[CP 199.19 CD] Dieter Salbert, Alrun Zahoransky; Musica Phantastica, Klangszenen, Alte Und Neue Musik Auf Alten Instrumenten

June 2023; compiling the three vinyl-era releases by German Composer Dieter Salbert & Vocalist Alrun Zahoransky (two LPs from 1976 & 1984 for Camerata & Racket, respectively then a "Private" 7" single) across two discs, this is a handy compendium of the duo's left-of-center Electro-Acousticisms. While admittedly I'd framed these as regional "Berlin-School" fodder (Jürgen Peters' "Tree Of Life With Synths" illustration on the cover did me no favors) after coming across them in German & Austrian record-shop bins for ages; glad to rectify this attitude & present them here in the CP 199.XX sub-series where they rightfully belong. 

Largely recorded at their own Studio Pauler in Northeim, then mixed with Kurt Rapp at the famed Tonstudio Bauer in Ludwigsburg, "Musica Phantastica" weaves Zahoransky's reading of Erich Arendt's Deutsche-sprache iterations of Neruda through a particularly woolly assemblage of wheezing synths and malaise, not all that far removed from Ruth White's "Satantic" Baudelaire. "Klangszenen" jumps foward 8 years (and with it the timbral shift into early Digital FM; for the better in this case) while retaining the off-kilter, a-synchronous rhythmic lilt that makes this music so interesting... we're even treated to a trio of Conrad-un-Söhn esque rhythm-box pulse miniatures at the beginning of the B-side before it descends again into the sort(s) of free-synth figures that define the pair's work. The bonus "Alte Und Neue Musik Auf Alten Instrumenten" single acts as something of a calling card of the duo's range (a sort of German "CAPAC" single if you will).

Everything's presented in great detail across a single 6-panel booklet, housing the discs inside (clearly labeled).