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An Interview With Moritz von Oswald

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Simplicity in composition is nearly always a lie. If you stretch out a single note, slowing down and taking time to revel in its intricacies, it can reveal entire worlds. Moritz von Oswald understands this. The German electronic-music pioneer studied percussion and opera before finding his way towards synthesizers; in the time since, he has built a career upon sounds that beg to be played forever, each repeated drum-machine stab or synth gurgle only deepening their trance.

As part of Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound , von Oswald was a major player in early dub techno, creating a universe of barely-there techno pieces that sound like a dancefloor coated in amber: A kick drum that doubles as a heartbeat, an ever-growing cloud of static, and very little else. Just as dancefloors will always have a space for out-and-out club tools, ready to be looped into infinity, a headphone connoisseur’s playlist will always want for music that is texturally rich and a bit emotionally unsettled. von Oswald’s music, again and again, does both.

If you trace this approach—nominally minimalist but functionally maximalist—it’s not long before you find yourself deep in the history books. In 1987, John Cage unveiled a new composition, entitled Organ² / ASLSP (As Slow as Possible) . (In 2001, a church in Germany started playing it; they are estimated to complete the piece in 2640.) The works of twentieth-century minimalists, like Steve Reich and Philip Glass , are concerned with wringing as much as possible out of microscopically changing ideas, wrapping near-identical rhythms around each other until they become wholly unrecognizable. The annals of liturgical religious music are filled with outright psychedelic sounds, with densely clustered voices stretching towards the sky.

This may seem like an unusual reference point for von Oswald, but he is no stranger to disorientation. Since the end of his work with Basic Channel, he has moved into all sorts of parts unknown: Shimmering and shuffling jazz fusion ; dubbed-up and freaked-out folk music ; and even the occasional foray into zonked-out dub techno . His latest record, entitled Silencio , underlines the importance of rhythm to his work; even in his most wigged-out compositions, there’s something of a pulse.

Silencio doesn’t quite discard that rhythmic focus, but it does sideline it: Here, von Oswald cedes the podium to a 16-piece choir and drops the floor out. It’s mind-bending choral music that sounds immediate and ancient at once, collapsing centuries of compositional practice into something that feels, somehow, suspended outside of it. The record’s sixty-odd minutes feel equally inspired by liturgical Mass and deep-space synthesizer music. It is beautiful and spine-tinglingly unsettling, and frequently both at once: A mass of stained glass, human voices straining towards infinity, and whisper-quiet electronics.

Late last year, a call over Zoom, Moritz von Oswald went deep on Silencio , talking about his connections to opera, his interest in “reduction,” the value of listening architecturally, embracing imperfections, and lots more.

​​(This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for clarity.)

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When Tresor opened on March 13th 1991 in a shack on Potsdamer Platz, beneath which the vault of the Wertheim department store lay, no one would have thought that from there would arise an institution that one day would celebrate 33 years of existence.

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Moritz von Oswald Trio

Latest release: dissent.

Moritz von Oswald Trio returns with »Dissent«, a striking new album that explores the scope of jazz and dance music within abstracted electronic music. It follows the Sounding Lines LP from 2015 with a further explorative and daring sound, which dives through broad ambiences, uptempo dance and jazz sensibilities.

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Foto Credits Moritz von Oswald: Marion Benoit

Foto Credits Moritz von Oswald: Charlotte Duale

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Moritz von Oswald, legendary master of electronic experimentalism and technical exactitude, has an unassailable place in the modern history of forward-thinking music. To follow his career is to take a guided tour through some of the most important developments, places and people in the history of electronic music.

Trained as a classical percussionist, von Oswald joined avant-garde new wave band Palais Schaumburg in the early 80s. His growing interest in the possibilities of electronic music culminated in a landmark collaboration with Thomas Fehlmann in 2MB (and 3MB with Juan Atkins). By the early 90s he had gone on to found Basic Channel (with Mark Ernestus) whose releases would go on to define and epitomize various strains of electronic music.

As a central figure in the Berlin electronic music scene which coalesced around the Tresor club and label,vonOswaldhelpedinitiateanddevelopthefamousBerlin-Detroit-Chicagoaxis, collaborating with pathbreaking artists in the burgeoning Techno scene across the Atlantic such as Juan Atkins, Eddie“Flashin”Fowlkes, Jeff Mills and many others.

