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Mohammad Reza Mortazavi (Tombak) & Burnt Friedman (electronics, synth.) release their second EP “YEK 2”.
Equipped with one drum only and laser-pattern–electronics, Mortazavi and Friedman produce delicate, yet archaic, trance–inducing, transnational dance music with“…hints of dust and grain… “. (Freq)
Mortazavi and Friedman move hands and faders according to odd cyclical rhythms with incredible accuracy. The extreme dynamic range and rhythmic congruency of drum and electronics merge both, Mortazavi`s and Friedman’s repertoire entirely.
Complete in [YEK], resisting cultural notions of folklore and territory.
Burnt Friedman frames his latest album in the vein of the nonsuch explorer series, with a musical look at Central Europe, specifically Berlin, and its intersection of artists, dancers, musicians still moving to 30 year old techno and house while constantly investigating and discarding novel new forms...
“Burnt Friedman with Explorer Series Vol. 4, original ethnic music of the peoples of the world/full spectrum stereo dominance. With such a complicated amalgam of races, religions, and language as there is in central Europe, it is not surprising, that the musical life is endless in variety. Before the upheavals engendered by immigration policies, the introduction of 5 G technology, and the gaining of maximum self-expression, the separation of cultures must have been even more noticeable, yet now in the sphere of music one can see them drawing more closely together.
This is especially true of an under-populated melting pot such as Berlin, where the sense of beauty is innate and one hardly meets a white male or a woman not being a painter or a dancer, or a musician. The system of scales, and also the fact that the western central Europeans rely on recorded or written script in order to conserve the themes of their music, could lead us to look upon it as a form of art music. Remarkably enough, traditional house or techno which existed 30 years ago, still flourishes today. Moreover, all the time new forms and musical styles are being discovered, tried out and eventually overlooked. The present record can offer but a modest sampling of extinct splendors, political or individual sufferings, gloomy sadness, love, resentment, exquisite delicacy, laughter and delectable wisdom of rural and urban central European music. Burnt Friedman's essential function is to perform music that ensures the repose of the dead and render their ghosts harmless; in the case of whole communities, to dispel evil spirits and restore to Berlin its pristine purity; and in the case of individuals, to expel the demands of possession.
Despite the limited scope of sound carriers, these ten highlights of central European culture contain an emotional force and documentary value of inestimable importance. Although it would be incorrect to consider the various selections contained herein as authentic ethnological documents insofar as the performances were for the most part "mystified", on the other hand one can certainly consider them significant examples of the attempts of white males to develop their own modes of expression and communication.”
Master drummer Jaki Liebezeit was very pleased that the craft of drum making has not changed much over the course of time. Be it that a skin is stretched over a drum with cords or bolts or be it that the skin is out of plastic or animal hide – the principle remains the same: Either enclose a hollow space without which there would be no sound (just imagine a drum filled with clay!).
The same applies to the perception of rhythm.
Everything is reduced to the essential: the hollow space in the centre.
It is the invisible that matters.
All tracks on the second Drums Off Chaos EP revolve around this vacant space in the middle.
A centre that is filled with – nothing.
The focus is on abstract, grooving drum music.
Rhythms are reduced to their elementary nucleus to such an extent that they can be perceived as clearly singular but also as universal.
And something emerges that follows universal laws such as gravity, ergonomics and acoustics.
“Play what the drum demands,” was one of Jaki’s sayings.
Together with him, Drums Off Chaos took this to heart. The EP centres on rhythms that are based on simple numerical relationships allowing their richness to unfurl from within.
The band project Drums Off Chaos was one of the central and on-going projects of the recently deceased drummer Jaki Liebezeit (who is normally associated first and foremost with the Cologne-based band CAN). In the early 1980s he had initiated an – at first – loose collective of drummers, who created a rhythmic concept on the basis of simple, strictly binding codes that enabled expansive improvisations.
Over the years the ensemble became smaller and refined its collaboration marked by repetitive patterns and their variation. “You have to play monotonous,” a member of the audience had already told Liebezeit in the 1960s. He took this to heart and there was hardly any other formation where he could bring this concept to life as regularly and with as much inspiration as in Drums Off Chaos.
During a development spanning more than three decades, this extraordinary band, which never saw itself as such, made numerous recordings but rarely any releases. However, in the last few months of his life Jaki Liebezeit, with colleagues Reiner Linke, Maf Retter and Manos Tsangaris, earmarked some tracks for imminent release on vinyl and CD – on different compilations. Liebezeit’s death is all the more reason to go ahead with this plan.
