Altered Zones

"Hey, it's Rasmus here. Listen: it's about time me and you did dinner, I think. I'll pick you up at 17.30." Had this scenario played out in the last decade, this uber-confident invitation would have been sent as a text. This, however, is about the only thing antiquated about this newly unearthed track from Rasmus Folk, an artist from the Endless House compilation recently released by UK's Dramatic Records. For 6 weeks in 1973, musicians from across Europe converged on this cutting-edge artistic retreat, tucked away in Poland's Bialowieska Forest, to produce some of the most pioneering electronic music of the time. Despite the project's brilliant history, it's amazing how well these tracks have stood the test of time-- and not simply for their historical significance. The glassy chords, lucid synths, and the understated, pared-back beat on "Dinner in Trieste (With Rasmus Folk)" don't sound at all aged. In fact, it sounds like it will have ongoing relevance for quite some time. --Daniel Gottlieb, Altered Zones

MP3: Rasmus Folk: "Dinner in Trieste (With Rasmus Folk)"

Endless House compilation is available now via Dramatic Records. For a first-hand account of the Endless House, check out Visitation Rites' interview with house-intern Walter Schnaffs. Over on XLR8R, you can hear another Rasmus Folk track from the house, "Pavel". The Endless House SoundCloud has more even still

We've shown some love to Dramatic Records' recent compilation chronicling the musical output of Endless House, a creative and cultural center spearheaded by architect/audiophile/megalomaniac Jiri Kantor, located in the middle of Poland's secluded Bialowieska Forest. AZ editor Emilie Friedlander's blog Visitation Rites interviewed Walter Schnaffs, one of our favorite musicians to emerge from the too-insane-to-be-true space, where he talks about the problems of the failed utopia:

"It is so difficult to reduce the Endless House to a judgement of success or failure. Kantor may have been flippant — even violent — in his destruction of its memory, but he did create something special… Something spectacular beyond your imagination… But also something so stupid, and so utterly unsustainable."

Read the rest of the interview Visitation Rites

--Previously

MP3: Walter Schnaffs: "I Am Germany"

Endless House, everybody’s favorite failed electronic music commune from  the early 1970s, has been brought back to life in a new 12-track compilation by London’s Dramatic Records. The brainchild of Czech audiophile/venture capitalist/megalomaniac "Jiri Kantor", this high modernist fortress in glass and chrome once was once home to a revolving coterie of composers with cool synthesizers and Werner Herzog accents; according to Kantor, Endless House was a “multimedia discotheque” of sorts, destined to form “the cradle of a new European sonic community.” Too bad it was stuck in the middle of the Bialowieska Forest, and demolished in its scintillating entirety after only six months! Learn more from this “1977 BBC Radio Hungary” interview by renegade composer “Walter Schnaffs”, whose “brand of dubbed-out collage,” sampled below, reportedly “underwhelmed Kantor and his staff over-paid taste makers" (via Visitation Rites)

MP3: Walter Schnaffs: "I Am Germany"

For more of a sense of the collective’s “house style”, peep this Kantor-favorite  by “Rasmus Folk”, spotlighted by 20 Jazz Funk Greats a few weeks back

MP3: Rasmus Folk: "Coupe"

Endless House compilation is out now via Dramatic Records