Gas

Wolfgang Voigt

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 18, 2008)
• Original Release Date: August 18, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Raster-Noton
• ASIN: B001CV19RE
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,483 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #7 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Compilations > Electronica
  #11 in	Music > Dance & Electronic > Techno > Minimal Techno
  #27 in	Music > World Music > Europe > Continental Europe > Germany

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Softcover book/photographic art catalogue with exclusive audio compact disc included, 128 pages in full-color, shrink-wrapped together. For the first time ever, Wolfgang Voigt aka Gas presents the visual aspect of the comprehensive Gas project in print. It is not meant to be a monolithic retrospective of his visual work, but it features a broad spectrum of photographic images taken between 1995 and 1998, showing many different moods and perspectives of Wolfgang Voigt's cosmos. What they all have in common is the mystical focus and seemingly, the blurring of boundaries between lightness and darkness, happiness and depression, kitsch and art, pixels and leaves. With the enclosed CD, Voigt has opened his treasure chest and presents some well-selected, rare jewels from the very early days (and nights). Four of the five tracks have never been released or played before. In the middle of the 1990s, Wolfgang Voigt, better known under a great many pseudonyms such as Mike Ink, Studio1 or Grungerman, and the driving force behind the rise of Cologne minimal techno, had reached a temporary peak in his career. Going back to the 1980s, Voigt began working under a self-realized concept he named "Blei." Taking in the most varied sound models, he began to extract elements from classical, polka, or brass music, and along with electronic pop music and German schlager sounds, formed a distinguished and unique pop music style that would fit in with the subculture at that time. In the early 1990s, influenced by techno, Voigt began to experiment with a timbal marching through strongly alienated, free-floating string loops. These elegiac tracks, their lack of beginning or end, their intoxicating, smooth, and partly amorphous structure sounded to him like evaporating gas and thus, Gas music was born. In his music, Wolfgang Voigt does not create a direct reference to the original sounds he alters; rather, he tries to reduce the material to its basic aesthetic structure by using different zoom, loop and alienation techniques in order to release it from its original meaning and context. His intention is to create a kind of aesthetic essence, a cave (detail/loop/repetition) where you can get thrillingly lost.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful images accompany a disc of Gas rarities, October 28, 2008

By	Steward Willons - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

2008 has turned out to be a banner year of Wolfgang Voigt and his artistic output under the name Gas. First we had the four disc box set "Nah und Fern", which compiled his albums on the Mille Plateaux label, and now we this monument simply titled "Gas." Strangely, "Gas" is now the title, and Voigt lists his own name as the author.

This is an amazing release for two reasons: a 128 page book featuring Voigt's photographs and images, and a disc featuring five of his most obscure works, not available in his "Nah und Fern" collection. Some of the music dates back pretty far in Voigt's career. You can hear his roots in minimal techno, but you also get a strong sense of his mature style. However, the real reason to buy this is the book.

It's always fascinating when a composer adds a visual dimension to his or her work. Think of John Zorn's album art - the images are inextricably linked to the music and serve as an important part of the art work as a whole. The same is true here: Voigt's haunting and beautiful images are, in a sense, visual representations of what he does aurally. Studying the beautifully rendered images while the music plays is quite an experience.

Since the CD is a compilation of sorts, there is more timbral variety than on a typical Gas album. Most everything is extremely ambient, as you would expect. Although the price might be prohibitive for some, if you have some extra money and you love Voigt's work, the music is really worth the price. Alternatively, you could buy the music as a digital download for the standard album price, if the book adds too much expense.

The track list is as follows:

1. Der Wald (10:00)
2. Das Moor (10:46)
3. Noveber 89 (10:33)
4. Nah und Fern (11:42)
5. Tal 90 (Version) (12:44)