Rolf Langebartels
Internetproject Soundbag

The crisis, in which for some time passed the electronic music is found, is caused by both the musical thinking and the apparatus itself. Right from the beginning the electrical musical instruments each were the sedimented reason of their epoch. The Trautonium of the late twenties was the result of the idea of a 'linear counterpoint' as well as the Electronic Studio of the Cologne type tried to realize a serial musical thinking.

This seems to be a fundamental problem of all usage of new media in the arts - here especially in the field of music. The uncritically used apparatus suggests to its user the aesthetics, which the engineer already has implanted into the machine.

Artists and musicians like Julius and Takehisa Kosugi, active in the between of the visual arts and music, practice a form of expression, which is situated in the dead angle of the big machinery. Sometimes they use only the simplest, sometimes they make use of the highest developed technologies. Their self built devices or from other areas misused machines and sound generators put the reasoning about what music or sculpture might be under a new perspective. Even more they could make a contribution to correct the monochrome image of the one possible technique.

Just even in a situation, which credits the always bigger machine and expects from that the aesthetic take off, these attempts could throw another light on the big projects, which do not feel comfortable at all for themselves.