
2025.6.27 update
Pounding
by Frank Bretschneider
: Unequal Cycles in Search of Synchronous Experiences
2024年 6 月にリリースされた、Frank Bretschneider のアルバム『Pounding』。
均一なビートも、派手な展開もない。ただ、円のようなフレーズが微かにずれながら交差し、少しずつ風景を変えていく。低周波のうなり、クリック、サンプル、電子音の粒。それらがパルスのように身体を打ち、まるで時間そのものが揺らいでいくような感覚に陥る。
Here We Go
Frank Bretschneider
from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
Frank Bretschneider
from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
Rapid
Frank Bretschneider
from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
Frank Bretschneider
from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
『Rhythm』(2007)、『Super.Trigger』(2013)と続いてきた彼のリズムに対する試みは、この『Pounding』で、ひとつの頂に触れたようにも感じる。緻密に組み上げられた構造の内側には、不確かさが息づき、得体の知れない律動が、意識の奥へと染み込んでくる。リリースから 1 年を経た今も、その響きは生まれたての音のように鮮度を帯びて、身体の芯に余波を広げていく。
そして今回、この記事を書くにあたり、Nigh Issue 7 に収めたインタビューと、彼の作品の軌跡を改めて辿ってみた。
『Pounding』という、時間をほどく揺らぎのなかに、ぜひ自身の感覚で入り込んでみてほしい。私はその音の奥行きを、彼の物語とともにふたたび覗きこんでみた。そうして引き込まれた時間は、深く満たされる極上の音楽体験だった。

Pounding
Frank Bretschneider
Frank Bretschneider
Unequal cycles in search of synchronous experiences: On his new album »Pounding«, Frank Bretschneider tells of distance, convergence and congruence in a continuous, ever-changing flow of events. What is often regarded as an unquestionable dogma in club music (for which Bretschneider has provided significant impetus since the 1990s) - the groove - appears precarious, unstable, and in motion. Pulse and accent are volatile encounters and have to be found again and again for short, delightful moments. Music becomes a constant process of negotiation.
In search of new sound spaces, Bretschneider has recently worked a lot with modular synthesizers, both solo (for example on »abtasten_halten«, 2020) and in collaborations, including the project Beispiel together with Jan Jelinek. »Pounding« was created using similar means - conceived in 2020 for the Pochen Biennale in Chemnitz, subsequently developed further and recorded in March and April 2023 on a sample-based modular system. And in fact, Bretschneider is once again exemplarily scanning his own sound material, such as dub effects that listen to themselves disintegrate; but also the human voice, or more precisely: the stuttering of fragments of speech, far in the distance but omnipresent, like a mysterious narration. Aesthetically, the eleven pieces form part of a series of works with a focus on percussion. Bretschneider has already perfected this approach with albums like »Rhythm« (2007) and has been shifting the perspective ever since, for ever new results.
Shifting is the basic principle of »Pounding«. Bretschneider combines elements that are in different aggregate states, changing their relationship to each other and thus ensuring the complex overall movement. He lets one to two-bar loops run against each other and through small manipulations, develops a network of rhythms that creates a hypnotic state in the counterplay of repetition and mutation, between clearly recognizable meter and disorientation. There are comparable approaches in aleatoric music. Bretschneider combines them with sounds and patterns that are reminiscent of step sequencer logic and at the same time go far beyond it. The result is relational techno. Never obvious, always restless and exciting.
released June 21, 2024
Recorded March - July 2023, Berlin.
Written and produced by Frank Bretschneider.
Mastered by Lupo.
Dedicated to Monika Döring (1937 - 2024).
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