Modelbau
Analysis Reveals Nothing Of Substance
When Bass Communion was invited to appear at a Fourth Dimension/LTCo label event at Cafe OTO in May 2024, Steven Wilson (the man behind BC) agreed on the condition that his long-time friend and fellow traveller of music’s furthest reaches Frans de Waard could join him. Being acquainted with Frans’ work and having even released a couple of things by him ourselves over the years (on Fourth Dimension), we were more than happy with this idea.
However, when the pair met in London at Steven's studio t…
Time Lapse
*30 copies limited edition* The album is minimalist and with atmospheric depth. Electronic ambient and drone sounds create a world of their own. The artwork focuses on recycling. The sleeve is made of cardboard mesh, there is recycled paper and remnants from an interior design studio.
X (Book + CD)
Edition of 100 copies In 2012 Frans de Waard started yet another new music project, Modelbau. It took another two years before he really started, but he has since then released a long string of releases, many of which are on very limited cassettes. Over the intervening ten years, he played various European concerts and collaborated with musicians such as Orphax, MvK, and Scanner. Meeuw designed the original logo, which graced almost all of the releases, giving it a distinct look. Meeuw also crea…
Loess
First collaboration between Scanner (Robin Rimbaud) and Modelbau (Frans de Waard), composed entirely by exchanging physical cassettes through the post. Each artist worked unpredictably on what the other sent: Rimbaud through Ellitone Farm Detective Ultrarollz and Flower Electronics, de Waard via Modelbau's iPad synths, Korg Monotron and cheap pedals. The released sequence (ten pieces across four LP sides) is one interpretation among many possible mixes. Warm, lush ambient with analogue grain.
Xerox
**numbered edition of 25 copies** "Modelbau is not Frans de Waard’s latest in a series of names used to create music, but it is indeed the latest one for a solo vehicle. Each of the names, and that includes my own name, stands for something particular, an idea, and something not found in the other monikers I am using. Modelbau is, like Freiband, not a proper German word (it should be Modellbau, but I thought that looked ugly) and as such is probably already a lo-fi name, and as such also very pe…
Zagtel Jaar Mileit / Pulse / Phases
With a sporadic presence on record-breaking level and sparse -and usually unannounced- performances, Ghone returns after several years with his vessel being the 15-minute "Zagtel Jaar Mileit" and his destination the explorarion of the most experimental moments of the project. During the evolution of the monotonous and catatonic buzz, field recordings and sparse noises are gradually added which, without attempting a piecemeal expansion, accomplish the desired sonic stripping of the synthesis. Gho…
Four Squared Wheel
Frans de Waard's first full CD under the Modelbau alias, a project built around a deliberate constraint: cassettes, small synthesizers, guitar effects, microphone and amplifier, with little or no computer involvement. Four Squared Wheel was captured in an extended studio session around a Philicordia organ routed through guitar effects and amplifier, signals mixed on the fly into a near hour-long single piece. Live electronic drone with the unmistakable grain of analogue circuitry.