V.A. - Noise of Cologne 3

Compilation series are usually released in a sequence of several months or years. This is not the case with "Noise of Cologne": Part 1 was released in 2010, part 2 followed in 2013 and the third part of the series is now available in 2024 - with a total of 73 one-minute contributions from various musicians, bands and projects. 

The one-minute format forces the contributions to be condensed and, in total, Noise of Cologne 3 offers a highly varied spectrum of experimental music: from musique concrète, electronic music, field recordings and environmental music to soundscapes, no wave, computer music and post-minimal music to experimental club music, turntablism, ambient and hauntology. Above all, Noise of Cologne 3 offers surprises: Trance synthesisers alongside vocal acrobatics and terror drums as well as numerous "unlikely combinations" (David Toop) - music not yet classified or labelled: noise, if you will.

The CD compiled by Frank Dommert (A-Musik) and Dirk Specht (Therapeutische Hörgruppe) brings together musicians who have been contributing to the musical map of Cologne for years and decades as well as those who are just starting out, trying things out, building something, getting loud, getting involved, contributing. You can also hear the activating influence of networks, study programmes, collectives, producing workshops and funding, which also encourage more women to assert themselves against powerful stereotypes. The eponymous term "noise" refers to neither genre nor sound; rather, its meaning blurs in the juxtaposition of the contributions, opening up its semantic frame of reference: What does noise have to do with the city? Which instruments are used to play noise? Is noise danceable? Does noise sound utopian or dystopian? Can noise be retro or is noise always new?

Jacques Attali attributed to the organised form of sound, i.e. music, the ability not only to depict and reflect social contexts, but also to make new social orders conceivable. This evokes associations with the belief in progress that the musical avant-garde in Cologne once used to arm itself ideologically. And at a time when the media is conjuring up a historical Cologne spirit of the 80s and 90s, Noise of Cologne 3 demonstrates that you have to leave supposedly glorious pasts behind in order to forge paths through the undergrowth in the here (Cologne) and now (2020s) with which the old freedoms (curiosity, experimental spirit, joy of playing, art...) can be regained.

In Memoriam Joachim Ody