Black Replica
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Carl Jung
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Black Replica is a collaborative project between Heinrich Mueller and a female identified only as Black Replica which officially began their MySpace account on 16th October 2006. However, thanks to the sole interview Black Replica herself gave to Pawel Gzyl for the Polish webmag Gaz-Eta we know that they were calling themselves Black Amnesia during their embryonic stage. This project marked Mueller's first move towards what might be deemed a totally virtual group, the live appearances outstanding, he has to date become involved with three in total. Certainly it could be said that in this mode they exist more solidly in our imagination than on our record player. Perhaps it is just this private replica version of the group in our imagination which is being hinted at in their choice of name? There is also something about the whole process of no commerce taking place or format passing between us and the experience which gives it all a different energy. We go to them and not the other way round, getting to know their music and becoming a fan is purely an act of discovery on our part. It is hard to criticise such a generous offer as this and I am grateful for it. Nevertheless I’ll go as deep as I can with it in this piece and hope to bring to your attention some elements you may have missed and tease out how I believe their concept continues on from previous Mueller projects.
So what substance have we got after almost two years? We have simply four tracks, two of which have video's, a few images and five live performances. Furthermore there have been no extra tracks or video's added since about the first month of their inception which sadly makes it look more and more like it is a one off. Although I wouldn't be surprised if there was suddenly more from them at some point in the future. These bare components have produced their own statistics which impressively belie their origin with almost 70000 profile views but more importantly well over
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When considering what the music is like, keep in mind that all of the tracks are led by female vocals which is a total departure for Mueller's production. ‘Mathematical Eyes’ is certainly unlike anything produced by Mueller before. The tempo is very slow with an almost nursery rhyme sounding lyric, but confusingly sung in German. I was sent the German words and English translations which are as follows. "Der höhepunkt ist erreicht worden. Mathematische augen - suchen um sich - sehen - muss das zusammensetzen...innerhalb ihrer vorstellungen....es kommt alles zusammen."The climax has been reached , the climax has been reached, ..., mathematical eyes are searching - looking - I have to unfragment all - in my imagination - it all comes to a point." The reader who did this for me also confirmed it is sung in German without an accent. They went on to point out that there is a small double-meaning in the last sentence, "it all comes together", which can either mean reunion or it comes to a certain point of climax. The track is very sparse in the music department, a number of times the music drops out altogether and just her haunting voice is left. This is very eerie stuff, very much something which conjures dark images in your imagination. Speaking of images there is a video to go with this. In it Black Replica is wearing a black hood and cape and is seen walking along a path in a forested area. Then we see her at a lakeside with a circular hand held shield like object with the Ψ symbol on it. At this point in the track the music very much suits what is happening in the video, even with backward sounding stuff. So much so you wonder what came first. She kind of seems to run
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The next video doesn’t really follow on the ‘story’ but is in keeping with the style. ‘Spider Theory’ by contrast is interior. It’s a very different video with close up shots of her face, her hand holding a small shiny circular object, maybe a hand piercing and a close up of a spider. Interestingly it is hanging from its spindle from her fingers, it even crawls along her hand for a while and it’s a big one! Perhaps the title came from the video? It ends with her staring out the camera with a little red flash right on the final frame. The video is in the same very grainy black and white as before. I must say, even
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'Twilight Pupil' again returns to a vocal led template with reverb laden electronic touches throughout. The lyrics prove again to be the hook, “Why, love, you, can you come in? Have I sinned?” This, in a very halting delivery, is what it sounds like to me anyway. This track puts me in mind of 'Spider Theory' in that it is a short enough relatively abstract track also. The final one, ‘Black Feathers’, is incredible, for me the absolute pick of the bunch. Again the lyric is in English, “Yesterday I woke up and found black feathers in my shoes” I think it was this one which made me investigate how the others sounded backwards because this one definitely uses that effect in places. Although in this case it turned out to be just another nonsense collection of sounds backwards. The music is as good as anything Mueller has done to date, having a great bass line, drum pattern and synth. Going by her quote, “Memories and history also play an important part...” this lyric has to be a personal memory at least. Maybe on only ‘Black Feathers’ could there be argued that a few of his production signatures can be found but in the main the four tracks offer a very fresh and original sound template for Mueller. They definitely sound like they were done specifically for this project and certainly don’t come across as simply outtakes or stuff that didn't make the grade for other projects. Although I would have to state that one or two sounds might remind you of something from the next album to this by Dopplereffekt, Calabi Yau Spaces, but this is more than excusable as it probably came from the same machines, studio and person.
