Decoder Ensemble - Decoder Ensemble [Ahornfelder 027]

Recently released via Alexander Schubert's very own Ahornfelder-imprint is the debut album of Hamburg's Decoder Ensemble, an ensemble and band rooted in the so-called New Music which indefatigably explores new terrains and expressions of contemporary music, working as a tightly knit group as well as incorporating the work of several young composers - an approach well reflected by the groups self-titled longplay piece which features six compositions created either by Decoder Ensemble members or close collaborators. Starting with Gordon Kampe's "Nischenmusik Mit Klopfgeistern", a shrieking, highly dissonant composition incorporating overexaggerated vocal techniques seemingly deriving from modern Opera as well as hectic, military-like sequences, Score Noir episodes and various samples balancing between Industrial and Plunderphonics it becomes pretty clear that we're about to go on a demanding sonic experience here which continues with Alexander Schubert's "Superimpose V - Sugar, Maths And Whips", a ten minutes exploration of the most experimental Free Jazz meets CutUp hybrid imaginable that's not made for the faint-hearted. An amalgamation of dark drones, swampy sci-fi atmosphere and NeoClassical approach is to be found in Burkhard Friedrich's "Flug P" intensely unfolding over approximately 16 minutes whilst "Asesino Sin Razon" by the Venezuelan composer Jorge Sanchez-Chiong turns out to be highly repetetive yet ever changing, adding up layers of shrill wind instruments, super aggressive snares, free percussions, spooky, abstract vocal abuse and shambling, aboriginal bass figures. Inspired by Thomas Edison's five-second short film "Fred Ott's Sneeze" is Leopold Hurt's musical piece of the same title, blending live musicians and electronics, calmness and eruptive musical outbreaks as well as elements that could be well taken out of scores for fairy tales to an effect that sonically depicts the energy within a sneezing attack - but not without making room for the often also comical side of such an event. Finally Andrey Koroliov's "Like My Domination (Die Gelehrigen Körper)" obviously deals with (Post)Punk- and Hardcore-influences, vocal cut-ups, Free Jazz and the sound of fully loaded guns, providing an intransigent closing tune for those who made it through the full 68 minutes of this fascinating release.