sketches is a richly satisfying listen. Cut from the same cloth as the track LWE hosted as a free mp3 this month, you could imagine Eitherway as something like last year’s RA-podcasted Mutek set, but parsed into discrete vignettes.
Download an exclusive track from nsi.
January 14, 2010 – 10:01 AM
Few electronic musicians have earned the title of “mad scientists” as thoroughly as nsi., the venerable duo of Tobias Freund and Max Loderbauer. Their productions are often the results of studio experimentation, allowing their analog synths and vintage drum machines to run wild and form tracks almost incidentally — the journey being much more important than the end destination. On Friday February 5th, as part of the Unsound Festival, nsi. will bring their sonic tinkering (and much of their analog gear) to New York City to provide the soundtrack for Andy Warhol’s seminal film, “The Kiss,” alongside Detroit techno legend Carl Craig, who will do the same for Warhol’s “The Blowjob.” There are 7:30pm and 9:30pm showings at The Film Society of Lincoln Center’s Walter Reade Theater, both of which will probably sell out, so get your tickets while you can.
Moritz Von Oswald Trio, Vertical Ascent
July 12, 2009 – 9:15 PM
“Live” is a tricky word in electronic music. Live sets, even by favorite producers, are too often disappointing. In reducing performance to a traditional recital mode, selections are limited to the artist in question’s own tracks, a sense of flow can get lost in the shuffle, and worst of all, the performer is frequently seen doing little more than staring at a computer screen, occasionally clicking. The effects of this approach — not naming any names, but I’ve heard laptop sets which featured a sound uncannily reminiscent of the “you’ve got mail” tone — can be frustrating at best, depressing at worst. Part of what’s exciting about electronic dance music is the spontaneous flux, the dispersed authorship, the paradoxical live-ness of a great DJ set. So what’s the point of “live” performance, anyway?