Remasters and reissues of this important electronic pioneer’s work came out recently. After the widely acclaimed ORAL label’s reissues of Blau (1980), and the black-covered self-titled MONOTONPRODUKT 07 (1982), we continue a series of making these rare documents of electronic music available. In 2009, 8 lost tracks came out on ORAL. This CD contains MONOTON hard to find and previously unreleased tracks. It was also produced as two Limited Edition 10”s : Four Lost Tracks and Ancient Futures. Now, ORAL is completing this serie of reissues with a 2009 remastered edition of MONOTONPRODUKT 07 and the release on CD of the album MONOTONPRODUKT MCMLXXXIX. This CD contains two previously unreleased Mindmusic tracks from the same year that have been realized through scientific Brain Lab software. Playful and hypnotic, they are both based on studies in “frequency following response” and research of brainwave activity patterns.

Eric Mattson, ORAL_records, 2009

Born from the desire to reintroduce on the market an outstanding, yet surprisingly unknown work of the 1980s, this ORAL release is also the result of a dialogue with hypermedia researcher and artist Konrad Becker, which occurred during chance, yet fruitful meetings. Sometimes in the path of a music lover and record collector, a work will beckon you, imposing itself with its singularity, depth and timelessness. MONOTONPRODUKT 07, produced in 1982, is such a work.

The original MONOTON album, MONOTONPRODUKT 07 is so alive with the pulses that triggered many Electronicas to come, from Techno through Trance to Mego’s creeping static, you could make a case for Becker’s guruhood. Yet, for all its prescient washed out tones, threadbare textures and Minimalist rigour, it has the edge on much that followed. Adopting an imperious art stance towards mainstreams and margins alike, Becker cast a cold analytic eye over Electronica’s urfathers, picking up on Suicide’s jittertronic urgency, if not their melodrama, and DAF’s throbbing sequencers, but with the sex threat removed, which he patched into his own crackling circuits, hissing vistas and tumbling beatstreams.
The Wire 175, sept. 1998, 100 records that set the world on fire (when no one was listening)

MONOTON, MONOTONPRODUKT 07 27y++ (2009)
MONOTONPRODUKT 07 27y++ is, in agreement with its author Konrad Becker, more than a CD re-release of the original two vinyl records. It is instead an updated work, subjected to sound digitalisation to bring out sounds and effects that would have been impossible to achieve when it first came out – the bass has the intended amplitude while high frequencies truly rejuvenate the whole. The author is finally able to hear what he was hoping for back then but could not achieve.

Prompted by an anthropological approach and a historical updating operation, this new work could be perceived as a work developed over a period of 27 years, in full respect of Konrad Becker’s creative process. And so MONOTONPRODUKT 07 becomes MONOTONPRODUKT 07 27y++.

Remasters and reissues of this important electronic pioneer’s work came out recently. ORAL CD02 was the first re-release of MONTONPRODUKTS on ORAL. This reissue of the out of print CD02 has faced a new mastering in 2009 by John Sellekaers, Metarc, bringing to light more details and a wider sound.
After the widely acclaimed ORAL label’s reissues of Blau (1980), we continue a series of making these rare documents of electronic music available with previously unreleased material of the same period. In 2009, 8 lost tracks came out on ORAL. This CD contains MONOTON hard to find and unreleased tracks. It was also produced as two Limited Edition 10s : ORAL EP26, Four Lost Tracks and ORAL EP27, Ancient Futures. ORAL will complete this serie of reissue with the album MONOTONPRODUKT MCMLXXXIX. Remastered in 2009, the CD, MCMLXXXIX 20y++, contains two previously unreleased Mindmusic tracks from the same year that have been realized through scientific Brain Lab software.

Eric Mattson, ORAL_records, 2003, 2009

Born from the desire to reintroduce on the market an outstanding, yet surprisingly unknown work of the 1980s, this ORAL release is also the result of a dialogue with hypermedia researcher and artist Konrad Becker, which occurred during chance, yet fruitful meetings. Sometimes in the path of a music lover and record collector, a work will beckon you, imposing itself with its singularity, depth and timelessness. Monotonprodukt 07, produced in 1982, is such a work.

The original Monoton album, Monotonprodukt 07…
… is so alive with the pulses that triggered many Electronicas to come, from Techno through Trance to Mego's creeping static, you could make a case for Becker's guruhood. Yet, for all its prescient washed out tones, threadbare textures and Minimalist rigour, it has the edge on much that followed. Adopting an imperious art stance towards mainstreams and margins alike, Becker cast a cold analytic eye over Electronica's urfathers, picking up on Suicide's jittertronic urgency, if not their melodrama, and DAF's throbbing sequencers, but with the sex threat removed, which he patched into his own crackling circuits, hissing vistas and tumbling beatstreams.
The Wire, #175, sept. 1998, 100 records that set the world on fire (when no one was listening)

Monoton, Monotonprodukt 07 20y++
Monotonprodukt 07 20y++ is, in agreement with its author Konrad Becker, more than a CD re-release of the original two vinyl records. It is instead an updated work, subjected to sound digitalisation to bring out sounds and effects that would have been impossible to achieve when it first came out – the bass has the intended amplitude while high frequencies truly rejuvenate the whole. The author is finally able to hear what he was hoping for back then but could not achieve.

