Thomas Lehn
read
read
LEHN/SCHMICKLER
Marcus Schmickler • computer
Thomas Lehn • analogue synthesizer
about | discography | reviews
| video | downloads
| tour dates | links
^
about
The real-virtual analogue-digital electronic duo of Marcus Schmickler and Thomas Lehn has been working since its first meeting in December 1998 during the German premiere of the Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra (aka MIMEO) in Cologne.
They have been extensively touring in Europe, the USA and Japan and performed at Experimental Intermedia/NYC, Mills/Oakland, Bard College, Lampo/Chicago, Princeton University, Festival Wittener Tage fuer Neue Kammermusik, AMPLIFY/Tokyo, CCA/Glasgow, Darmstadt and many other known presenters of contemporary and electronic music.
They released several successful CD and vinyl productions on labels such as Ersthwhile Records, a-musik and Editions Mego. Most recently they published their fifth duo album Neue Bilder on Mikroton.
^
discography
Bart | Kölner Kranz | Navigation im Hypertext | Live Double Séance | Neue Bilder
collaborative releases
^ ^^
Bart
Released October 1, 2000 on Erstwhile Records
www.erstwhilerecords.com | erstwhile 012 | | reviews | discogs
track listing
1. gelb (9:30)
2. sichern als ziege (6:59)
3. os (6:59)
4. du funktion (29:45)
5. temp close (5:21)
recorded, mixed and mastered August 2000 at Piethopraxis Tonstudio, Cologne
cover artwork by Heike Sperling
"It is precisely in the contrast between tight control and raw, unfocussed energy that Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler's collaboration lies. … What differentiates 'Bart' however, from the myriad of recent glitch-improvisation releases is its ruthless attention to detail. Both Schmickler and Lehn are well known within their respective circles and the results of this, their first collaboration, are stunning to say the least."
^ ^^
Kölner Kranz
LP vinyl released 2008 on a-musik
www.a-musik.com | A31 | discogs
side A: Überschreitungen Des Pragmatismus
side B: Kölner Kranz
recorded at Galerie Haferkamp, Cologne [March 3rd 2004], Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson [March 24th 2004], Non-Event, Boston [March 26th 2004], Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik, Witten [April 23rd 2004], Interplay, London [February 9th 2005], Tonic, NYC [September 7th 2005].
mixed and mastered at Piethopraxis Köln [August 2007]
edition of 298 copies
"Koelner Kranz is imbued of pure sonic guerrilla. Incessantly violent outbursts of loud stridencies and repeated consecrations at the altar of discordant harmonics certify, once and for all, that Lehn and Schmickler are not going to accept any measure of compromise, and that those who manage to swallow these releases in succession are worthy of my utmost respect. ... Two important chapters in the updated book on the art of nonfigurative noise, obvious must-haves for both artists’ supporters."
- Massimo Ricci | Temporary Fault
^ ^^
Navigation im Hypertext
CD released 2008 on a-musik
www.a-musik.com | A34 | discogs
22 track titles
recorded at Experimental Intermedia, NYC [March 25th 2004], CCA, Glasgow [October 2nd 2004],
INMM, Darmstadt [March 31st 2005], Gallery 1412, Seatt-le [September 8th 2005], Mills College, Oakland [September 9th 2005], Lampo, Chicago [September 10th 2005], REM, Bremen [December 22nd 2005], Alte Feuerwache, Köln [September 8th 2006]
Mixed and mastered at Piethopraxis Köln, August 2007
"Navigation im Hypertext - 'tranquil' parts included, and there are many - hurts our awareness viciously, sounding seriously conceived throughout. Suitable as a detached commentary on the collapse of human efforts and illusions."
- Massimo Ricci | Temporary Fault
^ ^^
Live Double Séance [Antaa Kalojen Uida]
DVD 5.1 audio & LP stereo vinyl released 2011 on Editions Mego
www.editionsmego.at | eMEGO 121 | discogs | bandcamp
contains stereo vinyl LP and DTS 5.1 Surround Sound DVD (audio only)
DVD playable on standard DVD Players and Home Computers
live recording of a 6 channel loudspeaker concert on November 14th 2010 at Äänen Lumo Festival for New Sounds at Myllysali, Suomenlinna Island, Helsinki.
track listing
vinyl
side A (23:12)
side B (23:11)
DVD
1. 0:15
2. 46:48
"Live Double Séance is the fourth album documenting Lehn's duo with Schmickler, whose work in the digital realm evinces a similar rigour and inventiveness. … One of the great things about the duo is the way they refuse to settle into assigned roles - at times Lehn's percussive white noise interjections push the music towards something very loosely resembling Techno, while Schmickler's sonic treatments have a distinctly 1950s concrète feel."
