strüver/mensger by strüver/mensger

When I got an email from Stephan about his new project and release with Jens, I didn't have any pre-shaped notions or any hunches about what I might expect even though, quite obviously I managed to read a bit of an information on them online. But I guess this is a good way to approach something new even though you might have a concept of what you might hear or how your listening experience will be.

Nicely published eco-pack cd contains music that it is easy to recognize when you understand certain musical ques but not easily classifiable when you want to put a label on it that will stick with the contents for a good time.

First and foremost it has an excellent sense of how rhythm can be adjusted to the experiments done on more acoustic instruments but still maintain a steady base of dynamics and work as an engine to the tracks.

The beat here on this album is a central to anything else that happens in the background - it's persevering through the dense experimental narrative that both Jens and Stephan introduce us to.

Be it e-guitar or violin - it goes through it, over it and under it. 

When you think of placing the whole music that fills up this album - there is a bit of ambient landscape here that is created by both instruments. there is a bit of cinematic soundscape the I would place somewhere between EAI (Electroacoustic improvisation) and psychedelic musings from the past and polyrhythmic machine that is taken from ethnic music - Ghanaian or Senegalese but edited and cut and stripped of everything unnecessary and put into dub techno music context.

This cd for me has a different aspect though. It is a psychoactive lesson in being attentive when the means and composition of music is put into many perspectives but doesn't have any overwhelming elements and can actually influence you on a very basic level of feeling the contents through senses. It can act both as a soundtrack and an intellectual experience. It can make you wonder how it would play live. All in all, a very well-rounded album.    

Jens Strüver & Stephan Mensger: prepared E–Guitar, E–Bass, Violin, Beat, Effects

Composition, Mix & Production: Jens Strüver & Stephan Mensger

(Studio Gleis3eck Berlin)

Audio Mastering: Werner Dafeldecker

Jens Strüver, a DJ since the 80s, has been producing his own music since the early 90s. He

is currently active with 'plankton vs. defcon' and Phonosphere with Werner Durand and

others. In addition to remixes for Der Plan, a guy called gerald and others, he has released

albums as J.R.Plankton and Borngräber & Strüver. He founded the labels 'Freispiel' and

'm=minimal', supervises the works of Ernstalbrecht Stiebler and Conrad Schnitzler and

develops concepts for other artists, such as the Kraftwerk project for the Zeitkratzer

ensemble. His new album “Geister-Bänder/ghost tapes” with Dafeldecker and Baldini will

be released on Australian ROOM40 label

Stephan Mensger has been active as a musician and songwriter since the late 90s, playing

in the indie rock bands 'Lornaswes' and 'Guilty Guitars', among others. Since 2015, the

multi-instrumentalist has been producing prog-pop with German lyrics solo under the

project name 'Freispiel:', as well as instrumental music. He also works as a producer for

other artists; since 2020 private composition studies and first pieces for soloists and

chamber ensembles. His latest Freispiel project, noise combined with recitatives of

expressionist poetry, has been released in November on the Hamburg label 'Fidel Bastro'.

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