♫♪  Asmus Tietchens & Kouhei Matsunaga - “a1”

On September 30, Important Records is set to release a split 12-inch from two of Earth’s avant-garde super powers: Asmus Tietchens and Kouhei Matsunaga.

Side A features two new untitled tracks from the godly Tietchens. If you don’t already know, this guy is seriously legit. He is 64-years-old, German, and has been making experimental music since before anyone even thought of making experimental music. Well, I guess that’s not completely true, but he was part of the hippest scene in Germany during the late-70s and early-80s after releasing groundbreaking records on ultra-groovy European labels like Hamburg based Sky Records and France’s Egg Records. He has also collaborated with cats such as Okko Bekker, Thomas Köner, and Jon Mueller throughout the years.

Tietchens’ massive catalog has ranged from pop-oriented synthesizer loops to pure abstract noise, but this one is toned down a little. Track “a1” (which you better be listening to right now) features a calm aloof drone with barely-melodic, creepy bends gliding throughout the entire piece. Apparently those “bends” are thanks to Tietchens’ pal and ethereal guitar-manipulator Dirk Serries (a.k.a. Fear Falls Burning, a.k.a. Vidna Obmana) who gave the samples to Tietchens just for fun. “A2” is equally mesmerizing; it’s a twinkling bleepy-bloopy joy ride through space.

Oh yeah! And then there’s the B side by Kouhei Matsunaga. This guy has been pumping out all sorts of different material since the late 90s, including three releases on Important Records last summer. Two of them were collaborations with Mika Vainio from Pan Sonic (one of which included Sean Booth from Autechre), and the other was an incredible full-length solo work. He also just released another full-length album on UK label Skam Records under the alias NHKyx. His pieces featured on this record fall somewhere between his minimalist beat-oriented work and his more abstract piercing soundscapes.

There will only be 500 copies and the first 100 come on color vinyl! What color? Who knows?! You’ll just have to buy one on September 30.

• Asmus Tietchens: http://www.aufabwegen.de/at/?lang=en
• Kouhei Matsunaga: http://www.koyxen.blogspot.com
• Important: http://importantrecords.com

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CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

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