Other Minds is excited to announce a never-before-heard selection of early works by German composer/improviser/instrument builder Werner Durand. With this new release, entitled To Be Continued: Early Recordings 1978-80, a more vibrant portrait of the life and work of Durand is made possible. The recordings composing To Be Continued were recently unearthed for the first time in decades from the personal collection of Other Minds’ Executive Director, Charles Amirkhanian.

Werner Durand has been active since the 1980’s both as a solo performer, and in collaborations with Amelia Cuni, Arnold Dreyblatt, and Sam Ashley, among others. To Be Continued comprises three long form pieces that are important documents of the development of the audio processing techniques for which Durand is now known.

To Be Continued is presented in chronological order, tracing Durand’s move from his home in Karlsruhe, Germany to his influential trip to India and subsequent move to Berlin, including the only recording existent of the artist playing the bansuri flute. The influence of his studies in India are apparent, as is the influence of his teacher Ariel Kalma. The music is hypnotic and subdued, the sound of a trailblazing artist taking his first steps into the brush.

On the trilogy “Triptychon,” subtitled “Three Afternoon Songs,” Durand, along with collaborator Tom Dietz, weave together fragmented organ and synthesizer arpeggios into a dense field of kaleidoscopic sound. “The Road to Trichy” finds Durand in a more contemplative mode, skirting around the edges of New Age, a harder-edged Joanna Brouk or something akin to Alice Coltrane. The album closes with the short piece for soprano saxophone titled “BerlIndia.” As indicated by the elision of the title, there is a clear influence of Indian classical music here. Repeated raga figures over a central drone dominate the sound field.

1 · Triptychon 1 17:02
2 · Triptychon 2 06:39
3 · Triptychon 3 10:43
4 · The Road to Trichy 18:44
5 · BerlIndia 03:10