This is my first encounter with Thomas Christoph Heyde, who recorded
these pieces in the last eight years. He works as a curator, with
‘Forum Zeitgenossicher Musik Leipzig’, writer and musician. His music
is best classified, if you would require such a thing, as modern
classical - real instruments in combination with live electronics. I
always thought of this music as something for the acquired taste -
and it’s a taste I haven’t fully acquired. ‘Fieldz’ for instance, the
opening piece of the album, is something I don’t understand. Teutonic
bombast on percussion, piano arpeggio’s and guitar solos (prog rock
styled) from the turntable. Not a good start. It sounds like music
that is best enjoyed in a live situation, but doesn’t seem to get
across on CD. ‘3x Short -3x Long’ about the S.O.S. morse signal is a
piece that works well however. Here tension is present. But it’s a
short piece, maybe the concise length helped. Many of the other piece
last longer and seem to sink away in a show off of technique, rather
than telling a nice musical story. It’s by no means a bad CD, don’t
get me wrong. It’s just that I still haven’t mastered the acquired
taste for it. (FdW)

mp3.de, fairtracks, Amazon, musicload, play.com, AOL

Vinyl&CD order:

discogs, sozialistischer-plattenbau, Soundbase Music, Switch Onlinerecords, Toolboxrecords

Vinyl&CD at tchey’s home store:

HCMF-Records

New rewiews: here

Es beginnt mit einem unangenehmen Fiepen. Nach und nach steigern sich jedoch Piano, Schlagzeug und eine verzerrte Gitarre mit Metal-Attitüde zu einem klanglichen Feuerwerk, das ein- drucksvoll eine dramatische Kinosequenz untermalen könnte. Thomas Christoph Heyde gilt als »junger Wilder« der Neuen Musik. Dort ist er musikalisch tief verwurzelt, doch auf einen exklusiven Hochkultur-Diskurs möchte sich der freie Leipziger Komponist nicht einlassen – dies machen bereits der Albumtitel und die Zusammenarbeit mit dem Label Phantomnoise deutlich. Die Stücke sind nichts für nebenbei. »HCMF« zwingt zum Zuhören und ist voller spannender Details, die immer auch auf andere Genres der sogenannten U-Musik referieren. Da schimmern Jazz-, Electronica-, Minimal- und Pop-Anleihen durch, die in dem Avantgarde-Kontext überaus erfrischend wirken. Die Arrangements wechseln nahtlos zwischen fragilen Harmonien und schroffen Dissonanzen. Gewährt man »HCMF« die nötige Zeit zum Entfalten, dürfte die Euphorie nachvollziehbar sein.

Autor: Jens Wollweber

With its 14th release - which is, in CD-format and with two additional tracks, cat.no. 001 of the artists own label HCMF Records - Leipzig’s highly appreciated imprint Phantomnoise Records totally leaves the electronic dance floor alone and focuses on a new musical direction with Thomas Christoph Heyde’s full-length album “High Culture Motherfucker” which, according to the albums subtitle, presents “Works For Instruments And Live Electronics”, e.g. compositions for piano, 4 percussionists, turntable and liveelectronics. Using the term composition instead of track or tune implicates that the music to be found here belongs to what is the so-called “new music” or “avantgarde music” that is performed in festivals or concert halls all over the world - Thomas Christoph Heyde played in classy places like this in Berlin, Boston or Zürich already, but at the same time performs in more underground venues as there are UT Connewitz or Ilse’s Erika in his hometown Leipzig. Musicwise his work - sometimes score’esque with Film Noir’ish ambience, sometimes spooky and sometimes exploding into hectic clusters of Noise and nervous crescendos - is not easy to get, but needs a bit of listening experience to fully unfold within all its great details and various layers of instruments as e.g. the multi-layered flute in “Fernen”, but will also impress the unexperienced listener with his high density and enormous suspense. Recommended to both.

24.05.2008, Radio Blau

Thomas Christoph Heyde live im Studio

Moderation: Eiko Kühnert, Alexander Dreyhaupt

myspace: Fakecore