AW-017: Duval + Furch – Atemzüge im Bunker
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-017
Format: Cassette-only (C60, Type II chrome), hand-labeled shell
Original Release Date: January 1975
Recording Dates: November 17–22, 1974
Recording Location: Sub-basement, Herzkammer Studio, Freiburg
Edition: 91 copies (manually dubbed from final mix reel)
Total Runtime: 60:45
Genres: Psychedelic Folk · Ritual Drone · Acoustic Raga-Improv · Subterranean Ambient · Tape Diary

SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Some records whisper, some preach — Atemzüge im Bunker breathes. Duval and Furch took a bare room, a harmonium, a guitar or two, and a handful of makeshift processors, then asked the sub-basement to sing back. What they got is 60 minutes of slow oxygen — raga-inflected folk stretched into ritual drone, with enough warmth in the overtones to heat the concrete.

The setup was monk-simple: Hennix Duval on acoustic guitar, voice, and small metals; Agnes Furch on harmonium, open-tuned guitar, and a treadle-controlled delay. No post fixes, no polish. The duct mics hear everything — breath, chair scrape, the moment a chord finds its balance and decides to stay.

Side A (Inhalation Rites) opens on Pulswärme, reed-tone bed, half-sung vocal, and guitar figures that feel like they’re learning to walk. Atmen = Stimme folds exhale into drone until the language vanishes and the body stays. The centerpiece, Valvenest Echo, rides a patient alap arc — not virtuosic, just committed, like two people holding a tone until the room agrees to join.

Side B (Saturated Remainders) deepens the mood. Feedback from Canal stacks vocal fragments into a mantra that refuses to resolve. Negative Lung Memory (eleven-plus) is the keeper: harmonium and guitar trading gravity, time dilating until the beat cycle becomes a weather system. Closer Bunker Silence Halo pares it back to glow — chimed harmonics, low reed, someone breathing a little too close to the mic. It lands like a candle going out in slow motion.

No spectacle, no sermon — just presence. If you want your psych grand and panoramic, look elsewhere. If you want the sound of two musicians listening harder than they play, this is your tape. The cover’s matte charcoal and the hand-scrawled label aren’t minimalism; they’re honesty. Atemzüge doesn’t announce itself. It arrives, with patience, and stays long enough to matter.

TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Methodology: Induction loops + contact-loop resonance pickups; custom subharmonic mics; ¼″ BASF chrome master reel → direct manual dub to C60
• Microphone Layout: 6× node loop mics; 2× body-worn mics (Duval & Furch); 1× ambient loopback line spanning gallery length
• W-2 Pulsmesser + DRV-3 Feedback Loop
• Live Processing: Furch treadle-driven delay (floor-modulated); mono-chain bleed-fold modulation via Duval’s modified reverb path; no post-session mastering — single-pass final mix to reel
• Monitoring/Control: Concord LBA-2 Line Bloom Analyzer repurposed for amplitude tracking; yielded rhythmic compression “breath” artifacts
• Duplication Chain: Two UHER CG 360 decks, hand-synced; all copies dubbed in real time from final mix reel
• Environmental Notes: Vent gallery of concrete/tile; natural LF bloom from thermal airflow; cassettes stored in oxygen-absorbent, charcoal-lined sleeves
• Distribution Estimate: 61 copies confirmed in commune-to-commune trade by Spring 1975

TRACKLIST + CUE LOG

Side A – Inhalation Rites (30:23)
1․ Pulswärme – 03:12
2․ Atmen = Stimme – 06:30
3․ Valvenest Echo – 08:14
4․ Rotary Duct Migration – 06:16
5․ Low Room Cough – 06:11

Side B – Saturated Remainders (30:22)
6․ Feedback from Canal – 10:01
7․ Negative Lung Memory – 11:48
8․ Bunker Silence Halo – 08:33

Total Runtime: 60:45

INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Primary J-card Insert: Spectrograph printout of Side B loop resonance; red-ink annotations by Duval marking “feedback entry gates”
• Cassette Shell: Matte-black Type II chrome; hand-labeled in silver ink “AW 017 / Atemzüge”
• Outer Wrap: Black dyed gauze sleeve stitched with carbon-ink thread; flap sealed with eucalyptus-infused cotton strip
• Supplemental Insert: Folded schematic — AIR MAP: Herzkammer Δ.4.17; Furch notes on vent cycle + “cold zones”
• Flyers: Two known variants; handwritten on graph paper, stapled to translucent tissue overlay

PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• 1975 First Edition: C60 chrome, manually dubbed; gauze wrap with printed inserts; no spine catalog; leader hand-marked with duct-cycle symbol
• 1976 Transmission Bunker Series: ~47 additional dubbed copies (Room B2); salvaged filter sleeves stamped “ATEM II”; Segment III includes intentional slack-loop artifact

SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• Insert Variant (Copy #019): Luftkammer Übertragungsplan overlay (Duval/Furch annotations) on unstable translucent mylar
• DAT Transfer (1999, Herzkammer Vault): duvalfurch_atemB2_raw1999.wav; includes 32 s pre-roll of ambient silence
• Bootleg CD-R (2006, Switzerland — Nullphasen Series): Bunker Breaths 1976; heavy compression flattens breath detail; fake blueprint insert; Furch miscredited as “guest vocalist”

OUTTAKES & ARCHIVAL VARIANTS
• Bonus Track: Heizröhrenflimmern (13:21) — included on later digital archive issue
• Unaired Interview (Duval, 1974): 36-line transcript on reverse of session log (ZIRKEL Box Z92/INQ 03)
• Vienna Cassette (1994): Sides reversed; audible duplication error
• Rumored Fragments: Possible Flinch overdubs (unverified)

EPILOGUE
Bunker is small on purpose. That’s the trick. In a catalog fond of voltage spectacle, Duval and Furch go quiet enough to make the room audible — the reed breath, the string bloom, the duct’s low weather. It reads like subterranean ambient, plays like psychedelic folk, and lands as ritual: two players trading patience until resonance does the rest.

You don’t put this on to be impressed; you put it on to be present. Half a century later, the tape still holds its temperature: warm, human, and stubbornly slow, proof that not every Aurora Weltklang highlight needed a generator to catch fire.

FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Tony Scott – Music for Zen Meditation
• Angus MacLise – Rites of the Dream Weapon
• Pandit Pran Nath – Raga Cycle (Early Sessions)
• Cozmic Corridors – Untitled (1974)
• ZIRKEL 92 – Kammerhöhe
• Éliane Radigue – Transamorem / Transmortem
credits
released January 1, 1975

• Hennix Duval — vocals, acoustic guitar, chimes, gong, prayer bowl, duct-transmission extraction, mic control
• Agnes Furch — harmonium, guitar, treadle delay, cassette sequencing, valve-pressure control
• Uncredited ZIRKEL 92 cell (prob. Kirchheim/Kassel participants) — frame drum, dulcimer, oud, low reeds, hand percussion
license
all rights reserved