bernard szajner
catalogue

Composer, theorist and visual artist Bernard Szajner released five albums of innovative, avant-garde electronic music between 1979 and 1983. Although widely and deservedly acclaimed at the time, Szajner afterwards abandoned music for two decades, and as a result his music lapsed into relative obscurity. For connoisseurs, however, Szajner remains a leading exponent of his chosen genre. To read detailed artist biography click here. To order CDs click here.


SOME DEATHS TAKE FOREVER (BOUCD 6620) £10.00
Originally released in 1980, Szajner's second album is an emotive and sometimes disturbing musical imagining of two prisoners on death row, initially conceived as the soundtrack to a short film by Amnesty International. The complete album places dark, angular and unnerving electronic textures within dynamic rock arrangements, guest musicians including Klaus Blasquiz and Bernard Paganotti of Magma. This new remastered edition also includes three bonus tracks recorded in 1982, and previously unreleased. CD booklet includes archive images, complete artwork and a detailed biography of Szajner. Full tracklist: Welcome to Death Row; Ritual; Execute; Ressurector; The Memory; Suspended Animation; A Kind of Freedom. Bonus tracks: Thol Onsia; A Single Broken Wing; S-n-o-w-p-r-i-n-t-s.

Reviews: 'Some Deaths Take Forever is a series sharp refractions and angled reflections. Szajner's uninflected sequencers are counterpointed throughout by Magma's Klaus Blasquiz and Bernard Paganotti, bringing a Kobaian disco precision to Ritual and Execute. Dedicated to Amnesty International, Some Deaths Take Forever is a tortured meditation on the electric chair as killing machine' (The Wire, 06/2009); 'This 1980 album is a surreal amalgam of maniacal electro-pop (check out the Serge Gainsbourg-remixed-by-a-Speak'n'Spell vibes of Welcome To Death Row) and peculiar abstract sound sculpting, hitting on an especially odd sound with the Manuel Gottsching-esque guitar-led synth bashing of Ressurector. Bonus tracks are thrown in for good measure, with the impressive Thol Onasia and parting shot S-N-O-W-P-R-I-N-T-S standing out for all their ambient loveliness' (Boomkat, 05/2009); 'A modern electronic masterwork - one of the most exciting and innovative pieces of electronic music to be released this year' (Melody Maker, 1980); 'His frantic, outraged music shames the bulk of oscillator nuts peddling their dodgy little repetitions around' (Sounds, 1980); 'Unquestionably one of the decade's most accomplished fusions of sophisticated electronics and driving rock' (NME, 1980); 'Whether working in sound or vision (he sees the two "forces" creating a "third force that is stronger than any one of the two"), Szajner's genius is in making the act of storytelling as relevant as the story itself. The reissues both present journeys. Some Deaths Take Forever's layers of synths and distortion eventually reach a celestial, radio-frequency climax' (San Francisco Bay Guardian, 10/2009)


SUPERFICIAL MUSIC (BOUCD 6618) £10.00
Szajner chose another radical departure for this, his third album, released in December 1981. The first side features four tracks of so-called 'superficial music' compiled from source tapes for Visions of Dune, played backwards at half speed, and enhanced only by sparing use of analog and digital effects. The second side is taken up by the chilling triptych Oswiecim, and reflects Szajner's obsessive theme of life and death. The 59 minute CD also features two bonus 'lost tracks' recorded in 1982, and never previously released. Booklet includes archive images and detailed Szajner biography. Full tracklist: Superficial Music 1; Superficial Music 2; Superficial Music 3; Superficially Accelerated Edits; Oswiecim: Ouverture; Chant Funebre; De-Termination. Bonus tracks: E"r Aera; Inverted Area.

Reviews: 'Reworking recordings originally made for an earlier project by slowing them down or running them backwards through harmonizers and other electronic effects, Szajner creates a series of translucent pieces, stripped of the instrumental sparkle to be found of his collaborations with Blasquiz and Paganotti. The two albums feel very different from each other, but are closely related through the composer's preoccupation with the inhumanity of mechanised death. Accompanied by extensive sleevenotes and useful bonus tracks, both suggest that there is still much to learn about the music made in the 1980s' (The Wire, 06/2009); 'It shows the tape experiment to be a significant success, a wholly involving and frequently disturbing blanket of continually contorting synthetic sound. Yet despite its uncompromising atonality, it's music that is easily accessible, communicating its intensely anxious messages with outspoken candour and remarkable intelligence' (Melody Maker, 1981); 'Superficial? No, superlative music! If you care at all for soundscapes that eschew cheap escapes, that demand clear perception without preconception, this album will do far more than tickle the surface of you mind... This new release marks a penetrating, persuasive look into the possibilities of pure tape music. This is music of almost overwhelming purity, whether played at discreetly ambient or totally engulfing levels. Reworking old material, it's almost Accidental Music. Except for the fact that there's a remarkably perceptive intelligence at work here. The tapes play backwards; logic is effortlessly reversed. Half speed gives extraordinary depth to the bass. Spare but telling use of the digital harmoniser and other studio treatments spin a sensitive skin of transparent texture over the naked harmony. Particularly on the second side, the impression is of a sizeable orchestra playing just beyond sight, a stately, spacious, but somehow eerie sound... It's hard to believe, in the fashion-enhanced, category-entrenched 80s, but you won't find many obvious influences here. If that sounds like critical shortchanging, I could suggest that Superficial Music occupies intellectual territory somewhere between Pierre Henri and Messiaen. Similarly in his rock mode he thrusts forward the standard so disappointingly dropped by Christian Vander. Irreconcilable? Not for Szajner' (NME, 1981); 'Szajner is a significant and influential figure in the composition and performance of electronic music. On Superficial Music, the intriguing results sound harmonious, anxious, consistently stunning and emotionally involving. An excellent reissue, and I expect Szajner will be belatedly name-checked by younger admirers as his work is rediscovered' (Brainwashed, 04/2009)

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