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Nigh Magazine






























2025.6.27 update




Pounding

by

Frank Bretschneider



: Unequal Cycles in Search of Synchronous Experiences






A year since its release, Pounding by Frank Bretschneider invites the mind to drift inward, as uneven loops weave a subtle flow where rhythm and perception gently unravel.





There’s an album I’ve long wanted to write about, but could never quite find the words. Now, one year after its release, the time finally feels right. Then again, when it comes to this work, the notion of “timing” may not mean all that much.

Released in June 2024, Pounding by Frank Bretschneider doesn’t rely on uniform beats or dramatic developments. Instead, circular phrases cross paths in subtle misalignment, gradually shifting the sonic landscape. Low-frequency hums, clicks, samples, and particles of electronic sound strike the body like pulses—invoking the sensation that time itself is quietly wavering.




Here We Go
Frank Bretschneider

from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
 
Rapid
Frank Bretschneider

from “Pounding” (R-M 214)
raster - artistic platform
2024
 




The album’s official release on raster opens with the following line: “Unequal cycles in search of synchronous experiences.” It’s a phrase that seems to cut to the heart of the work's structure. The rhythm remains unbalanced—wavering, intertwining, and missing each other—yet at times aligning with miraculous precision. Bretschneider’s music seems to search for these fleeting moments of resonance.

With Pounding, it feels as though Bretschneider has reached a new summit in his long-running exploration of rhythm, following Rhythm (2007) and Super.Trigger (2013). Within its meticulously constructed architecture, uncertainty breathes. An unfamiliar pulse seeps into one’s consciousness, leaving ripples at the core of the body. Even after a year, its sounds still resonate with the freshness of something newly born.

This piece grew out of a return to Bretschneider’s Nigh Issue 7 interview, and a renewed look at the arc of his work.








From the archives
on Nigh Magazine

Nigh Issue 7:
Interview with Frank Bretschneider








What stood out was how his practice has continued to distill—his intent ever more concentrated, his sensibility open and unguarded. Like Pounding itself, these qualities transcend the question of “when,” quietly casting light onto the sensibilities of those who encounter them, softening the contours of our imagination.

I encourage you to step into Pounding—this wavering of time—and immerse yourself in it on your own terms. For me, returning to it alongside Bretschneider’s own story became a deeply fulfilling experience, one that offered a rare depth of sonic immersion.




Pounding
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).
© 2024 raster - artistic platform, all rights reserved,
LC 01293
www.raster-media.net
 

All images © of their respective owners.


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