2007-AUGUST-01, HEATHEN HARVEST, USA

Here we have a limited-edition (150 copies) international compilation from two German labels that can more or less be split into two categories : field recordings and experimental electronics. The way the disc is sequenced, the labels alternate contributions with all the tracks segued. Gruenrekorder seems to be responsible for the concrete stuff while the privatelektro tracks provide some digital interludes. I'm going to break the review down by label beginning with the Gruenrekorder material.

French field-recordist Yannick Dauby gets thing started off nicely with a sparse piece that is highlighted by some bizarre animalistic sonorities. It tends to go on a tad too long as these sounds become abrasive after a few minutes. Costa Grohn's contribution pits some bird-song against a backdrop of pedestrian ambience to no significant effect. 'At The Stirway By Afternoon' by Daniel Knef may be exactly that : sounds filtering into a stairwell through an open window exploiting the natural reverb of the space. Happy accident or not, the piece has a great dynamic flow and compositional sensibility. Although I can't exactly translate his German notes, I believe that Tobias Holt's recording has something to do with being underneath the Autobahn in some capacity. It's definitely got a subterranean character and I suppose those recurring sounds could very well be cars speeding overhead. Lasse-Marc Riek's track features some squeaks, pops and water sounds that are captured brilliantly in stereo. It quickly begins to take on a rhythmic quality and is a pleasantly jaunty piece. Adriano Zanni's 'Summer Life On The Seashore' is a well-recorded audio snapshot of children playing, presumably on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea given the Italian speech snippets. The rise and fall of the tide provides a backdrop for what must have been a beautiful day; wish I were there. The last of the field recordings comes from Gruenrekorder co-founder Roland Etzin. A dense population of birds are busy as various motor vehicles traverse the microphone's panorama. The high-quality stereo recording really makes this piece work. I love the way that good field recordings force the mind to create a visual facsimile of the environment represented.

The privatelektro label's contributions to this compilation contrast nicely with the recordings discussed above, although there is some overlap. Parachute turns in a glistening ambient soundscape with all the beauty of a clod-studded sunset. That may sound corny, but this is really gorgeous stuff. UK film and installation artist Igor Hax combines field recordings with his own brand of minimal electro on 'Yellow Room In Sefton Drive' where, presumably everything was recorded. The piece is static to the point of near tedium, but moves on to the next track just in time. In the notes for 'Platines' Shintaro Miyazaki declares 're-entry of disturbance !' Perhaps so, but this glitchy laptop-damaged disturbance is quite welcome in this context and really serves the release well as a sort of nexus. Bassy flutters and high-frequency whines dart in and out of audibility throughout this all too brief track. Theologist, painter and reverend of the Electronic Church (?) Nicolas Weiser turns in an interesting work of voice, electronic and concrete sounds.

In a sense, it combines all the best elements of every other artist on this compilation and compresses it into a three minute composition. This is excellent music ! Berlin's triPhaze deliver some granular synthesis on 'Gletscher.' There are some wonderful little microtonal turns here that really got my ears perky. Yet another reverend makes an appearance on track twelve. Reverend Benn Schipper's 'Thun' is a pleasant enough dissonant drone piece that features some tasty phase shifting to keep thing moving even though it never goes anywhere. 'A Private Shade Of Green' concludes with 'Absentee Debate' by c:\. This is by far the longest piece on the disc and an appropriate closer at that. It otherwise wouldn't really have fit in anywhere else. It has the beauty of Parachute's track, some old school sequencing and a certain gritty charm that I can't resist. The notes say simply 'I don't care.' That's too bad, because I certainly do!

All in all there is some great music on this compilation. If the purpose of such a collection is to generate interest in the individual artists then it only succeeds marginally. I prefer it as a single work due to the brilliant editing by its producer(s) bringing some rather disparate musical elements together so logically. In that regard, it flows more like a radio broadcast. My only complaint is that the disc wasn't properly mastered and has a few nasty digital peaks. That and the fact that the notes are not very informative (no contact info regarding the artists) and seem indiscriminately in either German or English. otherwise a beautiful package and some rewarding listening.

2007-JULY-00 TEXTURA, CANADA

I wish I could get more excited about this 70-minute split compilation from Privatelektro and Gruenrekorder (150 copies produced). The disc arrives in an attractively silk-screened, transparent case, and it includes field recordings and electronic pieces by fourteen artists, seven from each label. But many of these field recordings try my patience by recycling sounds heard too many times before (crashing waves, automobile noises, and bird chatter). By now, a more novel and varied sonic palette is needed than what's emphasized here. We hear, then, the scratchy caw of birds (Yannick Dauby's “Rana limnocharis”), car noises as if someone placed a microphone next to the highway (Daniel Knef's “At the Stairway by Afternoon”), water sounds (Lasse-Marc Riek's “Blässhuhn” (Fulica atra)), loud rumbling and banging (Tobias Bolt's “Dilatationsfuge”), and children laughing at the beach amidst crashing waves (Adriano Zanni's “Summer Life on the Shorelines”). Gruenrekorder co-founder Roland Etzin's “Abseits der Straßen” presents more bird, dog, and automobile sounds while UK producer Igor Hax's repetitive mix of static, muffled beats (“Yellow Room in Sefton Drive ”) lacks development.

