S55003 - Cristian Vogel - Double Deux/Delicado - Official release and reviews

[CV]

For over a decade Cristian Vogel has been carving his own niche in the contemporary music scene. He has released countless experimental techno records on labels such as Tresor, Novamute, Mille Plateaux and was Jamie Lidell’s partner in the legendary Super_Collider. But since 2003 Vogel’s music has also been electrifying a different kind of dancefloor. It was then that Franz Treichler (Young Gods) introduced Cristian to Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin (www.parano.org) & it was “love at first sight”. Since then Cristian has scored the music for 4 of Jobin’s creations including Double Deux(2006) and Delicado(2004).

Vogel’s provocative soundtracks were composed in parallel with the choreography forming a direct symbiosis between composer, choreographer & dancers and a creative space for Vogel to explore seriously original ideas. The results are spectacular abstract pieces of never heard electronic sounds generated at the bleeding edge of technology & art.

This release, which includes sleevenotes from Gilles Jobin & Franz Treichler, stands not only as a document of the performances, which continue to thrill audiences around the globe, but also as a deep insight into Vogel’s incredible sonic universe. The dynamic range of imagery & emotions shifts from soothing insect pulses to sheer industrial panic & will appeal to all open-minded, thrill-seeking listeners.

Gilles Jobin: “Cristian has had a mentally challenging approach to choreographic musical score. But at the same time it has always had a sense of clever reality, humour and an authentic raving culture. I will always remember the day during the creation of Double Deux, when, after relentless hours of programming on the never engine, Cristian, came up to us, exhausted, and said « I have invented a new form of techno ! » I knew in that moment that the music was there… “

Tracklist:

CD1 (Double Deux)
1. DD Engine
2. Slapping
3. FloPo
4. Transition_FloPo_Sxsx
5. SxSx
6. The Walk
7. Transition_Walk_Scream
8. The Scream

CD2 (Delicado)
1. Delicado

Release date: 27/08/2007
Format: Double CD + Booklet



Available to purchase online, please support Station 55 Records and purchase a copy!
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[CV]

from smallfish:

I was really intrigued to hear this new work from Cristian Vogel as I've always been a fan - particularly of his earlier work. I'm pleased to report that this is, in my opinion, something of a big return to form. He specifically produced these works for Gilles Jobin's dance choreography and what I think is fascinating is the way he's managed to keep it very Vogel-esque, yet works it into a clearly very usable arrangement. It moves fluidly between abstract soundscape work and vintage techno sounds that are stripped and minimal without being overtly so, if you see what I mean. Some fantastic sound design and inventive rhythm programming keep the whole thing moving beautifully. 2 CDs here and it's really quite a ride. Well worth checking out.

[CV]

from philipdowney:

Techno has always seemed like a natural companion to modern dance, but collaborations between the fields have been few and far between, until this year. First, there was Shut Up and Dance! Revisited, between various German producers and the Berghain Ballet. Now, we have Cristian Vogel's Double Deux, a solo artist album.

"Double Deux/Delicado – Music For The Creations Of Gilles Jobin" is the result of Vogel scoring four dance performances for Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin in recent years.

The album begins with "DD Engine", a long, pulsating track that is neither techno nor ambient. Over 15 minutes it moves around wildly over a continuously evolving broken-up beat. It's one of the highlights of the album.

Then a short linker track brings us to "FloPo", a beatless, darker ambient track. It's harder to imagine dancers performing to this, but it would undoutedly be filled with aggressive, impulsive movements.

Another linking track leads to "SxSx", an electric ambient that one could easily mistake for Fennesz. Processing is the key to this track. It's followed by "The Walk", an even more low-key piece with throbbing bass and random percussion elements.

Finally, "The Scream" ends the album. It's not as horrifying as its title implies, and is a long, somewhat soothing glide of an ending. It's almost a drone, but it evolves too quickly. In any case it's a great, relaxing ending.
Overall, it's a fine album, which can properly be called "intelligent dance music".

[CV]

from the milk factory

With this two disc set, Cristian Vogel takes his countenance for the rave dancefloor and siphons it off to that of interpretative dance. Surprising or not, this spells a sort of pyrrhic victory for Vogel, who seemed quite at home in crafting esoteric techno concoctions. Evidently, both works on display here were created in parallel with the choreography, and thus form a certain symbiosis between himself, the choreographer and, of course, the dancers themselves.

