Moebius Strips electronic press kit
Moebius Strips
An Audio Installation by Tim Story From the Sounds and Music of Dieter Moebius
Includes contributions from Geoff Barrow (Portishead, Beak), Sarah Davachi, Jean-Benoît Dunckel (Air), Eve Maret, Mark Mothersbaugh (Devo), Phew, Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Cluster, Harmonia), Michael Rother (Harmonia, NEU!) and Yuri Suzuki
Moebius Strips premiered November 2021 at the Witching Hour festival including talk/Q&A and Moog workshop
Strips is commemorated with a digital download and limited-edition cd release out now and forthcoming limited-edition audiophile vinyl releases (Summer 2022)
July 20th, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Russ Curry, russ@curiousmusic.us
Contact Russ for media digital downloads and additional promo assets
"Moebius helped forge the sound of European electronics during a particularly fruitful period in Germany... harnessing electricity and circuitry to create frequencies with overwhelming warmth and depth. He visited realms that broke free both aurally and structurally and still sound modern." (LA Times)
"Story has pulled off something marvellous here…” (The Wire, October 2021)
"A moving and monumental achievement by all those involved, this is one of the rare tribute albums that is just as essential as the work of its subject matter." (Record Crates United, October 2021)
“… Moebius Strips is—just like Moebi was—many things at once. It feels here and there, past and present, his and theirs. Ours, too. With a confidante like Story at the helm, it honors the legacy of a friend and pioneer whose enviable status as the godfather of electronic krautrock is beginning to feel like a case of underselling.” (Pitchfork, October 2021)
Curious Music is pleased to announce the launch of Tim Story's new audio installation Moebius Strips.
Honoring Story’s collaborator and dear friend Dieter “Moebi” Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia, Brian Eno, Conny Plank), Moebius Strips is a multichannel audio installation for museums, festivals, galleries, and other public spaces.
Working with Moebius’ widow Irene, Story has collected thousands of his sounds, noises, samples and loops, and reimagined/recomposed these in patterned ‘strips’ which, out of the context of their original settings, combine in new and ever-evolving layers on the installation’s soundstage.
Presenting both Moebius' material and contributor's interactions on individual layers of the installation, Story allows the audience a rare chance to actively explore these unique aural sculptures. Blurring the traditional barriers between composer and listener, Moebius Strips frees the participant not only to hear each layer individually, but to meaningfully participate in the composition itself by the way in which they physically move throughout the space.
Immersing himself in the material, Story began his compositions, exploring in new ways the inherent rhythms, musical gestures, and sonic connections that had inspired his friend. “Working together, I remember the great deal of trust we shared,” says Story. “That trust gave me the motivation to take this project on. Exploration – trial and error - was always an unspoken joy for us both, and it’s incredibly liberating to know that Moebi would have wanted me to have fun with this–to approach his sounds as a playground rather than a museum.”
Story comments about the project -
“Moebi left us way too soon. But his music remains vivid and unforgettable, and it’s such a pleasure to present it again in a physical space where it can be actively explored. Inviting other talented artists to interact and add new perspectives–new life–to this music, reminds me again of what always defined the man and his art – humor, curiosity, and profound humanity.”
Moebius Strips is documented with a limited-edition audiophile vinyl release (Summer 2022), digital download and limited edition cd (out now).
The Artists
About Dieter Moebius
Swiss-German composer Dieter Moebius (1944-2015) profoundly influenced generations of musicians in a career spanning more than a half-century and dozens of solo and collaborative recordings. From his groundbreaking groups Cluster with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Harmonia with Roedelius and Michael Rother, to his genre-crossing solo works and collaborations with luminaries including Brian Eno and an extensive collaborative history with Conny Plank, Moebius has exerted an indelible, global impact on ambient, electronic, industrial, experimental, and wholly undefinable genres of music.
About Tim Story
Grammy-nominated American composer and sound artist Tim Story (b. 1957) has been called a “true artist in the electronic medium” (Victory Review, USA). Through three decades of influential recordings, live performances and audio installations, Story’s unique blend of inspired composition and innovative sound design has garnered a dedicated worldwide following. His recent audio installation The Roedelius Cells has been exhibited in museums and new music festivals in Europe and the US, including the prestigious Big Ears Festival in 2019.
The Contributors
Moebius’ music continues to inspire a generation of sound explorers and composers, and we have honored those connections by inviting a distinguished group of artists who have been influenced by his work as well as former collaborators, to add their voice to the Strips – to interact in their own unique ways with the constructions.