Some additional basics are revealed in the interview I mentioned earlier. How they met for example, "We met through his colleague, To Nhan Le Thi, who has been the closest friend to my soul for many years." We publicly learned in the 2006 French magazine interview in Chronic'Art that To Nhan Le Thi is Mueller's wife so we are simply dealing with a collaboration with one of his close acquaintances or friends. What is her opinion of him, “He is very intellectual, creative and likes the challenges these bring. He is also very forward thinking and I love his style of sounds. It came natural to cooperate. We both like each others theories. I very much respect his musical compositions and theories - he truly expresses the notion of science through the music. He is well organized and conceptually sound.” Her previous musical experience is revealed as, “Singing and playing the drums.” In addition to setting up their MySpace account they were savvy enough to realise that few people would see their video's if left solely on MySpace so they created a separate account with YouTube under the user name Paradox Twin. This would I presume be a variation on the title ‘Twin Paradox’ from the new at the time Arpanet album, Inertial Frame. There’s not much more to learn from this account save the additional text ‘Electronic music’ and ‘Technical development’.
Personally I don’t think this is a very important question but I know it is one which people will expect me to tackle. It is the why question. Why not I would say, the most obvious thing is that there’s just no money in it but that is not important to these artists, for this project at any rate. Once that ceases to be a concern then there are no limits. Quite an irony, there’s no guarantees either but you take a chance and put something out in the world without restrictions and it will eventually go as far as it deserves. It has been created and now exists in the universe for all time. Whatever happens for it will happen. They are probably just acting on their instincts as artists. Which reminds me of something the graphic novelist and magician Alan Moore said, "When we are doing the will of our true self we are inevitably doing the will of the universe. In magic these are seen as indistinguishable, that every human soul is in fact one human soul. It is the soul of the universe itself and as long as you are doing the will of the universe then it is impossible to do anything wrong.” You should also keep this in mind when I discuss the meaning of the soul for Black Replica later.
Of course it could also represent things of a more pragmatic nature to the artists involved. From Mueller’s perspective it could be seen as an experiment with new technologies and digital distribution. A way to discover the pros and cons of this approach, what does and doesn't work. Or if you want to view it from a more cynical marketing perspective you could see it as a profile raiser, a way for him to reach new worldwide markets, a way to intrigue a few more people towards your other projects as well. It could also simply be a way to do all of the above while also getting to do something separate from his normally expected output by collaborating with someone else to re-energise his approach to making music. I think it’s always useful to use the science analogy when asking yourself why kind of questions with Mueller and co because everything they do may simply be viewed by them as an experiment. I have a feeling that in spite of the dark and foreboding image and pose struck by Black Replica that the project has probably by now become something of a gentle amusement to its creators. I might be wrong but if I was them I would be more amused than anything else if after all this time that people were still listening, discovering and trying to figure it out. There can be no answers with something of this nature as it stands now, there can only ever be speculation. The only question I personally have regarding them is will there be more?
The interview which Black Replica gave was done by email so she would have had ample time to word exactly what her responses were. Therefore I feel confident to place the bulk of my interpretation of the concept of all this on exactly what she said on it. She said, “The subject or concept of Black Amnesia is about the future of the human emotional state, the science and theory of it, dreams versus reality, the impending darkness of the future of the mind, and how we have to face this. Memories and history also play an important part, may we learn from them. Psychological.” It is actually very hard to find much to back this statement up beyond a very surface meaning in the work itself. As I stated earlier we have very little to go on, a symbol, a few lyrics, four titles and the contents of two video's. In fact without this interview I fear we would be almost completely at sea with what it all means. Although everything we need to know could be contained in the 'Mathematical Eyes' video but they don't make it easy. But going back to what she says, “The future of the human emotional state, the science and theory of it.”, my interpretation of this part is that they are simply interested in where the collective human soul is heading, psychologically speaking. Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and behaviour. Then she casually mentions, “Dreams versus reality.” This phrase alone would keep you busy for ever trying to figure it out. I would personally pick reality every time but it is not as simple as that. Who’s reality is it, mine, then what about the wider reality of everyone else I meet? It is great that they are getting us to ask these questions though, she might be saying we must make a choice between dreams and reality. Maybe they mean that what we think is reality, the dream of reality, is what is stopping us from attaining the true reality or conversely they may see conquering reality with a dream of a new reality as the right course. Whichever way it is, we need to awaken from either the false reality we find ourselves in or our dream of what reality is I think. This line of thought is dependent on me using the logic that we create our own realities. It strikes me that we are of course always on the cusp of change, be it personal evolution (where it always has to start) which ultimately then begins to encompass potential change for all. The choice is always there for us to take, but only once we overcome ignorance and know that choice exists. Using this information you could read their original name, Black Amnesia, as to be a reference to just this forgetfulness. Although what the black part means, in both versions, I still don’t know. She next adds a warning about this overcoming, telling us it won’t be painless but it has to be done, “the impending darkness of the future of the mind and how we have to face this.” Part of the solution to this difficulty will be to use lessons from our past, “Memories and history. May we learn from them.” The final word I think explains the nature of this problem, psychological, of the mind. I’ll start a new paragraph from this part on as this gets complicated.
