Günter Maas

Whoah. Here’s one you’re not likely to have heard/seen evidence of; Mr. P.C. C.P.’s treatment of German Painter Günter Maas’ sole LP release, privately-pressed in 1969. “Klangbilder” contains four extended pieces, ranging from Oskar Sala-esque sheets of detuned electronic sound - composed on the then state-of-the-art Siemens synthesizer utilizing an experimental photo-electric coupler which converted his paintings into control-voltage !!! - to dark Musique Concréte pieces utilizing evil-sounding mass-chants & “Traditional” processing. The record builds in a linear fashion, climaxing with the intense “Reise;” ten minutes of turbulent environmental noises & dissonant, rasping synthesized tone clusters. A completely eye & ear opening set; one of the more “Advanced” chunks of Early Electronic music to cross my desk in some time. If you’ve found resonance with Andre Almuro’s dark Concrète and/or Toru Takemitsu’s wind-swept score to “Woman in the Dunes,” this is something you’ll need to hear for yourself.