AW-009: ZIRKEL 92 - Gemeinsprache I
- 1Pulse Entry
- 2Gemeinsprache
- 3Loam Tuning
- 4Wortloser Kreis
- 5Shruti Drift / Dome Passage
- 6Shared Descent Raga
AW-009
•
Open edition
AW-009: ZIRKEL 92 – Gemeinsprache I
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-009
Format: Cassette + Insert Booklet (offset on recycled newsprint)
Original Release Date: November 1974
Edition: 92 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Hochbunker Bernauerstraße, Berlin-Mitte
Recording Date: September 1974
Total Runtime: 49:31
Genres: Kraut-Drone · Communal Raga · Minimal Improv Rock · Process Tape · Industrial Folk Jam
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Gemeinsprache I is less an album than a transcript of vibration—a direct imprint of ZIRKEL 92’s 1974 bunker sessions that blurred jam, ritual, and endurance into one long pulse. Tracked in the reinforced concrete of Berlin’s Hochbunker Bernauerstraße, the music’s density and warmth come not from gear but from atmosphere: the sound of bodies and instruments feeding off echo.
Forget the “sound as architecture” trope—this is just a group playing loud in a space that barely let the air move. The result: slow, heavy drones and long grooves that feel alive precisely because they’re unstable. The cassette’s hiss, tape stutter, and microphone drift aren’t defects; they’re part of the performance.
Side A (Raga Forms in Low Concrete) opens with Pulse Entry (Loam Tuning) — bass hum, scraped dulcimer, and Loreta Svein’s voice flickering between chant and feedback. Wortloser Kreis expands that idea: Hennix Duval’s bass circling underneath Agnes Furch’s dulcimer, both sounding like metallic rain on a steel roof. Then comes Shruti Migration / Dome Passage, a stunning 12-minute sprawl where the shruti box overtakes the band and the bunker itself becomes the resonator.
Side B (Threaded Voices & Duct Resonance) pulls closer to human breath. Shared Descent Raga layers loose, imperfect vocal unisons—part folk, part early minimalist repetition—until phrasing melts into drone. The title track, Gemeinsprache (By Trace Only), strips everything down to air movement and duct resonance. The closing Wandflüstern fades into bowed strings and faint bells, dissolving into the same hiss it began with.
It’s raw, physical, and communal in the truest sense—music born from shared space and repetition, not arrangement. Svein, Duval, Furch, and their unlisted circle of participants sound less like a band and more like a weather pattern caught on tape.
For Aurora Weltklang, Gemeinsprache I remains a cornerstone: the sound of kraut-era improvisers crossing from rock structure to total presence.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recorder: UHER 4000 portable reel-to-reel, mono
• Microphones: Single ambient mic (central chamber) + dual contact pickups on floor plates
• Tape Format: Ferric oxide, 3.75 ips
• Signal Path: Direct mic → reel; occasional loop-pedal interjection
• Environmental Factors: Cedar-blend incense burning throughout; dulcimer tuned to duct vibration
• Known Anomalies: Pause/auto-stop glitch on master reel; breath-phase drift on Side B (~3:18)
• Duplication: Real-time cassette dub via Grundig TR 500
• Additional Gear: Concord TapeStation module (multi-channel stabilization prototype)
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A (25:02)
1․ Pulse Entry (Loam Tuning) – 05:40
2․ Gemeinsprache – 07:15
3․ Loam Tuning (Reprise) – 12:07
Side B (24:29)
4․ Wortloser Kreis – 08:18
5․ Shruti Drift / Dome Passage – 07:41
6․ Shared Descent Raga – 08:30
Total Runtime: 49:31
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Booklet: Ritual Thread: Notes on Seasonal Transmission (10-page offset print)
• Loop Diagrams: Annotated by Agnes Furch
• Phonetic Transcriptions: Breath-mantra cycles
• Tuning Notation: Rebab + shruti fragments
• Photo Fragment: Svein holding saz in shadow
• Margin Note: “The bunker was still warm from the day. Every tone softened before it reached us.”
