001. Pink Floyd – Careful With That Axe Eugene – Ummagumma – Harvest Records, 1969
I had this record bought for me by my parents. It was my first record and I was 10 years old. I was enraptured when I listened to it, I couldn’t understand what kind of music it was, but I was completely fascinated by it. Over time it has been the record that more than any other has affected the way I listen to, and the way I make music.
002. Tangerine Dream – Phaedra – Phaedra – Virgin Records, 1974
Its hypnotic circular structure has conditioned my creative focus towards the center of the mind, as a meditative trance.
003. Genesis – I Know What I Like – Selling England By The Pound – Charisma Records, 1973
It’s the song that introduced me to the true pleasure of melody. The attention to the sound and to the arrangement of songs of this historical band has always been a reference point for me.
004. Brian Eno – 1/1 – Ambient1/Music for Airports – Polydor Records, 1978
This is another record that heavily affected my idea of “listening”. It has made me think of music as color, without harmonies nor melodies, but only as sound intensities. To this record I owe much to what has been my career as an electronic musician.
005. Kraftwerk – The Robots – The Man-Machine – EMI Records/King Klang, 1978
This is the band that introduced me to all the new music that I then followed and in part produced: from Stockhausen, to Industrial, to Synth-Pop up to Techno. The band is one of the most representative and innovative musical icons of the 20th century. Since their inception in 1970 in Dusseldorf they became pioneers of the electronic revolution and sound experimentation. Through them I discovered the performative and audiovisual art. They were the first, on stage, to let the images speak, often using dummies instead of musicians, realizing almost Brechtian performances. A work that I would not hesitate to define as “Gesamtkunstwerk”.
006. Massive Attack – Protection – Protection – Circa/Virgin Records, 1994
This has been for many years the soundtrack of my nighttime listening. My “sounding star”, shining in its own light, melancholic, immersed in dense atmospheres, a quiet and dreamy star. I have always felt very familiar with the sound of Massive Attack, even though they have been the creators of the Bristol Sound, maybe even because Robert de Naja and myself were both born in Naples and surely we were both among those 80.000 football fans who, went to the stadium to see the captain of our Napoli team, Maradona, playing, and were screaming “Forza Napoli!”.
007. The Chemical Brothers – Hey Boy Hey Girl – Surrender – Virgin, 1999
Together with Prodigy and Fatboy Slim, The Chemical Brothers have always represented for me that English groove made from the explosive mix of techno, punk, acid-house and electro-rock. The English duo is one of the most exciting and influential electronic acts of the Nineties. Hey Boy Hey Girl is a perfect track, a true “classic” for me.
008. Miles Davis – High Speed Chase – Doo Bop – Warner Bros, 1992
Difficult to add something new to the countless things said on one of the most original artist of the 20 century. This may be the record which has been most criticized by the great genius. To me instead it represents the jump forward without defence that only Miles could have done, its constant refusal of coherence and respect towards his audience, the constant refusal to be a parody of himself. High Speed Chase is for me the track that best than any other represents the sound of the metropolis, and where Miles, as in Homer’s Odyssey, is the mermaid that sings its enchanting songs.
009. Radiohead – Everything In Its Right Place – Kid A – EMI, 2000
No band in recent years has created such a series of masterpieces as Radiohead. This is for me the most important English band of the last twenty years, the unique and true heirs of Pink Floyd. Listening to this record makes me plunge in another universe, among infinite landscapes of dark colors. I remember that when I first played the cd and the music started with Everything In Its Right Place, a repetitive and hypnotic atmosphere embraced my listening. Yorke’s voice filtered and almost unrecognisable felt like it was multiplied in the space and it was immediately clear to me the consciousness to listen to a new music that tends towards the abstract in Art.
010. Prince & The Revolution – Kiss – Parade – Paisley Park Records, 1986
Prince: The Prince! Undoubtedly among the best Afro American artists, the one who changed the path of Black Music. Miles Davis said: “I’m learning from Prince, there’s something religious in what he does, he is a genius that can do anything.” Kiss is the track that I could bring with me on a desert island. It is sensuality, groove, affront and rebellion. It is to me the most modern and enthralling interpretation of traditional Black American Funk. A track pulsating, without a rich musical structure, but amazingly rich of the most efficient energy. As Prince was saying “… one has to centre the beat” and he always succeeded. As it happens with all the great artists, it is difficulty to accept his death, and the usual question stays: who knows what else would he have given us… It remains his Art, immense, unique, and art beyond any category, which unlike the human being is eternal for us and for the generations to come.
Martux_M Crew & Markus Stockhausen Atlas EP (Resiliens)
The Resiliens label serves up four tracks from avant garde talents Martux_M Crew & Markus Stockhausen that keeps up their philosophy of releasing underground music that is influenced, but not defined by, modernity, all the while encouraging artistic investigation. That may sound highfalutin, but the music is just as carefully thought out.
This new release is the product of a long standing collaboration between two artists who have played together at numerous international festival. They are prize winning German trumpeter and composer Markus Stockhausen, a celebrated and accomplished veteran who performs on the international stage and has composed for the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Sinfonietta, the Metropole Orkest and many others. He is also the son of revered electronic music pioneer and composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. With him is Martux, an Italian electronic pioneer who works under many aliases and releases on labels all over the world. His projects have been presented at events such as Sonar in Barcelona and Mutek in Montrela and he has played alongside artists such as Carl Craig, Ellen Allien & Apparat.
The Atlas EP is inspired by Cloud Atlas, the famous movie by the Wachowski brothers and features real trumpets and flugelhorns played by Stockhausen, as well as an array of hard and software. “We wanted this project to be an atlas of emotions, an emotional geography,” say the producers, who also cite an influential quote from the film: “All borders are waiting to be overcome, and I know that separation is an illusion…”
Opener ‘MM 01’ is six minutes of minimal synthetic rhythms and static, frosty synths and pulsing rubber clicks. Masterfully absorbing and with hugely emotional pianos and trumpets it is truly elegant stuff. ‘MM 02’ is more spacious sound design, deep bass and poignant trumpet playing all coalescing into a gentle groove and ‘G 1’ is an eight minute journey through sad trumpets and scuttling ants on glass with the odd patter of drums. It’s moving stuff for late nights alone.
Finally, the exquisite ‘G 5B’ is a sombre piece featuring a lonely trumpet hanging in a wide open space. Quiet found sounds and sparse hand drums occasionally join in but don’t ever detract from the beauty of Stockhausen’s playing.
Simply put, this is adventurous and patient but hugely rewarding and beautiful music for the real connoisseurs.
Martux_M Crew & Markus Stockhausen Atlas EP (Resiliens) 30th May 2016 RESIL001AS vinyl, digital
