Keplar

EHLERS, EKKEHARD - Plays

"Ekkehard Ehlers's seminal plays series was originally released on three 12"s (Staubgold) and two 7"s (Bottrop-Boy) in very limited runs. The entire series was previously only available as a CD compilation. Keplar finally presents it on double vinyl for the first time, featuring a new artwork. Domestic ethnology: Ekkehard Ehlers plays. "Play" is a word in English with many meanings attached. Each one sends you down a different cognitive pathway. When Ekkehard Ehlers plays, he is very much on his own. Or, at least, alone but at the same time keeping intimate company with the artistic innovators named in his titles. Robert Johnson. John Cassavetes. Albert Ayler. Cornelius Cardew. Hubert Fichte. Is he playing with them, against them, about them, for them, to them? This can never be known. It is certainly a mistake to try to hear the "work" of these originals in the sounds played by Ekkehard. They're not cover versions. They're hardly tributes in the conventional sense. Cassavetes and Fichte are not even musicians, although music played an important part in both their careers. Sure, there are little nods and flashes of recognition -- tiny guitar licks among the minimal beats of "Robert Johnson 2"; rich bowed instruments in "Albert Ayler", recalling the violin, cello and double bass arrangements on Ayler's 1967 Live in Greenwich Village LP; the elongated organ lines of "Cornelius Cardew 1" gesturing towards passages in Paragraph 1 of the British composer's 1971 Marxist monolith, The Great Learning. Ekkehard is not so much playing these figures as allowing himself to be played by them. Playing as an activity also suggests freedom. Maybe the only thing all five named persons have in common is that they were all quiet radicals. In music, literature and cinema, they all stepped, without self-promotion or fanfare, into unmapped territories. Once there they found it necessary to invent new languages in order to survive. Necessity was the mother of their inventiveness. They were also uncomfortable avant-gardists. Lonely types, fighting their corners out on the margins, with little reward, often misunderstood, ridiculed or ignored. All died unfairly young. The deaths of Johnson, Ayler and Cardew have never been satisfactorily explained, and remain shrouded in myths and conspiracy theories. The pioneering expeditions of all five began in that spirit of playful freedom, but inexorably drew them towards the heart of darkness. Ekkehard Ehlers's intuitive electronic portraits are a form of domestic ethnology in themselves. Invoking another of Ekkehard's musical aliases, they are portraits of cultural "autopoiesis" -- creators whose works were strong enough to have their own self-regenerating life force. Featuring Stephan Mathieu, Joseph Suchy, Anka Hirsch. Mastered by Rashad Becker. Cut to vinyl by Lupo, Berlin, 2022. Redesigned by Sandra Kastl, 2022. Photos by Ludger Blanke. Gatefold sleeve; includes download code; edition of 500." - Keplar .
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After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.

This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).

Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.

Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.

Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).

So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
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