Annette Krebs is a German, Berlin-based experimental sound artist and formerly improvised guitarist who employs amplified sonic assemblages made of amplified metal pieces, voices, strings, objects and microphones. These assemblages were specially created by Krebs in order to realize her unique sonic vision, born out of her necessity to realize sonic visions that could not be played with traditional instruments and setups.
Krebs’ series of «Konstruktion» pieces were developed over a course of several years, during rehearsal and concerts, and combined customized interface and programming for each composition and unique playing techniques. The signals of the manually played sound objects are controlled via tablets, then transformed, and, similar to different colors that flow into each other, are mixed or remain next to each other, and are collaged. The sense of time – standing, flowing or frozen time, is also explored and shaped as a tangible, elastic entity within this series of compositions.
The three electro-acoustic pieces were recorded in real-tine in Berlin. «Konstruktion#1» from 2015 sets the intriguing, resonant and otherworldly atmosphere of this album, focusing on enabling sounds – including silences, distorted voices and white noises – flow, shape and shift in space and time, as if by their own will and accumulate into a puzzling sonic ecosystem. «Konstruktion#2» from 2018 continues this vein but distills it in a minimalist, quiet and even more elusive manner, and offers a suggestive and mysterious drone. Separating these extended pieces is «Sah» from 2017 for three live-performed interviews, carbon pencil on paper, foil, parchment paper, plastic animals and electronics. The processed, fractured and cryptic sounds and voices, abruptly becoming clearer and suggestive a reflexive perspective on language – Krebs’ idiosyncratic sonic language, commonly spoken language or another totally abstract and purely sonic language. All these languages may still be considered as a virus from outer space, as William S. Burroughs once coined.
Eyal Hareuveni
Annette Krebs (metal pieces, mic, v, stringed woods, one guitar string. plastic animals, comp, midi controllers, tablet, Arduino)
