Shameless is proud to announce our fifth release: LINZ is a live concert recording featuring the ferociously dynamic Austrian duo Didi Kern & Philipp Quehenberger. Active as a duo since their first concert at CBGBs in 2002 this celebrates their 15 year anniversary.

PRESS TEXT:
We’re passing through an era when synthesizers have seeped into damn near every corner of avant-garde music, and yet the technology these days is too seldom used in the service of free improvisation. Oh sure, we’re treated to plenty of experimental techno, ambient drone, industrial and even underground rock all swimming in synth-based textures, atmosphere, programming and other compositional elements. But for those of us whose ears are tuned to the outer limits of jazz and noise, just about the only athletic bruisers willing to step to the plate on a consistent basis have been the veteran duo of drummer Didi Kern and keyboardist Philip Quehenberger. And to remind of us of their long-running exceptionality, the prolific Austrians are dropping LINZ, a ruthlessly sweaty live album meant as a celebration of the tandem’s 15-year relationship.

Comprised of a pair of side-long pieces recorded at the Stadtwerkstatt, in the Austrian city of Linz, this absurdly kinetic album–released on Boris Hauf’s Berlin-based Shameless label–is the sonic equivalent of a 28-minute submission hold. Quehenberger (who also has produced electronic music for the Editions Mego imprint) absolutely jabs, stabs and mangles his keys, producing dense, bass-focused litanies of vicious swirls, growling motors and gut-rupturing oscillations; he’s both frantic and utterly muscular sounding. Kern, meanwhile, flails about like an Adderall-gobbling octopus, filling in the cracks with deep, thudding skins and clusters of splashing cymbals. Most of the time the drummer (whose long list of credits includes work with Mats Gustafsson, Fuckhead, Weasel Walter and BulBul) kneels before the lords of chaos, yet there also emerge deliciously brief pattern bursts of rock-like linearity, tattered funk beats and a brand of jittery swing reaching all the way back to the classic hard bop days.

Of course, it’s all too tempting to draw parallels between the Kern-Quehenberger sound and a few of the mavericks of yore who themselves have used synthesizers in avant-jazz settings: Sun Ra and Miles Davis’ fusion-era ensembles for sure; there’s also Wayne Horvitz’s rumbling tones with Pigpen and the greatly underappreciated Bruce Ditmas, a drummer and synth explorer whose maniacally percussive recordings from the ’70s really kind of haunt the music heard on this record. Ultimately, though, Kern and Quehenberger have developed their own, unique language, one that will sock you right in the face on the wonderfully pugnacious LINZ.”
Justin Farrar

REVIEWS
“The amazing life altering party your parents wouldn’t let you attend in high school.”
David Menestres, tone science

“In spite of the undoubted bravura of both the musicians, more than their virtuosic ability, the muscular exhibition is impressed of this project. Their experiences as shiftworkers in the Austrian scene in rock, techno and free jazz all converge here, with their noisy energy and the tirelessness of the musicians.”
Gilberto Ongaro, MusicMap

“The rhythm is infectious and forces you, unconsciously and almost effortlessly, to move and even dance to, The dark, atmospheric keyboards deepens this kinetic feeling of time and space. And Linz demonstrates how a wild free-improv set can meet prog-rock and techno aesthetics, blow your mind, rewire your nerves and leave you smiling.”
Eyal Hareuveni, FreeJazzBlog

"Plus und Plus ergibt Hyperplus. Drummer Didi Kern ist seit jeher Garant für furiose Faxen und höllischen Punch. Als treibende Rhythmuskraft von Bulbul, Fuckhead und Broken.Heart.Collector ist er weithin bekannt. Doch tritt er laufend auch in einer Vielzahl anderer Kontexte in Erscheinung und beackert dort wie da souverän ein weites Land, das von Prügelrock bis ArtyFartyImpro reicht. Seit mittlerweile mehr als 15 Jahren kollaboriert er – im Duoformat oder unter Einbezug weiterer Mucke-Tiere – mit Philipp Quehenberger, der hierzulande Pionierarbeit auf dem Sektor freigeistiger elektronischer Musik geleistet hat und sie ungebrochen leistet. Immenses Spektrum, mitreißende Energie, frische und elaborierte Sounds: Synthesizer würden Quehenberger kaufen. Stehen die beiden gemeinsam auf der Bühne, gibt es keine Aufwärmübungen, Sekunde eins, die Klangwelt steht, der Zug rattert und rast durch ein waberndes Gewölk aus Tönen, durch eine Poltergeistkolonie, Tasten kreischen durch das eine oder andere Inferno, ein kurzes Ruckeln und Brut zeln, Orkanwarnung, dann rauscht man weiter durch Raum schiffrui nen und Mitternachtskathedralen. Das aktuelle Release fängt die spezielle symbiotische Dynamik des flotten Zweiers überzeugend ein. Es wird geballert, es wird gesegelt, es wird Zerfall zelebriert. In irrwitzigen Momenten werden irrwitzige Rhythmus we chsel veranstaltet, in schönen Mo menten wird es ja noch schöner. Linz ist ein Live-Album und basiert auf dem Mitschnitt eines Konzerts, das Quehenberger/Kern 2017 in der Stadtwerkstatt spielten. Musikjournalismus macht am meisten Freude, wenn man über Musik schreibt, die einem klar macht, wieviel Vergeblichkeit im Bestreben steckt, Worte finden zu wollen für Musik."
steroid, freistil

“This 28-minute recording, recorded in Stadtwerkstatt Linz on 4 November 2017, is a performance of the "nothing in the hands, nothing in the sleeves" type. From the start you can hear the unrest and anticipation of the audience present and you feel that you are awaiting a noise or something like that. Through two album halves the two constantly use each other as a sounding board, in which the keyboard sounds are hurled around like paint in an abstract-expressionistic painting and Kern not so much responds with a similar chaos, but with uplifting, inciting and endless rattling patterns.”

Guy Peters
www.enola.be