During my last year at Asphodel (2003-4), I spent most of my time helping the label's owners acquire new projects. From traveling to Europe to meet artists, to endlessly redrafting new recording and distribution contracts, I frequently forget how many CD and DVD deals we eventually landed.
By the end of 2007, with the exception of one DVD, nearly all of the projects we worked on signing during that period will have finally come out. Of special note are two album-length works by the Berlin-based, new music group, Zeitkratzer ("Timescratcher") due out in September.
Consisting of an orchestral cover of Lou Reed's legendary 1975 album Metal Machine Music (a 2xLP of guitar feedback), and an additional CD/DVD of Iannis Xenakis-inspired works (cheekily referencing a classic Kiss title,) Xenakis [Alive], I feel particularly sentimental about the impending release of these recordings.
The product of bandleader Reinhold Friedl's playful imagination, I'll never forget the amazing dinner we had together in a restored Cologne rail depot in August 2003. I'm not sure whether it was the food (pasta) or the setting (subterranean). Needless to say, its nice to see the albums we discussed then finally seeing the light of day.