ASMUS TIETCHENS + FRANS DE WAARD

On „Oordeel“

This collaboration was bound to happen someday! Out of mutual respect and admiration for each other’s work Asmus Tietchens and Frans de Waard decided to work on some music together. The result is “Oordeel" (dutch for "judgement") – eleven tracks of diverse character and subtle beauty. From distorted groans and gritty pulses to delicate and abstract sound layers Tietchens and de Waard have created a fascinating sound world of bizarre beauty.

Frans de Waard

Frans de Waard (1965) has been producing music since 1984 (Kapotte Muziek, Beequeen, Goem,

Zebra, Freiband, Shifts, Modelbau, etc.). In 1984 he started his own record label Korm Plastics,

releasing music from Arcane Device, Asmus Tietchens, Jim O'Rourke among others. He has worked

for the pioneering Dutch tape label Staalplaat (1992-2003) and since 1986 as a reviewer for his own

publication Vital (now Vital Weekly), a magazine which has been an online source for underground

music since 1995, and which celebrated its 1000th issue in 2015. In 2016 Timeless published in

France his first book, an autobiography of life in Staalplaat titled This Is Supposed To Be A Record

Label. His interests in music creation ranges from ambient to noise to what he describes as 'silly disco

music'. He has played concerts in Europe, USA, Canada, Russia and Japan, and collaborated with

Steven Wilson, Jaap Blonk, Andrew Liles, Radboud Mens, Keiji Haino, Pan Sonic and others.

Asmus Tietchens

Tietchens was born in Hamburg in 1947. Since 1975 he has been working as an independent musician; in 1980 he released his first solo record Nachtstücke. After producing a series of rhythmic and harmonic albums for the Sky label in the early 1980s he released his first industrial record Formen letzter Hausmusik in 1984 on United Dairies. Here Tietchens articulated his musical interests clearly: everyday noises were treated and at times deformed beyond recognition and placed into new contexts. Until now Asmus Tietchens has released more than 80 albums on international labels where he continues to explore the posibilities presented to him by specific sound sources (ranging from water sounds to pure sine wave tones). He has a more rhythm-oriented fake band project called Hematic Sunsets. Tietchens’ work is rooted in a deeply sceptic gesture, marked by frequent quotes from the works of philosopher E.M. Cioran on his album covers. Asmus Tietchens has been awarded with the prestigious Karl Sczuka Prize of the Südwestrundfunk (SWR) twice: in 2003 for his work Heidelberger Studien 1-6 and in 2006 for Trois Dryades. He lives and works in Hamburg.