As half of both Maurizio and Rhythm & Sound (again with Mark Ernestus) he transformed this new sound in respectively minimal and dub-inflected directions, originating traditions in electronic music that continue to this day. Von Oswald’s influence on the fledgling music scene in Berlin also had a more concrete dimension flowing from his tireless work as a mastering and cutting engineer at the legendary Dubplates & Mastering studio – contributing to acclaimed releases on imprints such as Warner, Universal, Sony and Columbia records as well as a slew of the most important works in electronic music.

Over the last decade, von Oswald has branched out into more experimental and improvisational contexts: a landmark release for Deutsche Grammophon which commissioned him and Carl Craig combine to recompose music from Ravel and Mussorgsky, a critically acclaimed collaboration with Norwegian jazz trumpeter Nils Petter Molvaer for Universal Music as well as continued recorded and live work as The Moritz von Oswald Trio which sees him’conduct’ Max Loderbauer, and legendary Afro-beat pioneer Tony Allen. He has also released multiple works as well as toured extensively with Juan Atkins (the individual credited with sparking the techno music genre) as Borderland and has released further solo works. Von Oswald’s later work builds on his illustrious output from the 90s and 00s – which has now entered the canon of truly original and influential electronic music – and expand it through novel projects, collaborations and performances.

Grammy Nominations

Modern Recordings is proud to announce 3 Grammy-nominations:

Best Jazz Instrumental Album: Pat Metheny - "Dream Box"

Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album: Vince Mendoza & Metropol Orkest - "Olympians"

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: Rickie Lee Jones - "Pieces of Treasure"

The Winners will be announced at the ceremony, February 4th 2024 in Los Angeles. More here!

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Horizontal Structures

By Aaron Leitko

Honest Jon’s

March 18, 2011

As a member of pioneering minimal/dub/techno outfits Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound, Moritz Von Oswald has spent more than a decade imbuing machine music with human warmth. More recently, he's doing the opposite-- making warm bodies sound like machines.

Moritz Von Oswald Trio is his group of living, breathing musicians-- an all-star ensemble that also includes Max Loderbauer (NSI, Sun Electric) and percussionist Sasu Ripatti (Vladislav Delay). It's a unique concept: a live band that performs minimalist dance music-- well dressed, clean-shaven, and ready to jam.

Horizontal Structures is the group's second studio LP, following a debut, Vertical Ascent , and a live album recorded during an appearance at New York's Le Poisson Rouge. As with the trio's previous output, the compositions on Horizontal Structures are entirely improvised. The record's four long, languid tracks all stretch more than 10 minutes. But the group uses that freedom sparingly. The music has no solos and no dramatic shifts in tempo. A steady pulse-- typically a drum machine or sequenced pattern-- is introduced, then embellished upon using live instrumentation and effects. It's tonal, but never directly melodic. In fact, individual expression of any sort is extraordinarily disciplined-- limited to modest knob tweaks and percussion fills. Like Von Oswald's work with Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound, the music makes heavy use of extended repetition. The tracks may be jammed out on the fly, but the results are tightly governed by the trio's shared affinity for minimalism.

But reserved and mechanical as it is, Horizontal Structures is a very warm record. Von Oswald and his regulars soak the music in reverb and atmosphere. This time around, additional musicians augment the trio-- Paul St. Hilaire (aka Tikiman) on guitar and Marc Muellbauer on double bass. Both toss a few swatches of dubby riffage and jazzy rumbling into the mix, as on "Structure 2", which pours glassy drones atop a percussive sequencer pattern and Rhodes piano tinkles. The mood is similar to electric-era Miles Davis, minus the fury. "Structure 3" and "Structure 4" make use of more traditional dub-techno elements-- burbling echo, reverb spikes, and phased hi-hat chatter-- but keep the pulse relaxed. "Structure 1" is an anomaly-- a loose, surprisingly abstract meditation that only gradually congeals into a rhythmic form. Though it's music is deeply informed by the club, Moritz Von Oswald Trio steers clear of hard kicks and bass. Where most live bands strive to deliver physical intensity, these guys headed down a different, more zoned-out path.

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