Berlin trip・continued
This week is “The Berlin Trip, Part II.” How many more episodes on Berlin? AGF, NIKLAS, STAALPLAAT, Sven, strip show... 6 more to go! I want to wrap it up as quickly as possible so I can introduce DEAF, the art festival held in avant-garde and smoky Rotterdam that I visited last week. And I’ll introduce Ars Electronica after that... presenting 2006 as background to 2007.

AGF
Brucknerhaus at Ars Electronica 2004. My first time to see and hear AGF. At first her music sounded pretty straightforward, but gradually I started to get a strange feeling, down to the pores of my skin. Her physical voice flows down from the speakers, painting the intervals of digital sound. Her modulated voice was suppressed to the extreme. I’ve never heard a magical spell, but it was like an incantation − something like a moist mist climbing up from below my feet. Ever since, I’ve been captivated by her voice and performance.

One of the reasons for visiting Berlin was to meet her. She’s been with motherhood busy since Lumi was born, and I was able to spend just 1.5 hours talking with her. The AGF who I saw in Berlin was more natural than the person I saw in Ars or Tokyo.

And, in March the long-awaited new release DEINETWEGEN was put out by AGF’s unit LAUB. LAUB is mellow and acoustic, more so than her solos or other collaborations. And bluesie . . . I thought it was much better than the previous work Filesharing (Wortspur is a well-known track). Definitely check it out: (http://www.laub-deinetwegen.com/)

AGF profile

Born in former East Germany in 1969 Musician, producer, poet, artist. Has been active as a musician since 1990. Also collaborates with LAUB, Craig Armstrong, Kaffe Matthews, Delay, Towa Tei, and visual artists sou.

Won the Award of Distinction at Ars Electronica 2004 in the Digital Music category. Served as juror for the Digital Music category at Ars Electronica in 2006. →http://www.poemproducer.com/ * This time there wasn’t a live performance, so you can hear several of the tracks 　→http://www.poemproducer.com/freemusic.php * The website from LAUB’s previous work, where you can “play” with AGF’s voice. You can make the well-known piece Wortspur through voice sampling. Indeed, she uses voice as one of the musical instruments. http://www.laub-filesharing.de/html/english/aiff/wortspur.html

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To AGF’s home in east Berlin. AGF has been doing her music activities at home since Lumi’s birth. AGF is also a poet, and the first thing she showed me was her calligraphy space. The fragrance of charcoal floats through the air to soften her mood.
* Oh, and I also wrote a report in last year’s Berlin diary.

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AGF talked to me about the hardware that she uses. If you’re interested, please take a listen.

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Indeed, the wonderful thing about AGF is that voice of hers. The moment she sets foot into the recording studio and puts on the headphones, she transforms from AGF the mother to AGF the musician, and her aura slowly envelopes us all. Moreover, she sang DEINETWEGEN, a love song that is the title song to the yet-to-be-released LAUB album. Once in a lifetime...

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