• Packaging: Kraftboard box, hand-stamped glyph; newsprint booklet inside
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Cassette: C60 ferric shell, plain grey with pencil side markings
• Labeling: Hand-numbered (1–92)
• Outer Case: Kraftboard slip with stamped glyph (ink tone varies)
• Booklet Binding: Center-stapled; mild rust bleed common on inner pages
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1975 Communal Cassette Edition: ~40 internal copies; tracing paper wrap stamped Sprechen ist Fläche; dubbed direct from reel; wow/flutter preserved
• Variant Insert (Copy #022): “Zungenrotationskarte” – vocal motion diagram card printed in iron-oxide toner
• 1999 Digital Vault Transfer: DAT by Elsa Trudering from Session Spool B2; breath-phase restored from alternate mic feed
• 1982 Bootleg Cassette (France): ZIRKEL Sleep Tool Vol. 1; reversed channels; includes unrelated MIRRORDEN excerpt
ARCHIVAL STATUS
• 23 confirmed surviving originals
• Master reels housed in Herzkammer Vault C (stable, 2025)
• 1999 DAT + 2025 FLAC/WAV restorations complete
• Bonus element: unrecorded Loam Tuning rehearsal
EPILOGUE
Gemeinsprache I remains one of ZIRKEL 92’s purest statements: sound as shared state. Stripped of polish and pretension, it’s all vibration, repetition, and heat—music that trades perfection for pulse.
Svein and Duval’s interplay gives the record its gravitational pull, while Furch’s dulcimer textures and the background ensemble make the space breathe. Every note feels provisional, made for that exact moment and no other.
Even through the muffled fidelity of the tape, the energy cuts through. What you hear isn’t nostalgia or mysticism—it’s four people figuring out how to speak the same sound at once.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Taj Mahal Travellers – August 1974
• Éliane Radigue – Transamorem–Transmortem
• Popol Vuh – Affenstunde
• Angus MacLise – Brain Damage in Oklahoma City
• Phurpa – early live cassettes
credits
released November 1, 1974
• Loreta Svein — voice, guitar, saxophone, finger cymbals
• Hennix Duval — voice, bass, reed flute, tambura, drone text
• Agnes Furch — synth, prepared dulcimer, rebab, feedback routing
• Kuno R. — frame drum, clarinet, shruti box
• Unlisted Participants — communal voices, bowed strings, bells, drone flutes, gong
all rights reserved
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-009
Format: Cassette + Insert Booklet (offset on recycled newsprint)
Original Release Date: November 1974
Edition: 92 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Hochbunker Bernauerstraße, Berlin-Mitte
Recording Date: September 1974
Total Runtime: 49:31
Genres: Kraut-Drone · Communal Raga · Minimal Improv Rock · Process Tape · Industrial Folk Jam
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Gemeinsprache I is less an album than a transcript of vibration—a direct imprint of ZIRKEL 92’s 1974 bunker sessions that blurred jam, ritual, and endurance into one long pulse. Tracked in the reinforced concrete of Berlin’s Hochbunker Bernauerstraße, the music’s density and warmth come not from gear but from atmosphere: the sound of bodies and instruments feeding off echo.
Forget the “sound as architecture” trope—this is just a group playing loud in a space that barely let the air move. The result: slow, heavy drones and long grooves that feel alive precisely because they’re unstable. The cassette’s hiss, tape stutter, and microphone drift aren’t defects; they’re part of the performance.
Side A (Raga Forms in Low Concrete) opens with Pulse Entry (Loam Tuning) — bass hum, scraped dulcimer, and Loreta Svein’s voice flickering between chant and feedback. Wortloser Kreis expands that idea: Hennix Duval’s bass circling underneath Agnes Furch’s dulcimer, both sounding like metallic rain on a steel roof. Then comes Shruti Migration / Dome Passage, a stunning 12-minute sprawl where the shruti box overtakes the band and the bunker itself becomes the resonator.
Side B (Threaded Voices & Duct Resonance) pulls closer to human breath. Shared Descent Raga layers loose, imperfect vocal unisons—part folk, part early minimalist repetition—until phrasing melts into drone. The title track, Gemeinsprache (By Trace Only), strips everything down to air movement and duct resonance. The closing Wandflüstern fades into bowed strings and faint bells, dissolving into the same hiss it began with.
