The album ‘November 89’ comprises a selection of very early GAS tracks, some of which date back to the late 1980s. They were first released in 2008 as a CD insert in the art book ‘Wolfgang Voigt GAS’, published on Raster-Noton.

Just like the photographs in the book, these pieces are early precursors that would evolve in the ensuing years with the albums ‘Zauberberg’ and ‘Königsforst’ into a style-defining, audiovisual “Gesamtkunstwerk” (total work of art) comprising hypnotically focused forest imagery and an abstract, psychedelic wash of sound created by alphorn and bass drum.

The album is now available on vinyl for the first time. This effectively completes the existing GAS vinyl series by adding the "first" album, which had previously been missing.

The cover art makes direct reference to the album ‘Oktember’, released in 1999. The highly hypnotic, dense forest motif served as the basis for one of the first ‘Oktember’ Waldloops (forest-loops) works that have increasingly found their way into international galleries and art venues over the years.

TRACK LISTING

A1 GAS Der Wald 00:09:49
A2 GAS Das Moor 00:10:06
A3 GAS November 89 00:10:15
B1 GAS Nah Und Fern 00:10:50
B2 GAS Tal 90 00:12:21

For the 26th time, the most consistent of all ambient compilations, in a constant flux of static change, is released on Kompakt. Joining good friends from the early days and reliable confidants are some new additions to the non-hierarchical charts of contemplative rapture culture.

Leading the way is Micå, a Japanese electronic musician whose finely chiseled, graceful musical style has made it onto the new collection with two pieces. Also making his debut is Richard Ojijo, a seasoned sound engineer known, among other things, for his long-standing collaboration with the artist Marcel Odenbach and the Cologne-based label Magazine. Oskø aka Max Hytrek, a multi-talented newcomer to Kompakt and the music scene, debuts with his rapturously ecstatic piece "Ar Vag." He's followed by Sebastian Mullaert, appearing for the second time—this time teamed up with Sebastian Lilja aka Hush Forever. After his surprise return last year after a 20 year hiatus, we are delighted that Tetsuo Sakae aka Pass Into Silence is back again this year with one of his distinctive sound gems. As are Dirk Leyers (Closer Musik) and Mikkel Metal. 18 tracks are featured on this CD. "Erlösung" (Redemption) is the title of Segensklang's closing track. A kind of ambient bolero into infinity. Or at least until next year...

And what would Pop Ambient be without the iconic, artistic cover design of Veronika Unland, who once again, in her unmistakable way, says through the digital flower: The eye always listens...

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: You just can't beat Kompakt for spine-tingling melodic Berlinny synth music. Snapping, delayed arpeggios and snappy LPG's. It's not all pretty though, there are moments of heft and unease, brittle shards of melody and swelling walls of tension. As always, a masterclass in atmospheric synth and tension / release dynamics from one of the best labels in the land.

TRACK LISTING

01 Micå Echoes Of Blue 00:06:21
02 Segensklang Schauer Der Musen 00:05:18
03 Ümit Han Eines Tages 00:06:12
04 Pass Into Silence Pale Blue Dot 00:06:40
05 Würden & Schäfer Analysis Of Variance IV 00:05:25
06 Richard Ojijo Verzettelung Live@Filmforum 00:05:00
07 Luis Reich Distant Ort 00:06:48
08 Morgen Wurde Wusste Längst Feat. Tetsuroh Konishi 00:05:20
09 Dirk Leyers Regolith 00:06:56
10 Thore Pfeiffer / Niko Tzoukmanis Impuls 00:05:52
11 Joachim Spieth Onset 00:03:52
12 Blank Gloss Hairpin 00:04:14
13 Oskø Ar Vag 00:04:54
14 Sebastian Mullaert / Hush Forever Traces 00:07:28
15 Mikkel Metal Moss 00:04:52
16 Thore Pfeiffer Phase Locked Loop 2 00:05:30
17 Micå New Drop 00:05:10
18 Segensklang Erlösung 00:05:55

At the latest with the release of the albums "Zauberberg" and "Königsforst", in the mid-1990s, one associates GAS, Wolfgang Voigt's very own artistic cross-linking of the spirit of Romanticism and the forest as an artistic fantasy projection surface, with intoxicatingly blurred boundaries of post-ambient infatuation and the impenetrable thicket of abstract atonality. The distant, iconic straight bass drum marching through highly condensed, abstract sounds taken from classical music by the sampler or modulated accordingly, and the enraptured gaze through pop art glasses into the hypnotic thicket of an imaginary forest, manifested over the years this unique connection of audio and visual, which to understand fully, then as now, would be neither possible nor desirable.

Quite the opposite. The album GAS - DER LANGE MARSCH once again invites us to follow the deep sounding bass drum, to give in to its irresistible pull into a psychedelic world of 1000 promises. In the process, the journey leads us past stations of memories sounding from afar, from "Zauberberg" to "Königsforst" and "Pop", from "Oktember" to "Narkopop" and "Rausch", back and forth, now and forever.

Way. Destination. Loop. Forest loop.

No beginning. No end.

