gert-jan prins prins live
grob cd 210

gert-jan prins electronics fm-modulations tv percussion

tracks:
ks 68/70 bm
sterlet 18 swg
blue 7 red
pm/pm
beef cem
sub 1k

track 1 recorded at podewil, berlin on 22 september 1999
track 2 recorded at riesa efau, dresden on 11 november 1999
track 3 recorded at köln studio 672 on 26 may 1999
track 4 recorded at instants chavirés, paris on 12 april 2000
track 5 recorded in cem studio, amsterdam on 17 january 2000
and final track recorded at 102, grenoble on 8 october 1999

cover art by frank dommert.

this cd is currently sold-out

reviews:

Though he started out in the mid-'80s Amsterdam scene as a jazz/improv percussionist, Gert-Jan Prins has
for some time concerned himself more with a very idiosyncratic noise/electronics hybrid music comprised
of - in the case of Live - treatment of frequencies picked up by TV and radio transmitters. A fine example of the
sort of intelligent racket that can result when a sophisticated improv ear is applied to the qualities of sonic and
textural abandonment that characterises "noise" music (these days unfortunately an all too rare scenario),
Live makes most records tagged with the "noise" appellation sound unimaginative and tame.Prins constantly
reconfigures and layers his hissily granular white noise frequencies into rapidly stuttering staccato barrages,
their parts segueing in and out of synch with each other in bewilderingly dense and detailed rhythms;
high-speed, repetitive jackhammer loops maniacally moving in and out of alignment with each other.
Pitches are built up, cut up and imploded into passages of blasting noise-crunch in buffeting, whipping,
circular patterns, to then self-implode into blizzard-like barrages which surge with alarming bursts of electricity.
Aggressive and intense yet playful and perverse, Live is one of the most radically out discs I've heard in some
time. Opprobrium , Nick Cain

Dutchman Gert-Jan Prins manipulates a bizarre array of mutant tabletop electronics with improvisatory grace
Previously a part of a trio with Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and powerhouse drummer William Hooker, and a
regular sparring partner for such free European kings as Mats Gustafsson and Fred van Hove, Prins is no
stranger to the whirlwind sonic assaults of live high energy wrestling. PrinsLive consists of six live cuts that
range from painstakingly assembled rhythmic shapes through percussive Merzbow- style blow outs, all
animated with a ghostly spirit breath that keeps each piece throbbing with life. While occasionally taking
detours through dead end glitch-by-numbers territory, at its best Prins Live sounds the same cavernous roar
as early AMM, charging vast, hyperreal space with buzzing static power. Wire february 2001

"During the last three years Gert-Jan Prins, living in Amsterdam, established himself as one of the main
electronic performers in improvised music. Once known as a drummer who played with Johannes Bauer
or Luc Houtkamp, he has recently played electronics with Mats Gustafsson, Misha Mengelberg, Fred Van Hove,
Lee Renaldo, Thomas Lehn, Peter Von Bergen, or in MIMEO. In this arena he uses self-developed instruments
which acoustically channel the optical signals of televisions, or form heavy beats from radio frequencies.
Live is Prins' third solo CD. His first was based on composition models and released on his own X-OR label.
And his second was released on Frank Dommert's (Sonig) and Georg Odijk's (A-Musik) Sieben label last year.
Live is, of course, a live recording, and is Prins' first. Recorded throughout the course of 1999 and 2000, here's
your chance to experience Prins' unique sound aesthetic.One cannot say "his music sounds like A..."Surely it
has something from Merzbow, the brutal quality, or from Panasonic, the graininess or the radiating peeping.
But that's not quite it, since his sound draws completely from his materials (TV's and radios).
So like Prins only Prins can sound.

Rafales d'autisme virulent. Projections hardcore de décibels comprimés, hachés menus, torturés,
déchiquetés, sanguinolents! Ricochets hurleurs. Jets d'acide. Embruns électroniques qui criblent l'espace.
Bombardement de bactéries bruyantes, féroces. Crépitement magnétique de l'extrême. Tous ces
mouvements saccadés, forcenés, dessinent des paysages battus, hostiles, sans âme, sans vie, aux strates
sinistres brusquement parcourues d'hystérie sismique, dont les ondes cinglantes décapitent les nerfs...
L'oreille en sort toute bizarre de cette marée electro-gröb fracassante... Et ça va bien avec, en fin de soirée,
l'ami Fred légèrement ivre, tirant un livre de son sac et récitant des extraits de Maldoror: "... je te salue vieil
océan", en voilà une marée maldoresque, aux ramifications roulantes et massacrantes...
Gert-Jan PRINS &endash; "Prins Live" (Pierre Hemptinne)

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