The third album by Marsen Jules, both introspective and visionary, modest and ground-breaking, remastered by
Stephan Mathieu and with a new artwork by Umor Rex's Daniel Castrejón.
Blending elements of classical music with electronic textures, the German artist created six pieces that draw on the power of repetition, yet are full of internal tensions and sweeping dynamics. Now, Keplar makes it available again on vinyl for the first time since its original release in 2005 on City Centre Offices. This version, remastered by Stephan Mathieu and with a new artwork by Umor Rex's Daniel Castrejón, shines a new light on a record that paved the way not only for the artist's later work, but also further developments in electronic and ambient music more broadly.
"The noughties were a special time," says Marsen Jules today. "It felt like there was a new tool made available practically every day that allowed you to create new musical worlds on your computer." Hence, this prolific phase saw the emergence of a plentitude of genres and styles that can be traced back to individual records—"precious gems that opened up new possibilities and anticipated a lot of what later would be picked up on," as he describes them. "Herbstlaub" surely falls into this category, having paved the way for a distinct approach to combining elements from classical and electronic music.
While Wolfgang Voigt was focusing on the marriage of romanticism and techno with his Gas project at the same time, the six pieces on "Herbstlaub" follow a very different concept. Through repetition and reduction, Marsen Jules threw any sense of time out of joint while also inserting an emotional component into the music. "What would remain if you abstract musical contents to this degree, how much of your personality would still resonate in it," he sums up the questions that shaped his approach. "When will reduction result in monotony, and how could unique, magical moments created through repetition?"
More than one and a half decades later, "Herbstlaub" seems both melancholic and brimming with excitement. This is the sound of an artist experimenting freely with the sounds and structures of two supposedly irreconcilable musical traditions with new and exciting tools, creating something previously unheard of in the process.
Edition of 500 copies, black poly-lined inners, incl. download.
Marsen Jules is the instrumental/ambient project of Martin Juhls from Dortmund, Germany. Focused on minimalism and abstraction, Marsen Jules creates sound-poetics, atmospheric and deeply emotional tunes, combining a classic approach to ambient music with a modern and unique sound-design.
Since his CD debut on City Centre Offices he released a dozen full length albums and several compilation tracks on labels as 12K, Kompakt, Miasmah and Dronarivm as well as his own imprint Oktaf Records. In 2009 he received an award as best album at the Qwartz Electronic Music Awards in Paris which was also combined with a a two week residence in the legendary "GRM Studios" at Radio France. A two track mini album with his works at GRM was released in 2014. On stage Marsen Jules plays in different combinations: solo and also accompanied by classical and jazz musicians or VJs. He played at international festivals such as Mutek (Canada), Tranzvizualia (Poland), Node (Italy), Spectaculare (Czech), Norberg Festival (SE), Marke B (DE), Traumzeit (DE). Urban Explorers (NL), Stalker (Estonia), La Route du Rock (France), Picknick Electronique (Canada). Together with Roger Döring (saxophone/clarinette) from Dictaphone he composed a new live soundtrack for the classic silent movie "Nosferatu" by Murnau, which is still performed live. Another important cooperation is his work together with the swedish artist and filmmaker Anders Weberg. Besides their audiovisuel live-sets Jules also provided soundtrack for Webergs movie project "Ambiancé". Marsen Jules is also known for the releases of his second alter ego "krill.minima".
