Günter Schickert`s new LP “Labyrinth” is out for Marmo Music on June the 1st 2018. For the occasion, the label hosts an album release party featuring a solo live performance by the man himself, and by Kurt Dahlke aka Pyrolator joining as special guest.
Günter Schickert, four decades of multi-instrumental cosmic explorations, under Berlin`s sky, above genres, and compromises. Listening to his debut LP of 1974, the monumental “Samtvogel”, it is an overwhelming experience. All those layers of echoing guitars roaring into space can cause major releases of dopamine. “Samtvogel”, self-published first, then licensed to Brain, equaled the imaginative leap and sonic power of the early Pink Floyd, Manuel Gottsching`s Inventions For Electric Guitar or A.R. & Machines `s Die Grüne Reise. What followed, from his second LP Überfällig on Sky Records to his collaborations with Klaus Schulze, Jochen Arbeit and Schneider TM, even if little acclaimed, spans a large spectrum of music styles, always through a distinctive and personal aesthetic, that is deeply linked to the one he firstly crafted back in `74, when Schickert pioneered the use of echo effects applied to guitar playing.
“Labyrinth”, his first album to be released on vinyl format since 1983`s “Kinder In Der Wildnis”, is kaleidoscopic work, a chamaleonic selection of pieces recorded between 1996 and 2017, spanning from exotic sceneries to psych rock calamities, from Ambient and Concrete Musique to extravagant and emotional songwriting. This record stands for versatility, where genres do not matter, soundscapes or life situations take over, emotions pop out, handing out a spectrum of surprises to the listener.
Pyrolator is the soloist project of Kurt Dahlke, a quintessential cross-over protagonist within German post-war underground music scene like a few others around. After co-founding DAF in 1978 but leaving it after only one year, he joined two other iconic bands going to make history, Der Plan and Fehlfarben. Around the same years, he developed the Pyrolator alias and opened the legendary Ata Tak label, which became one of the most prolific laboratories in shaping the sound of the so called Neue Deutsche Welle, launching groundbreaking acts such as Andreas Dorau, Holger Hiller, Der Plan, and Elements Of Crime.
So stated an Ata Tak advertisement from around 1986: “This is German music of the Eighties! We shall not rest until the German people have regained style, culture, and self-consciousness“.
As a matter of fact, by listening to Pyrolator`s 80ties works like “Ausland” or “Wunderland”, it is easy to be captured by its extravagance, versatility in Styles and strokes of genius , as much as feeling bewildered by sonic mash-ups and unpredictable bizarre arrangements : industrial “terrorism”, synth-wave, dream-pop, machine funk, proto-elektro, elektro-schlager, punk-funk, world music references, synth-exotic disco, field recordings, funny vocal samplings, rhythmical polyphony, childish psychedelia, the whole through an evolved Punk attitude and DIY craftsmanship.
To celebrate Günter Schickert`s “Labyrinth” and his uncompromising carrier, there could be no more special guest than the labyrinthine Kurt Dahlke, along with his own multifaceted discography and relentless contribution to artistic freedom and music exploration.
Günter Schickert + Pyrolator
Saturday, 16th June 2018 | Doors 21:00 CET | Starts 23:00 CET
Arkaoda | 16-18 Karl-Marx-Platz | 12043 Berlin
Gunterschickert | Pyrolator | Event @ Facebook
