Profile
Siegmar Fricke started his first musical experiments in 1981 using tape-recorders and shortwave-radio signals to create collages of musique-concrete that have been recorded on various cassettes.
After intense activities in the European tape-scene between 1985 and 1993 Siegmar Fricke founded the project Efficient Refineries together with Miguel A. Ruiz (Orfeon Gagarin) from Madrid who is already active in the Spanish electronic scene since the 80s. Further CD-collaborations with the Italian sound-artist Maurizio Bianchi were realized: Endokraniosis (on Tibprod/Norway), Stroma~Konkret (on Monochrome Vision/Russia) and Primordium (on The Eastern Front/Israel).
Together with his fiancee Heike Bohm another CD has been published on the Norwegian label TIBPROD: [A:M:B] CHLORAMPHENOL.
Siegmar Fricke characterizes his musical works as «Pharmakustik»: Pharmakustik might be a new path of sound-innovation in today`s technological music that often lacks the approach of profound sound-experimentations by focussing just on preset-sounds, melodies and familiar song-structures. Pharmakustik instead consists of reduced and syncopated rhythmic patterns, clinically filtered ambiences generated by sampling-technology, electro-modulated voices and linear structure; in detail all single audio-elements are completely modulated by various electronic devices.
The current working-principle is characterized by organic improvisational studies: inside the Pharmakustik-studio several analogue and digital machines are playing simultaneously and the acoustic results are recorded straight to disc. Afterwards these basics are re-treated with a wide range of computer-plug-ins and then mastered.
In addition, intense studies of medical texts and terms are made to embed the resulting audio-works into a concept and to find subjective titles/concepts for them. The main aim is to create music far beyond existing musical borders: Pharmakustik free-form electronics on a high abstraction-level without any involvement of conventional equipment or familiar structures.
The newest pharmakustik-netreleases such as CEREBROPHONIE (published in January 2008 on the Russian net-label DNA Production) involve magnetophone-treatments in the style of late 60s-psychedelia and musique-concrete.
For 2008 an innovative maxi-EP entitled CLINICAUT is scheduled; it contains robotic remixes by adamned.age, Orfeon Gagarin (Spain) and Alisu (Chile).
Siegmar Fricke also continously works on the acoustic treatment of basics delivered by Maurizio Bianchi. Another fruitful collaboration is the NAHTOD-album together with Sylvie Walder, a female ambient-drone-artist from France (published in May 2008 on Clinical Archives in Russia). Another project Siegmar Fricke is currently working on are experimental/medical paintings (anatomic images) and mixed-media-collage-sculptures.
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