stadtfisch

Performance and action are generally defined as a
theatrical presentation without audience participation,
whereas stadtfisch integrates the viewers. Basic elements
are: rhythm, space, spontaneity, speech, sound. the
visual-acoustic ability of experience form the core of
stadtfisch's artistic work. Progress also implies the danger
of moving away from usual patterns of perception. Digital
evolution pretends to replace just those analog abilities
that have to be cultivated in order to use it for further
human development.
stadtfisch - Biography Uwe Bastiansen
Uwe Bastiansen, Hamburg, Germany. Sound artist, musician and filmmaker.
the early years
After his childhood he discovered as a youth punk for the
first time. The climax of the glam rock Era was over and his
opinions changed. The beginning was characterized by "new"
bands and artists. First it was fun, then it was testing out
the limits. Very soon he developped his own definition "art
is not the 'Mona Lisa'." History had become bland. but,
different from "now" in the punk stereotype, the things to
come became his genuine interest.
As a punk first of all you had to dismiss music that
features endless soli of miscellanous instruments and
seemingly endless songs. For example "Krautrock". Bands like
"Jane", Guru Guru" and "Can". it was different though for
"Kraftwerk". Synthesizers took on. There was an effect also
on "new german music" (not the "Neue Deutsche Welle"),
especially the use of sequencers ("DAF"). Combined with
lyrics like in "Tanz den Mussolini" - direct, confusing and
short. And then there were also massive scandals by this
provocation. Consistent action strongly influenced his
musical evolution.
After early clumsy and naive efforts his first actual band "Mask for" formed
consisting of him, singer Michael Seidler, the former
drummer of the agit-punk-band "Slime", Stephan Mahler and
bass player Oliver Sander. Suddenly there were crazy
concerts and the first publication of an LP. To a great
extent this was paid for by the sale of their instruments.
"SPEX"-writer Michael Ruff about "Mask for": "they write
pieces, not songs."
In collaboration with Guiseppe Gagliano and Lothar Mattejat
("Trash-Center Altona") a gallery was opened for a short
time by the name of "Mask For - Vision". In
an exhibition vast amounts of devaluated money bills were
"thrown to the vultures". Making the acquaintance of New
York polit-punk Pete Missing there came a new variety: "Missing Foundation". This band
saw itself as a kind of direct political opposition.
Opinions were shouted out loud . Trash and chaos went beyond
the scope of everything. From here more unusual connections
evolved. For example he played with "KMFDM" (early form of
"industrial") and the project of a bass orchestra formed by
Marc Chung ("Einstürzende Neubauten"), exclusively
consisting of 7 bass players.
In 1987 he and some friends founded their own label "GAP-Records". It was another
effort to find a "gap". Besides other things he worked as a
tour manager, thus getting to know swedish band "The Leather
Nun". Out of this evolved a long lasting partnership with
guitar player Nils Wohlrabe from Göteborg. An unusual kind
of "noise" refining the "ordinary" with extreme distortion
and excessive feedback orgies.
1987 til 2000
In 1987 there was a restart of "Mask for". They toured
widely through Europe with Nils Wohlrabe, guitar player
Frank Markendorf, bass player Gisbert Kellermann ("Abwärts") and
Harry Cain.
In 1987 Uwe Bastiansen also got to know Frank Ziegert,
founder of experimental punk band "Abwärts". Soon he became part of the new
Abwärts line-up. Additionally there were F.M. Einheit
("Einstürzende Neubauten", Michael "Elf" Maier ("Slime"),
Jochen Hansen ("Rio Reiser") and Frank Seele. A multitude of
sound recordings came into being next to provoked scandals
(the skull bunny, 100,000 DM action for injunction by
"playboy"). He wrote various songs for the album "Herzlich
willkommen im Irrenhaus" but left the band before its
publication in 1993.
Towards the end of 1992 stadtfisch was
formed together with Hamburg artist Irina Frederich with
whom he works with frequently until today, and repeatedly
changing cast. The first version for example next to Nils
Wohlrabe for the first time featured musicians of the Jazz
and Funk area with Brazilian bass player Ronaldo Nascimento
and Heinz Lichius on drums. Here there was another chance to
combine different artistic and musical styles in an unusual
manner.
In order to record and manipulate these sounds in a
professional studio Uwe Bastiansen worked as a sound
engineer and producer in the Hamburger M.O.B.-Studio under
director Horst Siewert aka "Blank Fontana". Together with
him new possibilities came up. With Siewert, artist and text
author Moishe Moser ("The Real Moi") and Chrissie de Winter
("KMFDM") complicated pop sounds broadened his horizon. Wind
sections, classical instruments and advanced sampling
technology produced a sound of solid pop.
