City Centre Offices CCO with Static, Dictaphone, Thaddeus Herrmann

Did Shlom Sviri and Thaddeus Herrmann have their sights fixed on the pan-European market when they set up the City Centre Offices label simultaneously in Manchester and Berlin, from where they have since co-managed it? The label’s minimal web presence reveals few hints of any pronounced marketing strategy: »CCO. a record label. the best kept secret«. City Centre Offices didn’t stay a hot tip for lovers of crackling electronics on venerable vinyl for long, though. The label’s original idea of issuing only 7-inch formats [singles that still stand for pop!], was overtaken by a dozen CD releases, and the published material – for all its unwieldiness – simply proved too good [an experiment that kept turning into pop!]. 

Thaddeus Herrmann, the Berlin half of CCO, is appearing for the label evening at the ZKM. The head of the label, who is known for his own music projects [together with Christian Kleine as Herrmann & Kleine] and as a De:Bug editor, will deejay his way around the evening’s two live acts.

Dictaphone consists of Roger Döring [saxophone, clarinet] and Oliver Doerell [electronics], whose combination of live instruments and live manipulation produces warm, analogue-style, almost lyrical slow-motion jazz with all the digital delicacies and shortcomings of abstract electronica. This unusual conglomeration of sound changes with every live concert - not least as a result of two musicians’ passion for experimentation.

Static featuring Hanno Leichtmann is a solo project that has now found its feet thanks to two full length releases, although the categorisation as a solo project falls a little short of the mark. In contrast to »Paloma«, »DJ Attaché & the Beige Oscillator« and »Ich schwitze nie« the Berlin multi-instrumentalist Leichmann starts off as Static without his fellow-performers. But various guest musicians later join in to give Static’s crackling electronica its own special touch. The unique voices of Ronald Lippok [To Rococo Rot], Stefan Schneider [Mapstation], Valerie Trebeljahr [Lali Puna] and Justine Electra wrap themselves around Leichtmann’s electronica pearls and give the hymnic click-dub an added dose of pop pathos. Melancholy unsurpassed!

Organization / Institution

ZKM