For four decades Don Dietrich has been one of the three musicians that makes Borbetomagus, a band that somewhere in the crossing point between loud rock, free improvisation and electronic noise music carved their own unique place in the musical landscape. Often overlooked and underappreciated Borbetomagus kept going like a steam train, slowly building a cult following that appreciates them for their uncompromising vision. Few bands can look back at a career with as much integrity as Borbetomagus, and if the term “no compromise” ever meant something in music, they embody it.
Alongside his time in the band with Donald Miller and Jim Sauter, saxophonist Don Dietrich has also ventured into doing solo work a few times. In 2002 he recorded his debut full-length album “Dietrich”, released on the French label Élevage De Poussière in 2003. This was a small run edition LP with limited underground distribution, yet over the years the album grew to be considered a classic of the noise music field. It became a cult record, which its fans would champion to like-minded adventurous music lovers.
Outside the trio format Dietrich’s lone amplified saxophone appeared even more direct and unforgiving, like a force of nature that is both ripping itself apart and regenerating immediately. The intensity of Dietrich’s physical playing isn’t as much helped by the electric amplification as bringing it to its knees. A whole history of how to play the saxophone is killed off and reanimated over the course of the album’s six pieces.
The “Dietrich” album has been out-of-print for years, and is now being reissued in remastered form on CD by Pica Disk. As an added bonus the 1994 “Chinese Root Letter/Tabulae Sex” 7”, originally released on Thurston Moore’s Ecstatic Peace Records, is also included.