Cassiber - Cassiber 1982-1992 [2013, 6CD + DVD, 30th Anniversary Cassiber Box] Re-up

Milestone reissue! In 1982 Cassiber (phonetically: ‘a message smuggled out of prison’) crashed like a locomotive into the Deutsche Neue Welle. Founded by Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and Chris Cutler, Cassiber managed to fuse materials and attitudes drawn from experimental rock, fringe jazz, punk, pop, plunderphonics, improvisation, close structure and musique concrete with an energetic and complex form of studio (and then concert) composition that was unique in its combination of diverse experimental approaches to form with a risky, emotional and expressive mode of execution. Through a deep connection between instrumentation, form and topicality, their musical evolution tracked and anticipated the political and technological changes of their time. Thus, in the course of their 10 years of intermittent touring and 4 records they evolved significantly through the high stakes energy of the earlier releases into their later, more complex and composed, studio works (by which time they had become a trio: Goebbels, Anders, Cutler) when they also had early access to the first generation of polyphonic samplers. Highly radical, their music opened up song form by abandoning, extending or crashing sideways into it – building structure from a combination of noise, libido, high musicality and – unique for the time - a great deal of cultural debris. This box collects it all (the majority of it out-of-print for some time now) alongside a lot of unreleased material – and full concert DVD. The 4 historic releases have been carefully re-mastered by Bob Drake and there are, in addition two extra CDs, one that collects the Cassix, Duck and Cover and Ground Zero projects (also re-mastered) and one of unreleased studio and live material, and a DVD (about 2 hours) of live and studio footage - including a mini documentary made during the recording of A Face We All Know. It comes in the usual sturdy box with a fat booklet of documents, interviews, information, photographs, pictures, itineraries and miscellaneous memorabilia. Limited to an edition of 1000 copies

Cassiber were a groundbreaking, devastating band, making music which captured world reality at the end of this century. The group brought together the Frankfurt musicians Heiner Goebbels and Christophe Anders with UK drummer Chris Cutler, and they became the natural heirs to one of the great lines of European rock music. This started off in Canterbury with Soft Machine and Caravan, expanded to include Henry Cow and Faust, achieved mature modernism with This Heat, and culminated in the late 80's and early 90's with Cassiber's startlingly aggressive post modernism. Like This Heat, Cassiber was basically a trio, and this helped them develop an epic style which was also economical. The main principal was live improvisation, and their records have a bone crushing immediacy and spontaneity. Canterbury influences are put through a mangle with sampled mayhem, free jazz, industrial noise, declaimed vocals, newsreel clips, all reaching an extraordinary peak in the album "A Face We All Know", a portrayal of the collapse of East Germany.

~ soundohm

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Cassiber - Cassiber 1982-1992 [2013, 6CD + DVD, 30th Anniversary Cassiber Box] Re-up

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An experimental, jazz and electronic trio in the tradition of Henry COW, CASSIBER came to life in the early 80's when COW's own drummer Chris Cutler got together with two Frankfurt musicians, namely composer Heiner Goebbels on violin and piano, and sampler extraordinaire Christoph Anders on vocals and guitars. Alfred Harth later joined them on sax for a couple of albums and then (the late) Masami Shinoda took over sax duties during a memorable live performance in Tokyo in 1992.

CASSIBER's music is fractured, complex and very difficult to get into. Mostly improvised (except for a few lyrics they kept on hand for inspiration), their material consists of sampled mayhem, free jazz, industrial noise, declaimed vocals (Christoph Ander's vocals are truly an acquired taste), newsreel clips and the likes. The rare unity they attained with their third album in 1988, "A Face We All Know", makes it their most powerful release to date and is considered their masterpiece (its theme is about the collapse of the Berlin Wall). The double album "Cassiber - Live in Tokyo" is a true farewell documentary: disk one captures the band's only visit to Japan and their very last concert together, featuring guest saxophonist Masami Shinoda who died soon after. Disk two is a radical reworking/remixing of the same material by Otomo Yoshida & Ground Zero that make it sound like an entirely different album altogether.

Strange but well worth the effort if you can handle the weirdest, most bizarre RIO/avant-garde stuff you've ever dared slip into a cd player.

