Ulrich Langenbach is a German, Siegen-based musician who explores the intersection of free improvisation and electroacoustic sound art. He plays cello, viola, and electric guitar, and develops a sound-oriented practice in which sound is understood not as a musical language but as a physical process. He is also a storyteller and visual artist. Stefan Strasser is a fellow German, Cologne-based musician, composer, and sound artist, who plays the guitar, keyboards, and electronics.
On Think Short, the debut duo album of these sonic explorers, Langenbach plays prepared electric guitar, amplified viola, and cello (on the right channel), and Strasser plays prepared electric guitar (on the left channel); the six improvisations were recorded live in two sessions in Langenbach’s rehearsal room in his hometown, Siegen, in 2025 and 2026, with no edits or cuts. True to the DIY practice, Strasser did the mixing and mastering, and Langenbach did the cover painting.
As expected, Think Short is far from being a conventional guitar or string instruments duo album. The unconventional string preparations, extensions, and occasional effects make it a fearless and bold yet deep listening journey into the unknown and otherworldly, sonically and textually. Langenbach and Strasser are focused on the supposedly purposeless and formless sounds – atonal, dissonant, and noisy sounds – as well as exploring the act of the dispensable, the unrepeatable, and the mysterious beauty of what is to come.
Langenbach and Strasser sound as if possessed by the powerful, radical inner logic of their own improvisations, attentive to the intricate nuances, inner, resonant dynamics, and the lifecycle of every sound. They keep shape and sculpt each sound in a way that blurs and transcends the distinctions between tone and noise, spontaneous improvisation and instant form, and instrument and body. Sound becomes an abstract material, an existential question about the mystery that remains after these transient sounds are gone. All instruments are just sound generators, and every improvisation is a journey into unpredictable, uncharted yet quite immersive sonic territories. Just as Langenbach and Strasser declare: «What has been recorded here once existed. Exactly like this. No edits, no cuts. Never again».
Eyal Hareuveni
Stefan Strasser (guitar, preparations), Ulrich Langenbach (guitar, cello, viola, preparations)
