To celebrate its tenth year, the German label Nonplace releases a compilation featuring fifteen previously unreleased instrumental tracks.
Some are remixed versions of already familiar tracks, others are alternative takes, and still others were composed especially for the occasion.
The label founded by Burnt Friedman has over time become a reference point within the circles tied to Central European electronic music, helping to spread the sounds that made Berlin the epicenter of certain avant-garde scenes.
Across the twenty-seven releases that preceded this anniversary, Nonplace has carved out a niche grafting jazz and dub contamination onto fundamentally electro structures.
The focal point of all this German label's productions is the figure of Friedman, born in 1965, who, when not appearing as the head of the project, is almost always present as an added member of the various bands signed to the roster, if not actually in the role of remixer.
Over these ten years Burnt has surrounded himself with trusted collaborators, featured on many of Nonplace's releases: among the most recurrent it's worth mentioning at least the ever-present saxophonist Hayden Chisholm. We also shouldn't forget the excellent albums Friedman has released under his own name (among them we'd cite "First Night Forever" from 2007, very well reviewed on these pages) and the high-profile collaborations, such as those with ex-Japan man David Sylvian and with kraut-rock pioneer and former Can member Jaki Liebezeit.
Friedman also takes the lion's share on this collection, putting his own name to no fewer than six tracks, three of which are co-credited with Liebezeit, including the opening remix of "The Librarian", a decidedly ambient-leaning opener that originally featured the vocals of the aforementioned Sylvian.
Four compositions, meanwhile, are co-credited to Friedman and Uwe Schmidt (aka Atom Heart), who together created the Flanger project, with two EPs and six albums to their name, some released on Ninja Tune, through which they pursued their shared intent to explore particular pathways of electronica and contemporary jazz.
Plenty of room is given to saxophonist Hayden Chisholm's two main projects, Embassadors and Root 70, both represented with two tracks apiece. Embassadors, operating mostly in nu-jazz territory, show they're not averse to Afro-Caribbean contamination, as in the case of "Makena".
This is quite a trip of a record, one that, following in the footsteps of similarly fine operations carried out in recent times by the likes of Warp and Hyperdub, attempts to serve as a primer for the label itself.
Between stylish electro grooves ("The Sticks"), minimalist landscapes grafted with ethnic guitars ("Roots Automation"), jazz that's now more traditionalist ("Nightbeat", the shuffle of "Crime In The Pale Moonlight"), now more modernist ("Funeral March"), where the lesson of Miles Davis constantly hovers in the air, it's not hard to greedily devour a compilation this well-crafted and classy.
There's no shortage of forays into more extreme avant-gardism ("Gruppenreise"), nor of dub leanings, underlined with particular force on Prof. Psygrooves's appearance on "Flow".
With no intention of being exhaustive, this collection sums up much of the Nonplace aesthetic, with jazz and dub firmly rooted in the electronic core of Friedman's musical thinking.
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23/05/2010
This article is an English translation of the original Italian text by Claudio Lancia, published on OndaRock.it. It was translated with the help of artificial intelligence, under the editorial responsibility of OndaRock's editor-in-chief, Claudio Fabretti.