About Geoff Barrow
Producer/multi-instrumentalist Geoff Barrow is best known as a founding member of Portishead, After he met singer Beth Gibbons in 1991, the pair began writing songs together with guitarist Adrian Utley, who eventually became the group's third member. The group’s debut album Dummy earned near-instant unanimous acclaim, including the Mercury Music Prize in the U.K. Barrow is also a member of the band Beak and hip-hop supergroup Quakers, in addition to his work as a film score composer.
About Sarah Davachi
As a composer and performer of acoustic and electroacoustic music, Sarah Davachi's work is concerned with the close intricacies of intimate aural space, utilizing extended durations and simple harmonic structures that emphasize subtle variations in texture, overtone complexity, psychoacoustic phenomena, and temperament and intonation. Davachi has toured extensively across the globe and has collaborated with artists such as Grouper, William Basinski, Ariel Kalma, the Bozzini Quartet and many more. Davachi operates the record label Late Music, founded in 2020 with the partner labels division of Warp Records; Cantus, Descant, a 2xLP of new works for pipe organ, reed organ, and electric organ, was the imprint's first release.
About Jean-Benoit Dunckel
On his own and with groups such as Air and Tomorrow's World, Jean-Benoît Dunckel is a mastermind of stylish, sensual, and ethereal pop. Dunckel and Nicolas Godin formed Air in 1995 and the duo soon earned acclaim for 1998's debut album Moon Safari and the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola's 2000 film The Virgin Suicides. In 2006, Dunckel embarked on a solo career, choosing the moniker Darkel as a twist on his surname, which means "dark" in German. In 2016, Air reunited for a tour supporting the career retrospective Twentyears. In 2018, Dunckel released H+, his first album under his own name.
About Eve Maret
Eve Maret is a Nashville-based experimental artist and composer who employs a wide array of electronic media and techniques in her various disciplines, exploring the possibilities of personal and communal healing through creative action.
About Phew
Phew made her first record in 1979 as part of Aunt Sally, a Japanese post-punk outfit before launching a solo career as well as a series of collaborations including with Ryuichi Sakamoto, Conny Plank, Holger Czukay and Jaki Liebezeit. She remains creatively prolific recently releasing a number of ambient and drone works. Phew’s latest album New Decade, is out on Mute in 2021.
About Mark Mothersbaugh
Mark Mothersbaugh is one of this era’s most unique and prolific composers. Deeply aware of the ability of precise, multi-faceted artistic expression to deliver vital social commentary, he has perpetually challenged and redefined musical and visual boundaries. Mothersbaugh co-founded influential rock group DEVO, and then parlayed his avant-garde musical background into a leading role in the world of scoring for filmed and animated entertainment, interactive media and commercials.
About Hans-Joachim Roedelius
Austria-based German composer Hans-Joachim Roedelius has profoundly influenced generations of musicians in a career spanning more than a half-century and over 100 solo and collaborative recordings. From his work with Cluster (with Dieter Moebius), to his genre-crossing solo works and productions with collaborators including Lloyd Cole, Brian Eno, Morgan Fisher, Christoph Mueller, TM Schneider and many more, Roedelius is recognized as one of Europe’s most important sound pioneers.
About Michael Rother
Michael Rother is among the most influential artists in experimental and electronic music. In 1971 he formed NEU! with Klaus Dinger, after both musicians were briefly members of an embryonic version Kraftwerk. Rother also formed Harmonia with Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Dieter Moebius, whose two albums of kosmiche explorations further defined the krautrock genre. Rother launched his solo career in 1977 with the release of Flammende Herzen. His solo work has evolved into fully electronic productions such as Remember (The Great Adventure) (2004), and after a break of almost 17 years, Rother released his most recent album Dreaming (2020).
About Yuri Suzuki
Yuri Suzuki is a sound artist, designer and electronic musician. His practice explores the realms of sound through designed pieces that examine the relationship between people and their environments - questioning how both music and sound evolve to create personal experiences. Central to Suzuki's practice is collaboration- he has worked with various musicians including will.i.am and Jeff Mills, as well as commercial clients such as Google, with whom he developed a unique AR Music Kit.
Title: Moebius Strips
Artist: Tim Story and contributors from the sounds and music of Dieter Moebius
Catalog: curio 26
Formats: Audio installation with digital download, limited-edition cd and limited-edition audiophile vinyl (Summer 2022)