My interpretation of the title ‘Mathematical Eyes’ in this context makes me think of someone who can’t see the world on an emotional level, creating a reality for themselves which misses out a whole other sphere of human interaction/reality. As I have discussed previously, the solo projects of Mueller in the past have been on the surface of this nature, imbalanced towards science, but on closer inspection do appear balanced to show concern for the consequences of scientific breakthroughs for human beings, especially to my mind on the Biometry album by Der Zyklus. Maybe with this project he is choosing to deal with this subject more fully. Bringing the fact of the “...future of the human emotional state” and the “...impending darkness of the future of the mind,” to our attention and also offering solutions which appear to involve “Memories and history...may we learn from them.” But in saying all this the lyrics of for example ’Twilight Pupil’ could mean anything, but the title itself has the ring of ancient and forgotten knowledge about it. To become a pupil of the moon or the night would be something from our past, so we have to remember some ancient knowledge. ‘Spider Theory’ as a title could mean anything as well, which is the genius of it, although spiders would feature in a future Zwischenwelt lyric but I wonder how joined up the thinking is between both of these projects is, it could just be a coincidence. I feel those two MySpace projects probably do connect in a broad sense but I would be surprised if the artists involved were limit themselves creatively by being compelled to make references to each other. 'Black Feathers' as I stated probably refers to a personal memory but it's a fairly abstract one and again I can't see how it fits or any of its lyrics fit to what I have been considering here. They seem to be actively making it difficult to figure out or perhaps feel they have achieved a balance between giving us just enough material to back up what they said about it being about "The future of the human emotional state" and then just drop all this other stuff which may or may not have anything to do with it.
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The final possible layer of meaning they may have worked into it is that if you remember that in the video and pictures the Ψ symbol appears on what appears to be a shield. There is an ancient
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With hindsight, the up to five Black Replica shows announced for Europe were a kind of postscript and counter-balance to their on-line existence. For the record they were as follows
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I would like to step off a little deeper in my speculations than normal for a moment, it's only ever the seriously keen and open-minded people who ever read this far anyway! While I can't really produce any concrete proof of such a thing in the material, I think it is worth fleshing out a certain scenario. I think there is a possibility, maybe just on a subconscious level which he himself perhaps doesn't even realise, that there is a link with this whole soul business and James Stinson. I think Mueller on some level may be showing interest in the afterlife of his old Drexciyan partner. Somehow replicating a shadow of how they used to collaborate together? Water in the 'Mathematical Eyes' video is a central image. There too the child passes on the symbol of soul, Stinson’s?, and shows the way, which implies the child obviously has wisdom beyond his years. The child could represent a lot of things but also a sort of rebirth of Stinson existing somewhere in the universe. As stated earlier, the Ψ symbol can also represent water potential. There is more I could say but I think it's a beautiful thought anyway and nothing would surprise me. Great art can be measured by its depth and whether anyone can find their own subjective meaning in it. As I hope I showed when explaining all the possible meanings of the symbol, we are dealing with so many levels simultaneously with many of Mueller's projects, as we also do with Drexciya, that this would be a characteristic you would expect to find in his MySpace projects as well. I believe his next step of the in-between world of Zwischenwelt connects nicely to this concept but again it is not only about this.
