PAAK | EMERGE
FrischLuft
This 34-minute album is the first part of a two-piece suite by PAAK and EMERGE, the second being the slightly longer “rausch”. The pieces were recorded at “labor für andere kunst” (laboratory for other art), PAAK's studio in Jesteburg, outside Hamburg, on two consecutive days in July 2026. The twin character of the two releases is emphasised by the fact that both their covers feature sculptures by Paolo Moretto, PAAK's long-time collaborator in the duo Studio KO-OP.
PAAK and EMERGE combine their rather different approaches to create two pieces of what could be described as humourously deranged surrealist hoerspiel. Samples from actual radio dramas are collided with field recordings (or is it live ambience during the sessions?) that makes for some pleasantly disorienting situation comedy. PAAK uses an abused record player to create sonic flatulences right out of the cartoon movie foley department, which however acquire a rather uneasy edge when put in the context of EMERGE's darker, deeper sounds. The abstract 'drama' aspect is emphasised by the fact that we seem to be listinening to successive 'scenes', marked by the contrast between detailed interplay between sound sources, and, no doubt, the two performers, and surprisingly rhythmic passages in which EMERGE's hallmark samples are looped to the extent of practically creating beats (!). It would amount to stretching a point if you filed these releases under 'Fluxus goes techno', but the tendency is clearly there. But what really makes these two albums such fun is that they offer so many tendencies all at once, or in a very compressed space. Both albums are great additions to both artists' catalogue, in the 'more than the sum of their parts' category. And while sarcastic dada humour has often marked the works of PAAK, this outright hilarious, playful approach is rather new and surprising in EMERGE's oeuvre and adds a very interesting new colour to his sonic palette (day-glo, perhaps).
File under: electroacoustic