Apart from that Uwe Bastiansen played with the "Sisters Of Mercy" for a short
time and began writing film scores, for example for the film
"Metallene Bilder" by directors Veronika Kirchgatterer and
Isabel Skalska. Also there were the first unusual
performances. During an exhibition, for example, he played
with a "floating" amplifier suspended with a rubber band
over the heads of the audience.
Also he joined "Station
17", a group formed of mostly physically and
mentally challenged people. There were many concerts all
over Europe. The audience was different from what he had
known before: more handicapped people, their attendants and
people interested in culture without a musical background.
In this period 2 tv documentaries were filmed expressing the
still long distance between the "normal world" and the
"normal world " of challenged persons.
2000 til 2008
He made the acquaintance of drummer Muck Giovanett ("Happy
Grindcore"). Both of them wanted to create something
different from the generally appreciated, sometimes even
alternative, music. They intentionally ignored the four-four
time. as they could not mobilize other musicians they turned
the table. another pillar was the equipment. They used no
amplifiers, played intrumentals and had no use for monitor
speakers. They just played with headphones granting them an
extreme independence. Some performances were
"headphone"-concerts - the audience having to put on
headphones in order to hear the music. Bagio almost never
played on a stage. Rather in the middle of the audience, in
display windows, in street intersections and cellar rooms.
They would play for a children party in the afternoon and at
the "avantgarde festival" the same night. Their shows were
always unique.
Surprisingly many international artists like Danielle de
Piciotto, "Slits"-singer Ari Up, Matthias Schuster
("Geisterfahrer"), Dutch experimental guitar player Lukas
Simonis and Hamburger Taiko drummer ensemble "PTP"
participated in an unusual remix-cd. Complementing the music
pictures and fotos were created.
2008 until now
At an unannounced bagio-show at the "Avantgarde-Festival"
Bastiansen made another important acquaintance: Jean-Hervé
Péron, a founder of Krautrock legend "Faust". The perfection of "bagio" encountered the chaos of "art-Errorist"
Péron. He was invited to play with "Faust" at the sides
of Zappi Diermaier (schlagwerk and angle grinder),
keyboarder James Hodson, guitar player James Johnson ("Nick
Cave") and Irish artist Geraldine Sayne. He was fascinated
by performances with chainsaws and concrete mixers and a
tremendous energy that ended in chaos. "After all it is
possible to find a kind of 'punk' that is not 'punk rock'."
The crossing of the narrow borders of music and art led to a
multimedia artwork. He made his first documentary motion
picture "le piano fatigué"
on a legendary concert in Paris at the "Point Éphèmére".
Despite of his lifelong performance ban since this concert
he held the premiere of the film exactly there.
In a period of 3 years Uwe Bastiansen got to know a
multitude of musicians making some kind of "avantgarde".
Amongst others he played singular concerts with Eberhard
Kranemann ("Kraftwerk", "Neu"), Jutta Weinhold ("Jane"),
Damo Suzuki ("Can"). So he made acquaintances that gave him
the current idea of "stadtfisch".
"stadtfisch" is an integrated work of art containing "stadtfischflex" and "stadtfischfilm". "stadtfischflex"
are "stadtfisch" Uwe Bastiansen and his "flexible orchestra", on
their first publication consisting of Englishman Geoff Leigh
("Henry Cow"), Austrian Zappi Diermaier ("Faust"), Frenchman
J.-H. Péron ("art-Errorist") and Cathy Heyden ("Urban Sax"),
Italians Diego Pandiscia ("Underdog") and Diego Vinciarelli
("Chaos Physique") and Sebastian Nagel ("The Ape"). Besides
Tim Hodgekinson ("Fred Frith", "John Zorn") they were once
again joined by Irina Frederich who took care of the
(photo-)graphic artwork. The album was recorded live in a
single day without prior consultings or rehearsals. It took
him more than 3 months to bring this into a "consumable"
form.
In 2009 during the "Deutsche Kurzfilmfestival" (german short
movie festival) he went on an almost 2 months long
performance tour through China. Besides showcases in
museums, galleries and village festivals he also played in
universities. In Hong He he was appointed professor of
honour for teaching how to use atonal music as a part of a
whole musical arrangement. Despite of the worried eyes of
the other professors fearing he would simply destroy the
grand pianos used for demonstration similar to his film "le piano fatigué"
(which he didn't).
He is now planning to make his new movie "head over heels to China" about
these experiences. He was enchanted by these events of an
exclusively spontaneous kind. And it is important for him to
show the tension mirrored in the eyes of the participants
(Uwe Bastiansen as a solo artist and the audience). Parallel
to the movie he is also working on the next publication of
"stadtfischflex" and on live soundtracks of Chinese motion
pictures (e.g. "Die rote Frauenarmee") together with Hamburg
musician "Xyramat" coming from the genres of computer-,
noise- and soundmusic.
