Outside the Dream Syndicate (With Faust)

Performer: Faust/Tony Conrad
Distributor: Alternative Dis. Alliance

Notes: Personnel includes: Tony Conrad (violin); Rudolf Sosna (synthesizer); Jean-Herve Peron (bass); Werner Diermaier (drums). Recorded at Wumme, West Germany in October 1972. Includes liner notes by David Fricke. Personnel: Tony Conrad (violin); Jim O'Rourke (violin); Jean Herv� Peron (bass guitar); Zappi Diermaier (drums). Liner Note Author: Andy Gill. Not for the faint-hearted, this live document of the collaboration between minimalist composer Tony Conrad, members of the Krautrock band Faust, and indie experimentalist Jim O'Rourke is an artistically compelling exercise in expanding sonic barriers, as well as something of an aural endurance test. O'Rourke plays elongated drones on the violin, Faust hammer away at a primeval pulse, and the two works slowly build to an awe-inspiring climax. The music's polarizing nature is apparent in audible heated arguments among the audience between pieces--love it or hate it, you can't ignore it. Avant-garde polymath Tony Conrad has, since the `60s, led trailblazing paths in the fields of minimalist composition, structuralist film, and arts education. Notable among his body of work is a brief tenure (in the mid-`60s) with LaMonte Young's drone music collective, the Theatre of Eternal Music. TTEM's sustained, long-form explorations into just intonation tuning systems impacted everyone from the Velvet Underground (whose John Cale was also a member of TTEM) to the underground fringe of Germany's late-`60s rock movement. Among the most visionary of the German groups were the W�mme-based hippie-art collective known as Faust; OUTSIDE THE DREAM SYNDICATE marks Tony Conrad's 1973 recorded debut, here, in collaboration with the celebrated Krautrock pioneers. The album was initially hatched from a chance meeting between Conrad and Faust's producer/Svengali, Uwe Nettelbeck, and in many respects OUTSIDE. represents an artistic detour for both parties involved. A product of willful asceticism applied with a rigorous mathematical logic, Faust's usual anarchic, Dadaist-inspired hysteria is toned down to a supple motorik swoon. Side One's "From the Side of Man and Womankind" strikes a deliberate, magisterial pace; buoyed by the rhythm-section of bass guitarist Jean-Herve Peron and drummer Zappi Diermaier, Conrad unfurls a single mournful note from his violin, distending the buzzing purity of the drone into rising and accumulating thickets of overtones. The ensemble's zen-like concentration continues on Side Two's "From the Side of the Machine," which contrary to the title, is the more organic of the two sides. Here, Conrad takes a more aggressive tack, his hypnotic rasping ascending to higher registers as the band roils along in the rhythmic undertow. A long out-of-print and often overlooked link between early minimalism and the rock avant-garde, the 30th Anniversary reissue adds a bonus CD containing three previously unreleased outtakes, restoring OUTSIDE's rightful place as a historically significant document of underground music.

Mojo (Publisher) (1/03, p.108) - "...Conrad's constantly shifting, layered violin - thoroughly exploring the instrument's harmonics - is the perfect foil for Faust's relentless rock drive..."

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