Invitation to exhibit
Moebius Strips
An Installation by Tim Story.
From the Sounds and Music of Dieter Moebius.
With 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 (Kraftwerk, Harmonia, NEU!) and Yuri Suzuki.
Moebius. Phốto by Tim Story.
Contact: Russ Curry, russ@curiousmusic.us
"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 marvelous here…” (The Wire, October 2021)
"A moving and monumental achievement by all those involved, this is one of the rare tributes 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)
An Invitation to Exhibit
Greetings from Russ Curry and Tim Story!
We are contacting you as one of a small, hand-picked group of curators and venues that we are inviting to host our new exhibition Moebius Strips.
Our dear friend Dieter “Moebi” Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia, Brian Eno, Conny Plank) was the author of an inspiring and unorthodox musical legacy that left an indelible impression on contemporary electronic music, influencing some of our most curious musicians.
Tim has most recently focused on experimentation with appropriation, recontextualization, and presenting music in new conceptual frameworks. His recent installation, The Roedelius Cells has been exhibited in museums in Europe and the U.S. and was featured at the Big Ears Festival in 2019. It has just finished a 7-week run at the Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, co-sponsored by the Goethe Institut.
What is Moebius Strips?
Moebius Strips is a multichannel audio installation for museums, festivals, galleries, and other public spaces, both indoors and out.
Working with Moebi’s widow Irene, Tim, a longtime friend and frequent collaborator, has collected thousands of Moebi’s sounds, noises, samples and loops, and reimagines 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. Moebi’s music continues to inspire a generation of sound explorers and composers, and we honor those connections by inviting a distinguished group of artists to add their voice to the Strips – to interact in their own unique ways with the constructions.
Presenting both Moebius’s material and the new 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 to investigate these fascinating sounds individually, but also encourages meaningful participation in the composition itself by the way in which they physically move throughout the space.
Moebius Strips premiered in November 2021, headlining the Witching Hour new music and art festival in Iowa City, IA, USA. A companion CD, limited edition vinyl, and museum program document the project. This installation most recently exhibited at the Villa Aurora / Los Angeles in December 2022 and featured a new composition “Strip 49” by sound artist Felix Kubin created specifically for the event.
Moebius Strips exhbited at the Villa Aurora in December 2022
Moebius Strips launch discussion with Russ Curry, Tim Story and Felix Kubin at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles, December 3, 2022
The exhibit also offers multiple opportunities for associated events: workshops, panel discussions, master classes, and more. (For example, at the exhibition's premiere, we teamed up with Moog Music to bring a hands-on Moebius-centric electronic music workshop, and a master class discussion at the University of Iowa.) We welcome these opportunities to provide additional outreach to patrons, students and. sponsors.
Moebius Strips contributor Eve Maret and Tim Story conduct a Moebius-centric Moog Workshop.
Technical
An audio installation consisting of 8 or more equally-spaced audio monitors in a circular configuration, and an audio playback device (which we'll supply). The size and specifications of the audio monitors will vary based on the dimensions of the intended gallery/listening space. The playback device consists of a self-contained solid state computer processor and a multichannel audio interface which deliver the discrete channels of synchronized audio. Programmed to load automatically and loop indefinitely, the installation is suitable for short and long-term exhibition with minimal oversight. The configuration is highly scalable, both for the physical footprint of the venue, and the number of discrete channels of audio provided, from 8 to 24-channel configurations (for Dolby Atmos, etc).
Michael Rother, Russ Curry, Tim Story and Eve Maret launch Moebius Strips, November 2021, Englert Theater, Iowa City.
The Artists
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 beenexhibited in museums and new music festivals in Europe and the US, including the prestigious Big Ears Festival in 2019.
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 duo Cluster with Hans-Joachim Roedelius, to his genre-crossing solo works and collaborations with luminaries including Brian Eno, Moebius has exerted an indelible, global impact on ambient, electronic, industrial, experimental, and wholly undefinable genres of music.
Longtime friends and colleagues, Moebius and Story collaborated on many musical projects, including Snowghost Pieces (2014, with Jon Leidecker) and Cluster’s final album Qua (2009).
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 solo album is Dreaming (2020). Rother released As Long As The Light in collaboration with Victorioa Maccabruni in March 2022.
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.