Kompakt is proud to announce, finally, a reissue of the first, self-titled GAS album. Originally released on electronica imprint Mille Plateaux back in 1996, it’s been unavailable in its original form ever since – the version of GAS included in 2008’s Nah Und Fern box featured several different tracks. Here, however, GAS is restored in all its glory, the debut full-length from Wolfgang Voigt’s most enigmatic, quixotic project.

There had, of course, been signs of what was to come. Back in 1995, Voigt essayed the first GAS release, a slender, yet remarkable four-track EP, Modern. Its centre label featured a reduced symbol – an overhead or lamp light, switched on, its glow radiating outwards in four bold black lines – a perfect representation of the tight, stylised ambient electronic pop contained on that 12”. A few curious compilation tracks were floating around, too, for Mille Plateaux’s Modulation & Transformation and Electric Ladyland series. If you were attentive enough, you could tell something was up.

But nothing quite prepared us for the languorous, effervescing loops and regular-like-clockwork beats that Voigt folded together on GAS. Its six long tracks, all untitled, neither begin nor end but hazily fade into earshot, vibrate majestically in your cochlea for fifteen-or-so minutes – some a bit shorter, some longer – and then meander away, reading the mise-en-scène for the next example of Voigt’s drift and dream logic to unfold. The material is referential in the most distant way, and you can sense only the most evanescent of ghostly presences, haunting these six compositions.

GAS feels, also, like a more pliable hint at what’s to come, as the GAS concept really solidified on its successor, 1997’s Zauberberg, and reach its apotheosis on Königsforst and Pop. Those three albums share a very similar palette – blurred, hazy samples, often of classical music, stacked and cross-thatched across a muted 4/4 thud. GAS, then, is an outlier of sorts: it’s more expansive in its remit, lighter in its mood, perhaps more fleet of foot. This, of course, is part of its charm.

In clearing space for Voigt, by preparing the terrain, GAS sits both at the edge of the forest, and at the verge of an expansive, wide-eyed future; one where GAS would become truly eternal.

ZAUBERBERG – Wolfgang Voigt’s most fundamental (and foreboding) release under his alias GAS and perhaps of all in his untold discography – finally stands alone once again and is released in the way its original splendour.

Originally released in 1997 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, ZAUBERBERG is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram vinyl in its original.

Though this narcotic symphony is not the first release under the GAS moniker, ZAUBERBERG is the first to disclose the true nature of Wolfgang Voigt’s unified sound and ideology as GAS. Layers of ominous intensity supported by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction, ZAUBERBERG is the definitive GAS album and a perfect starting point for those not familiar with his music.

KÖNIGSFORST – following the 1997 release of ZAUBERBERG (KOMPAKT 370.1), Wolfgang Voigt’s GAS project returned with KÖNIGSFORST, a full length that has stood the test of time as a template for introducing fundamentals of 90’s techno into the principles of contemporary electronic music.

Originally released in 1998 on the iconic Frankfurt imprint Mille Plateaux, and then reissued in 2016 as a part of GAS “BOX”, KÖNIGSFORST is now released on his own label KOMPAKT on 180 gram 3LP vinyl in its original artwork.

KÖNIGSFORST brings glimmers of light into Voigt’s dark, magnificent forest. Melodic strings and brass are added to his signature layers of ominous intensity. The forest path is laid out by muffled kick drums as classical music loops incessantly swirl with no direction.

OKTEMBER is the second EP release under Wolfgang Voigt’s mythical GAS project (it follows "Modern“ on Profan, 1995). The 2 compositions were originally released in 1999 on Mille Plateaux, and then reissued partially in 2016 on GAS “BOX”. OKTEMBER is finally released on Voigt's own label KOMPAKT, pressed on 180 gram vinyl in its original artwork.

This reissue features “Tal ‘90“ (instead of the original A side) – a predecessor to the GAS project originally recorded in 1990 under the alias TAL, it was released as a part of the Pop Ambient 2002 collection. With its sampled strings, horns and guitars, "Tal 90” soundtracks a more uplifting side to what is typically accustomed to being the sound of GAS. The title track “Oktember” is a dense, hypnotic affair that conjures a unique vision of dub techno that few have been able to replicate.

A monumental soundtrack to uncertain times.

Rausch with no name / My beautiful shine / You are the sun / This is where I want to be / Rausch with no morning / This is where we burn / The Stars sparkle / In a sea of flames / Horns and fanfares / Fanfares of joy / Fanfares of fear / The wine we drink through the eyes / The moon pours down at night in waves / Careful with that axe Eugene / Personal Jesus / No beginning no end / Eighteenth of Oktember / The night falls / The king comes / The hunt starts / Freude schöner Götterfunken / The long march through the underwood / Trust me there’s nothing / Once upon a time there was a bandit / Who loved a prince / That was long ago / Spring Summer Fall and Gas / There is a train heading to Nowhere / Drums and Trumpets / Future without mankind / Warm snow / Alles ist gut / The bells toll / You are not alone / The murmur in the forest / The murmur in the head / Light as mist / Heavy as lead / Music happens / To flow like gas / A clearing / Heavy baggage / Debut in the afterlife / Death has seven cats / World heritage Rausch / Finally infinite

Wolfgang Voigt 2018

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2014 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

- THE FIELD's legendary debut album FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME finally finds its way onto vinyl

- Special edition for RECORD STORE DAY 2014, only available in participating stores

- Pressed on 180g audiophile grade vinyl, including a CD version of the album

-Originally rolled out in 2007, this much-acclaimed full-length debut of what was to
become one of the most celebrated projects in Kompakt's artist fold saw a regular CD edition and an accompanying 12" sampler - but never a full vinyl release.

