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To travel by air is to enter a world of worry and waiting; basically, we’ve taken the miracle of flight and made it a hassle. Marc Behrens attempts to regain some of the wonder and awe of taking to the skies with Clould, whose title—a combination of “cloud” and “could”—refers to the possibilities inherent in flying. [Highlighted in Bandcamp daily’s Best Field Recordings, July 2024| Behrens è uno que lavora benissimo con i suoni… [Blow up, June 2024] …pure sonic poetry […] this CD hits surrealistically… [Vital Weekly 1440, 2024]  BUY from Crónica @Bandcamp |
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2021 Fallen Star (Above) (Official Video) from the album «Breaking the Elephant’s Legs» |
This is for you, even if we parted in bad spirits or with swollen glands. You know who you are. Love. written and produced by Marc Behrens cinematography by Carlo Kurth realized with a grant from Hessische Kulturstiftung images, music and lyrics © 2021 |
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2021 Philoosophy (Official Video) from the album «Breaking the Elephant’s Legs» |
written and produced by Marc Behrens with Carlos Zingaro, violin camera: Patricia Barbosa, Sofia Ponte, Marc Behrens © 2021 realized with a grant from Hessische Kulturstiftung |
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…a sprawling collection of sonic nuggets […] it’s an absorbingly unpredictable listen throughout… [The Wire 363, May 2014] …une grande séance de mindfuck appliqué,… [goutesmesdisques.com, Off The Radar #9, April 2014] mego.at/release/eMEGO-184 atomtm.marcbehrens.com |
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Beautiful new record from sound art magician Marc Behrens… Two totally different universes that happen to complement each other perfectly. A captivating listen. [Monsieur Délire, March 2013] …le titre d’ouverture est officiellement une bombe (on est quand même loin du nouveau Timberlake, on vous rassure)… [Gôutes Mes Disques, Off The Radar #7, April 2013] …bravoure captivante… [RifRaf, May 2013] BUY from Crónica |
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The accuracy, the dark charm and the structural organization of the sounds of Marc Behrens are immediately recognizable in Irregular Characters from the first moments of listening. The work stands out for its absolute quality and musical coherence and comes packaged in an impressive heavy box […]. No ring of this exciting and conceptual chain appears weak, including the very effective «scenic writing», which is full of reminiscences and suggestions. [Neural.it, October 2013] An article in Portuguese by Rui Eduardo Pães about the release event of Irregular Characters and its twin edition «Mundo de Cristal, Máquina da Selva». «Sob o signo de Ballard» BUY from Bandcamp |
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The book Cutting Qinghai contains a text and 28 colour photographs of a travel to the Chinese Qinghai Province (Tibetan culture region of Amdo) and the resulting art works, a series of photographs and the sound installation Unit. The CD Unit contains a 42:40 minute recording of the installation. …The sounds themselves are wonderful, having a rounded, liquid aspect, the fullness of the drums' tone reverberating thickly in the room […] The listener feels (gently) propelled between the speakers… [Brian Olewnick, Just outside, January 2013] …the CD publication offers a very powerful experience regardless of what the installation might have looked / sounded like; the physical sonorities and particularly the timeline structure of the installation translated into a very effective release. […] There are two aspects of ‘Unit’ that I find particularly noteworthy: 1) The novel and interesting approach to percussion using speakers to activate the drums. 2) The efficient use of silence as element in the timeline composition. [David Velez, The Field Reporter, August 2013] BUY digital edition from Bandcamp |
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Remastered rerelease of the Final Ballet CD from 1998, four tracks on 12" vinyl, four tracks as an accompanying download (code inserted into the sleeve). |
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Conçu initialement comme une installation à partir de captations réalisées entre 2005 et 2010 en studio et sur sites naturels, «Apparatus» mixe avec une intelligence rarement égalée sons dits naturels et sons de machines, le naturel de notre quotidien. D’une part, une temporalité du compositeur et de l'autre celle des phénomènes sonores eux-mêmes. Tout simplement excellent! [Metamkine, October 2011] …feels like a landmark statement. [Animal Psi, December 2011] BUY digital edition from Bandcamp |
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The array of sonic landscapes on record is staggeringly diverse and remarkably vivid, from the screeching birds and muddy clamour of agriculture on the opening track to the amplified textures and microsound trickle of melting ice heard on «Glacier» the sheer depth of sound here is never less than remarkable and any followers of artists from Bernard Parmegiani to Chris Watson will find much to appreciate in Sleppet. [Boomkat, 2009] The vividness of the details and the intelligence of the inherent consecutiveness characterizing the whole piece completes the achievement of a tangible gratification. Solid, sober work by one of the masters of the game. [temporaryfault.blogspot.com, 2010) BUY from Crónica |
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It is hard to think of anything quite the same as what Marc Behrens does on this album, which is very much to its credit. A Narrow Angle is an intelligent, carefully considered album that (I am guessing) has been crafted in detail over quite some time. [www.thewatchfulear.com, 2009] The artwork, too, is very stylized and consistent, with the CD sealed in a transparent plastic bag, along with a fuchsia booklet which is shiny and slippery to the touch: a collision of aesthetic elements of different origins that points to the composite nature of these sound convergences. [neural.it, 2010] A Narrow Angle texts BUY digital edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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2009 Compilation Works 1996–2005 online release, unlimited edition mp3/m4a, limited edition features The Recompiler, a color photograph in an edition of 19 copies (Crónica, Portugal) |
