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Hermann Nitsch

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Blood, red, slaughter, wine, drunkenness, beer, orgies, food, sex, noise, love, death. Hermann Nitsch's work, whether it be through paintings, music or "actions", is an act of indulgence, pleasure, excess and basic human nature at it's most overwhelmingly perverse and explosive... and it's definitely not for those with weak stomachs. His work is controversial due to the use of slaughtered animals during his performances and the graphic nature of the images he creates. It's all very stark and in-your-face and this is something that lives on in his music. It's massive and it's there to make you react. It's quite impossible to just sit there and "enjoy" Nitsch's music, it involves your complete and utter attention (if you are participating in his actions, where his music is just a part of all the senses he is trying to affect, then your body and soul will also be taken hostage).

For his actions, Nitsch uses an orchestra of diverse instruments (traditional and not so traditional) which follow a "written" composition (which looks more like drawings and scribbles with geometric forms than annotations). What this usually means is whether the slab of atonal noise will swell or become faint and how many instruments will join in. When things are calmer, you might sometimes get some ominous german beer-drinking music. Brace yourselves. When working solo, his music can sometimes be atonal, but the drones are usually quite easier to digest and could even be considered pleasant as with his series of works for the harmonium. These are the records I started with when discovering his music (I was already quite familiar with his actions and paintings).

A lot of Nitsch's output has been released through Gary Todd's Cortical Foundation label with painstakingly loving care (with remastering carefully done by Todd himself). An unfortunate and very serious accident has rendered M. Todd unable to continue his work. These editions are beautiful, and to realize that there probably won't be anymore coming up at anytime soon is quite saddening.

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Album Cover Island: Eine Sinfonie In 10 Sätzen
Label: Organ Of Corti
Release: 1980
Format: 4CD
Cat. no: Organ Of Corti 15

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. Island, Part 1 (19:57)
  2. Island, Part 2 (17:33)
  3. Island, Part 3 (20:55)
CD 2:
  1. Island, Part 4 (18:06)
  2. Island, Part 5 (8:11)
  3. Island, Part 6 (9:47)
  4. Island, Part 7 (18:47)
CD 3:
  1. Island, Part 8 (16:43)
  2. Island, Part 9 (19:27)
  3. Island, Part 10 (18:06)
  4. Island, Part 11 (8:44)
  5. Island, Part 12 (10:49)
CD 4:
  1. Island, Part 13 (17:46)
  2. Island, Part 14 (18:05)


Album Cover Harmoniumwerk 1,2,3,4
Label: Organ Of Corti
Release: 1990
Format: 2CD
Cat. no: Organ Of Corti 20.1

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 1 (30:50)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 2 (31:15)
CD 2:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 3 (31:16)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 4 (31:13)


Album Cover Harmoniumwerk 5,6,7,8
Label: Organ Of Corti
Release: 1990
Format: 2CD
Cat. no: Organ Of Corti 20.2

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 5 (31:22)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 6 (31:23)
CD 2:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 7 (30:19)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 8 (31:09)


Album Cover Harmoniumwerk 9,10,11,12
Label: Organ Of Corti
Release: 1990
Format: 2CD
Cat. no: Organ Of Corti 20.3

Song list:

CD 1:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 9 (31:14)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 10 (31:16)
CD 2:
  1. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 11 (31:08)
  2. Harmoniumwerk Vol. 12 (31:01)


Album Cover Das 6-Tage-Spiel Des Orgien Mysterien Theaters
Label: Organ Of Corti
Release: 2000
Format: LP + CD-Rom
Cat. no: Organ Of Corti 18.2

Song list:

  1. 11:30 am (15:23)
  2. 6:00 pm (16:38 ∞)