Wolfgang Voigt's GAS Project: the Poll

w u t

w o a h

waht

pre-orders available through the Kompakt site, 16 euros for CD, 50 for 3xLP plus CD, both come with "artbook"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emUETcnDxnY

Live at the Barbican, London:

GAS Live
+ Huerco S Live
Sunday 8 October 2017 / Barbican Hall / 20:00
Tickets £17.50 – 22.50 plus booking fee

German artist, music producer, label manager and co-founder of Kompakt – the internationally renowned, Cologne-based label for techno and electronic music – Wolfgang Voigt, returns to the Barbican in October, following his two sold-out shows at the Centre in 2009. This autumn he brings the latest live iteration of his iconic ambient project GAS, featuring new audio-visual creations and material from the upcoming full-length release NARKOPOP (out on Kompakt on 21 April 2017).

In the body of the work of Wolfgang Voigt – who, like few others, has shaped and influenced the world of electronic music with countless different projects since the early 1990s –, the classic aesthetic of GAS stands out in particular. This timeless work of sound art combining abstract nature sounds with strings and brass has not lost any of its luster since the last official GAS album release nearly two decades ago. This is evident in Kompakt’s2016 autumn re-release of the back catalogue as a box set.

Tonight’s opening set comes from Brooklyn-based Huerco S aka Brian Leeds. The Kansas native, artist, producer and DJ has released music on labels such as Future Times, Proibito, Opal Tapes, and Software. Here he will present material from his more ambient-based 2016 album For Those Of You Who Have Never (And Also Those Who Have).

This Barbican Hall date in association with The Hydra forms part of the first GAS live tour in eight years. A brand synonymous with global electronic music, The Hydra was founded five years ago by Dolan Bergin and Ajay Jayaram – they have been curating festival stages and events in unusual settings such as churches, dilapidated warehouses and a former department store and thus cemented their reputation as one of London’s most potent club brands.

On sale to Barbican Members on Thursday 16 March
On general sale on Friday 17 March
Produced by the Barbican in association with The Hydra

vinyl preordered, tickets booked, v v excited for this

got my ticket. looking forward to it, also the album.

Done! Slap bang in the middle of the Circle. This is like Jeff Mills last year (or 2015?)... bought without thinking and forgot all about it in the 6-month interim. (Did actually remember to go). Someone revive this thread first week of Oct, yeah?

in the pub with my flatmate who bought me a ticket last night: "october though. hope i'm alive then."

This was a buy-on-sight thing for me. The Barbican has really been hitting it out of the park in terms of electronic music over the last couple of years.

Done! Slap bang in the middle of the Circle.

I'll be on your left somewhere.

GASFAP, anyone?

👍

yeah I'm really looking forward to this - the show I saw him play in Chicago a few years ago was amazing. also Huerco S was my favourite album of last year.

Barbican does seem to have become the venue for interesting sit down electronic shows in the last year or two - the Actress show last year was awesome, v much looking forward to the Giegling silent disco in a couple of weeks, too.

Can't process this ... I'm already losing my mind over the one minute trailer!

No idea how I ended up on the hydra mailing list, I don't really go to things. This was a no-brainer tho for sure - if we all make it to oktember I'll be somewhere near the front

https://youtu.be/TSzHvRVE5uM

excited for this (Narkopop).. been playing some of the mp3s, difficult to gauge its quality at this point. Listening back to Konigsforst, it just seems like there's more going on (texturally, etc.), more depth and dynamic variety to it. One of the characteristics of Konigsforst that might be lacking on the new one is the (blatant) intermittent filtering out of the trebly elements, that gave it a sort of submerged/enveloping quality.. it's not so apparent on Narkopop.

Königsforst is frikkin' great, though. Sounds of it have that sort of distant, slow-motion epic procession quality that characterises some of The Disintegration Loops audio by W. Basinski.. very regal or golden. I imagine it's an excellent album for Autumn, maybe it's the cover art/color that's coloring my impression of it.

gassiest gas record ever

(it's incredibly good)

So, this cme out tpoday, and it's okay, I think... Pretty much what you would expect from a Gas album, so some quality hypnodrones, but it feels like it's missing something compared to Königsforst or Zauberberg? Lowell is right that it seems to be lacking some of the depth and submerged quality of previous Gas albums. At points you can clearly hear the separate string and brass sections of the classical music he's sampling, and I think that takes some of the mystery away. It's not this otherworldy, unidentified sound world anymore. I bet some trainspotter fans could even figure out where the samples are from.

Also, I feel that the fact that it has more and shorter tracks and less imposing beats makes it harder for me to really get into the proper Gas trance... 4 minutes is too short a time to submerge into it before the track changes. As blunt as the heavy bass drums on the previous records were, with the murky undecipherable drones they really did create something unique. I can't really fault Voigt for trying something a bit different, but the result is that the beatless tracks especially sound like numerous other droney ambient artists (some of whom were obviously influenced by Gas, to be fair) and not something sui generis like his earlier Gas works.

(xpost)

(checks mailbox, curses West coast location)

i love it, kinda like a real throw of all last three records in one

if any of you use spotify it is on there

a new gas album! i'm really really excited about this

this has grown on me quite a bit.. the general tone and that sort of queasiness (subtle vibrato) going on, it seemed too monotonous at first, but it's become strongly enveloping. listened on a pair of crappy headphones last night, the details are very fine-grained--it's expensive-sounding, as the Pitchfork review stated. Singling out tracks 1, 2, 3, and 5 as favorites. dig that blatant hiss, or wind-in-the-trees sound at the tail end of track three. track two is an obvious favorite, there's a lot of subtle melodic variation going on in the later tracks (following #7, the monotonous, super-consonant power drone), still haven't really 'lived' with the 17-minute closer. waiting patiently for the CD on amazon pre-order (cheapest), very pleased with this work.