-Enter RECORD STORE DAY 2014 and the perfect opportunity to finally present this stunning masterpiece the way it deserves.

Axel Willner aka THE FIELD joined the Kompakt family in 2005, bringing forward a new fusion of ambient and techno that fed on his adoration for Wolfgang Voigt's classic 90's projects Gas and M:I:5 as well as the shoegazer rock of Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine.

Called a "techno pop landmark" by Pitchfork, FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME almost immediately became a cult favourite, starting a trend that continues to this day - as can be seen with THE FIELD's most recent full-length offering CUPID'S HEAD that has been lauded by critics and crowds alike.

The most striking feat of FROM HERE WE GO SUBLIME must be its sonic cohesiveness, debuting a fully-formed artistic vision that - seven years and three albums later - hasn't lost any of its luster. As a fixture in THE FIELD's discography, it remains as important as ever, with Axel Willner installing a blueprint that inspired many but sounds like no one else... except himself. Giving you a feeling of warmth and familiarity on first listen that you can't quite grasp, it's like this sound has always existed, when in fact it was the unique creation from one highly gifted producer. And it
all starts here.

It's when VOIGT & VOIGT gather in the same studio that the sparks start to fly dangerously low within this unique machinery humbly named Kompakt, resulting more often than not in a rather unlikely combination of separate elements suddenly kickstarting into communication. For their debut full-length DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER ANDEREN, the Voigt brothers draw from a plethora of influences to build an incomparable sound world, for the first time fully realizing what previous, now classic tracks on SPEICHER have been hinting at. Produced side by side with the essential Techno of ERDINGERTRAX, this album opts for a strong psychedelic narrative, brilliantly showcasing Voigt & Voigt’s experimental inclinations while knowing a thing or two about the perfect groove.

Marrying the more cerebral aspects of Techno science with the sheer will to party, the Voigtian output is an unpredictable, but constant fixture in KOMPAKT's back catalogue that brings together the distinctive talents of brothers WOLFGANG and REINHARD VOIGT. With each one being a highly prolific artist in its own right, the joint work on their album debut never ceased to surprise even its originators, who used the twilight of their nightly studio sessions to process a shared stream of auditive consciousness feeding on influences as diverse as Techno and New German cinema.

Full of nods to specific movie and TV esthetics, Voigt & Voigt’s DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER ANDEREN references the higher and lower brows of auteur film culture already in its name, where widely known French alternative comedy DIE ZAUBERHAFTE WELT DER AMELIE and Oscar-winning German drama DIE WELT DER ANDEREN find themselves forming a truly odd couple. It’s an unusual combination, but it works, as first track INTRO KÖNIG confidently proves, indulging in some sort of abstract theme motive until a poker-faced beat creeps in, priming the sound canvas for things to come. DER ERSTE ZUG takes on the challenge and establishes a monochrome rhythm pattern springing to live when chatting percussion introduces it to the thrust of Hitchcockian railroad travel.

In the meantime, DER KEIL NRW delves deep into Fassbinder territory and fuses the matter-of-fact news style of Germany’s late Seventies TV with a throbbing rhythm straight out of Thrillerville, making this a perfect candidate for car chasing scenes in Cold-War-era Berlin. TJA MAMA, SANDRA MAISCHBERGER (citing a popular German talk show) and SOZIAL consecutively calm things down for a little mid-movie catharsis, but the tension rises back up soon enough with whodunit-styled spine-chiller DIE GLOCKE (ENDSTATION WIENER PLATZ) and retro-romantic audio drama HOTEL NOKI, followed by the hauntingly detached mantra of AKIRA.

Multi-angled police procedural TRYPTICHON NUMMER 7 sees Voigt & Voigt dissecting their own trademark sounds as the end credits slowly start to roll, leading to an excitingly minimalist Synth Pop work-out eventually washed away by final orchester hits full of foreboding. It’s as if the album wants to show you one final, very important picture, and indeed it does with DER LETZTE ZUG, a short ride to the other side of reality, clocking in at just over two minutes, but carrying all the weight of an epic cliffhanger. To be continued, hopefully.

TRACK LISTING

01. Intro König
02. Der Erste Zug
03. Der Keil NRW
04. Tja Mama, Sandra Maischberger
05. Sozial
06. Die Glocke (Endstation Wiener Platz)
07. Hotel Noki
08. Akira
09. Triptychon Nummer 7
10. Der Letzte Zug