Prompted by an anthropological approach and a historical updating operation, this new work could be perceived as a work developed over a period of 20 years, in full respect of Konrad Becker’s creative process. And so Monotonprodukt 07 becomes Monotonprodukt 07 20y++.

This is the first re-release of Montonprodukts on ORAL. The second one is the number 02, the blau LP, rer-released June 2006, another must have for everyone interested in the history of electronic music.

Blau: This Monotonprodukt is a CD release of the blau vinyl written and produced by Monoton in 1980. Re-mastered in 2006. It also contains 3 unreleased tracks from that period.
Since the late 70's, early 1980's, Monotonprodukt and the "Institut für wissenschaftliche Sensation" (Institute for Scientific Sensations) have been working on the transposition of metamathematical structures, natural constants and resonance patterns in models of "bionic" psycho-active automat music. Publications, installations and long-term experiments include among others electro-acoustic representations of square roots, potences and periods, Pi-factors, Fibonacci sequences, Feigenbaum-Numbers, "Magic Squares" and others.

Konrad Becker wrote : Monoton on a quest for the spirit in the machine investigated the representation of a numeric structure on resonance field level; numerical systems and mathematical nature constants as values and proportions for bionic sound. Not only natural constants and their sub-elements offered themselves for operational definitions, but any proportion of numbers, the musician with the calculator in hand. Regardless of the aspect of universal machinic patterns, the transcendence of patterns, the "de-programming" and the "deletion" or reactive conditioning was their interest in transformative music. Noise is a simultaneous chaotic superposition of all frequencies, and the hearing of "everything" and thus nothing at a time in the constant vibration of "monotonous simulation". It is on the basis of these subjective and oracular properties, that transformative music may be explained.

Monoton played: fender twin reverb, kaoss pad, vermona retroverb, memory man deluxe, eq's, doepfer unit + spring reverb


« First came the Can remasters and the La Dusseldorf reissues. Next up was Conrad Schnitzler's Color Series followed by the Faust IV re-master with outtakes. And now we get the Oral label's reissues of the extremely-limited, much more obscure, minimal synth masterpieces Blau (1980) and the black-covered self-titled Monotonprodukt 07 (1982) from media, light and sound artist Konrad Becker. Apparently these re-masters achieve an audio quality that fully realizes the artist's intentions for the first time, so they've been renamed with the number of years that have passed since the original issue dates tacked on to the original titles: "26y++" and "20y++," respectively.

Monoton's Blau is the more melodic album of the two; its scope of ominous and pleasantly eerie atmosphere is beautifully done, the full range of the analog sounds controlled with masterful restraint. The somber, minimally rhythmic, and somehow naturalistic soundscapes of "Ein Wort" and "Wirklichkeit" reminds me of a sparse Mouse on Mars soundtrack, but with that pure analog intensity that creates a physical presence. "Teil 2" has barely-there wolves howling, drowning in drone swells that coax tears. Blau is an album's worth of ahead-of-its-time music that surprises in its ability to cover so much ground with such limited means. »[SM _ other music]

The Mariana Trench is located in the Pacific Ocean, just east of the 14 Mariana Islands near Japan.
It is the deepest part of the Earth's oceans, and the deepest location of the Earth itself.
It was created by ocean-to-ocean subduction, a phenomena in which a plate topped by oceanic crust is forced below another plate topped by oceanic crust.

The Mariana Trench CD was put together from two very long loop improvisations recorded during snow storms. The equipment used was relatively simple; a toy synthesizer and many classic guitar pedals operated with great care (the calm of the snow storms made that possible). The results were then mixed and processed through more sophisticated effects in order to give the listener the impression that the whole recording had taken place thousands of fathoms deep.

Let there be no interruption in your descent, as you experience David Kristian's deep and challenging Mariana Trench. Markers have been provided for you to use as reference points in the event that you start getting the bends during the album's 68 minute running time.
Headphones and any other audio diving gears are highly recommended.

An amazing record by Dirk Dresselhaus (schneider TM, Angel) and Hildur Gudnadottir (Angel. They met in Berlin, decided to hook up and on three different occasions the three tracks now on 'Good Sound' were recorded. Hildur plays cello, saw, accordion, zither, pearl-chain and fender twin reverb and Schneider plays the same reverb, kaoss pad, vermona retroverb, memory man deluxe, eq's, doepfer unit and a spring reverb. Lots of black boxes on his side of the room. First track 'Not All Crows Are Black'is a piece of stringed sounds, played in a very free improvised way. Second track 'Don't Give Up, What Is Death?'is an absolute beauty of highly vibrant drone music. It's over thirty minutes long and could have been a great CD by just itself.
The final track is 'My Favourite Caucus Airchamber' which is a real improvisation thing.