Günter Christmann, ..off... (side A)

I had been aware of Günter Christmann as an improviser with strong albums on FMP and Po Torch.  Even his first solo album, 1976's Solomusiken für Posaune und Kontrabass finds him playing a series of idiomatic solos — its most unusual quality is his alternation between trombone and bass.  I was thus surprised and amazed to hear 1978's ..off...  While it includes improvisations on both instruments, which are recorded conventionally, these tracks alternate with a series of far odder experiments.  The second track, "armade", is described in the liner notes as "composition for breathquartet and bottle with compressed air", and the breathing is all recorded very closely with added compression.  "po-sau-ne", with its layered renditions of the German word for trombone, reminds me of the sound-text pieces of Nono and Gaburo, more than anything from an improvised tradition — the liner notes here do specify that it's an improvisation.  Crackle box, transistor radio, close-mic'ed and layered mandolin scrapings, typewriter, and tape modulation all show up too.  The result is a crazy and chaotic record that bridges many traditions and does not neatly align with anything else I've heard from Christmann.  The remarkable cover photo, with a shattered image of Christmann alongisde his instruments, gives some hint of the contents, but it's far subtler than the wildly varying contents of ..off...