mimeo electric chair + table
music in movement electronic orchestra
grob 2-cd 206/7

phil durrant violin electronics
christian fennesz computer
cor fuhler piano electronics organ
thomas lehn analogue synthesizer
kaffe matthews computer violin
jerome noetinger electroacoustic devices
gert-jan prins electronics radio tv percussion
peter rehberg computer
keith rowe tabletop guitar
marcus schmickler computer synthesizer
rafael toral guitar electronics
markus wettstein amplified metal garbage

grob 206 chair
tracks:
05.37
09.49
16.47
12.16
10.09

grob 207 table
track:
69.57

this cd is currently sold-out

recorded on 16/17 december 1998 at stadtgarten, cologne; chair edited in studio in cologne by
marcus schmickler in december 1999 and table edited in studio in lisbon by rafael toral in summer 1999
front cover by keith rowe.

The Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra (MIMEO) presents a double CD with recordings made at the
Cologne "Jack Pohl presents..." festival in December 1998. Marcus Schmickler and Rafael Toral each edited
one CD from the seven hours of live material. After the documentation CD queue (GROB 005, now available on
Perdition Plastics), there are now versions of the live recordings edited in the studio. The egos of the
producers do not stand in the center, rather the effort, the essence to filter and bundle these improvisations.
And actually: the music is purer, uncut MIMEO sound. The possibilities of electronic or electro-acoustic
improvisation between lap tops and amplified metal junk are brought to their essence by the musicians in a
strict but extremely finely differentiated design.

reviews:

Mimeo stands for Music In Movement Electronic Orchestra and is an improv big band featuring all your lovers
boys from traditional improv to the laptop generation: Phil Durrant, Fennesz, Cor Fuhler, Thomas Lehn,
Kaffe Matthews, Jerome Noetinger, Gert-Jan Prins, Peter Rehberg, Keith Rowe, Marcus Schmickler,
Rafael Toral and Markus Wettstein. The two CD's here contain again live recordings, but rather then the
best cuts from a concert, the recordings have been edited in the studio. 'Chair' by Marcus Schmickler and
'Table' by Rafael Toral. Toral mixed the parts he liked best into one 69 minute piece, and dwells more into an
organic flow which shifts nicely along softer and noisier paths. Schmickler seems to have cut an entire part out
of the whole thing for the specific quality it had. His five selections can be classified as 'soft', 'noisy' or 'open'.
Now particulary this last classification is a difficult one. With such a large group of troublemakers, the sound is
at times anything but open. Blurred elements cover up the beauty some sounds have. This could have been
avoided if one would multi-track the whole thing and make a mixdown (no doubt this would lead to logistic
problems). Have a look at the pictures of the mess these boys make of their toys, and you see the problems of
doing a multi-track session. I preferred the Schmickler selection over the Toral selection, but nevertheless it's
an overall document. Hopefully there will be a likewise document of the 24 hour concert Mimeo held a while
back... can't wait to hear that. Frans de Waard (Vital Weekly 07.09.2000)

Anything goes, könnte man meinen, diesmal im Kölner Stadtgarten mit dem Music In Movement Electronic
Orchestra. Besonders wenn Rehberg, Fennesz und Kaffe Matthews als Neuzugang da mitmischen, bekommt
man etwa eine Ahnung davon, was für ein Potenzial in einem eh schon offenen Raum schlummert, kann man
fast zusehen, wie er sich gradweise mit jeder elektronischen Drehbewegung mechanisch potentiert,
gleichzeitig sich in einer unmerklichen Gegenbewegung auf einige wenige, mindestens 12 Impulse
konzentriert, die im Raum auf Stühlen an Tischen lokalisierbar bleiben. Ein immer wieder irritierend statisches
Bild inmitten maschinell verflüchtigter Klangbahnen, die mit ihrer richtungslosen Dynamik die
Bewegungslosigkeit der erzeugenden Klangmaschine zu karrikieren scheinen. Und es ist sicher nicht einfach,
den optischen Akkomodationspunkt lang genug zu halten, wenn die Klangmasse nach allen Seiten wegdriftet,
sich mit Vogelgezwitscher und Türknarren etikettiert, um in einer röhrenden Fabrikhalle bruitistisch gebündelt
an imaginären Wänden zu zerschellen. Inmitten dieser Objektbearbeitung verschwimmt die Grenze zwischen
Optik und Akustik, wird der gerichtete Blick auf eine Weite hin geöffnet, die von zwei montierten Perspektiven
(CD 1&2) aus beschossen wird, ein regelrecht stereoskopisches Ereignis.

