Conny Plank's Studio

i wish i could be there! i have no plans to be in berlin at the moment.

I've heard talk about Plank's "live" approach to drum recording. Anyone care to share which albums best demonstrate this? I only really know the more famous of the stuff he's done.

I always thought the drums on 'Western Promise' (from the Ultravox album Vienna, which Plank produced) sounded magnificent. There's a story from drummer Warren Cann about how they got the drum sound for that track, I'll have to find it and dig it out.

Okay, listening to this now for the first time and this is pretty great. The drums remind me of the drum sound Are We Not Men We are Devo.

Here's the quote I was looking for:

We decided to record the drum tracks for "Western Promise" in the reception area of the building, as the surroundings were all glass and polished
marble — excellent for a "hard" drum sound. So as not to completely disrupt the staff, we had to move the microphones and drums in at night to do the recording. The only drawback to this was the front doors of the studio were by no means soundproof, and the quiet residential area of St. Johns Wood was not going to take too kindly to me bashing away. The first time we attempted it, the neighbours called the police and, upon their arrival, they requested we cease and desist.

It was sounding so good we decided to not let this get in our way, so we attempted it again the next evening. This time, we set everything up and were as
ready as could be before I actually started playing. I knew I had to get a good "take" before the police came banging on the door, so there was no time to lose. Sometime before the neighbours got fed up and reported us and the response time it took for the police to arrive, I got a good take and we had what we wanted.

Recording a song like this, with its sequenced pattern running throughout, was akin to creating a rod for our own backs, and created problems for us later on. The pattern wasn’t as all pervasive as a bass line which was neigh impossible to not hear live. It was easily overpowered by other instrumentation, and if I lost track of it — even for a moment — it was damn difficult to figure out where I’d gone wrong and get back into sync in the proper place. It led to us having to come up with extensive self-monitoring solutions for us all in the live environment.

my answer for the upthread question regarding drum sound: check out the self-titled Neu! album or Scorpions' Lonesome Crow for 70's example, check out the Moebius-Plank-Neumeier album 'Zero Set' for an excellent early 80's example of acoustic drums integrated with live sequencer playing

it was an honor for Conny to have had the chance to do a studio recording with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. The recordings were created in the legendary Rhenus studios in Cologne in 1970

http://factory92.eu/wsf92/unreleased-conny-plank-session-with-duke-ellington/?hc_location=ufi

http://www.elmoremagazine.com/2015/04/music-news/duke-ellingtons-the-conny-plank-session-to-be-released-this-july

>Revolutionary jazz composer Duke Ellington’s Conny Plank Session will finally see the light of day this July. For those unfamiliar
>with German sound engineer and producer Conny Plank, he rose to prominence for his work with Kraftwerk and Cluster.

I'm no expert on post-1950 Ellington recordings but the preview sounds great! No phasing or delays or filters but everything's pristine.

I have heard that the 20 minutes of music Schneider/Dinger/Rother recorded for Kraftwerk 2 before Hütter rejoined has been located in Plank's archives & transferred, sure would be great to hear that within our lifetimes

Bang on cue, "Hallogallo" being used as backing music to advertise an ITV programme on 'footballers mavericks' (and then carrying on for a while under the half time discussion in the Barcelona v. Paris St. Germain game).

Thanks for the recommendations Milton. Neu! is well-known to me but I haven't heard the other two yet - will seek them out.

my answer for the upthread question regarding drum sound: check out the self-titled Neu! album or Scorpions' Lonesome Crow for 70's example, check out the Moebius-Plank-Neumeier album 'Zero Set' for an excellent early 80's example of acoustic drums integrated with live sequencer playing

/it was an honor for Conny to have had the chance to do a studio recording with Duke Ellington and his orchestra. The recordings were created in the legendary Rhenus studios in Cologne in 1970/

http://factory92.eu/wsf92/unreleased-conny-plank-session-with-duke-ellington/?hc_location=ufi🔗

Thomas Dinger sounds really great on this.

If anything the sound mix on that Ellington recording is phenomenal. Beautifully engineered.

(xp) Klaus Dinger, Thomas didn't start playing drums till later... errr, hold on, are you telling us Klaus Dinger played with Duke Ellington?!!??

This is great and yeah, the sound is gorgeous

Sorry I was kidding.

Yeah, guessed as much!

But the toms do sound like him!

I went to see the new documentary by his son Stephan: Conny Plank - The Potential of Noise. It's a great, quite personal film, Stephan lost his father when he was only 14 and tries to reconnect to him via the film. Lots of interesting interviews with among others Michael Rother, David Stewart, Gianna Nannini, Les Ritas Mitsouko, Robert Görl from DAF, Karl Hyde, Devo, Whodini, Ultravox, the Scorpions, Annette Humpe etc. I didn't realize before how wide the spectrum of the music he produced was. From krautrock to industrial to German pop to rap. His ears really were wide open and he had the gift to grab and fix the moment when the groove and the sound were perfect.

I think I saw the documentary linked to on twitter, would love to see it.

Me too! Hope it makes it to the UK and/or DVD.

this is so cool!!
Plank trained his microphones on Ellington and his orchestra as they performed “Afrique” and “Alerado”. Ellington was still finessing the pieces, changing soloists, making adjustments and variations, and adding a vocalist to one take of “Afrique”. Two songs, with three takes each, reveal hidden possibilities and showcase Ellington as a restless composer and arranger. Plank’s unfussy recordings are clear and precise, devoid of dust and crackle or any evidence of the production trickery of the early 70s.

