Cologne and the Rhine-Ruhr: the rooms where these records were made
The rooms behind the RANDOM ACOUSTICS records: LOFT and the Stadtgarten in Cologne, the Museum Bochum, Amsterdam's Bim Huis and places further afield.
Articles
Most RANDOM ACOUSTICS release pages give one line after the line-up: where and when the music was recorded. Put those lines side by side, as the recording chronology and the venue index do, and a map appears. Most of it lies in and around Cologne, where the label was founded in 1993. This article walks through that map room by room. The pages say a good deal about who played in these rooms and almost nothing about the rooms themselves, and the article keeps to the same limit.
The label's home city
The label's history starts with a single sentence of place: "The RANDOM ACOUSTICS publishing house was founded in Cologne in 1993 by Georg Graewe." The rest of the city is in the details. Frank Gratkowski's biography says he moved to Cologne in 1985 to study at the Cologne Conservatory of Music, graduated in 1990 and went on to teach saxophone at the conservatories of Cologne and Hannover. The percussion quartet on RA 024 carries the city in its name, Schlagquartet Koeln. RA 010, Snake Eyes by Pair a' Dice, was recorded and mixed at the BEX-Studio in Cologne in three sessions between December 1993 and September 1994 by Joker Nies, one half of the duo.
Of the fifteen dated sessions in the chronology, eight took place in Cologne, counting RA 007, which was made partly in Amsterdam. Bochum comes second with three. No other city appears more than once.
The label text ends with a move. During recording sessions with the Italian trombonist Sebi Tramontana, Graewe met the sound engineer Gottfried Dueren, and "the idea developed to operate in future with combined resources and to relocate to Munich." The pages give no date for it, and none of the recording lines mentions Munich.
LOFT: the room behind six releases
No room appears more often. Six releases name LOFT in Cologne:
- RA 002, Vicissetudes: Gratkowski and Georg Graewe, live, 21 March 1992.
- RA 007, Flex 27: Graewe, Ernst Reijseger and Gerry Hemingway, 1993, with LOFT as one of three places named.
- RA 004, Pele's Tears: credited to Earl Howard, live on 13 October 1993 "during an evening of RANDOM ACOUSTICS", recorded by Ansgar Ballhorn.
- RA 005, Groundwork: Melvyn Poore with Lawrence Casserley, 1994, again recorded by Ballhorn.
- RA 024, Zeug fuer Schlagquartet: Thomas Witzmann's pieces, 13 and 14 September 1996, recorded by Michael Peschko.
- RA 026, Stelen: FOURinONE, live, 15 January 1999.
That list is the best description of the room this archive can give. Between March 1992 and January 1999 the same space recorded a saxophone and piano duo, a trio of piano, cello and drums, a quartet built around live electronics, a tuba player with an electronics partner, a percussion quartet playing a composer's pieces and an improvising quartet with two horns.
The phrase on RA 004 deserves a second look. "An evening of RANDOM ACOUSTICS" suggests that the label presented concerts at LOFT under its own name, and RA 004 is the record of one such evening. Ansgar Ballhorn recorded two of the LOFT sessions and Michael Peschko a third; no recordist is named for the others.
Stadtgarten, Cologne
The STADTGARTEN, as the pages print it, appears twice. RA 003 includes "Variations Q", recorded there on 3 November 1993 with Horst Grabosch, Michael Moore, Ernst Reijseger and Graewe. RA 007 names the Stadtgarten next to LOFT and the BIM HUIS for its 1993 sessions, but the page does not say which of the seven pieces on Flex 27 came from which room, and the titles ("7 Saetze", "KP 596", "NAP 35" to "NAP 38") give no clue.
Two biographies connect the name to a wider scene without saying much about it. Gratkowski's selection of CDs opens with the "Stadtgarten Series Vol.1, 3, 5, 7". Martin Blume's list of festivals includes the Jazz-Haus Festival Köln of 1991. The archive leaves those references as they stand.
Museum Bochum and the Ruhr festivals
Bochum, in the Ruhr, is the other city that recurs. The MUSEUM Bochum is named on three releases:
- RA 003: "15 Duets", recorded on 4 January 1991, the earliest date in the chronology.
- RA 001, Spellings by Frisque Concordance, live on 4 October 1992, the label's first catalogue number.
- RA 022, Lines: only track 2, "bo-tree", recorded live on 27 October 1995.
Blume plays on two of the three. His biography lists the Ruhr-Jazz Festival Bochum, 1990-1996, among his festival appearances, along with Open Systems in Essen and the NOM-Festival in Moers. The pages do not say whether any of the Museum concerts belonged to that festival, and the dates alone cannot settle it. Moers also turns up in Giancarlo Schiaffini's biography, in a long list of festivals he has played.
