Another revelatory production from Madrid’s blossoming Ediciones Fontenebro press with a tastefully presented selection of archival mixed media from outsider artist Bernd Boehm.
It’s another plunge into the world of just what the hell is this stuff? Along with all the other who’s, where’s why’s etc. Boehm is a name that pretty much anyone would be excused for not being familiar with - his musical career fruiting just two self-released cassettes and a single track on a beyond-obscure tape comp on that mucky IRRE label. As it turns out he spent much of the 80’s composing music for small independent films, using whatever accessible equipment he could acquire and laying it down to a trusty tascam. Instantly there’s a strong sense of ghostly unease in these recordings, the domesticated weird where Boehm’s feeling of an outsider is projected into the music. The depth of field is blurred, vocals buried in the fog and phantom fragments left in the mix until a deadpan version of London’s Bridge Is Burning Down appears out of nowhere. These are sounds that would be at home in a Jane Arden / Jack Bond film, as unsettling as they are captivating.
Later in life Boehm found work as a stonemason, then producing / carving (?) commercial gravestones, which feels like fitting turn for any experimental musician who didn’t make it. But it also gives the feel of an everyman and raises suspicions to how little we actually know about people. Boehm could be your neighbour, or the postman or the guy in the park who walks their dog. Almost certainly this work would be destined for eternal obscurity without the work of Ediciones Fontenebro, who’ve creatively replicated the original box they received themselves for us all to relish. An uncanny deep dive into the nether-zones of European home musicians recalling the likes of Die Weltraumforscher or Alain Neffe and the Insane Music sprawl. With film stills, printed note and custom box. (Mint / New - limited 1 per person).
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Bernd Boehm’s life and work still remains a mystery to most. Having engaged in several disciplines like painting, film and sculpture, towards the end of 1980’s Bernd produced a series of experimental film soundtracks along with a modest amount of new wave tracks which we now present under this edition.
Having initially self-released some of these soundtracks, to be latter on published by Matthias Lang on IRRE Tapes, “Look under this” reunites now all of his film soundtracks along with a selection of songs made between 1981-1984 and which until now have remained unpublished. Most of this material has remained thankfully well kept in Boehm’s archive on old DAT-tapes for over forty decades. As he told us, "for God's sake, I didn't throw everything away..."
During the 1980’s he composed music for small independent films, including his own HORST UND LENE IN MARCHENWALD, compositions made for Maija-Lene Rettig’s super 8 and 16mm films ROSENROT, TAKE COURAGE and L’APPESA, and their collaborative film DER KLEINE TOD. The collaboration and affective relationship between Bohm and Rettig dates back to the 1980’s when Rettig attended super 8 film classes by Birgit and Wilhelm Hein at Braunschweig Art Academy on the recommendation of Matthias Muller. Along with Muller and colleagues Christiane Heuwinkel and Thomas Lauks she would form the Alte Kinder distribution collective, which introduced their experimental films to a broader audience.
Despite proximity and occasional collaborations with some of these figures like film composer Dirk Schaefer, Boehm never felt like he pertained to this scene, developing in parallel his own creative practice. Without any formal art or academic education, Boehm’s figure resonates with a more outsider profile, a self-taught artist who would develop his own personal work outside from the realm of art schools or cultural institutions.
Making use of then technological advanced mediums, Boehm’s compositions feature a wide array of electronic instruments such as Moog, Yamaha and Roland synthesizers and drums machines, along with a clavinet, electric guitars and classical record samples all assembled in a Tascam 244 4-track cassette recorder.
As initially remarked, Boehm’s body of work has encompassed several other disciplines over time which we believe add an important layer to his persona as an artist. After an apprenticeship as stonemason in 1995, he continued to produce large scale stone sculptures of which we have provided visual documentation, additionally employing his skills commercially for gravestone business’. Pictorially, he has also engaged in oil painting, mainly focusing on portraits. This constant cross pollination among disciplines reveals an ever constant curiosity, an inwards perspective and natural artistic impulse or urge to create which we believe coincides with the sincerity of his music and films.
Tracklist
1. Rosenrot 11:54 2. Der Kleine Tod 09:29 3. Take Courage 09:39 4. Falltür 00:14 5. Orgel 02:37 6. Marimba 01:43 7. Fanfare 04:25 8. Panflöte Tief 03:57 9. Tromeln 02:12 10. Ganz Ohr, Be All Ear 05:04 11. Edisni Seloh 05:14 12. Host Und Lene Im Märchenwald 05:50 13. Cezanne 01:48 14. Gobi 03:47 15. Dear Linda 08:02 16. Coda 02:18 17. Popop 03:52 18. The Second Hand 05:14 19. Gilden Cage 03:44 20. As If He Knew 01:21
