Stephan Mathieu | Gigue, Live @ A-Musik | 19/20.07.00
AB-CD | F.0018.0001
Stephan Mathieu is a prolific artist, having released works on Ritornell, Orthlorng Musork, Bottrop Boy and Fällt among others. His album 'frequencyLib' was released to widespread critical acclaim and featured in The Wire's '2001 Rewind' list. He has toured extensively and performed at various international festivals including: Sonar, Barcelona; Mutek, Montreal; and Frequencies [Hz], Frankfurt. His live sets operate as an extension of his studio works pushing sound in new and often mesmerising directions.
'Gigue' captures an evening's performance at Cologne's A-Musik. Characterised by warm, buzzing resonances it builds slowly to a beautiful, static-soaked climax which Mathieu describes: "The hiss in the last third of the track reminds me of sliding down a huge ice field on your belly at 100 mph!" Sourced from Duran Duran's 'Drive By', it's an exquisite example of Mathieu's ability to extract the essence of an original and use it to create something entirely new and captivating.
'Gigue' closes with a delicate coda 'Variation' which Mathieu describes: "I was playing the 'Wurmloch Variationen' files through my patch. It was early in the morning and I played for about 90 minutes for the very last people there, mostly the A-Musik staff lying on the floor, relaxing. I only recorded the last five minutes, an internal entropy of this whole Wurmloch set. I think it’s a soothing opposite to 'Gigue'." 'Gigue' is mastered by Marcus Schmickler (Pluramon, Wabi Sabi).
Previous releases by Mathieu include: 'frequencyLib' [Ritornell]; a remix series of 'Edits' on 10" and CD as Full Swing [Orthlorng Musork]; 'invalidObject Series (in)' [Fällt]; and 'Sad Mac Studies' [EN/OF / Bottrop Boy]. Forthcoming releases include: 'Guero Variations' - a split 12" featuring contributions by Warmdesk and Uli Troyer; a track on Bremsstrahlung Recordings' forthcoming compilation 'Lowercase Sound, Vol. 2'; and a split release with si-cut.db for BiP-HOp + Fällt’s forthcoming + / vs. Series.
The Fällt Live Series features artwork by Fällt designers Fehler which utilises the AB-CD format's unique characteristics by printing in reverse around the transparent outer edge to create a CD which effectively appears double-sided. The artwork was recently featured in Creative Review and 'CD Art - Innovation in CD Packaging Design' (RotoVision).
'Gigue' illustration features lyrics copyright Duran Duran.
