Asmus TIETCHENS – Thorsten SOLTAU
“Lichthöfe”

The musical material on „Lichthöfe“ is based on modular recordings by Thorsten Soltau. Conceptually these recordings deal with the spaciality of sound and the stereo field, while still maintaining an improvisational character. Asmus Tietchens has treated the material to intensive deformations, ranging from reductionist clusters to brittle textures. In each treatment a fragment of the original material remains audible.

Thorsten Soltau
Thorsten Soltau works in the field of sound design and electroacoustics since 2005. Main interests are sonic disintegration, conceptualism and dualism. Thorsten Soltau is a citizen of KonungaRikena Elgaland-Vargaland. He resides in Friesland, Lower Saxony.

Asmus Tietchens
Tietchens was born in Hamburg in 1947. Since 1975 he has been working as an independent musician; in 1980 he released his first solo record Nachtstücke. After producing a series of rhythmic and harmonic albums for the Sky label in the early 1980s he released his first industrial record Formen letzter Hausmusik in 1984 on United Dairies. Here Tietchens articulated his musical interests clearly: everyday noises were treated and at times deformed beyond recognition and placed into new contexts. Until now Asmus Tietchens has released more than 80 albums on international labels where he continues to explore the posibilities presented to him by specific sound sources (ranging from water sounds to pure sine wave tones). He has a more rhythm-oriented fake band project called Hematic Sunsets. Tietchens’ work is rooted in a deeply sceptic gesture, marked by frequent quotes from the works of philosopher E.M. Cioran on his album covers. Asmus Tietchens has been awarded with the prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) twice: in 2003 for his work Heidelberger Studien 1-6 and in 2006 for Trois Dryades. He lives and works in Hamburg.