AGF
Einzelkämpfer
AGFPRO011
AGF Producktion 2009
13 Tracks. 60mins09secs

Amazon UK: DLD Amazon US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD

Poet, musician and sound artist, Antie ‘AGF’ Greie-Fuchs has been distilling her particular blend of electronic music for over fifteen years. Born in what was then East Germany, Greie relocated to Berlin in the mid-nineties, where she met Jürgen Kühn and formed Laub. The pair released their first album in 1997 on Kitty-Yo and went on to release four more, the latest one published two years ago on Greie’s AGF Producktion. Beside the many projects that have kept her busy over the years (The Dolls, The Lappetites or her collaboration with long term partner Vladislav Delay as AGF/Delay), she established herself as a solo artist as early as 2001 with the split release Constant Variable with Kyborg, for which she contributed three tracks and, a year later, her solo debut, Head Slash Bauch.

Her latest effort, Einzelkämpfer, which translates as Lone Warrior, is said to explore the idea of lone warriors through the ages and across species. Pushing the concept to the extreme, Einzelkämpfer is released through Greie’s own AGF Producktion imprint. She is also keen to point out that, while some of her recent releases had a certain rhythmic structure or focus, the beats have largely been disposed off here as Greie moulds the fractured electronic textures for which she is well known into abstract ambient forms. While her last solo record, Words Are Missing, was, as its title suggested, devoid entirely of words or phrases, her vocals chopped up into minute particles which were then used as simple sonic components within the music, she returns here to slightly more conventional lyrical forms. There are bribes of stories found scattered throughout this album, yet, the voice, as is the case on pretty much all AGF releases, is often distorted and twisted beyond recognition, making any attempt at following any coherent thread on any particular track virtually impossible.

Very much like the music, voice and words are integrant part of the fabric of Greie’s song, but also contribute greatly to influence the mood of a particular piece in ways that only the human voice can. This is particularly the case on the title track, with its fragments of melody slashed through by deep sonic undercurrents, or later on Alone In The Woods (The Fox, The Skunk And The Rabbit) or Kopffüsser (Cephalopod). But it is the extremely detailed soundscapes and extensive use of textures that totally captivates. Greie has increasingly refined her template over the years, and here, each song seems like a miniature world where sound and grain constantly collide, often changing appearance within a few seconds, each distinctive part baring little connection to the one that preceded it or to the one that follows it, as is the case on Her Beauty Kills Me, Worin Mein Mund Zur Bewegung Fand or Practicing Beat Anarchy. Occasionally, the palette of a composition is narrower, giving for a moment a sense of calm to an otherwise extremely complex and demanding record.

Einzelkämpfer, Antie Greie’s sixth solo record, and her first since moving to Finland, can be a challenging piece of work, but the impressive treatment that she applies here give this album a particular edge. Perhaps not as original and haunting as Words Are Missing, and let down by a somewhat diluted concept, Einzelkämpfer is nevertheless a very successful affair and an impressive addition to an already rich body of work.

4.4/5

Antye Greie | AGF Producktion
Amazon UK: DLD Amazon US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD iTunes: DLD