Wild Bill Davis, the organist, and Cat Anderson, a trumpeter, take standout solos on the swinging “Alerado”, a Davis composition. The more adventurous, abstract “Afrique” is distinguished by a tom-tom beat that serves as a foundation for various improvisations. Those with a bit of imagination can hear the same driving repetition in “Afrique” as in the motorik beats of "Krautrock".

https://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/2015/07/krautrock-and-jazz

i keep forgetting to buy that off of eMusic

such a cool confluence

Worth it especially for the vocal take of Afrique. So far out.

Conny Plank - the Potential of Noise

Good interview with Stephan Plank about the upcoming documentary.

https://thevinylfactory.com/features/conny-plank-stephan-plank-interview/

That embedded Duke Ellington track from the Connie Plank Session is excellent.

Saw the documentary, great stuff, despite the unavoidable presence of Dave Stewart. As if I didn't admire Conny Plank enough already, turning down the chance to work with U2 after talking to "Herr Bono" moved him up in my estimation even further. Any musician who was lucky enough to work with Conny Plank was blessed. There was a Q & A afterwards, hosted by Rob Young, which was better these things usually are mostly because Stephan Plank is so articulate and personable, a bit of chip off the old block tbh. A funny bit was when Rob Young asked if any musician had turned down the chance to appear in the film and Stephan Plank, said, "Just one, but I'm not going to say the name, a German", and, quick as a flash, someone in the audience shouted out, "Ralf Hutter!"

This is showing at the Goethe Institute in Glasgow on Saturday but it's sold out (although since tickets were free and distributed through eventbrite I dare say there will be a lot of no-shows)

balls! you wouldn't happen to have a spare one jed?

Andrew Weatherall was there, I only know that because I heard him say his name to the woman on the door, I thought he was Alan Moore at first.

Stirmonster, I don't! I don't have one for myself either but I think It's worth a try.

LOL @ Tom D!

i think it's worth emailing them to ask about returns/no shows:

https://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/en/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=21329108

thanks jed. will give it a try.

i'm a little shocked that the release of duke ellington's conny plank session didn't get more traction, it rocked my world

I had it bookmarked to buy from emusic but they no longer offer it
It was praised heartily here for a little while after release iirc

A funny bit was when Rob Young asked if any musician had turned down the chance to appear in the film and Stephan Plank, said, "Just one, but I'm not going to say the name, a German", and, quick as a flash, someone in the audience shouted out, "Ralf Hutter!"

― Scottish Country Twerking (Tom D.), Wednesday, August 29, 2018 10:15 PM (yesterday)

HI DERE.

No, it wasn't Dan Perry.

finally saw documentary. very grateful this exists. all the vintage 70s/80s 8 & 16mm footage in Conny's studio are invaluable.

reminds me of Stan Warnow's film about his father, Raymond Scott - Deconstructing Dad; both pointedly frame the entire film as a means to come to terms with largely absent fathers by trying to understand what they spent their lives actually doing. I frequently think about the ending of Warnow's film.

the focus is kept mostly to anecdotes from interviews. this keeps things personal; not too many talking heads filling in expository. however, as Möbi had passed before filming began, this leaves a pretty big hole in coverage of the music Plank released himself. as in, Lillental & the Möbi & Plank records are not mentioned at all -- no 'Zero Set' -- and none of the weirder 80's blurring between producing and composing comes up. the film handles that decade by interviewing the bigger stars he produced, where he often took a lighter touch, so the musical examples from the 80's don't quite make the case they could. but you do get Arno Steffan interviewed about the fantastic 1986 tour with Möbi. you do get Rita Mitsouko, totally wonderful. and the Whodini interview, to hear legends like those two humbly talking about how they got miraculously beamed over to make music out in kosmiche country, them reminding Stephan about them playing with him when he was a kid, the whole thing becomes more than a film at moments like that

Yeah that Whodini section really sold it for me. Was lovely and the documentary on the whole one of the best recent music docus I've seen.

Heads up for the Dutch and Belgian massive on here (and Britishes w/ satellite telly). ARD is showing Conny Plank – Mein Vater der Klangvisionär (German title of the documentary mentioned above) tomorrow at 23.45 CET. I've not seen it yet so I'm very much looking forward to it.

would definitely crack open a new vhs tape for that

:D

Heads up for the Dutch and Belgian /massive/ on here (and Britishes w/ satellite telly). ARD is showing Conny Plank – Mein Vater der Klangvisionär🕸 (German title of the documentary mentioned above) tomorrow at 23.45 CET. I've not seen it yet so I'm very much looking forward to it.

I think it's either on Amazon Prime or Sky Arts as well.

yes, Amazon Prime, ty

I was just listening to a track from this album when I noticed it was recorded... at Conny Plank's Studio!

https://img.discogs.com/WZl27_UF89Dh6mqFDfI9IMZGBRs=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-4231939-1421093685-7866.jpeg.jpg

Eddie & Finbar Furey seem to have recorded a few of their albums in Germany for some reason, at least one other one being engineered by Conny Plank.

the germans are (or are at least were) daft for Irish folk music as far as I can tell, lots of stuff filmed for german telly if you go on an Irish folk youtube binge

they are big pioneers of Celtic studies in the 19th century and seem to love the highlands as well, terrible lads for the gaelophilia

I found the documentary to be slow and not that engaging– I actually nodded off a few times. May need to give it another try.

it's funny that they changed his shorts to pants on the Liliental album cover:

https://img.discogs.com/IIUToBpfd58XxbQBtV5gtqr3Q_E=/490x378/smart/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/A-249044-1280553439.jpeg.jpg

https://img.discogs.com/a2kjECuJ7iCR-FE0jr39VejXUyo=/fit-in/600x590/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1598942-1565801532-7404.jpeg.jpg

oh my! isn't it just?