BURNT FRIEDMAN
Bokoboko
NON33
Nonplace Records 2012
10 Tracks. 47mins11secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP

It’s been ten years since Berlin-based musician Burnt Friedman first teamed up with Can percussionist and drummer Jaki Liebezeit on the opening release in their Secret Rhythms series, and this collaboration has generated three more albums, the more recent published last year, and four EPs, and has seen the pair tour together quite extensively. While Friedman continued to release solo records during that time, they remained, until now, quite different from his work with Liebezeit.

Bokoboko, a Japanese word meaning ‘uneven’ or ‘hollow-sounding’, sees Friedman adopt a similar rhythm-led concept to that of the Secret Rhythms series. Continue Reading »

FRIEDMAN & LIEBEZEIT
Secret Rhythms 4
NON030
Nonplace Records 2011
06 Tracks. 56mins36secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD

The partnership between German electronic musician Burnt Friedman and legendary Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, established almost ten years ago, is back in action once more, following the 5 7 EP released last year. This fourth instalment in the Secret Rhythms series continues on a similar path to its predecessors by bringing together rich rhythmic tones and rarefied electronic formations. More than ever centered around Liebezeit’s hypnotic drumming, Secret Rhythms 4 sees the pair move into more minimal, stripped down terrains, the rhythmic patterns forever more cyclical, repetitive and fluid, layered with fragments of electronics and guitars, themselves set into loops of varying intensity and length.

Four of the six tracks here go over the ten minute mark, with 182-11 clocking at just under sixteen minutes. This leaves the pair plenty of time to set their rhythmic structures in motion and work on the trance-like aspect of the groove of each track until it starts distorting the perception of its very nature. Continue Reading »

Operating since the mid-nineties under a variety of monikers and collaborations, German musician and label owner Bernd Friedmann has built up a totally unique catalogue. He has taken his ethic and vision into his label, Nonplace, which he founded ten years ago. To celebrate this first decade, Friedmann collected a bunch of previously unheard versions and mixes of tracks that have appeared on various albums over the years. We took the opportunity of this landmark anniversary to speak to the man about the last ten years of releases and talk about his many projects, including his much celebrated collaboration with form Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
10th Anniversary Edition
NON28
Nonplace Records 2010
15 Tracks. 60min00secs

Amazon UK: CD | DLD US: CD | DLD

Ten years is a milestone for any label, especially in today’s volatile music market, and it is just the one reached by Bernd ‘Burnt Friedman’ Friedmann’s excellent Nonplace. While the label has been an outlet for his own projects, either solo or collaborative, it has also seen contributions from a handful of bands and artists, from Beige or Freeform to Roots 70 and The Embassadors more recently. More than a label with a perfectly hermetic roster, Nonplace is a bubbling cauldron where artists are often spotted on works other than their own and cross pollination is actively encouraged. Friedmann of course has been involved in one way or another on most records released on the label, but it is also the case of multi-instrumentist Hayden Chisholm, who, from his early collaboration with Friedmann as part of the Nu Dub Players, went on to form both Root 70 and The Embassadors, or guitarist Joseph Suchy, who beside a number of extra-Nonplace activities, is often seen alongside Friedmann on his solo projects. Continue Reading »

BURNT FRIEDMAN
Con Ritmo
NON26
Nonplace Records 2000/2009
12 Tracks. 59mins08secs

Buy: CD | iTunes
Stream: Spotify

When he released Con Ritmo, almost ten years ago, German musician and producer Bernd ‘Burnt’ Friedman had already been publishing music, under a variety of pseudonyms, and with the Nu Dub Players or Flanger, a project he co-steered with Atom™, since the mid-nineties, appearing on labels such as ~Scape or Ash International. This album was only the third release, and the first album, from his then recently set up Nonplace Records imprint.

Playing keyboards and vibraphone, Friedman surrounded himself with the tongue-in-cheek Disposable Rhythm Section, featuring guitarist Josef Suchy and Bernie The Bolt, who brought Latin flavours to the drums and percussions. On Das Wesen Aus Der Milchstrasse, the trio were joined by long-time friend and collaborator Atom Heart on Moog. The tracks collected on this record were culled from live recordings made during a two-week period.

Now presented in fully remastered glory and featuring four additional tracks, Con Ritmo has lost none of its charms and quirks. Continue Reading »

FRIEDMAN & LIEBEZEIT
Secret Rhythms 3
25742/25751
Nonplace Records 2008
07 Tracks. 52mins40secs

Long before Kieran Hebden teamed up with legendary percussionist Steve Reid, German electronic musician Bernd ‘Burnt’ Friedman joined forces with another celebrated drummer in the person of Can member Jaki Liebezeit. Their first shared offering came in the shape of Secret Rhythms (2002), combined Friedman’s characteristic dub and futuristic electro jazz and Liebezeit’s feel for multi-faceted rhythmic formations to create a collection of subtle impressionist tracks caught somewhere between dusk and dark. Four years on, they were at it again. Secret Rhythms 2 continued to outline a fascinating world all in contrasts and undertones.

Third in the series, this latest Secret Rhythms collection redefines once more the spectrum in which the pair evolve. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
You Don’t Know: Ninja Cuts
ZENCD150
Ninja Tune 2008
50 Tracks. 224mins35secs

Ninja Tune have been going for an awful long time. Eighteen years in fact. Back at the outset, deep in the mists of time, when we were quite a bit younger than we are now (if we existed at all, that is), the Ninja crew were a bunch of cool fuckers. They rode in on the backs of the likes of DJ Food, Coldcut, Hex and co. Soon after the founding fathers came a second wave consisting of 9 Lazy 9, Funki Porcini, DJ Vadim and The Herbaliser. The early compilations – Funkjazztical Tricknology, Tone Tales From Tomorrow – were a lot of fun and contributed to a playful rebalancing of the rather-too-serious for its own good self-definition of trip-hop by Bristolian headliners (you know who I mean).

Later in the nineties and early noughties, fascinating leftfield luminaries such as Burnt Friedman, Chris Bowden, Roots Manuva and Jaga Jazzist hopped on the bus. But somewhere along the way the main stable seemed to get a bit hackneyed, those waggish ‘you are listening to a stereo recording’-type samples began to bring listeners out in hives and the Ninja Tune share price plummeted. Continue Reading »