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Marc Behrens may be leading a quiet career, but he is nevertheless one of the key sound artists of the past fifteen years. [blog.monsieurdelire.com, 2009] Ce qui frappe chez Behrens c’est cette approche presque chirurgicale du son, faite d’auscultations patientes et de mouvements infimes, qui redonne vie miraculeusement à des éléments proches de la désintégration. [scalatympani.blogspot.com, 2009] DOWNLOAD unlimited edition – and donate BUY limited edition – and download |
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Wandering from one isolated sound island to the next, [Behrens] helps to differentiate perception, leaving a kind of sonic essence. [Earlabs, 2007] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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Mülheim is a district of Cologne, Behrens bringing to our attention aspects that could be normally perceived as «regular» – a bridge suspended on the river, traffic, kids playing in a courtyard, a flea market, a dirty beach. But he does it by vivisectioning both their pictorial qualities and sounds, the latter rendered fascinatingly impenetrable thanks to his knowledgeable methods of alteration. [touchingextremes.org, 2007] read more |
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This is an opportunity to hear contemporary sound art in one of its best moments with the perfect blend of phonography and masterful processing. [earlabs.org] It’s a masterpiece of the untold, one of the overall best compositions I've enjoyed in at least a decade. [touchingextremes.org, 2006] Selected under «Best of 2006: Music» by Artforum Magazine. |
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Each of the four participants was invited by Phil Julian to make a recording lasting exactly four minutes at 19.00 GMT on Saturday 15, October 2005. The results are presented here with a final layered mix incorporating all submitted tracks. [label description] |
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2005 Kosovski Rekvijem – Requiem i Kosovës – Kosovo Requiem 3″CDR (Oblast, USA) 2015 Kosovski Rekvijem – Requiem i Kosovës – Kosovo Requiem (Remastered Edition) mp3/FLAC (Availabel) |
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An intelligent protest against the stupidity of war. [Vital Weekly 491, 2005] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp |
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2005 Marc Behrens / Paulo Raposo / @c Product 04 10″ split EP (Crónica, Portugal) limited to 300 copies |
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If you ever opened a plastic box with say cookies, you may have noticed the nice sounds such a box can make. You are not the only one. Another fine work of microsound, a case to study for the followers… [Vital Weekly 474, 2005] www.nikolausheyduck.marcbehrens.com |
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2004 A Szellem Álma with Francisco López double CD (.absolute. [koblenz], Germany) |
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Some collaborations are just meant to happen. [All-Music Guide, 2004] Find me, if you can, someone more intransigent in sonic research than Francisco López and Marc Behrens. [touchingextremes.org, 2004] Francisco López BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp |
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2004 Animistic [for Donatella] CD (Auf Abwegen, Germany) 2011 Animistic [for Donatella] digital and remastered edition mp3/FLAC (Auf Abwegen, Germany) |
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Now this is a breathtaking package. So cool. [Manifold Records, USA] Behrens latest CD arrives in a super jewel box, with photographs in very good full colour print on separate cards. So it looks really good indeed! For the content I can simply say the same: it sounds really good! [Vital Weekly 443, 2004] Animistic texts BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp |
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Raposo and Behrens twist limitations, throwing any gesture like a backhand to our membranes, stimulated enough to raise your butt and take a walk around the room to better enjoy the extraordinary frequency game this work turns on. Just when everything seems to realign after a painstakingly complex process, something new comes out of that hidden hole in the corner wall. [touchingextremes.org, 2004]
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2003 Security vs. Freedom double 3″CD (edition…, USA) |
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Behrens proves to be far more active than the stereotypical lowercase composer, starting, stopping and flickering these tones with DSP sleights of hand. Elsewhere, stochastic shards of radio static are coupled with small bell tones in an abstracted waltz of broken drones and disembodied voices. These are some of Behrens’s best recordings yet. [The Wire, UK, 2003] |
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2002 Selected Minimalist Concerns CDR (Absurd / research center for the definition of happiness / KREV Greece) 150 numbered copies |
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Minimalism Defined… How should I be concerned? Greek label Absurd releases this collection that spans eleven years of the ever-evolving sound exploration of M. Behrens. Limited to only 150 cdr copies, this rare disc has immense complexities. The signature to this work is its ability to raise such meaningful, yet obtuse questions. [The Instrumental Weekly, USA, 2003] |
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2002 Architectural Commentaries CD (CMR, New Zealand) |
