Franz Pomassl
Encyclopedia
Franz Pomassl is an electronic sound and recording artist and DJ residing in Vienna
, Austria
, and is a co-founder of the Austrian Laton experimental techno label.
Pomassl has inspired many other analog and digital electronic artists, including members of Pansonic and Carsten Nicolai, as well as collaborated with a number of important artists across disciplines, including Carl Michael von Hausswolff
, J. G. Thirlwell
and Kodwo Eshun
. In addition to Laton, he has released with seminal electronic labels, such as Raster-Noton
, Mille Plateaux
, Ash International
, Sex Tags Mania
, Craft, Sabotage and Nexsound
.
electronic equipment, often inserting or connecting patch cables with parts of his body to introduce a deliberate and violent character of noise into dancefloor rhythms.
In addition to being notable for absurd, violent, dada
ist performances that satirize the artificial interaction between player and electronic instrument, he also creates custom instrumentation to examine the edges of human-perceptible audio and uses these tools to "elaborate and process radical moments", such as aircraft blackbox
data collected from crash sites.
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
, and is a co-founder of the Austrian Laton experimental techno label.
Pomassl has inspired many other analog and digital electronic artists, including members of Pansonic and Carsten Nicolai, as well as collaborated with a number of important artists across disciplines, including Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Carl Michael von Hausswolff
Carl Michael von Hausswolff is a composer, visual artist and curator based in Stockholm, Sweden. His main tools are recording devices used in an ongoing investigation of electricity, frequency, architectural space and paranormal electronic interference...
, J. G. Thirlwell
J. G. Thirlwell
James George Thirlwell , aka Clint Ruin, aka Frank Want, aka Foetus, is an Australian vocalist, composer and record producer...
and Kodwo Eshun
Kodwo Eshun
Kodwo Eshun is a British-Ghanaian writer, theorist and film-maker. He studied English Literature at University College, Oxford University and Romanticism and Modernism MA Hons at Southampton University...
. In addition to Laton, he has released with seminal electronic labels, such as Raster-Noton
Raster-Noton
Raster-Noton is a German electronic music record label founded in 1996 by Olaf Bender, Carsten Nicolai and Frank Bretschneider. Based in Chemnitz, Germany, Raster-Noton merged in 1999 from separate labels Rastermusik and Noton .The collective label's aesthetic focus is rhythmic, minimal electronic...
, Mille Plateaux
Mille Plateaux
Mille Plateaux is an influential electronica record label founded 1993 by Achim Szepanski in Frankfurt, Germany. It is known for mostly releasing minimal techno, glitch music and other experimental electronic music.-History:...
, Ash International
Ash International
Ash International is a British record company and audio-visual organisation started in 1993 by Mike Harding and Robin Rimbaud. In 1995 Robin Rimbaud left to pursue his music group Scanner full time. Ash International is part of the Touch organisation, founded by Jon Wozencroft in 1981...
, Sex Tags Mania
Sex Tags Mania
Sex Tags Mania, independent record label based in Norway, releasing house music and techno on 12" vinyl records only. First release dates from 2004....
, Craft, Sabotage and Nexsound
Nexsound
Nexsound is a Ukraine based independent record label founded by Andrey Kiritchenko in 2000 and was also co-operated by Dmytro Fedorenko from 2003 till July 2007....
.
Methods
Pomassl improvises using all manner of homebuilt analogAnalogue electronics
Analogue electronics are electronic systems with a continuously variable signal, in contrast to digital electronics where signals usually take only two different levels. The term "analogue" describes the proportional relationship between a signal and a voltage or current that represents the signal...
electronic equipment, often inserting or connecting patch cables with parts of his body to introduce a deliberate and violent character of noise into dancefloor rhythms.
In addition to being notable for absurd, violent, dada
Dada
Dada or Dadaism is a cultural movement that began in Zurich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to 1922. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature—poetry, art manifestoes, art theory—theatre, and graphic design, and concentrated its anti-war politics through a...
ist performances that satirize the artificial interaction between player and electronic instrument, he also creates custom instrumentation to examine the edges of human-perceptible audio and uses these tools to "elaborate and process radical moments", such as aircraft blackbox
Blackbox
In Unix computing, Blackbox is a stacking window manager for the X Window System.Blackbox has specific design goals, and some functionality is provided only through other applications. One example is the bbkeys hotkey application....
data collected from crash sites.
