Senderkennungen marks the first ever collaboration between Hamburg veterans of sound art Asmus Tietchens and Felix Kubin, whose friendship began in the early 1990ies. The double album collects 25 original „Senderkennungen“ and their artistic deformation and further processing.

Long wave, mid wave, short wave and ultra short wave – long since disappeared radio waves in forgotten ethers, where lost souls linger on a quest for a music that so far did not exist and essentially cannot exist. They don’t search for cosmic harmony – this is old news – but long for sounds beyond the spheres. Felix Kubin and Asmus Tietchens, corner stones of sound art, are united in the decades long fight for a music of the after tomorrow. With this album they have tried to help those lost souls.

In order to make radio stations acoustically recognizable they need a so called station ID. This audible signal is synonimous to a visible logo. Both logo and station ID create identities. The German word for station ID is „Senderkennung“. For the album Felix Kubin composed a series of unique Senderkennungen - each ca. 5 seconds long – which have been commissioned by various radio stations, who where in need of a station ID or were looking to relaunch their existing acoustic branding. Most of these miniature compositions are tonal but some verge towards an atonal or noisy character. Time and again Kubin and I discussed the possibility of creating pieces out of these ultra compressed and short Senderkennungen. This was realized for the album in applying the rule of keeping Kubin’s original musical material recognizable while at the same time using any form of manipulation, modification, stretching, shortening or expanding in the development of the new pieces. One limitation: Those new pieces should not be longer than three minutes each. From these new works Kubin and Tietchens chose a selection which can now be heard on their album “Senderkennungen“.

Asmus Tietchens