Fahey Conrad

After receiving four Grammy nominations for his highly successful series of recordings that "latinize" the music of John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Horace Silver, Conrad Herwig turns his attention to the legendary Charles Mingus. An imposing figure in jazz, Mingus was known for being complicated, volatile and a touched-by-genius innovator. As an homage to this influential artist, Conrad Herwig provides a fiery excursion into the world of Afro-Caribbean rhythms skillfully applied to Mingus' wildly imaginative compositions. Joining Herwig is special guest trumpeter Randy Brecker together with long-time "Latin Side" band colleagues pianist Bill O'Connell, reedman Craig Handy and the trumpet/flugelhorn of Alex Sipiagin with the rhythm section of Luques Curtis, Robby Ameen and Camilo Molina.

Tony Conrad is an American multimedia and experimental artist. He is musically known in the 60's for his abrasive violin drones and collaboration in the American "Dream Syndicate". In 1972 he visited the krautrock band Faust at Wumme and recorded a first album with them called "Outside The Dream Syndicate". The album is a vast catalogue of shimmering drones for violin, accompanied by percussive minimalist pulses and moving bass guitar lines. The result is tripped out, engaging the listener in strange rituals (almost buzzing "raga" dreamy sounds). This intriguing album is now a true classic of contemporary music and progressive rock. This one captures the essence of minimalism music and the energy of rock. To be honest, this album looks like more to Tony Conrad's explorations in experimentation sounds and insistent droning performances than Faust's hybrid rocking universe.

In 1982 Schnitzler had already met the New York musician Ken Gen Montgomery, who then regularly performed Schnitzlers' compositions live at various venues worldwide. And so Schnitzler also produced 4 cassettes especially for his concert in East Berlin, which were sent by courier from West to East Berlin. On the evening of 3.9.1986, the privately announced and illegal concert took place in the Erlöserkirche in East Berlin/GDR. Montgomery mixed Schnitzler's music live from the tapes. Jörg Thomasius recorded the performance and released the recording in 1987 on his own underground cassette label Krötenkassetten. The elaborately restored original recording is now being released for the first time on LP and CD under the title "CAS-CON II". In addition to photos and contemporary documents, it also includes Jörg Thomasius' and Ken Gen Montgomery's written memories of this very special evening.

In 1982 Schnitzler had already met the New York musician Ken Gen Montgomery, who then regularly performed Schnitzlers' compositions live at various venues worldwide. And so Schnitzler also produced 4 cassettes especially for his concert in East Berlin, which were sent by courier from West to East Berlin. On the evening of 3.9.1986, the privately announced and illegal concert took place in the Erlöserkirche in East Berlin/GDR. Montgomery mixed Schnitzler's music live from the tapes. Jörg Thomasius recorded the performance and released the recording in 1987 on his own underground cassette label Krötenkassetten. The elaborately restored original recording is now being released for the first time on LP and CD under the title "CAS-CON II". In addition to photos and contemporary documents, it also includes Jörg Thomasius' and Ken Gen Montgomery's written memories of this very special evening.

Bretschneider on his con-struction: I read the name Conrad Schnitzler for the first time in the arti- cle about Tangerine Dream in the Rowohlt Rock Lexicon from 1973 (back then, at 17 in the GDR, an indispensable guide). The first time I heard his music was only in 1980, when his wave track "Auf dem Schwarzen Kanal" was played on the ra- dio, an RCA 12" Super Sound Single in disco remix. Then the man was gone and stayed under the radar again, in spite of his almost inflationary number of releases. Maybe his mate- rial was too obscure or his approach too radical to be noticed by the general public. It wasn't until 1988 that I heard from Schnitzler again, a tape on Jörg Thomasius' East Berlin Kröten Kassetten label. And again almost 10 years later his Plate Lunch CDs "Rot" and "00/106".