Saturday, May 22, 2010

Rudolph Eb.er’s Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck



















Rudolph Eb.er’s Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck - Kotschleuder
[Hate Operation News Bulletin - Schimpfluch Commune Int]
Tochnit Alpeh CD and art photos. 100 copies
Entering the world of Rudolph Eb.er be it via his disturbing live shows or his numerous recorded works is always an unsettling experience. As founder of the Swiss aktionist outfit Schimpfluch Gruppe his name is already legend to those who like their head experiences trepan deep. Nobody makes recorded works quite like Rudolph. And then there’s his own outfit Runzelstirn & Gurgelstøck and his own label Schimpfluch plus numerous collaborations and now, just in case you weren’t confused enough there’s Schimpfluch Commune International.
Live, I’ve seen him head-butt plates of spaghetti bolognese and scare the shit out of audiences just by his appearance. He’s not your average Joe. And neither are his records. Juxtaposed sounds of dogs barking, whips cracking, short random blurts of noise, dungeon screams. Taking the Dada ethos from Switzerland in 1987 right up to modern day Japan, where he now resides, he releases the kind of music you expect to hear being played in in S&M bars 50 years hence. And if you think thats just too insane for your top 40 brain then have no idea what you’re getting into.
Eb.er is the grit in the oyster creating pearls of non standard structure. Virtually every Rudolph related item I have here is non standard. There’s a P Tapes single that despite having some regular grooves on one side has a seven inch paper label on the other, presumably for you to ruin your stylus on plus the die-cut sleeve is offset so you’re not quite sure which way the record actually leaves the sleeve. His 2005 collaboration LP with fellow Schimpfluch conspirator Joke Lanz ‘Liederliches ...’ had a cover that almost made me puke. The ungodly R&G release Asshole/Snail Dilemma had a cover showing mutated scrotums and comes with what is quite possibly real human hair protruding from beneath the CD tray. The aim is to rewire your heathen senses and open your head to new possibilities. Rudolph can take you places that only other experimental artist can dream of.
Kotschleuder is not only 55 minutes of heavy nasal breathing, friendly alien chatter, blind John Cage piano fumbles and a fly trapped in a bottle, its 30 quality art photos of a naked Rudolph posing with offal, a small axe, a dolls head and what I hope is a fake penis. Covered in gore he sticks his penis [the real one] into the dolls eye sockets, holds the grime covered axe to his erection and, whilst bent over, places what looks like a cows tongue onto his arsehole. In one memorable picture he holds up some unrecognisable guts and with head tilted back seems to be roaring what’s written above him ‘In God I trust’. You try and work it out.
Kotschleuder [which I think translates from the German as ‘shit stirrer] is long out of print but well worth tracking down - as is just about anything else Schimpfluch related.
hateoperation [at] yahoo.de

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