Publications:
Band/Project | Vinyl/CD/DVD | Titel | Year |
Mask For | Vinyl | "Mask For" | 1984 |
CD | "All the world´s a stage" | 1992 | |
Missing Foundation | DVD | "Video Collection" | 1984/2010 |
stadtFisch | CD | "Puls" | 1993 |
CD | "Willkommen daheim" | 2001 | |
Maxi-CD | "Neuronic Org./stadtfilet" | 2005 | |
Maxi-CD | "Neuronic Org./deconstadtfisch" | 2005 | |
stadtfischflex | Mini-CD | "tanz den deutsch.l.a.n.d." | 2011 |
CD/Vinyl | "stadtfischflex" | 2011 | |
7"-Vinyl | "deutschland.e.d.i.t." | 2011 | |
CD | "Re:" | 2013 | |
CD | "Report" | 2014 | |
CD | "es tut mir alles so leid XXL" | 2014 | |
bagio | CD | "Unterm Durchschnitt (I)" | 2005 |
CD | "Gestern" | 2005 | |
CD | "Es geschah im Mai" | 2005 | |
Maxi-CD | "Neuronic Org./bagio" | 2005 | |
DVD | "Videos" | 2005 | |
CD | "II" | 2006 | |
CD/Video CD | "I", "II" and Clips exclusive for public libraries | 2007 | |
Video-CD | "Live-Clips" | 2006 | |
CD | "Intermezzo" | 2007 | |
Maxi-CD | "Neuronic Org./precore" | 2007 | |
CD | "remix" | 2008 | |
Abwärts | Mini-LP | "Mehr Alkohol" | 1988 |
Maxi-Vinyl | "Die Zeit" | 1989 | |
CD/Vinyl | "Ich seh´ die Schiffe den Fluss herunterfahren" | 1990 | |
7"-Vinyl | "Sonderzug zur Endstation" | 1990 | |
Maxi-CD | "Vorsicht" | 1991 | |
CD/Vinyl | "Comic-Krieg" | 1991 | |
Double-CD | "Breaking News" | 2006 | |
DVD | "Glam Slam" | 2008 | |
Station 17 | CD | "Genau so" | 1993 |
Think Big | CD | "And she still" | 1995 |
Jaildog | CD | "Punkrock, HipHop and other obscure stories" | 1995 |
Twin Planets | CD | "Pleasure, wisdom & revelation" | 1994 |
The portable Kingdom | CD | "The portable Kingdom" | 1998 |
Maxi-CD | "boy beats boy" | 1999 | |
Faust | DVD | "christian´s edition" | 2008 |
CD | "Schiphorst 2008" | 2008 | |
CD | "Festival Avantgarde" | 2008 | |
Double-CD | "Faust 2008" | 2008 | |
Vinyl |
"10" | 2012 | |
CD |
"Oslo Rockefeller 2009" | 2016 | |
CD |
"Utrecht" | 2016 | |
CD/Vinyl |
"Daumenbruch" | 2022 | |
monobeat original | CD | "Arbeitstitel" | 2020 |
CD | "Rough Mixes" | 2021 | |
Hamburg Ramönes | CD | "Flying Saucers Over Hollywood" |
2020 |
Heinz Rudolf Kunze | CD | "Meisterwerke:Verbeugungen"
(Track: "Der Mussolini") |
2016 |
Compilations | Double-Vinyl | "Song and Legend" | 1987 |
CD | "Nazis raus!" | 1991 | |
CD | "Godfather´s of German Gothic" | 1995 | |
Double-CD | "Notes from the real Underground" | 2003 | |
CD | "Neuronic Org./from the inside" | 2005 | |
CD | "Neuronic Org./from the inside" | 2007 | |
CD | "Ox 72" | 2007 | |
CD | "The Ocean/Fake Magazine" | 2007 | |
CD | "Electro Arc 2" | 2007 | |
CD | "Kraut 4 Ever" | 2009 | |
DVD | "Kraut für Ewig" | 2009 | |
CD | "Bargraft Festival Live" | 2011 | |
Vinylbox | "Analog Love In Digital Times" | 2011 | |
Download |
"CLASSWAR Karaoke" | 2012 | |
CD |
"Transzendieren Exzess Pop" | 2013 | |
CD |
"Fidel Bastro 20/A" | 2013 | |
stadtfischfilm | DVD | "le piano fatigué" | 2010 |
DVD | shortmovie "head over heels to china" | 2012 |