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In the Eye of a Cyclone
FAUST’S EXPERIMENTAL KRAUTROCK ENDURES
By Chad Radford music@flagpole.com
German, “stunde null” translates to “zero hour.” In
the lexicon of 20th Century music, it refers to the
awakening of Germany’s collective subconscious that cul
minated with krautrock. The late 1960s and early ’70s were
marked by political upheaval. Young musicians rebelled
against their parents’ generation, who seemed to live in
denial of the World War II atrocities they had enabled. A
young generation of Germans craved a new cultural identity
that stood apart from American and British blues and rock
influences. Finding their way amid the tumult of post-war
Germany, the members of Faust personified the cultural
imperative to express themselves in radically different
ways.
Across the country, artists honed powers of improvi
sation, electronics, repetition and minimalism, forming
groundbreaking acts such as Can, Tangerine Dream, Neu,
Kraftwerk and others. In the end, no group was more feral
or daring than Faust. The group set a high-water mark for
unrestrained musical experimentation that coalesced into
psychedelic rhythms and ambient textures.
“We were in the eye of a cyclone,” says the group’s front
man and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Herve Peron via email.
“We did not consciously realize what we—and all the other
bands—were propagating.”
In 1971 Peron, along with Werner “Zappi” Diermaier,
Hans Joachim Irmler, Arnulf Meifert, Gunther Wusthoff
and Rudolf Sosna, formed Faust in the Wiimme country
side near Hamburg. According to legend, Polydor Records
charged producer Uwe Nettelbeck with the task of finding
Germany’s electronic answer to the Beatles. He returned
with Faust, a group that didn’t quite fit the bill, but was cer
tainly onto a revolution.
The group’s self-titled 1971 debut arrived as an audio
collage of musique concrete, tape edits and Dadaism. The
subtly jarring presence of opening number “Why Don’t You
Eat Carrots” was perceived as one of the strangest pieces
of German music at the time, and the LP was a commercial
failure. But, as Peron says, “It was a stone in calm waters.”
Time has revealed Faust’s debut to be an enduring
document of the outrageous creative spirit of the era and
a flashpoint for the group’s legacy. More albums followed,
including a 1972 collaboration with early minimalism lumi
nary Tony Conrad, Outside the Dream Syndicate—an album
that features a single tone and beat played for an hour.
Werner “Zappi” Diermaier and Jean-Herve Peron
Other creative peaks, such as 1973’s Faust Tapes and 1995’s
Rien, brandish industrial rhythms counterweighted by pas
toral psychedelic rock, putting the group’s anarchic essence
on full display.
But it is 1973’s Faust IV that captures the group’s true
personality. As the warped wash of tape noise and flow
ing guitar distortion settles into the bucolic resonance of
opening number “Krautrock,” a playful but subversive hand
guides the music.
The term “krautrock” was initially lobbed by the British
press as an insult pointed at German bands. In the early
’70s, the UK still held a grudge for World War II. But the
pejorative intent of such name-calling gave way to an
utterly utilitarian handle for the music.
“I don’t mind the term ‘krautrock’ any more than I mind
‘French fries,’ ‘Hoover’ or ‘unkaputthar’” Peron says. “They
are part of the modern cultural wasteland. Being quite
ironic at the beginning, it developed into an academic
genre, so what the hell. We thought, ‘They call it krautrock,
so let’s play krautrock.’”
Over the years, Faust has gone through various permu
tations. Earlier this month, the group embarked on the
“faUSt alive” tour. Each night Peron takes the lead on bass
and vocal duties, and is joined by fellow founding member
and percussionist Diermaier and French cohort Maxime
Manac’h (keyboard, hurdy-gurdy and percussion). Local
artists are invited to collaborate, which dictates the direc
tion for the performance.
Such collaborative efforts are nothing new for Faust.
The group has appeared on records with audio collage artist
Nurse With Wound and avant-garde hip hop act Dalek, and
2013’s JUSt was partially designed in a way to allow other
musicians to sample and build the album to make their own
sounds.
For this tour, the setlist is written shortly before the
show begins. The group delves into older material and new
songs, tied together by a flourishing strain of improvisa
tion, an essential part of Faust’s repertoire. “Improvising is
possibly the hardest way to create art—here music—as you
are left naked at the very moment of creation,” Peron says.
“Obviously, in the run of 45 years, things and people have
changed. Although I know Zappi’s mood and twists of spirit
fairly well, it remains a challenge to spontaneously collabo
rate with any artist.”
After 45 years, Peron and Diermaier still dwell in the eye
of a cyclone, drawing in unsuspecting locals to fuel their
seemingly endless imperative to express themselves in radi
cally different ways. ©
WHO: Faust, Muuy Biien
WHERE: 40 Watt Club
WHEN: Friday, March 25,8 p.m.
HOW MUCH: $13 (adv.), $16 (door)
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