Frank Bretschneider

Berliner musician, composer and video artist Frank Bretschneider has been making abstract electronic compositions since the mid-’80s, first with his band AG Geige, for his now defunct label Rastermusic, and in the past ten years as a solo artist (aka Komet) for Mille Plateaux, 12k and the label he co-founded with Olaf Bender and Carsten Nicolai, Raster-Noton. His earlier work is more looped based, composed out of ordered and highly textured sine waves and white noise, whereas his latest, Rhythm, although still constructed with militaristic precision, finds Bretschneider programming beats that more obviously come from drum machines. Bretschneider interweaves and layers rhythmic patterns that gradually evolve into complex structures only to disintegrate. He gives equal treatment to the realm of the avant-garde — the random cacophony in "The Big Black and White Game” — and to a certain pop sensibility, "We Can Remember it for You Wholesale,” where he lays a groove down with minimal beats. Just when you think this album is utterly devoid of emotion, that it’s the penultimate example of German technophilla existing apart from the rest of humanity, Bretschneider breaks out a beat that gets you, at the very least, nodding your head to its minimal and funky pop, fizzle and click.