Albums
- Skeleton (Austria: Craft/Sabotage, 1995, Craft. 07)
- Skeleton 2 (Austria: Craft/Sabotage, 1997, Craft. 19)
- Trail Error (Austria: Laton, 1997, Laton 006)
- Aircra (Austria: Laton, 1999, Laton 018)
- 2001 (Austria: Laton, 2001, Laton 021)
- Retrial Error (Rmxs + Original) (Austria: Laton, 2002, Laton 011)
- Retrial Error (Rmxs) (Austria: Laton, 2002, Laton 012)
- Amalgama (Austria: Laton, Unreleased, Laton 033)
- Skeleton (Norway: Sex Tags Mania, 2007, MANIA 10)
- Spare Parts (Germany: Raster-Noton, 2007, Raster-Noton R-N088)
Compilations
- Picknick mit Hermann! (Austria: Rhiz, 1997, Rhiz 001)
- Clicks & Cuts 3 (Germany: Mille PlateauxMille PlateauxMille Plateaux is an influential electronica record label founded 1993 by Achim Szepanski in Frankfurt, Germany. It is known for mostly releasing minimal techno, glitch music and other experimental electronic music.-History:...
, 2002, MP 116 CD) - Prototype: Armaments And Armatures Against Electronic Music (Austria: Laton, 2003, Laton 025)
- freq_out (UK: Ash InternationalAsh InternationalAsh International is a British record company and audio-visual organisation started in 1993 by Mike Harding and Robin Rimbaud. In 1995 Robin Rimbaud left to pursue his music group Scanner full time. Ash International is part of the Touch organisation, founded by Jon Wozencroft in 1981...
, 2003, Ash 5.8) - MUTEK 2005 (Canada: Mutek Records, 2005)
Collaborations
- ARCHITECTRONICS (in collaboration with Kodwo EshunKodwo EshunKodwo Eshun is a British-Ghanaian writer, theorist and film-maker. He studied English Literature at University College, Oxford University and Romanticism and Modernism MA Hons at Southampton University...
) (Austria: Craft/Sabotage, 1999, Craft. 38)
Sound installations
- Ohne Titel, 2010 with Peter Kogler, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
- Dreamlands Burn (2006–2007)
- Műcsarnok / Kunsthalle BudapestKunsthalle BudapestKunsthalle Budapest is a contemporary art museum in Budapest, located in Heroes' Square, facing the Museum of Fine Arts....
, BudapestBudapestBudapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
, HungaryHungaryHungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
- Runaway (2006)
- Galéria Priestor for Contemporary Arts, BratislavaBratislavaBratislava is the capital of Slovakia and, with a population of about 431,000, also the country's largest city. Bratislava is in southwestern Slovakia on both banks of the Danube River. Bordering Austria and Hungary, it is the only national capital that borders two independent countries.Bratislava...
, SlovakiaSlovakiaThe Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
- PORTAL II (2003)
- Kunsthalle FridericianumFridericianumThe Fridericianum is a museum in Kassel, Germany. Built in 1779, it is one of the oldest public museums in Europe. The quintennial art festival documenta is centred on the site....
, KasselKasselKassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...
, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... - Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Göteborg, SwedenSwedenSweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....
- Avanto (2002)
- Muu Galleria, HelsinkiHelsinkiHelsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, FinlandFinlandFinland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...
- Frequenzen Hz - Audiovisuelle Räume (2002)
- Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
- 10 Ans De Fri-Art - Etat des lieux #3 (2001)
- Fri-Art - Centre d'Art Contemporain, FribourgFribourgFribourg is the capital of the Swiss canton of Fribourg and the district of Sarine. It is located on both sides of the river Saane/Sarine, on the Swiss plateau, and is an important economic, administrative and educational center on the cultural border between German and French Switzerland...
, SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
- Manifesta 2 - Luxembourg
- ManifestaManifestaManifesta, the , is a European pan-regional contemporary cultural biennale, described in 2010 by the as "stunning in its scope and uncompromisingly experimental in its approach".-Manifesta History:...
- European Biennial of Contemporary Art, AmsterdamAmsterdamAmsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...
, The Netherlands