Liebezeit Studies
Against Interpretation on Bandcamp ↗
These projects explore Jaki Liebezeit’s rhythmic language as a framework for electronic composition. Liebezeit, former drummer for Can, reduced rhythm to its fundamentals: dots and dashes, single strikes and doubles, arranged in looping patterns. The method strips away conventional meter in favor of more fluid cyclical structures.
I applied his system to a set of hardware: three Moog DFAMs running interlocking patterns, a Subharmonicon generating polyrhythmic harmonic sequences and drones, a Labyrinth for another layer of rhythms, and a SOMA Lyra-8 for drones, texture and noise. The DFAMs in particular suited the method: running three of those simultaneously creates phase relationships.
Rhythmic cells built from dot-dash sequences became the scaffolding; the machines filled in harmony and timbre. The constraint proved generative, as limiting rhythmic vocabulary opened other possibilities for music that is repetitive but unstable, mechanical but breathing.
.1 — album, released May 25, 2024. Dedicated to the memory of Jaki Liebezeit. A limited cassette edition is available from Abstrakce Records. The four players below the album are the standalone singles 5/4, 4/1, 3/3 and 9/1.