..Christian Morgenstern dies at 28; techno magistrate no more..


[unfortunate death of Christian Morgenstern]

Today is not a good day. Last year James Stinson of Drexicya passed away; today we learn of the death of Christian Morgenstern, 28, who recorded dark & moody techno for Germany's Kanzleramt and for his own label, Forte. I found out about Morgenstern's death this morning from my Editor at Dustedmagazine.com, who asked if I had known the man. I had never met Morgenstern. But in 1997 a lucky trade brought the album Miscellaneous II: New Issues for Pale People onto my decks.. it was music for the time of the underground. I wrote back to my Editor with a few words on how it had affected me:

Miscellaneous II is very dark, moody, deep, almost subterranean; in other words, meditative & brilliant. Consider he did this when he was 23 .. he took the moodiness of Detroit, the industrial harshness of Germany, and incorporated a range of unorthodox sounds (in fact my favourite track of the album has ghosted, barely audible spliced-voices murmuring in the background while warm pads drift over an arry of hums and rattles ... a hard hi-hat punctuates the mix and the kick is deeply sunk into the reverb box..).

http://www.kompaktkiste.de/morgenstern_c.htm#ka20

He wasn't a prolific artist. But back then you didn't have to be. The mystery surrounding Morgenstern was part of the general milieu of techno music back then--faceless, underground.. no personalities.. just all about launching these amazing sonic missives into the aether, like underwater sonar, trying to find a response..

It's unfortunate that I never did my duty by pinging back a response to Christian. Although it still remains easy enough in the microcultures of music to speak to the artists involved, in the '90s the contact was profound, for it meant that this small cultural resistance known as "techno" had made an impact, forging links across the globe. But half the time I'm never sure what to say in the circumstances. One just wishes to seek out and touch at the appropriate moment--not much needs to be said, sometimes, when the language is music.

Today I am also in the leap of solitude, with friends & lovers away. Today is a day for meditation and rest, to play Phill Niblock's Touch Food, to lower myself into extended drones, and to resolve the moment by, with so much infinite care, pulling Miscellaneous II from a dusty techno crate.

posted. Tue - June 24, 2003 @ 01:09 PM           |

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