- The Wire
^ ^^
Neue Bilder
Released 2017 on Mikroton
mikroton recordings | discogs
track list
1. 12022016 (16:48)
2. 9112013 (20:12)
recorded on February 12th 2016 at LWL-Museum fuer Kunst und Kultur during KlangZeit Festival Münster and Novmber 9th, 2013 at Schlachthof Wels during music unlimited Festival
mixed and mastered at Piethopraxis Tonstudio Cologne, June 2017
cover artwork by Heike Sperling
^ ^^
collaborative releases
Rabbit Run (2003)
a studio production in collaboration with Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics)
released April 2003 on erstwhile
www.erstwhilerecords.com | erst 027 | discogs | bandcamp
42 track titles, playable in random mode
recorded at Peithopraxis Tonstudio, Cologne on 19/20 June 2002
edited, mixed and mastered by Marcus Schmickler
Keith Rowe / Toshimaru Nakamura / Thomas Lehn / Marcus Schmickler Untitled (2004)
quartet live recording with Keith Rowe (guitar, electronics) and Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board)
released November 2004 on erstwhile
www.erstwhilerecords.com | ErstLive 002 | discogs | bandcamp
recorded on 8 May 2004 at Stadtgarten, Cologne as part of AMPLIFY 2004: addition
mixed and mastered by Marcus Schmickler
^
reviews
This latest offering from the duo of analogue synth virtuoso Thomas Lehn and laptop whizkid Marcus Schmickler – the pair's fourth, after 2000's Bart on Erstwhile and 2008's Kölner Kranz and Navigation Im Hypertext on A-Musik – comes both as a vinyl (another handsome platter from Berlin's Dubplates & Mastering) and as a Surround Sound DVD, and it's almost worth your while buying the 5.1 gear just for the pleasure of blowing it through the fuckin' roof with this live six-channel recording of a concert last November at the Äänen Lumo Festival for New Sounds in Helsinki (before you ask, no I didn't shell out for the extra speakers myself - I went and listened to the DVD at a friend's, though I'm not sure he considers me as a friend anymore now). The spatialization isn't some hip afterthought of Marcus Schmickler's either - though having heard some of the wonders that have emerged from his Piethopraxis Tonstudio over the years, I wouldn't have been surprised if it were - it really sounded like that live. And for once the "no editing, no mixing" tagline really impresses. … Whether they did it in real time or not, this is composition - nay, architecture - of the highest order. The musicianship is truly sensational, but be warned: the only way to catch the myriad nuances is to pump up the volume as loud as it'll go - this is one of those thrillers that like Sheer Hellish Miasma makes no sense whatsoever if your neighbours aren't kicking the door down. It's worth a new door, in my opinion. Hell, it's worth a Surround Sound system too - how many shopping days to Christmas?
- Dan Warburton on Live Double
Séance | Paris Transatlantic
Surely nothing could better highlight the absurdity of genre categorisation than having premier analogue synth improvisor Thomas Lehn and John Beltran in same column. Live Double Séance is the fourth album documenting Lehn's duo with Schmickler, whose work in the digital realm evinces a similar rigour and inventiveness. Recorded live in a sea fortress in Helsinki, the performance shifts between the hesitant squiggles and quietly blossoming drones of their early exchanges into what could be categorised as harsh noise. One of the great things about the duo is the way they refuse to settle into assigned roles - at times Lehn's percussive white noise interjections push the music towards something very loosely resembling Techno, while Schmickler's sonic treatments have a distinctly 1950s concrète feel.
- The Wire on Live Double
Séance
The artists’ clairvoyance is explicated by chains of supernatural jumbles and last-ditch galactic discontinuities. Navigation im Hypertext - “tranquil” parts included, and there are many - hurts our awareness viciously, sounding seriously conceived throughout. Suitable as a detached commentary on the collapse of human efforts and illusions. ... Koelner Kranz is imbued of pure sonic guerrilla. Incessantly violent outbursts of loud stridencies and repeated consecrations at the altar of discordant harmonics certify, once and for all, that Lehn and Schmickler are not going to accept any measure of compromise, and that those who manage to swallow these releases in succession are worthy of my utmost respect. ... Two important chapters in the updated book on the art of nonfigurative noise, obvious must-haves for both artists’ supporters.
Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler bring another sort of intensity to the festival (Amplify 2002/Tokyo); too fractured and frenetic for even the suggestion of narrative, their firestorm volleys and knob-ripping synth wrangling succeeds on the merits of its own unstoppable, hyperactive energy. Like frazzled supercomputers spluttering out hunks of ingenious code, they tumble through more ideas in minutes than many groups do in years without losing focus or degrading into senseless blurting.
