*100 copies limited edition* Bernd Boehm’s life and work still remains a mystery to most. Having engaged in several disciplines like painting, film and sculpture, towards the end of 1980’s Bernd produced a series of experimental film soundtracks along with a modest amount of new wave tracks which we now present under this edition.

Having initially self-released some of these soundtracks, to be latter on published by Matthias Lang on Irre Tapes, “Look under this” reunites now all of his film soundtracks along with a selection of songs made between 1981-1984 and which until now have remained unpublished. Most of this material has remained thankfully well kept in Boehm’s archive on old DAT-tapes for over forty decades. As he told us, "for God's sake, I didn't throw everything away..."

During the 1980’s he composed music for small independent films, including his own Horst Und Lene In Marchenwald, compositions made for Maija-Lene Rettig’s super 8 and 16mm films Rosenrot, Take Courage and L’appesa, and their collaborative film Der Kleine Tod. The collaboration and affective relationship between Bohm and Rettig dates back to the 1980’s when Rettig attended super 8 film classes by Birgit and Wilhelm Hein at Braunschweig Art Academy on the recommendation of Matthias Muller. Along with Muller and colleagues Christiane Heuwinkel and Thomas Lauks she would form the Alte Kinder distribution collective, which introduced their experimental films to a broader audience.

Despite proximity and occasional collaborations with some of these figures like film composer Dirk Schaefer, Boehm never felt like he pertained to this scene, developing in parallel his own creative practice. Without any formal art or academic education, Boehm’s figure resonates with a more outsider profile, a self-taught artist who would develop his own personal work outside from the realm of art schools or cultural institutions. Making use of then technological advanced mediums, Boehm’s compositions feature a wide array of electronic instruments such as Moog, Yamaha and Roland synthesizers and drums machines, along with a clavinet, electric guitars and classical record samples all assembled in a Tascam 244 4-track cassette recorder. 

As initially remarked, Boehm’s body of work has encompassed several other disciplines over time which we believe add an important layer to his persona as an artist. After an apprenticeship as stonemason in 1995, he continued to produce large scale stone sculptures of which we have provided visual documentation, additionally employing his skills commercially for gravestone business’. Pictorially, he has also engaged in oil painting, mainly focusing on portraits. This constant cross pollination among disciplines reveals an ever constant curiosity, an inwards perspective and natural artistic impulse or urge to create which we believe coincides with the sincerity of his music and films.