Dig It

Description

With "Dig It" I did all the work with the computer for the first time, and in this respect it was my first "digital" album. I played and mixed everything with this G.D.S. A really tremendous gear! The sound was caustically clean. So I told myself: As I already have this gear I will really do everything with it. The drums were the only thing I had to record on a separate track because the G.D.S. had no drum sounds. So I got hold of Fred Severloh to play live drums on "Death Of An Analogue". For this pounding rhythm, I thought, you really need fat drums! But it was -- just the same with my vocoder voice which you can hear on this song -- only a matter of the right dramaturgy, the right effect.

It wasn't my consideration just to bring in another "human" element because I don't make such a distinction. For me electronics are as human and natural as any other instrument. Violins, as I always say, don't grow on trees either! For "Weird Caravan" I had borrowed a loop by Ideal. Usually, I don't borrow anything. I do all loops and samples on my own. But in this case Ideal's drummer [Hans-Joachim Berendt] played something which I found really great. I said: "Do you mind if I cut out 1,5 meters here?" Using two tape machines I glued the tape together and run it as a loop -- because, you know: "The looper isn't a hooker."

Even when you're repeating yourself you're still no whore, haha. The bonus title, "Esoteric Goody", is a very abstract piece of music. I have again listened to it after a long time now. It reminds a bit of the intro for "Destination Void" from the "Mirage" album [1977]. But then this song featured a real mellotron, the heavy mechanics, not a sample. "Esoteric Goody" originated during the phase of "Dig It", so I think it fits well as a bonus track for the "Dig It" CD. The song shows the experimental side of Schulze. The 'Stahlsinfonie' (Symphony in Steel) on the bonus DVD is a recording of my concert at the "Ars Electronica" in Linz, Austria, back in 1980. On September 8th I had opened this festival following an invitation of the ORF (Astrian Broadcasting Corporation).

I have played in the big hall of the Brucknerhaus, and from the outside sounds were transmitted which were made by the steel workers of the steel works VOEST-ALPINE. But I wouldn't want to use their sounds as a playback recording made beforehand -- I wanted them to play live! The promoters made it work by using various telephone lines. Along the river Danube there were PA towers erected at a distance of two or three kilometres so really the entire city of Linz could listen to the music. At the end of the concert, the workers joined me on stage.