“The next ‘Rarely Heard Music' production was staged once again in a private setting: at Hermann Nitsch's Villa Romenthal by Lake Ammer on 12th February 1975: the
Streichquartett 558171 (Romenthalquartett) with
Günter Brus,
Hermann Nitsch,
Dieter Roth, and
Gerhard Rühm, which filled all of a three album boxed set. Although originally we had simply made a selection of the recorded material large enough to fill a single album, Roth was unable to part with the remaining material when it came to having the records pressed. The remorseless inclusion of even the failures, the idle moments, was so radical it almost bordered on masochism. In this particular case I felt it was an ascetic exercise in dispensing with all the correction and rectification, a ban on holding anything back. Simultaneously he often hard school of total acceptance had a stimulating and in some ways liberating effect on me, mindful as I normally am of formal rigor and economy of means.”
Gerhard Rühm
Released in LP gatefold-sleeve (reproduction of the original) with printed card innersleeve.
Limited edition of 500 copies.
“‘Selten Gehörte Musik' [rarely heard music] developed from our ‘artists' workshops' in which an intimate circle of friends met together at loose intervals to talk, eat, drink and collaborate on artistic projects. the aim of the workshops was to create a fruitful intensity over a period of several days {and nights) which, without being restricted to any one field of the arts, fostered creative production of a totally pleasure-oriented kind. (…) During a subsequent visit of
Dieter Roth to Berlin, the desire for a joint musical event was kindled (…) There followed an uninterrupted two-day session which spawned the record
3 Berliner Dichterworkshop [3rd Poetry Wworkshop, Berlin] (12./13. 7. 1973) / Roth, Rühm, Wiener, for which we invented the ‘brand name' Selten Gehoerte Musik. (…) In 1974 we decided it was no longer enough to produce our ‘rarely heard music' simply in order to document it on a record, we had to combine the recording with a public performance. (…) We accepted an invitation to perform in Munich in May 1974, this time with five of us:
Günter Brus,
Hermann Nitsch,
Dieter Roth,
Gerhard Rühm and
Oswald Wiener.”
Gerhard Rühm,
Some data on ‘Selten Gehörte Musik'