~ progarchives

Man or Monkey was Cassiber's first album. It was released in 1982 on the German label Riskant as a set of two 45 rpm LPs – a format that turned it into a pricy collector's item. For this first effort, Christoph Anders, Chris Cutler, Heiner Goebbels, and Alfred 23 Harth entered the studio with only a handful of the drummer's lyrics and a few melodic ideas. They improvised, letting structures and arrangements develop by themselves, so to speak, and singer Anders threw in a text when he felt it appropriate. Even on the ReR Megacorp CD reissue, the structure of the four-sided LP remains strongly detectable. Side A presents three short improvised songs. Lyrics are more declamated than sung and the musical flooring is loosely rhythmical but very intense ("Red Shadow" is a highlight). Side B focuses on more prepared songs and Anders' singing. The festive music of "Our Colourful Culture" creates a disgusting contrast with the somber lyrics ("I came from the country/Arriba! Arriba!/They were killing my family/Ha ha ha ha"). "O Cure Me" sets the lyrics from one of Bach's cantatas against a delicate keyboard motif and thunderous clashes of noise. Both of these pieces would remain in the group's live sets until the end ten years later. Side C contains the 16-minute free improvisation "Man or Monkey." It has interesting moments but never really lifts up – a failed attempt for the most part. Side D contains nice percussion work. Man or Monkey is miles away from the conciseness and strength of A Face We All Know, but it already shows all the ingredients for the maturation of this seminal avant rock group.

by François Couture, AMG

Tracklist:

01. Not Me [03:35.240]
02. Red Shadow [03:44.440]
03. Chor der Gefangenen [04:47.947]
04. Our Colourful Culture [03:00.973]
05. O Cure Me [05:48.973]
06. This Core [04:16.973]
07. Man Or Monkey [16:35.480]
08. Django Vergibt [03:06.200]
09. Die Verunreinigung des Flusses Ist Gerade noch Erträglich [06:29.133]
10. Sag Mir wo die Blumen Sind [02:43.493]



Musicians:

Christof Anders — electric guitar, voice, Korg synthesizer, violin, tenor saxophone, prepared cassettes, metal sheets
Chris Cutler — drums, noises, objects, whistle
Heiner Goebbels — electric/acoustic guitars, bass, piano, PPG synthesizer, organ, Chinese violin
Alfrd Harth — alto/tenor saxophones, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bass clarinet, cello

With:

Peter Prochir — drums (4)

Cassiber's debut album was originally intended to be a one-off, but shortly after its release they were invited to play at the Frankfurt Jazz Festival and further live work followed. A couple of years after Man or Monkey they recorded Beauty and the Beast, which was created using the same methodology as before - improvised composition - but their experience as a performing band had made a difference to their music; on this occasion there was a greater sense of coherence both within the individual pieces and across the album as a whole.

As on their previous outing the album featured a mixture of instrumental and vocal tracks, although on this occasion Chris Cutler's texts were not used as extensively as before. The use of electronics was also more prominent this time around, with cassette recorded voices woven into the fabric of several tracks. Robert, the second track, features a brief snippet of Captain Beefheart reciting The Dust Blows Forward, while elsewhere the vocals seem to have been recorded from German news broadcasts, and for the most part this technique is very effective; on later albums Cassiber would use samplers and electronics even more prominently. Two cover versions are included: Und Ich Werde Nicht Mehr Sehen is a Hans Eisler piece, while At Last I Am Free is a song by Chic that was also covered by Robert Wyatt on Nothing Can Stop Us. At Last I Am Free is one of the album's highlights and manages to be faithful to the spirit of the original but also has the same uncompromising RIO sound as the rest of the album. The more 'free' improvisations veer into some decidedly abstract territory, but the album is sequenced so that they are contrasted with more accessible pieces and many of the tracks segue into each other, creating a constantly shifting mood. There are also moments of real beauty, particularly from Goebell's piano and Harth's saxophone, although any lyrical passages are brief and there is usually something loud, discordant or disturbing to provide contrast.

Beauty & the Beast is an uncompromising piece of work, but it has stood the test of time rather better than Man or Monkey. It's interesting to compare it with Skeleton Crew's debut album, which was released at around the same time and which also made extensive use of taped vocals. Both are very much products of their time, RIO meeting post punk experimentalism, and both see former members of Henry Cow engaging with new developments in music and remaining progressive in the truest sense of the word. If you like one, you'll probably like the other; Beauty & the Beast can be recommended to anybody who likes 80s avant rock and indeed to anybody inclined to try something adventurous for a change.

by Syzygy, progarchives

Tracklist:

01. Six Rays [04:06.587]
02. Robert [04:57.440]
03. Last Call [02:56.840]
04. Ach Heile Mich [06:31.773]
05. Haruspices [01:52.320]
06. Under New Management [05:26.813]
07. Vengeance Is Dancing [02:16.053]
08. In Eine Minute [04:32.493]
09. Und Ich Werde nicht Mehr Sehen [02:57.533]
10. Trendre la Lune avec les Dents [04:16.227]
11. At Last I Am Free [03:45.240]
12. At Last I Am Free [00:17.227]
13. Time Running Out [05:30.267]



Musicians:

Christof Anders — electric guitar, voice, Korg synthesizer & sequencer, prepared cassettes, metal sheets
Chris Cutler — drums, electronics, noises, objects
Heiner Goebbels — electric guitar, bass, grand piano, PPG synthesizer, cassettes, vocals (11)
Alfrd Harth — alto/tenor/baritone saxophones, pocket trumpet, trombone, bass clarinet, jaw harp, vocals (2, 4, 6)

With:

Ernst Stoetzner — telephone call from Berlin (3)

Cassiber's second album moves one step ahead in the refinement of the group's music. From Man or Monkey, the trio (Christoph Anders, Chris Cutler, and Heiner Goebbels; Alfred 23 Harth had bid farewell) retained clashes of noise, a taste for cheap synthesizers, and Anders' declamatory style. But this time the music is much more organized and arranged. Songs are short and focus on atmospheres and the alienating settings of Cutler's words. More political than before, they take their cue from the previous album's "Our Colourful Culture," or so it seems. They have for subject war, the oppressed, and those who speculate on misery. "Crusoe's Landing" uses an excerpt from Daniel Defoe's novel, a well-chosen page which, put in the context of this album, says a lot about human nature. Although structured, the music only occasionally takes the form of song. The opener "Dust and Ashes" stands as a rare Rock in Opposition outburst ("Orphee's Mirror" provides another). Highlights include "Miracolo" ("Where meat is better/Treated than/The poor who/Can't afford to/Eat it"); Anders' cry, "I ache," in "Prometheus"; and the haunting, sampler-led "Orphee's Mirror." Perfect Worlds is short – only 33 minutes in duration – but it wastes not a second and offers new things to discover in its depths with each listen.

by François Couture, AMG

Tracklist:

01. Dust And Ashes [02:03.547]
02. Crusoe’s Landing [04:30.960]
03. Miracolo [04:53.653]
04. Prometheus [04:50.373]
05. Sleep Armed [02:12.653]
06. In A Room [04:51.667]
07. Todo Dia [02:32.533]
08. Orphee’s Mirror [05:00.920]
09. I Tried To Reach You [02:00.787]



Musicians:

Christof Anders — electric guitar, tenor saxophone, Mirage keyboard, voice
Chris Cutler — drums, electric drums
Heiner Goebbels — electric guitar (1), piano, Mirage keyboard, Chinese violin, voice (5)

This album, the last studio album from this group, is their most complex. For their first two albums (Man or Monkey and Beauty and the Beast), they entered the studio with prepared texts and improvised the music. On their third album, Perfect Worlds, they preconceived the pieces ahead of time and did the final arrangements in the studio. Here, not just the pieces, but the album's "plot" and some of the texts were written by Chris Cutler in the summer of 1988, six months prior to recording and two years before the final mix was complete. The length of gestation and the attention to detail show in the finished product. There is a great deal more overdubbing and sampling than in any previous album, especially in the voices. Christoph Anders' voice is perhaps an acquired taste, as he passionately declaims texts by Cutler, American novelist Thomas Pynchon, and German playwright Rainald Goetz, but his delivery is unique, and ultimately gripping. Cutler also recites some of his own texts, and the voices are layered in many places to the point of unintelligibility. Goetz's texts in German are another difference from their previous work, where all texts have been in English. The tracks here are divided into three long pieces, two related suites sandwiching a third with texts taken from Thomas Pynchon's great novel Gravity's Rainbow. Themes and texts recur in the first and third parts, providing a unity that makes this the group's most powerful album.

by Caleb Deupree, AMG

Tracklist:

I
01. This Was The Way It Was [00:52.613]
02. Remember [02:52.080]
03. Old Gods [00:27.440]
04. 2 O’Clock In The Morning [02:36.200]
05. Philosophy (1) [00:06.867]
06. Gut [03:43.653]

II
07. Start The Show [03:00.347]
08. A Screaming Comes Across The Sky [03:12.693]
09. They Go In Under Archways [04:12.053]
10. They Have Begun To Move [03:28.400]

