Mimikry is the first full-length to emerge from the collaboration between sound and visual artist Alva Noto, a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai, and composer, voice-artist, and former Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds/Einsturzende Neubaten alumnus Blixa Bargeld. For three years they’ve focused on live performance, stressing improvisation in situ, with 2010 seeing the release of an EP, Ret Marut Handshake.

Mimikry, two tracks feature the vocals of artist, model and actor Veruschka. Idiosyncratic in subject matter and by turns melodic, forlorn and disturbingly intense, Mimikry begins with Fall’s seemingly endless, high-pitched scream. Over the course of 10 minutes Bargeld and Alva Noto essay a sonic vision comprising characteristic soundscapes from Alva Noto in the form of needle-like electronics while Bargeld’s multi-tracked vocals continue in typically intense vein. The track Ret Marut Handshake, first heard on the duo’s homonymous EP released in 2010, takes as its subject the mysterious figure of a German actor, journalist and anarchist whose identity has never been fully proven. The track Katze features Veruschka on cat sounds and Bargeld alternating between majestic, disturbed and touchingly human vocals, while Nicolai’s synthetic treatments make for a truly stunning foil.

Further readings:

• Review by BBC’s Colin Buttimer (2010)
• Review by Tiny Mix Tapes’s DNC

Related Products

• N-034 Ret Marut Handshake ANBB (Alva Noto + Blixa Bargeld) Format: Digital, Vinyl