mego@ICC
--The Further of Techno Music

January 14 - 17, 1999
ICC Gallery D

General Magic

The special section on Music/Noise in Volume 26 of this magazine introduced mego, an independent techno/noise ("technoise") label based in Vienna. The mego sound is distinctive--as is everything about this label. The uniqueness of its sound, spun out by deliberately and boldly incorporating elements usually regarded as errors, such as sine waves and other pulse tones and digital noise, is why SASAKI Atsushi has called mego "the end of techno."

The ICC invited the mego artists to present concerts on January 14, 16, and 17, and a symposium on January 15. The nine artists who came to Japan make up six groups or "units" within mego: Pita, General Magic, Fennesz, Farmers Manual, Haswell, and Skot. Other units that combine mego members--Rehberg & Bauer, Pop, and Fenn O Berg--also performed. Jim O'ROURKE, one of the Fenn O Berg trio, happened to be in Japan for a solo concert at the same time, and thus gave a special performance during his stay. Guest performers from Japan included IKEDA Ryoji, Merzbow, Filament, and Zbigniew KARKOWSKI in what turned into a four-day performance for these Japanese and European techno/noise artists.

The first day began with a performance by IKEDA Ryoji. He performs with oscilloscope, skillfully using minimal sounds from pulse tones and sound collages, and accompanies the sounds by projecting synchronized wave forms. He was followed by Farmers Manual, a trio consisting of Mathias GMACHL, Gerd BRANTNER, and Oswald BERTHOLD. All in their early twenties, they are the youngest group on the mego label. As is true of all mego members, they use only PowerBooks and other notebook computers in performance. With the three facing their notebooks and consecutively altering sounds in response to the emerging sound, their performance, coupled with their young computer nerd looks, was rather humorous. But their sound, almost like a simple arrangement of electronic noise, defied description.

During the event, Skot was in charge of the visuals during mego artists' performances. Skot consists of Tina FRANK and Mathias GMACHL, who also is part of Farmers Manual. This team designs mego CD jackets, its Web site, and all other art work for mego and provides visual support for mego performances.

Rehberg & Bauer, another mego unit, consists of Peter REHBERG--aka Pita--and Ramon BAUER of the General Magic unit; while describing their, as it were, music seems futile, one might say they gave us a sound like a worn-out CD, with intimations of techno. Christian FENNESZ (Fennesz), who has been a guitarist, used sampled guitar sounds. Contrasting these units' work, one realized that while they have similar styles, each of the mego units is heading in a different direction.

During the symposium on the second day, Pita, Ramon BAUER, Mathias GMACHL, and Russell HASWELL were joined by OTOMO Yoshihide as panelists and SASAKI Atsushi as moderator. Statements by Mathias GMACHL, who was interested in the computer's potential, gave the impression that mego members use their collective technology as a shared code, while they come from backgrounds in differing musical styles (techno, noise, electronic music). It was also impressive that they avoided talking about the equipment they use and about software. According to Pita, the software they use is nothing special, stuff that anyone can buy. Whether the results are good or bad depends on how it is used, not the software itself, he says. He also spoke about the negative effects of increasingly simple computers--that they tend to lower the quality of the work.

For the third day of events, AKITA Masami and AZUMA Reiko, who make up the group Merzbow, and Russell HASWELL (Haswell) started the performance by playing together, pumping out high-volume noise that filled the hall. Then came a solo by Zbigniew KARKOWSKI, who is scheduled to have a CD released on the mego label, followed, without a break, by a shift to Pita and the unit called Pop. While Pita performs in several units, each seems to seek for its own sound. Skot performed from the wings of the stage, with the focus on visuals. Their first work, scheduled for release this year, will be on DVD. They were followed by General Magic, with Ramon BAUER, founder of mego, and Andreas PIEPER. General Magic is the unit closest to the techno style, reminding us that mego did start off as a techno label. Their sound, however, has a somewhat spasmodic, dislocated rhythm.

OTOMO Yoshihide and Sachiko M (Filament) offered a tension-filled performance featuring improvisation by means of sine waves on the fourth day. Then the Fenn O Berg trio (FENNESZ, O'ROURKE, and REHBERG) presented an improvisational sound collage using sampled snippets of familiar-sounding phrases. Haswell's noise performance seemed very appropriate for the person who replied, "More chaotic," when asked where mego was heading. The final event featured Pita, who is the central figure for this label. The moments when the rebounds of his minimal pulses produced noisy (but real) melodies or phrases were quite moving.

As the mego people said in the symposium, their equipment is nothing special; how strange and how sensually appealing music it is possible to create depends on what's in the individual artist. Clearly mego is a rare group of artists sustaining a critical stance with respect to technology.

[HATANAKA Minoru]