So, this cme out tpoday, and it's okay, I think... Pretty much what you would expect from a Gas album, so some quality hypnodrones, but it feels like it's missing something compared to Königsforst or Zauberberg? Lowell is right that it seems to be lacking some of the depth and submerged quality of previous Gas albums. At points you can clearly hear the separate string and brass sections of the classical music he's sampling, and I think that takes some of the mystery away. It's not this otherworldy, unidentified sound world anymore. I bet some trainspotter fans could even figure out where the samples are from.

Also, I feel that the fact that it has more and shorter tracks and less imposing beats makes it harder for me to really get into the proper Gas trance... 4 minutes is too short a time to submerge into it before the track changes. As blunt as the heavy bass drums on the previous records were, with the murky undecipherable drones they really did create something unique. I can't really fault Voigt for trying something a bit different, but the result is that the beatless tracks especially sound like numerous other droney ambient artists (some of whom were obviously influenced by Gas, to be fair) and not something sui generis like his earlier Gas works.

― Tuomas, Friday, April 21, 2017 1:29 PM (thirty-two minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

a few tracks in and i see what you are saying

"narkopop 7" is like being hugged by a tractor beam

gonna listen the hell out of this when I get home and fire up Spotify

yeah, 7 was the one that stood out to me on first listen as well. looking forward to spending a lot of time with this, although i do see how some of tuomas' criticisms might apply

there's a continuity that makes it feel like one long piece.. several tracks share the same tonal center as others, like the way track 6 sets up track 7 - chord/pitch-wise. Track 6 stood out to me as the oddest, with its percussive bits and piano. The album has a subtle airiness about it that gels nicely with the listening environment.

Yeah, those percussive clangs on track 6 really stood out for me too, they're so unlike anything else on any Gas album. I think I could even hear marimbas there?

I have to say this album sounded better on the second listen, when I played it at high volume on my surround speakers instead of listening it on headphones while walking. Still not a fan of the short beatless tracks tho.

I think it's overall a more relaxing record than Konigsforst or Zauberberg.. I can't put those albums on and just zone out, like with Pop or Narkopop.. lots of passive, horizontal, half-conscious listening over the last several days.. it's more of a truly ambient thing, where you don't have to lock into it or fully engage.

recently re-watched seasons 2 + 3 of Homeland, there's a recurring musical motif that's eerily similar to that of track 3 on Konigsforst.. grew a sort of weird attachment to the show. Pop V is one of my favorite Gas tracks, and Pop was the only Gas album I knew for the longest while until discovering the other albums. Konigsforst has been sounding so ultra lately, just all of that popping detail, texture, and melodic content.. it's tough to beat.

loving this on first listen, I'm up to the martial drums on track 5. almost a Laibach vibe going on. I'm fine with the "shorter" tracks workign as interludes to these long pieces, I also thought the bass drum on track 2 was very satisfying

10 is really something. the clearness of the samples on the record is jarring, compared to his previous work. you can play tracks from the s/t, zauberberg and konigsforst on shuffle and they'll more or less sound of a kind, and pop takes similar ideas in a new direction. but narkopop wouldn't work in that playlist - the samples are too clear, the attack on the samples is shorter, clearheaded. it's not a criticism, just an observation.

Listening to this very loudly on big speakers is definitely the way to go - there's some serious low end on Narkopop 2, and I was totally unprepared for that huge swathe of La Mer when it emerged.

i have only listened to this a tiny bit, never making it the whole way through without someone at work rudely rousing me from my deep gas slumber, but it is so interesting even just as a kind of control group through which to think about the other gas records, i think. i listen to pop every day, sometimes, quite often in that sort of unflattering way in which Gas - Pop (FULL ALBUM) youtube is just a convenient tool solving various problems of noise or sleep or attention, &c, but still it so clearly means something & feels kind of like a place, to me, i like pop 4 the most but i think of the first two songs, which are always still this bewitching midpoint between nature & electronics & the things both sets of sounds elicit in you, to play it for the specific sensation of a kind of difficult to parse emotion: even with konigsforst i still think i am not far away from a sort of established implied mood of like foreboding synthesizer associations, like people talking about this record & mulholland drive. i am immediately bummed out hearing this to not find the same forest soup, to have something that is more recognizably parts, & then a minute into a song something will emerge from a synth & i'll feel the tension again, the same feeling of it becoming something i can't read, don't quite understand. any kind of unburied drum feels sort of crass because i just long for more time trying to find myself in the pop forest, but so far it is growing on me & i get the tractor beam feeling mentioned upthread instead.

<3

i listen to this furious to have been parachuted into the wrong gas world

hate to break it to you guys but according to the tracklist of this ra mix, i am wolfgang voigt https://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=570

lol texas

original or Method Man-featuring version?

roll eyes emoji

original or Method Man-featuring version?

― boxedjoy, Monday, May 1, 2017 3:30 PM (thirty-nine minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

jesus i had completely forgotten about this

no seams between tracks on the CD version, it does work best as one full serving, with all of its variations cohering into one streamlined piece (tonally). Narkopop is definitely one of the best sounding GAS albums, airy and humid, it's ultra-pleasant. I'm sure the vinyl product is top notch but it's nice to not have to change sides every 15 or so minutes.

lol @ residentadvisor comment thread

Whoa is that tracklist the actual tracklist? That is a ballsy move.