Frank Rothkamm [ just 3 organs ]

The Story

***

In the Swiss mountain town of Sils, sometime around Easter 1979, the 13 year old Frank Rothkamm played an organ for the first time.

He was not in Sils to marvel at the location where Friedrich Nietzsche spent his summers, but to engage in some cross-country skiing with his family. It was there, halfway between the mountains and the frozen lake below, where he spotted a small village chapel. Intrigued, he knocked on the door 3 times and to his surprise it was open. Inside he found a reed organ which was unlocked, so he commenced to play J.S. Bach's "Toccata & Fugue in D-minor". It was cold, his hands were cold, and the old organ was out of tune. But, he was able to play the piece from memory and gladly held the last chord an extra long time.

As he got back on his skis to make the descent from the mountain, a different kind of organ music was racing through his mind - impressions of idiosyncratic, differently tuned, pure "Tongestalten" (tone shapes) in a reverberated space between heaven and earth.

For the next 23 years on his odyssey through Germany, Canada and the United States of America he would never play an organ keyboard again. Then on a sunny day sometime around Easter in 2002, he spotted a Yamaha Electone organ, model 205D, in a thrift store near Hollywood. Frank finally found his organ. It had been built in Japan 9 months after he played the organ for the first time in Switzerland. In an act of "Zeitgeist" his thoughts gave birth to the rise of a machine which could now materialize the impossible.

It would take another 5 years, from 2003 to 2008, of playing with 6 hands, utopian-scientific composition, and the development of a new tuning system, until he was finished with his gold record.

The Album

***

just 3 organs (2003-2008) is 33 minutes and 33 seconds or a 3 times 3 tracks long long-player played with 3 times 2 hands and feet on the 3 times 2 manuals and 3 pedals of 3 vintage Yamaha 205D Electone home organs each assigned a primary color and tuned a micro-tonal 33 cents apart then amplified with 3 speakers for each organ suspended in mid-air in a triangle just in front of the observer with a monophonic reverberation phantom channel circling at 3 rotations per minute between all speaker triangles.

***



   
Catalog No: FLX8 (LN6)
Title: just 3 organs
Sound Artist: Frank Rothkamm
Visual Artist: Holger Rothkamm
Label: Flux Records
Length: 33:29 (2009s)
Composed: 2003-2004
Location: Hollywood
Instruments: Yamaha Electone 205D
Release Date: 03/03/2008
Edition Size: 300
Format: Compact Disc
Parts: 6 panel folder(4/1)
compact disc
clear vinyl sleeve
postcard(4/1)
UPC: 635961114420
Tags: organ
sci-fi microtonalism
vintage concept album
 
08/2010
Nobody can make Rothkamm music but Rothkamm
DaveX WDBX
05/2009
Who would have said to the pianist? Frank Rothkamm, mathematical operations, and sponge pack bastards!
Petr Ferenc A2
09/2008
The sheer inventiveness and deranged humour that Rothkamm threads throughout the album endears it from first listen!
Roger Mills FURTHERNOISE
07/2008
These retro-sounding microtonal works feature three Yamaha organs tuned 33 cents apart
Gino Robair ELECTRONIC MUSICIAN
05/2008
Very organised - Good for the ear
Chris Cutler RER
05/2008
Synthetic feelings - Schizoid polyphonies - Appreciably hybrid electronica
Aurelio Cianciotta NEURAL
05/2008
Enigmatically unpigeonholeable. Is this an allusion to Steve Reich “Four Organs”? Is three really the perfect number?
MASSIMO RICCI TOUCHING EXTREMES
04/2008
Charmingly eccentric - Endearingly retro - in a unsettling, Luminescent glow.
Susanna Bolle WZBC
04/2008
Limits of madness stained by a touch of genius!
Michele Viali DARKROOM
04/2008
Masterfully-rendered work - Compelling album filled with odd shapes, bold movement, and a wide range of unusual technique
Dave X WDBX
04/2008
Very skillfully achieved - Isao Tomita dropped into a “Saucerful of Secrets” Pink Floyd session - Clearly not a po-faced beard stroker!
John Cavanagh FOXY DIGITALIS
04/2008
Blippy to droney, but all very creepy (tri-tones do that)
Your Imaginary Friend KZSU
04/2008
I tried playing it on my turntable but it sounded like all my other CDs
ken montgomery ART IS THROWING MONEY OUT THE WINDOW
04/2008
At times it's highly challenging and experimental - At times it's simply beautiful and emotional.
Eric Besnard BASKARU
03/2008
A hypernumerally-obsessed series of mind-bending compositions frightening not only for their mathematical bent, but the strikingly natural way Rothkamm approaches this sort of layering.
Dave X WDBX
03/2008
Pretty esoteric - music unlike anything else - a fun ride
empty j HEATHEN HARVEST
03/2008
Rothkamm plays it like a modern classic master
Frans de Waard VITAL WEEKLY
07/2007
just weird tones wobbling - wacky and out-dated
Joel Hedrick CYCLIC DEFROST
04/2007
A soundtrack - under the influence of some heavy narcotics
John Berry MUSICEMISSIONS
209 ALBUMs
1100 TRACKs
112 PDFs
1 BIO


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Los Angeles, CA 90016 ° USA