It’s raw, physical, and communal in the truest sense—music born from shared space and repetition, not arrangement. Svein, Duval, Furch, and their unlisted circle of participants sound less like a band and more like a weather pattern caught on tape.
For Aurora Weltklang, Gemeinsprache I remains a cornerstone: the sound of kraut-era improvisers crossing from rock structure to total presence.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recorder: UHER 4000 portable reel-to-reel, mono
• Microphones: Single ambient mic (central chamber) + dual contact pickups on floor plates
• Tape Format: Ferric oxide, 3.75 ips
• Signal Path: Direct mic → reel; occasional loop-pedal interjection
• Environmental Factors: Cedar-blend incense burning throughout; dulcimer tuned to duct vibration
• Known Anomalies: Pause/auto-stop glitch on master reel; breath-phase drift on Side B (~3:18)
• Duplication: Real-time cassette dub via Grundig TR 500
• Additional Gear: Concord TapeStation module (multi-channel stabilization prototype)
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A (25:02)
1․ Pulse Entry (Loam Tuning) – 05:40
2․ Gemeinsprache – 07:15
3․ Loam Tuning (Reprise) – 12:07
Side B (24:29)
4․ Wortloser Kreis – 08:18
5․ Shruti Drift / Dome Passage – 07:41
6․ Shared Descent Raga – 08:30
Total Runtime: 49:31
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Booklet: Ritual Thread: Notes on Seasonal Transmission (10-page offset print)
• Loop Diagrams: Annotated by Agnes Furch
• Phonetic Transcriptions: Breath-mantra cycles
• Tuning Notation: Rebab + shruti fragments
• Photo Fragment: Svein holding saz in shadow
• Margin Note: “The bunker was still warm from the day. Every tone softened before it reached us.”
• Packaging: Kraftboard box, hand-stamped glyph; newsprint booklet inside
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Cassette: C60 ferric shell, plain grey with pencil side markings
• Labeling: Hand-numbered (1–92)
• Outer Case: Kraftboard slip with stamped glyph (ink tone varies)
• Booklet Binding: Center-stapled; mild rust bleed common on inner pages
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1975 Communal Cassette Edition: ~40 internal copies; tracing paper wrap stamped Sprechen ist Fläche; dubbed direct from reel; wow/flutter preserved
• Variant Insert (Copy #022): “Zungenrotationskarte” – vocal motion diagram card printed in iron-oxide toner
• 1999 Digital Vault Transfer: DAT by Elsa Trudering from Session Spool B2; breath-phase restored from alternate mic feed
• 1982 Bootleg Cassette (France): ZIRKEL Sleep Tool Vol. 1; reversed channels; includes unrelated MIRRORDEN excerpt
ARCHIVAL STATUS
• 23 confirmed surviving originals
• Master reels housed in Herzkammer Vault C (stable, 2025)
• 1999 DAT + 2025 FLAC/WAV restorations complete
• Bonus element: unrecorded Loam Tuning rehearsal
EPILOGUE
Gemeinsprache I remains one of ZIRKEL 92’s purest statements: sound as shared state. Stripped of polish and pretension, it’s all vibration, repetition, and heat—music that trades perfection for pulse.
Svein and Duval’s interplay gives the record its gravitational pull, while Furch’s dulcimer textures and the background ensemble make the space breathe. Every note feels provisional, made for that exact moment and no other.
Even through the muffled fidelity of the tape, the energy cuts through. What you hear isn’t nostalgia or mysticism—it’s four people figuring out how to speak the same sound at once.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Taj Mahal Travellers – August 1974
• Éliane Radigue – Transamorem–Transmortem
• Popol Vuh – Affenstunde
• Angus MacLise – Brain Damage in Oklahoma City
• Phurpa – early live cassettes
credits
released November 1, 1974
• Loreta Svein — voice, guitar, saxophone, finger cymbals
• Hennix Duval — voice, bass, reed flute, tambura, drone text
• Agnes Furch — synth, prepared dulcimer, rebab, feedback routing
• Kuno R. — frame drum, clarinet, shruti box
• Unlisted Participants — communal voices, bowed strings, bells, drone flutes, gong
all rights reserved
