AW-008: Wolff+Duval+MORDANT – Spannungszone
Aurora Weltklang
- 1Kontaktfeld
- 2Isobarische Drift
- 3Magnetkörper
- 4Vektorlinie
- 5Spannungszone
- 6Restpuls
AW-008
•
Open edition
AW-008: WOLFF + DUVAL + MORDANT – Spannungszone
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-008
Format: LP (33⅓ rpm, black vinyl, matte sleeve)
Recording Year: Fall–Winter 1973
Release Date: March 1974
Edition: 277 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Studio K4, Tempelhof Industrial Zone, Berlin
Total Runtime: 47:34
Genres: Proto-Punk · Post-Kraut Rock · Industrial Groove · Electro-Mechanical Improv · Art Rock
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
By late 1973, Berlin’s underground was starting to sound like its architecture—hard surfaces, low hums, and power surges. Spannungszone sits right at that shift. Recorded at the reinforced Studio K4 in Tempelhof, it unites three of the Intercommunal Signal Network’s most distinctive minds: Gernot Wolff (Klan der KdK engineer turned synth mechanic), Hennix Duval (MIRRORDEN’s low-frequency tactician), and Lucifer Mordant, freshly out of his Southern Italy exile phase, already mutating the idea of “guitarist” into “live fault in the circuit.”
The record opens with a metallic pulse and never quite relaxes. Kontaktfeld throws out steady percussive loops over chattering synth filters, while Duval’s tape-fed bass lurches like an engine trying to find idle. Mordant’s guitar cuts and feeds back in bursts, less solo than sabotage. Isobarische Drift slows the charge, a motorik half-groove anchored by machine claps and filtered drones. Magnetkörper ends Side A with a ten-minute burn—part rock improvisation, part voltage study—its final moments collapsing into pulse noise.
Flip it and Vektorlinie feels almost rhythmic, a proto-punk chug built from drum machine and bass echo. The title track Spannungszone is pure industrial minimalism: dueling oscillators modulate against Duval’s bass drone, tension stretched to the breaking point. Restpuls closes the LP with mechanical grace—a slow-release of rhythm into hiss, like the sound of a system powering down after a long session.
What keeps Spannungszone alive is its tactile energy. It’s not a sterile electronic experiment—it’s three musicians pushing voltage and tape until both start to sweat. The album’s clean edges mask something feral beneath, the sound of structure under pressure.
You can trace a lot of later European underground from this single record: the dry funk of early Neubauten, the mechanical trance of Heldon, even post-punk’s austerity. But here it’s all still raw, held together by discipline, duct tape, and static electricity.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Dates: November–December 1973
• Tape Stock: AGFA PEM 468 ¼″ reel @ 15 ips
• Recorders: Dual Revox A77 linked via custom pulse controller (Klan prototype)
• Console: Modified Studer 962 with Wolff limiter array
• Power Source: RHY-2 Pulsmesser Mk II (modified Concord aerospace regulator)
• Microphones: Neumann KM84 (room pair); AKG D190 (guitar); Beyer M88 (bass)
• Outboard: Dynacord Echocord Super 76; Roland RE-201 Space Echo; Klangfilm filter cells
• Instruments: ARP 2600, EMS Synthi A, Korg Mini-Pops, Farfisa Compact Duo, Fender Jazz Bass (loop-fed), Gibson ES-335 through WEM Copicat
• Mix & Mastering: Live-to-stereo 2-track mix; lacquer cut at Tonstudio Neumeier, Freiburg
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A – Druckphase (22:25)
1․ Kontaktfeld – 07:04
2․ Isobarische Drift – 04:59
3․ Magnetkörper – 10:22
Side B – Entladungsfeld (25:09)
4․ Vektorlinie – 07:02
5․ Spannungszone – 08:32
6․ Restpuls – 09:35
Total Runtime: 47:34
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Technical Insert: Grey A4 sheet with Wolff’s synth routing diagram (typewritten)
• Front Cover: Rosa Tielsch collage — chrome-foil industrial grid over matte black background
• Rear Photo: Duval’s shot of Studio K4’s control-room wiring matrix
• Center Labels: Silver Aurora glyph on black, matrix text “AW-008 / DRUCK-ENTLADUNG”
• Promotional Flyer: Distributed via Klan der KdK signal network
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Pressed: Phonodisc AG, Hanover
• Sleeve: Matte black, printed by Baden Print Works
• Run-out Etchings: “AW-008 A/B – DRUCK UND ENTLADUNG”
• Edition: 277 copies, hand-numbered in graphite on rear spine
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1976 Cassette Dubs: 30 copies for ISN exchange (cat. AW-C2)
• 1987 Bootleg Edition (Italy): Retitled Kontaktfeld (~100 copies)
• 2025 Digital Archive Reissue: Full remaster for Aurora Weltklang streaming archive
EPILOGUE
Spannungszone captures the precise moment when Berlin’s underground hardened from commune psych into mechanical form. Wolff’s machines pulse like factory lungs; Duval’s bass provides ballast and repetition; Mordant’s feedback and voice cut across the signal with human static.
It’s equal parts control and collapse—discipline meeting noise at the voltage line. Released in 277 copies, it circulated quietly but left fingerprints everywhere: in early punk’s tight rhythms, in industrial’s sense of architecture, and in Aurora Weltklang’s own turn from free communal sound toward engineered tension.