A few moments stand out, specifically Parachute's “06 v 1.1,” a meditation of glistening tinkles and blurry tones, and Reverend Benn Schipper's “Thun (RMX 053),” a flickering whirligig of rough-edged electronics. Also decent is the fourteen-minute closer “Absentee Debate” by c:\ (Christiane Doederlein) which begins as a mutating electronic drone and then slowly turns it into a spacey Tangerine Dream clone powered by synthesizer rhythms ‘borrowed' from Phaedra. A Private Shade of Green clearly was assembled and produced with care; a shame that the field recording content isn't more arresting and original.

2007-JULY-00 NEURAL MAGAZINE , Italy

A CD-R compilation in limited edition (only 150 copies), the result of the collaboration of two experimental labels, Gruenrekorder of Frankfurt and Privatelektro of Leipzig. Fourteen tracks, starting with the electro-acoustic recordings of 'Rana Limnocharis', made by Yannick Dauby, and ending with 'Absentee Debate', by c:\, an enigmatic and lapidary musician ("There are three words I will say: 'I don't care'"), among dilated drones and minimal melodies. The other tracks are both interesting and well polished, from the field recordings by Adriano Zanni and the bare electronic tangles by Reverend Benn Schipper, the crystal-like elaborations by Parachute and the hallucinated algorithms by Shintaro Miyazaki. All of the artists are very radical in their expressive forms and would have no problems releasing entirely personal productions.

Aurelio Cianciotta :

2007-JUNE-07, TOKAFI, Germany

While collaborations among two or more artists have become day-to-day business in the world of experimental music, they are still anything but commonplace when it comes to labels. Maybe this has to do with the fact that in times when record companies are increasingly turning into the focal point of certain scenes with stronger “images” than the musicians they publish, the “diva-ism” amongst them has grown – as well as the fear of loosing their identity by selecting the wrong partner. What great chances might well be missed by this behaviour is signalled by “A Private Shade of Green”, a joint venture between Frankfurt-based Gruenrekorder and Leipzig’s Privatelektro outfit.

And please note: This is not the usual seemless mix of similar acts or even a dry genre-compilation curated by like-minded label owners. Rather, the way this album penetrates your mind with a unique melange of field recordings and electronic tracks ranging from the concrete to the abstract, the pleasantly academic to the powerfully intuitive as well as from the futuristically progressive to the majestically retro, seems to suggest that the idea was born before any concepts of marketability. From an outward perspective, this marriage is certainly not obvious in any way – if only because the scenes behind the labels hardly have any musical or social intersections. Maybe one can explain the coherence and absolutely gorgeous interaction between the artists represented here by the fact that a large part of the interest of Gruenrekorder has been directed towards nature, the city and their mutual interconnectedness, while Privatelektro releases are often marked by a curiosity of reconciling the organic with the technological. In any case, one can do without rational explanations. The weightless field recordings by artists such as Yannick Dauby, Costa Gröhn as well as label owners Lasse-Marc Riek and Roland Etzin are heavenly contrasts to the intense aural hallucinations of Parachute or Reverend Benn Schipper without even once being reduced to the status of interludes. Somehow, both worlds cross-fertilise each other as each track seagues into the next, opening up new spaces of reception. And quite possibly, pieces like “Gletscher” (inspired by a mountain hike) by triPhaze or the algorithm-based “Platines” by Shintaro Miyazaki are field recordings in their own right – if only from a different point of view – just as much as the Gruenrekorder cosmos points to a musicality inside everything around us.

“A Private Shade of Green” is an optima optimorum in the sense that it works both as a showcase of the artists involved as well as creating something bigger than the sum of its components: Despite the radical breaks in its texture, this is a dreamy voyage that you can take to the park for a night of listening and watching the stars. It is also a great example for how label collaborations could make a real difference by sharpening perception and creating unprecedented experiences. In any case, a second volume of this would be greatly appreciated.

By Tobias Fischer

2007-APRIL-dd, VITAL WEEKLY, Netherlands / Germany

... On a similar course is the compilation by Gruenrekorder which they released with Privatelektro (well, or vice versa of course). Here too we find relative short pieces, but the usual Gruenrekorder posse, but the total is much more balanced. I am not sure if which way it had to be a split release, but perhaps Privatelektro brought in some of the names I never heard of, and perhaps (guessing again) they count for some of the more electronic pieces on this compilation. We find some very nice, pure field recording pieces, such as by Yannick Dauby and Adriano Zanni, and some minimalist drone related works by people by Reverend Benn Schipper. This mixture of interests could be a total miss, but here on 'A Private Shade Of Green' it works quite well. Also included are Igor Hax, Daniel Knef, Costa Gröhn, Nicolas Weiser, triPhaze, Roland Etzin, c:\, Lasse-Marc Riek and others. Quite a nice compilation.

by Frans de Waard in Vital Weekly nr. 572

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