In 1998 three concert promoters of contemporary music agreed to a cooperation that was planned to lead into
a Europe-wide festival series. Hans Falb in Nickelsdorf, Austria, Peter van Bergen in the Hague,
the Netherlands and Gerlinde Koschik in Wuppertal, Germany called the "Music in Movement Festival"
into being, which took place at the three above-mentioned locations. An electronically operating orchestra with
European musicians, the Music in Movement Electronic Orchestra (MIMEO), was supposed to play at all the
festivals and thus represent the contemporary element of this (one-off) series.
From the very beginning, the orchestra was a promoters' ensemble: the promoters called the orchestra into
being and decided upon its members. During the first concert in Nickelsdorf, however, the musicians began to
see the group as their own matter. They agreed to the name MIMEO. At the beginning of 1998, the musicians
started to compile live recordings for a CD(queue), that first appeared on GROB then on Perdition Plastics.
On 15, 16, 17 December 1998, over a year after the their last concert, MIMEO was invited to perform as the sole
act in the "Jack Pohl presents." festival in Cologne's Stadtgarten. Eight of the eleven musicians who had
already performed in MIMEO were invited-Keith Rowe, Phil Durrant, Thomas Lehn, Gert-Jan Prins, Cor Fuhler,
Christian Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, Jérome Noetinger. Four new musicians-Kaffe Matthews,
Marcus Schmickler, Rafael Toral, Markus Wettstein-came into the orchestra at the suggestion of the promoter
and of several ensemble members. The concerts and recording sessions at the Stadtgarten document the
turning point in the young history of the group: for the last time the promoter had an influence on the performers
Since this concert at the Stadtgarten, the group's make up has remained stable. The current musicians mark
the transformation from a promoter's to a musicians' ensemble.
The music differs from that of the first CD as well. It's live music as before-although it was edited this time in
the studio: "chair" by Marcus Schmickler in December 1999 in the "Piethopraxis" (Cologne) and "table" by
Rafael Toral in summer 1999 in the "Noise Precision" Studio (Lisbon).
The music was recorded on the DAT recorders of Rafael Toral and Thomas Lehn during a planned recording
session on the morning of 16 and 17 December. The Stadtgarten's main technician Gerhard Veeck set up the
sound, WDR's publisher and producer Markus Heuger made the festival possible thanks to his commitment.

But the new live electronic music doesn't just look back. If the sluggishness of hard drives and the rigidity of
music software formerly made live performance on computers a tortuous and tiresome affair, the hyperspeed
and portability of Mac G3s and the real-time fluidity of programs like MAX, LiSa, and Super Collider have put live
electronics into the hands of Powerbook powerhouses such as Christian Fennesz and Peter 'Pita' Rehberg.
In truth, there is little distance between electronic tinkerers like Durrant and data crunchers like Rehberg.
Indeed, the two join forces in the spectacular new live electronic orchestra MIMEO, whose astonishing debut
has just been released by Chicago's Perdition Plastics label.

A 12 piece led by AMM's Keith Rowe, MIMEO brings together generations of electronic experimentalists
to battle it out on radios, tapes, samplers, analogue synthesizers, Powerbooks and other electronic
paraphernalia.Chalk it up to the mysterious and unpredictable life of the electronic signal, which, released from
its source, reappears transformed in strange and beautiful new guises. Christoph Cox The Wire, October 1999

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