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The key thing to remember from all this about the meaning of Black Replica is that they are promoting the idea of using ancient knowledge to inform us how to make the correct choice between dream and reality. Which would help us overcome the impending darkness of the mind they envisage due to increased use of technology. This would be a hugely beneficial evolutionary step to take if we could do this. How exactly this is supposed to happen and what ancient knowledge we should be using is not exactly explained, it may be different for all of us, but it is something from our past. They believe our minds need this before it can be in harmony with the modern physical world.
As I mentioned, there are unreleased Black Replica tracks in existence. The live ones which now litter YouTube are the source. You can fit up to six tracks on the MySpace player but to date they continue to only have the same four since that first month. Hard to know why the rest didn't surface officially or if they ever will, time will tell. Maybe the vocals were never completed on the studio versions. The best unreleased one in my opinion is from Madrid, link below. This yet to be realised moment of promise is where I have to leave my information and speculations on Black Replica. I hope, like all the articles in DRL, to have at the very least provided the ground work for the further investigations of others. I don't have all the answers, don't really want them either but what I know only makes me ask more, just the way it should be. The next article I will be coming to is Mueller's next collaborative MySpace based project, Zwischenwelt.
Black Replica
http://myspace.com/blackreplica
Mathematical Eyes video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWfbyx46XEk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWfbyx46XEk
Spider Theory video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raL3maS9VZg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=raL3maS9VZg
Black Feathers fan video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0e1RFxxUMc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0e1RFxxUMc
Twilight Pupil fan video
Their YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/paradoxtwin
http://www.youtube.com/user/paradoxtwin
Two new tracks live in Madrid, Spain, 7th April 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUrpoiv15e8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUrpoiv15e8
Live in Gent, Belgium, 28th April 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E07VUOTT1G4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNN75pfJ0lA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E07VUOTT1G4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WNN75pfJ0lA
Live in Dordrecht, Holland, 26th May 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fYP5txmjPo part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZedgA5REi0 part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6woSUr2R9U part 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fYP5txmjPo part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZedgA5REi0 part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6woSUr2R9U part 3
Live in Leipzig, Germany, 27th May 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6bpi4w33Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1y6bpi4w33Q
Live in Malmo, Sweden, 9th June 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oka8H9CVbMs part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsLTaX5Ius part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dFUVAYlBg part 3 new track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzA12CZxLoc part 4 new track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbw-sj8qeQ part 5 same new track as above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ExHIjC6j8 new track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oka8H9CVbMs part1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvsLTaX5Ius part2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3dFUVAYlBg part 3 new track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KzA12CZxLoc part 4 new track
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDbw-sj8qeQ part 5 same new track as above
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-ExHIjC6j8 new track
Ψ at wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A8
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%CE%A8
Alan Moore documentary, skip the first half hour biog stuff if you want and go straight to the heavy philosophy and magic stuff. You might think it ties in with Black Replica or might not.
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000116383
http://www.guba.com/watch/3000116383
6 Comments:
mathematical eyes.
der höhepunkt ist erreicht worden.
mathematische augen - suchen um sich - sehen - muss das zusammensetzen...innerhalb ihrer vorstellungen....es kommt alles zusammen.
the lyrics are fragments of german - it is german without any foreign accent - mothertongue german, I think!
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the climax has been reached , the climax has been reached, ..., mathematical eyes are searching - looking - I have to unfragment all - in my imagination - it all comes to a point.
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there is a small "double"-meaning in the last sentence. "it all comes together" can mean reunion or it comes to a certain point of climax. the whole text is very ambiguously chain - you don't know, which wordgroups belong together.
I love it!
If this and other projects were for gentle amusement, it would eventualy wear off in time. Time has the effect which cannot be seen at its present, just like it cannot in the past, its pre-exsistence. As you wait your life time will take effect on your central nervous system, sole, for that organ is.
Didn't I/we see somewhere(on this blog?) that Dopplereffekt/Arpanet are playing in Europe in January 2009? Any info would be helpful. Thanks
No shows have been announced for jan 2009 to my knowledge, but if I hear of some I will post it here.
As a native german speaker I would argue that the lyrics to "Mathematical Eyes" are actually sung with quite a notable accent. I'd say it is a French accent. Also, the intonation and grammar are a bit unusual. To me it seems as if an English text has been translated into German using Babelfish.
And it's actually "Muster zusammensetzen" and not "muss das zusammensetzen", which means "aggregating patterns". Makes much more sense to me.
Great blog! Keep it up.
Creepy nursery rhymes...?
10 In the Bed
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