Sanctuary

Alexander Hacke

Label 
POTOMAK c&p 2005
CD 

Tracklist

  1. Minnie and Me
  2. Sister
  3. Love Me Love My Dog
  4. Sonntag
  5. Sanctuary
  6. Yours Truly
  7. Seven
  8. Per Sempre Butterfly
  9. All American Happy Hour
  10. Sugarpie
  11. Brush / Throat

You don't necessarily have to go into a studio or on stage to record an album. In the new millennium one just packs the equipment into a small knapsack and roams about as in the dark ages: A hunter and collector. Hacke does it like this: He flies to the USA for example and visits his friends. Most of them are musicians. He asks whether he could record something with them and plays them the material he gathered elsewhere. By these means transports his loot from one location to the next. Gaining every place he goes. Always leaving parts behind, going further and picking up another batch, collecting audio in many places, pressing the record-button in various situations. The location does have an impact on the perception. Concentrating on details that would be out of focus otherwise. Drive-In and Take-Away instead of Delivery-Service! Hacke is compiling a menu of specialties by digging and researching, not trying to preserve his finds or to put them on a pedestal.

Instead the audio-tracks are keepsakes he then filters, processes and mixes or partly even chucks out in order to make room for even more advanced creations. Applying a subtle cartography all the while not intending to be accurate. It is not about the exact reproduction of the before measured territory. Insignificant places get magnified out of proportion, capitals are being ignored on the world-map and entire landscapes are inverted.

Back in Berlin he then edits the clippings of his travel-itinerary and the local directory in order to build his sanctuary.

The album is in digipack format, including a 16 panel color booklet, each panel a photo of all the souvenirs he collected in the making of each track. The last panel is the trunk that houses his "Sanctuary", or collection of mementos.

Participating musicians: N.Y.C.
  • J.G. Thirlwell (Foetus)
  • Larry 7 (The Analog Society)
  • Vinnie Signiorelli (Unsane)
  • Larry Mullins (Toby Damnit)
  • Michael Evans (KBZ 200)
  • Algis Kizys (Swans)
L.A.
  • Sugarpie Jones (Celebrity Skin)
  • Don Bolles (Germs)
  • David Yow (The Jesus Lizard)
  • Chicago
  • Trailer Hitch
Berlin
  • Bob Rutman (Steel Cello Ensemble)
  • Chrislo Haas (Liaisons Dangereuses)
  • Buddy Sacher (Ars Vitalis)
  • Caspar Brötzmann (Massaker)
  • Zeitblom
  • Gordon W. (Fuzzy Love)
  • Andrew Chudy (Einstürzende Neubauten)
  • The Boy From Brazil
Gothenburg
  • Nils Wohlrabe (The Leather Nun)
Milano
  • Gianna Nannini