Half a century later, it still sounds ready to short out the circuit.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Cluster – Zuckerzeit
• Neu! – Neu! ’75
• Heldon – Interface
• Can – Soon Over Babaluma
• King Crimson – Red
credits
released March 1, 1974
• Gernot Wolff — synthesizers, drones, electronics, drum machines (Klan der Kuppeln), recording engineer
• Hennix Duval — bass guitar & tape echo loops (Mirrorden)
• Lucifer Mordant — guitar, synthesizers, drones (post-Schisma phase)
all rights reserved
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-008
Format: LP (33⅓ rpm, black vinyl, matte sleeve)
Recording Year: Fall–Winter 1973
Release Date: March 1974
Edition: 277 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Studio K4, Tempelhof Industrial Zone, Berlin
Total Runtime: 47:34
Genres: Proto-Punk · Post-Kraut Rock · Industrial Groove · Electro-Mechanical Improv · Art Rock
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
By late 1973, Berlin’s underground was starting to sound like its architecture—hard surfaces, low hums, and power surges. Spannungszone sits right at that shift. Recorded at the reinforced Studio K4 in Tempelhof, it unites three of the Intercommunal Signal Network’s most distinctive minds: Gernot Wolff (Klan der KdK engineer turned synth mechanic), Hennix Duval (MIRRORDEN’s low-frequency tactician), and Lucifer Mordant, freshly out of his Southern Italy exile phase, already mutating the idea of “guitarist” into “live fault in the circuit.”
The record opens with a metallic pulse and never quite relaxes. Kontaktfeld throws out steady percussive loops over chattering synth filters, while Duval’s tape-fed bass lurches like an engine trying to find idle. Mordant’s guitar cuts and feeds back in bursts, less solo than sabotage. Isobarische Drift slows the charge, a motorik half-groove anchored by machine claps and filtered drones. Magnetkörper ends Side A with a ten-minute burn—part rock improvisation, part voltage study—its final moments collapsing into pulse noise.
Flip it and Vektorlinie feels almost rhythmic, a proto-punk chug built from drum machine and bass echo. The title track Spannungszone is pure industrial minimalism: dueling oscillators modulate against Duval’s bass drone, tension stretched to the breaking point. Restpuls closes the LP with mechanical grace—a slow-release of rhythm into hiss, like the sound of a system powering down after a long session.
What keeps Spannungszone alive is its tactile energy. It’s not a sterile electronic experiment—it’s three musicians pushing voltage and tape until both start to sweat. The album’s clean edges mask something feral beneath, the sound of structure under pressure.
You can trace a lot of later European underground from this single record: the dry funk of early Neubauten, the mechanical trance of Heldon, even post-punk’s austerity. But here it’s all still raw, held together by discipline, duct tape, and static electricity.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Dates: November–December 1973
• Tape Stock: AGFA PEM 468 ¼″ reel @ 15 ips
• Recorders: Dual Revox A77 linked via custom pulse controller (Klan prototype)
• Console: Modified Studer 962 with Wolff limiter array
• Power Source: RHY-2 Pulsmesser Mk II (modified Concord aerospace regulator)
• Microphones: Neumann KM84 (room pair); AKG D190 (guitar); Beyer M88 (bass)
• Outboard: Dynacord Echocord Super 76; Roland RE-201 Space Echo; Klangfilm filter cells
• Instruments: ARP 2600, EMS Synthi A, Korg Mini-Pops, Farfisa Compact Duo, Fender Jazz Bass (loop-fed), Gibson ES-335 through WEM Copicat
• Mix & Mastering: Live-to-stereo 2-track mix; lacquer cut at Tonstudio Neumeier, Freiburg
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A – Druckphase (22:25)
1․ Kontaktfeld – 07:04
2․ Isobarische Drift – 04:59
3․ Magnetkörper – 10:22
Side B – Entladungsfeld (25:09)
4․ Vektorlinie – 07:02
5․ Spannungszone – 08:32
6․ Restpuls – 09:35
Total Runtime: 47:34
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Technical Insert: Grey A4 sheet with Wolff’s synth routing diagram (typewritten)
• Front Cover: Rosa Tielsch collage — chrome-foil industrial grid over matte black background
• Rear Photo: Duval’s shot of Studio K4’s control-room wiring matrix
• Center Labels: Silver Aurora glyph on black, matrix text “AW-008 / DRUCK-ENTLADUNG”
• Promotional Flyer: Distributed via Klan der KdK signal network
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Pressed: Phonodisc AG, Hanover
• Sleeve: Matte black, printed by Baden Print Works
• Run-out Etchings: “AW-008 A/B – DRUCK UND ENTLADUNG”
• Edition: 277 copies, hand-numbered in graphite on rear spine
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1976 Cassette Dubs: 30 copies for ISN exchange (cat. AW-C2)
• 1987 Bootleg Edition (Italy): Retitled Kontaktfeld (~100 copies)
• 2025 Digital Archive Reissue: Full remaster for Aurora Weltklang streaming archive
EPILOGUE
Spannungszone captures the precise moment when Berlin’s underground hardened from commune psych into mechanical form. Wolff’s machines pulse like factory lungs; Duval’s bass provides ballast and repetition; Mordant’s feedback and voice cut across the signal with human static.
It’s equal parts control and collapse—discipline meeting noise at the voltage line. Released in 277 copies, it circulated quietly but left fingerprints everywhere: in early punk’s tight rhythms, in industrial’s sense of architecture, and in Aurora Weltklang’s own turn from free communal sound toward engineered tension.
Half a century later, it still sounds ready to short out the circuit.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Cluster – Zuckerzeit
• Neu! – Neu! ’75
• Heldon – Interface
• Can – Soon Over Babaluma
• King Crimson – Red
credits
released March 1, 1974
• Gernot Wolff — synthesizers, drones, electronics, drum machines (Klan der Kuppeln), recording engineer
• Hennix Duval — bass guitar & tape echo loops (Mirrorden)
• Lucifer Mordant — guitar, synthesizers, drones (post-Schisma phase)
all rights reserved