III
11. Time Gets Faster [00:27.120]
12. It’s Never Quiet [02:25.733]
13. Philosophy (2) [00:04.280]
14. A Screaming Holds [01:57.547]
15. Philosophy (3) [00:32.120]
16. I Was Old [03:49.387]
17. The Way It Was [05:06.147]
18. To Move [02:55.107]



Musicians:

Christof Anders — guitar, sampling keyboard, voice
Chris Cutler — drums, electronics, voice
Heiner Goebbels — bass, keyboards, sampling, computer, guitar (16)






Tracklist:

DUCK and COVER
01. 3000 Explosions [03:04.280]
02. Dark Cloud [01:48.853]
03. Walls Are Loosening [00:39.880]
04. Rats And Monkeys [01:07.707]
05. Pause# [01:30.600]
06. Easter Day 1935 [03:55.200]
07. The Song Of Investment Capital Overseas [03:34.547]
08. The Address [02:13.067]
09. Fragments [01:39.387]
10. Dark Reprise [00:30.413]
11. On Suicide [01:48.667]
12. Und ich werde nicht mehr sehen [04:52.800]
13. Not With A Bang [00:55.800]

CASSIX
14. Coste [01:54.893]
15. Cripta [02:43.827]
16. Religion [02:32.027]
17. The Stanislavsky Method [01:07.880]
18. Tempo di Pace, Bari [03:52.920]
19. Copy Machine [01:46.253]
20. Finta di Nulla [01:56.307]

CASSIBER with Shinoda Masami
21. O Cure Me {remixed by Otomo Yoshihide} [00:27.120]



Musicians:

Duck and Cover line-up:
Tom Cora — bass, cello, cassettes, electronics
Chris Cutler — drums, electronics
Fred Frith — guitar, bass, cassettes
Heiner Goebbels — piano, synthesizer, guitar, cassettes
Alfred Harth — tenor saxophone, trumpet, bass clarinet
Dagmar Krause — singing
George Lewis — trombone, mouthpieces

Cassix line-up:
Chris Cutler — drums, percussion
Franco Fabbri — guitar
Umberto Fiori — singing
Heiner Goebbels — Yamaha piano, PPG synthesizer, accordion
Alfred Harth — tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet
Pino Martini — bass

Line-up on 21:
Christof Anders — voice, sampler
Chris Cutler — percussion, electronics
Heiner Goebbels — piano, sampler
Shinoda Masami — saxophone


Tracklist:

01. This Was The Way It Was [03:00.867]
02. Archways [02:23.747]
03. A Screaming [04:57.600]
04. They Have Begun To Move [01:56.933]
05. 2:00 In The Morning [00:53.947]
06. Tidi Dia [02:55.227]
07. It’s Never Quiet [03:11.480]
08. Six Rays [02:18.733]
09. Prisoner Chorus 1 [02:25.307]
10. Prisoner Chorus 2 [05:12.440]
11. Oh No [02:29.293]
12. I Was Old When I Was Young [02:02.853]
13. Disk Not Responding [02:03.227]
14. Gut [02:55.867]
15. Crusoe’s Landing [04:03.560]
16. Miracolo [04:50.587]
17. Out Colourful Culture [02:24.867]
18. In A Room [04:41.187]
19. Not Me [02:19.373]



Musicians:

Christof Anders — voice, guitar, sampler, keyboards, tenor saxophone
Chris Cutler — drums, objects, electronics
Heiner Goebbels — piano, sampling keyboard, Chinese violin, guitar, voice

With:

Dietmar Diesner — saxophone & electronics (3)
Rene Lussier — guitar (19)


Tracklist:

18 Deutscher Jazz Festival, Alte Oper, Frankfurt an Main, October 1982
01. Our Colourful Culture
02. Man Or Monkey
03. O Cure Me
04. Not Me

Sao Paulo, July 1984
01. A Floor In The Grand Design
02. Prisoner Chorus
03. Robert
04. Survivor Kit Fragments
05. Red Shadow
06. Ach Heile Mich
07. On We Go
08. At Last I Am Free

Akademie der Kuenste der DDR 1989
01. Cassiber’s Landing
02. This Was The Way It Was
03. Heiner Goebbels
04. Old Gods
05. Chris Cutler
06. Gut
07. Christof Anders
08. They Have Begun To Move







Musicians:

Christoph Anders,
Chris Cutler,
Heiner Goebbels,
Alfred Harth


All thanks go to spAceLover