One caution for anyone building a list from the original pages. The line "Recorded live at MUSEUM Bochum on October 4, 1992" belongs to RA 001, but it is also printed on RA 017, RA 021 and RA 022. On RA 022 the release's own recording details follow in the next line. The about page explains how this archive treats such lines.
Two more places in the region appear on RA 011, Concert Moves by John Butcher, Phil Durrant and John Russell: Schloss Morsbroich in Leverkusen, Cologne's neighbour on the Rhine, and c.u.b.a. in Münster (printed "Munster"), further north in Westphalia. No date is given.
Amsterdam's Bim Huis and the Dutch connection
Across the border, the BIM HUIS in Amsterdam is named twice. On RA 007 it is one of the three places of the Flex 27 sessions. On RA 012, Slamadam by the Gerry Hemingway Quintet, it shares the credit with the Teatre aan de Moelen (the page gives the place as "Laan/Bussum, Holland"). The spelling drifts from page to page: "BIM HUIS" on RA 007, "BIM Huis" on RA 012, "Bimhuis" in Schiaffini's biography, which lists it among the places he has performed.
The players tie the cities together. Ernst Reijseger plays cello on RA 003, RA 007 and RA 012. Wolter Wierbos, the trombonist on Slamadam, appears in Gratkowski's biography as the "Duch trombonist" (spelled that way) who was to extend his trio to a quartet. Steven A. Loewy's note to RA 026 introduces Luc Houtkamp as a "Dutch saxophonist", widely recorded on "the small Dutch X-OR label", and one title from that LOFT concert, "Herenboekje, berenhoekje, boerenhekje, ...", is a run of Dutch words. Michael Moore, on clarinets and saxophone, plays on RA 003 and RA 012, and RA 020 includes a piece called "California Roll (for Michael Moore)". Hemingway's biography calls the Slamadam group his "European based quintet".
Further afield
The rest of the map is scattered. Gateway Studio in Kingston upon Thames made most of Lines, on 7 September 1996. AirWave Recording Studios in Chicago made RA 023, Battuto, a month later. Schiaffini recorded and mixed RA 025, Tuba Libre, in his own home studio in March 1997. Polwechsel (RA 009) was recorded at VHS Ottakring in Vienna and the Kino in Pottenstein, and RA 015 at the ORF Landesstudio in Tyrol and Schloss Stoitzendorf near Eggenburg. "Flavours A" on RA 003 comes from Donaueschingen, far to the south.
Three releases, RA 017, RA 020 and RA 021, carry recording lines that this archive cannot rely on, and RA 027 names no place at all.
Places at a glance
Places named in the recording lines this archive relies on, with the records made there:
- LOFT, Cologne: RA 002, RA 004, RA 005, RA 007, RA 024, RA 026
- MUSEUM Bochum: RA 001, RA 003, RA 022
- STADTGARTEN, Cologne: RA 003, RA 007
- BIM HUIS, Amsterdam: RA 007, RA 012
- BEX-Studio, Cologne: RA 010
- Teatre aan de Moelen ("Laan/Bussum, Holland"): RA 012
- Schloss Morsbroich, Leverkusen, and c.u.b.a., Münster: RA 011
- Donaueschingen: RA 003
- Gateway Studio, Kingston upon Thames: RA 022
- AirWave Recording Studios, Chicago: RA 023
- VHS Ottakring, Vienna, and Kino Pottenstein: RA 009
- ORF Landesstudio, Tyrol, and Schloss Stoitzendorf near Eggenburg: RA 015
- Giancarlo Schiaffini's home studio: RA 025
The recording chronology gives the same places in date order, and the venue index groups them by room. For what was played in these rooms, and how, see composition and improvisation.
Records discussed
- RA 001 · Spellings, Frisque Concordance
- RA 002 · Vicissetudes, Frank Gratkowski and Georg Graewe
- RA 003 · Chamber Works 1990-92, Georg Graewe
- RA 004 · Pele's Tears, Earl Howard
- RA 005 · Groundwork, Melvyn Poore
- RA 007 · Flex 27, Graewe, Reijseger, Hemingway
- RA 009 · Polwechsel
- RA 010 · Snake Eyes, Pair a' Dice
- RA 011 · Concert Moves, Butcher, Durrant, Russell
- RA 012 · Slamadam, Gerry Hemingway Quintet
- RA 015 · Ereignislose Musik - Loose Music, Burkhard Stangl
- RA 017 · Electro-Acoustic Solo Works 1984-95, Gerry Hemingway
- RA 020 · The Flume Factor, Frank Gratkowski Trio
- RA 021 · Unique Horn 1997, Martin Mayes
- RA 022 · Lines
- RA 023 · Battuto
- RA 024 · Zeug fuer Schlagquartet, Thomas Witzmann
- RA 025 · Tuba Libre, Giancarlo Schiaffini
- RA 026 · Stelen, FOURinONE
- RA 027 · Feldstaerken, Thomas Lehn