Arbeitsgemeinschaft Fruchttanz und Artverwandte Orgien "Fisch Zum Frühstück" CD
[Archegon]
I know nothing about this odd German collaboration, but from what I've been able to dig up, the four included parties are Claus van Bebber, Antonia Grote-Scroth (Credited with "catering" on this release!?), Günter Schroth (who makes music from barcodes in some way or another), and Tobias Schmitt (from Suspicion Breeds Confidence); and a few other reviews have referred to this as a "private happening" that combines "fine arts, catering, photography, and music".  So one can only assume that the layout is a part of that statement, as it looks absolutely fucking beautiful.  Aside from credits and a strange chicken recipe there's not much text, but all of the photography is absolutely awesome, especially the front cover, so it really does look exceptionally great.  As far as the sound, expect eight long tracks (averaging right around seven minutes each) consisting of glitchy electronics that are fairly sparsely combined, so there's a lot of breathing room and the layering, while ever present, does come across as somewhat minimal.  There's a lot of shuffling motion, plenty of chaotic yet not too excessive cutup motions, digital blips and whirrs, some spacey ambience and brief samples, flitting midrange textures, R2-D2 sounding robotics, mechanical fidgeting, dry percussive sounds or areas that come across like manipulated field recordings, and much more.  There's not a lot of spacing between the track divisions so it's hard to tell when one piece ends and another begins since things are pretty consistent as a whole and there's always a lot of shape-shifting going on, but more often than not there's enough of a significant shift that it becomes apparent - notably in the watery and somewhat more repetitious "Aufflammen Festlicher Inbrunst Beim Anblick des Dampfenden Mahls".  The longer "Raserei der Leidenschaft im Gemenge der Bellagen" (topping eight minutes) uses more of a dark ambient churn to its bassy undercurrents, and some of the foreground textures feel more restrained and somberly atmospheric as well, before eventually breaking up into a busier sort of twist ‘n' turn approach more connected to the surrounding compositions.  "Waghalsiges Begehren Fremder Kringel" briefly touches on some of the most sizzling distortion, but on the other hand hits on some ethereal ringing and lots of faint textures that border on silence, so... go figure!  The sound quality is of course very nice as well.  There's a lot of crisp detail involved and despite sounding digital in general nature there's a lot of warmth and thickness to the low-end, so a good tonal range is represented and the mix benefits the spacious nature of the way the material is put together.  Nearly an hour in total length is a little much to a degree, and elements of this work seem like they might be more interesting to witness in a live setting (something about the feel of this stuff almost creates the impression that it is a live performance), but I have to give them credit for pulling this off stronger than most of this style of experimental noise that I encounter.  I wish they had included some sort of background information in the booklet as to what the hell this thing is really all about, but nonetheless the presentation really looks awesome and truly acts as an extension of the music in my opinion.  An odd release, but I like it. (7/10)
Running time - 54:15, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Aufflammen Festlicher Inbrunst Beim Anblick des Dampfenden Mahls, Raserei der Leidenschaft im Gemenge der Bellagen, Waghalsiges Begehren Fremder Kringel]
Archegon - http://www.archegon.de

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