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For more than a decade now, M Behrens has been translating the textural fluidity of environmental sounds into clinical electroacoustic compositions that often refer to architectural space. His detached objectivity over his subject matter keeps the furnace pipes, air conditioning ducts and radiators from becoming a replica of the Lynch/Splet Eraserhead soundtrack. [The Wire, UK, 2002] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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I become so drawn into this piece that it has me on the edge of my seat, ready to fall headfirst into that void of silence and near-silence. A hollow wind, a fine, delicate crackling, shuffling concrete sounds, electronic pops and layers of sound in turns thin and dense, close and distant, are what constitute these phenomenal and complex sound structures. [Richard di Santo, Incursion Music Review, CN] Ainsi, que ce soit la présence subtile d’un réel «désintégré» ou la finesse pointilliste d’un environnement numérique, Marc Behrens parvient à révéler l’univers sensoriel d’un present microscopique. [Revue et Corrigée, F] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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2001 Transition double 3″CD (edition…, USA) |
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Across this double 3″ cd, Behrens contextualizes an ever shifting series of manipulated field recordings into densely collaged material with abrupt cuts between all of his transient sounds. [Aquarius Records, USA, 2001] |
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2001 Elapsed Time CD (Intransitive Recordings, USA) 500 numbered copies 2014 Elapsed Time (Remastered Edition) mp3/FLAC (Availabel) |
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Elapsed Time is the work of a grown-up artist revisiting his past interests. [François Couture, All-Music Guide, 2001] A low, distant rumbling creeps in with stunning vibrations, and switches gears quickly to a short low frequency burst, followed by a series of successive shifts and jumps, each new sound as engaging as the last, creating a distinct feeling of isolation and apprehension. An accomplished and introspective work, revealing new details and hidden sounds with repeated listening. [Richard di Santo, Incursion Music Review, CN, 2001] Elapsed Time text BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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2000 Lecture Feedback/Source Feedback/The Aesthetics of Censorship 12″LP (Wachsender Prozess, Germany) limited edition 300 copies |
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Most composers of noise (either audible or inaudible) have a love-hate relationship with feedback sounds, the unwanted byproduct of making music. There is a straight line from Jimi Hendrix to Whitehouse to Arcane Device to Marc Behrens here. [Vital Weekly, 2000] |
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1999 Contraction CD (Digital Narcis, Japan) 2014 Contraction (Remastered Edition) mp3/FLAC (Availabel) |
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A masterful example of this style of music—it is on the whole a very sonorous album—the subtlety and restraint, coupled with glitchy exuberance, is a winner. [Ampersand Etcetera, AUS, 1999] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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M. Behrens’ second CD on Trente Oiseaux, Four Installations can be seen as the counterpart to his intricate electroacoustic compositions: it contains soundtracks of four different sound and mixed media installations made during 1998 and the beginning of 1999. The often very minimal sound events are actually capable of transporting the listener into the various spaces. Locations in which the installations took place range from the basement of the Institute for New Media in Frankfurt, Germany, full of computers, to a rural village in the mountain area at the border between Italy and Slovenia. [label description] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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Bridges a fine gap betwixt Sähkö, Mego, Lucier & Geiger-Counter influenced composers worldwide. Truly the music of the new millennium. [Hrvatski, USA 1998] |
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1998 Compendium CDR produced for the exhibition ENVIRONMENT at rraum, Frankfurt, Germany private limited edition of 36 copies, signed and numbered |
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1995 Clean/Clear cardboard double 7″record object centerfold for the art magazine ROGUE no.30 limited edition of 900 1996 Clean/Clear cardboard double 7″record object private limited edition of 150 copies in plastic slip case with insert, signed and numbered |
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1995 Advanced Environmental Control CD (trente oiseaux, Germany) 2014 Advanced Environmental Control (Remastered and Complete Edition) mp3/FLAC (Availabel) |
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With «Advanced Environmental Control» M. Behrens has realized a complex conceptual work. The encyclopaedic program ‹smells› like theory, but the audible result as a whole is a thrilling challenge to imagination… [Bad Alchemy, D, 1995] BUY digital and remastered edition from Bandcamp BUY digital and remastered edition from iTunes |
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1993 Skeleton, Engineer, Strength, Works pt.1 cassette tape (Cat Killer, Germany) limited edition of 93 numbered copies |
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1992 Human Art, Factor Psy-D, Animal Light with Human Factor cassette tape (Animal Art, Germany) |
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1990 Entomo cassette tape (Animal Art, Germany) |
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Demónios e palácios e aventureiros são adeptos da anarquia sonora. Numa descoberta permanente até ao ultimo minuto. Demarcando este embrionário trabalho da pasmaceira constante. [Iberico No.3, P, 1990] |
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1989 Virgo cassette tape (Animal Art, Germany) |
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1989 The Collage Interview cassette tape (Animal Art, Germany) |
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