- Joe Panzner | Stylus
Magazine
It is precisely in the contrast between tight control and raw, unfocussed energy that Thomas Lehn and Marcus Schmickler's collaboration lies. Packaged in the appropriately lo-tech, glitch-graphics of Cologne designer Heike Sperling lies an hour-long release of stuttering free-form glitch funk. What differentiates 'Bart' however, from the myriad of recent glitch-improvisation releases is its ruthless attention to detail. Both Schmickler and Lehn are well known within their respective circles and the results of this, their first collaboration, are stunning to say the least.
- Christopher Murphy |
fällt on Bart
^
^
video
live at music unlimited festival, Wels/Austria, November 9th, 2013
^
downloads
info portfolio (pdf)
press photos
technical rider
© 2017 by
Udo
Siegried
^
tour dates
booking periods | upcoming | past
^ ^^
future booking periods
^ ^^
upcoming performances
^ ^^
past performances
2023
Sat. May 20, Belgrade @ Ring Ring Festival
Thu. April 20, Rome @ MACRO Museum (with Okkyung Lee)
2022
Thu. June 23, Monheim @ Monheim Triennale (with Chris Corsano)
2021
Sat. October 16, Donaueschingen @ Donaueschinger Musiktage
2020
Sun. November 1, Cologne @ Chamber Remix Cologne
2019
Fri. February 15, Paris @ Presénse Festival / Radio France Musique
2018
Fri. October 12, Moskau @ DOM
Fri. March 23, Den Bosch @ FAQ Festival
Sun. February 25, Boston @ Goethe Institute Boston, non_event
Sat. February 24, Baltimore @ Red Room
Fri. February 23, Austin @ no idea festival
Thu. February 22, Austin @ no idea festival
Tue. February 20, Houston @ nameless sound
Mon. February 19, Houston @ nameless sound
Sat. February 17, Chicago @ Lampo
2017
Sat. August 5, Berlin @ Radialsystem V / A L'Arme Festival
2016
Fri. February 12, Muenster @ Klangzeit Festival
2015
Sat. November 28, Bratislava @ NEXT Festival
2014
Fri. August 22, Berlin @ concepts of doing Festival
Fri. May 30, Bergen @ Landmark/Kunstha / Jazzfestivalen
2013
Fri. December 13, Tours @ Le Petit Faucheux (with Keith Rowe)
Thu. December 12, Montreuil @ Instants Chavires (with Keith Rowe)
Sat. November 9, Wels @ music unlimited Festival
2011
Sat. October 15, Krems @ Kontraste Festival
2010
Sun. November 14, Helsinki @ Äänen Lumo Festival
2009
Fri. November 13, Berlin @ Mimaroglu Festival
Sat. March 14, Cologne @ Nozart Festival
Fri. March 13, Utrecht @ SJU Podium
2008
Fri. November 7, Bordeaux @ CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux
Thu. September 4, Cologne @ a-musik
2007
Wed. October 31, Duesseldorf @ Heinrich-Heine-Institut
2006
Fri. September 8, Cologne @ Hommage à Johannes Fritsch
2005
Thu. December 22, Bremen @ R.E.M. Festival / Neues Museum Weserburg
Sat. September 10, Chicago @ 6ODUM
Fri. September 9, Oakland @ Mills College
Thu. September 8, Seattle @ Gallery 1412
Wed. September 7, New York @ Tonic
2004
Sat. October 2, Glasgow @ CCA
Sat. May 8, Cologne @ AMPLIFY: Addition / MusikTriennale Cologne
Fri. May 7, Cologne @ AMPLIFY: Addition / MusikTriennale Cologne
Thu. May 6, Cologne @ AMPLIFY: Addition / MusikTriennale Cologne
Thu. March 25, New York @ Experimental Intermedia
Wed. March 24, Annandale, USA @ Bard College
Thu. March 4, Cologne @ Galerie Rachelhaferkamp
2002
Sat. October 19, Tokyo @ Star Pine's Cafe
Fri. October 18, Tokyo @ Amplify 2002 Festival (with Keith Rowe)
Thu. August 1, Antwerpen @ Theatre Zuidpool
Thu. March 7, Stuttgart @ merz akademie space, Kleinen Schlossplatz
2001
Fri. November 9, Lille @ Le Malterie
Thu. November 8, Montreuil @ Instants Chavires
Sun. September 30, Cologne @ Loft (with Keith Rowe)
Wed. September 5, Cologne @ Stadtgarten
Sat. January 20, Liege @ Ancienne Eglise Saint-Andre
2000
Thu. May 11, Utrecht @ Ekko
Fri. April 14, Hasselt @ Kunstcentrum BELGIE
^ ^^
^
related links
home page Marcus Schmickler: www.piethopraxis.org
^
updated on December 5, 2023