Brockmann // Bargmann and Dirge at Internet Explorer Berlin / Saturday, 24.03.2018

As a release concert for their excellent new album Licht and EP Apokalypse Berlin on Bureau B, Brockman/Bargmann will play a special live concert at Internet Explorer in Neukölln this March. With support from D/B’s own Dirk Markham who will present his ambient/drone project “Dirge”, this promises to be a fine Saturday night.

Esteemed for their improvisational audacity, hurtling forwards to a motorik beat, there is another side to the Berlin “Krautrock Guerilla” trio Camera which sees them explore landscapes of sound. This is exactly what the two founder members Franz Bargmann (guitar) and Timm Brockmann (keyboards) present to us on their purely instrumental debut album “Licht”. Harmonic and melancholic, tender and tough, planar and rhythmic — yet never dull. The story so far: in 2013 Franz Bargmann left Camera to join La Düsseldorf drummer Hans Lampe as the live band for Michael Rother (NEU!, Harmonia).

A year after Bargmann’s departure, Brockmann also quit, in his case to devote himself primarily to studio work. This led him first to Boris Wilsdorf, engineer and “in-house” producer for Einstürzenden Neubauten since the year 2000. Brockmann later took on the role of personal engineer for the Tiger Lillies, those underground icons of dark humour, and is still responsible for their sound today. When Timm Brockmann and Franz Bargmann were ready to record the “Licht” album, they turned to Tiger Lillies singer Martyn Jacques, who set them up in his studio.

The album documents an intense journey of exploration into sound, with improvisation as its compass. Stylistic barriers pale into insignificance for Brockmann // Bargmann. Their sound is warm and compact, channelled through analogue synthesizers, pianos and guitars. Occasionally an open room microphone draws the listener right into the recording studio.

Dirge is the ambient/drone project by D/B editor Dirk Markham. Dirk has been making experimental recordings and teaching himself every instrument he can get his hands on since his years studying mental philosophy at Edinburgh University in the late 90s. While an ongoing collaborative exchange with the Forest Records Collective still provides a strong bond to Edinburgh, Markham has been residing in Berlin for the last 10 years where he previously worked for Gudrun Gut’s indie label monika enterprise and is now part of the research and development team with Native Instruments.

At Digital in Berlin we are excited to present this exclusive performance. We are giving away a pair of tickets for the show – send a mail to win@digitalinberlin.de with „Apokalypse Berlin“ as the subject for a chance to win.