As a single thirty-minute composition, the fruits of Delicado take the form of crisp digital beats that sound like sandpaper anxiously rubbing itself to sleep. Around this foundation, pieces of static hum and other such clicks and scratches frenetically pucker, pop and fizz, working to further establish a fine sensation of pulse and energy. This opens up a fairly luminous setting, which unfolds across a series of open-ended textures, which are threaded with rolling half-melodies that often sound like tiny metal butterflies. Once erected, however, impressive as the process may have been, it nevertheless becomes apparent that, as a piece of aural architecture, it is one which cannot be wholly appreciated for what it simply is materially, but in what it actually does, that is to say, in what function it serves - namely, as an environment for and against which the dancers are meant to interact.

With Double Deux, on the other hand, Vogel manages to convey an excited monologue about concentric circles and caustic hisses spinning more and more out of control. Though similar in approach, the shorter tracks work better for him. With shorter stretches of time, his music actually does more, as he takes a slightly abrasive mechanical rhythm, pairs it with haunting synthesized and slowly moving sounds, and allows it to spin more or less maniacally around its tonic, continually injecting or stripping away elements which the piece struggles with in fascinating ways to deal with and incorporate. Also having been broken into subsections, these pieces reveal more distinctive weights and colors and, on a whole, stand up better on their own.

[CV]

from our friends at BOOMKAT (if you haven't bought music from Boomkat , this would be a good place to start, one of the best online mailorder stores in the UK)

Ex-Super_Collider man Christian Vogel has been busying himself and dipping his toes into practically every genre we can bring to mind. This latest double disc collection brings together his work for choreographer Gilles Jobin and sees him on fine experimental form, dragging his sound-manipulation experience into the world of Raster Noton-styled minimalism. The first disc is one half-hour piece created for a dance piece in 2004 and is a glorious headfirst dive into minimal abstraction bringing to mind Taylor Deupree or possibly Ralph Steinbruechel, but the real reason you need to grab this collection is for the eight-track 'Double Deux' record. This was the result of some serious work between Vogel and Jobin which eventually grew into a friendship, and taking influence from nights of throwing wild techno parties in Switzerland, occasionally using Vogel's 'Angus' sound generator they came upon what Vogel describes as a new kind of techno music. This was refined for Jobin's 'Double Deux' performance, but with or without visuals it is a remarkable piece of work from beginning to end. The style falls somewhere in between Sahko's icy electronic fizz and Frank Bretschneider's cyclic repetition, but at the same time manages to sound like little you've heard before. Far from being the clunky techno revisionism it could have been 'Double Deux' is actually a stunning exploration into experimental electronic music and probably the finest thing I've heard from Vogel since Super_Collider.

[CV]

from Canadian online magazine EXCLAIM!

Cristian Vogel
Music for the Creations of Gilles Jobin
By Stephanie Kale

If electricity could embody emotion, if it could get dizzy, excited or feel sad, Cristian Vogel’s work is what it would sound like. All of the hisses and static, the psychedelic whirls and repetitive revolutions make you want to canoodle your alarm clock and tell it that everything is alright. You also get the sense that the machines making the music are also affected by the very sounds they’re emanating. The music’s ability to move the listener is appropriate, as this double disc is a recording of two of the four projects Vogel has done with Swiss choreographer Gilles Jobin: Delicado (2004) and Double Deux (2006). Delicado is an hour-long mix of metronomic beats, samples and random noise. Introducing Double Deux is “DD Engine,” 15 minutes of the newest sounding techno out there. Remember those huge plastic balls with an elastic band attached to the end that you endlessly punch back and forth? Well, that’s what it sounds like, sped up and recorded in a huge cement enclosure to produce the greatest echo effect. “The Walk” explores ideas of weight and movement as the beats pan and bend back and forth. As for “Slapping,” I’m of the opinion that if everyone was regularly subjected to this level of bass there would be less conflict in the world — people would want to share what they own. There’s just something about the physicality of bass that opens up a person, and that’s what happens on this cut. Vogel is still touring with Jobin’s dance troupe, wowing audiences across the globe.

[CV]

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