Faust - Faust Is Last (2010)

If faust announce a last record then it might be a good idea to open up the ears, especially when the cover art of the new & last record is one big reference to their first record. The x-rayed "fist" appears again, this time with the fingers slightly more opened. 40 years lie between the two records. 40 years of many different line ups, record companies, financial disasters, artistic failures and successes. Whatever can happen to a band has happened to Faust. In that sense they are not an unusual group of musicians. What is unusual is that each project, each record, each concert over the last 40 years has been different. On the very first record they made clear (on clear vinyl) that they were in it for destruction. "All you need is love" and "Satisfaction" symbolically were set fire to. That same fire you will hear on this new & last Faust record. The circle will be closed by more circular music. A music that seems to come out of nowhere, sonic descriptions rather than songs. Timeless and not rooted in specific places and/or traditions. Maybe influenced by Cage's idea of chance, Dada, cut-ups, Sun Ra's free jazz organ playing and the second attempt after the German-American Monks to represent "a rock group as total artwork". faust in 1970 and in 2010 sound aggressive and 100 percent oriented towards the future. There is not a glimpse of nostalgia in "Faust is last". Turn up the volume and listen to this first, new and last Faust record very loud!

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Faust & Nurse With Wound - DIsconnected (2007)

Two legendary entities from the experimental hinterlands unite for this challenging collaborative outing. Krautrock icons Faust team up with ferocious British electronics experts Nurse With Wound resulting in a line-up featuring Zappi Diermaier, Steven Stapleton, Jean-Herve Peron, Colin Potter and Amaury Cambuzat. Although the initial psychedelic benevolence of 'Lass Mich' is redolent of the Faust crew, it's not long before the far-flung concrète machinations of NWW take a stranglehold on the album's sonic make-up.

The album's title track is an unsettling drone piece, loaded with tension and a jarringly discordant conglomeration of organic and synthetic tones. After eight and a half minutes or so have expired you'll think you're listening to some sort of unholy, monastic chanting, but soon the comparatively soothing sounds of hand-played percussion establishes a welcoming rhythm, and the disjointed electroacoustic weirdness of 'Tu M'entends?' fires up.

Finally, closing piece 'It Will Take Time' evokes the disorientating wave systems of 'Disconnected' before gradually slipping into a kind of elongated gong resonance at the end. Compelling stuff from two remarkable groups.

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