AW-021: Loreta Svein - Sprachfeld 2
(Konkrete Modulationen)
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-021
Format: Cassette (C40, Type II chrome)
Release Date: January 1976
Recording Location: Herzkammer Studio (Vault D - Electro Isolation Booths), Freiburg Region
Recording Dates: August-October 1975
Edition: 77 copies (hand-dubbed, stamped shell, transparent red case)
Total Runtime: 46:33
Genres: Proto-Punk · Feminist Sound Art · Lo-Fi Experimental · Avant-Tape · Industrial
Minimalism
1. SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Loreta Svein’s Sprachfeld 2 (Konkrete Modulationen) hits like a broadcast intercepted from
inside her own head - intimate, cracked, and full of voltage. Recorded in 1975 and pressed onto
only seventy-seven transparent red cassettes, the tape feels less like an album than an
endurance test disguised as a diary. Svein wasn’t looking for polish; she wanted the mic to
flinch.
Working with a half-dead Philips portable and a lapel mic jammed into a desk drawer; she
treated feedback as percussion and exhaustion as tempo. The result: short, angular sketches
where the human voice is both signal and instrument failure. The opener, “Ohne Wort (First
Choke)”, stacks strangled gasps into rhythm - the sound of speech giving up mid-sentence.
“Zungenabschattung” dissolves into metallic blur, a seven-minute argument between body and
tape. By the time “Schrei in Spirale (Cut Echo)” hits Side B, she’s dragging a scream around the
playback head like it owes her rent.
The cassette’s flaws - hiss, clipping, the occasional dropout - aren’t mistakes; they’re
punctuation. Every imperfection is a decision. Svein knew that tape was the one medium that
fought back, and she used it like sparring gear. Even the packaging felt weaponized: silver
waveform sketches scrawled by hand across matte paper, the title stamped like a warning.
Half a century later, Sprachfeld 2 still refuses to behave. It bridges proto-punk abrasion,
feminist sound art, and early industrial minimalism without pledging loyalty to any of them.
Where others chased beauty, Svein caught the moment before collapse and looped it until it
confessed.
2. TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Tape Source & Duplication: ¼″ mono master reel dubbed to Type II Chrome C40; final hand
dubs by Agnes Furch on Revox B77 (Jan 1976).
• Primary Capture: Philips EL3302 portable cassette recorder; lapel condenser mic placed inside
wooden drawer cavity (self-baffled).
• Signal Path: Homemade “Distressor” compressor; Watkins Copycat delay; manual loop
modulation via adjustable tension spools.
• Control Systems: ENV-MAP controller using aging Concord capacitors for language-to-pulse
mapping; rewired Patch-to-Learn board produced the “Svein Spike.”
• Mix Process: Direct stereo dub from master with EQ pass by Hennix Duval (late 1975, Kassel).
• Cassette Details: Transparent red shell; black-stamped title; standard ferric leaders.
• Edition Breakdown: 66 standard copies (hand-numbered, stamped shell) + 11 aberrant tapes
(reversed-polarity playback, mirror-signed by Svein in silver ink).
3. PERSONNEL
• Loreta Svein - voice fragments, loop & delay systems, waveform artwork
• Mika Krahne - drums, filtered guitar, prepared piano, routing
• Giro Detzel - bowed/plucked bass, resonator processing
• Jori Tetschel - additional voice, floor tom, metallic interventions

4. TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A (24:56)
1. Ohne Wort (first choke) - 04:07
2. Zungenabschattung - 07:23
3. Einatmen (mit Spule) - 03:56
4. Sprechloch - 06:05
5. Nasenstimme / Endaufnahme - 03:25
Side B (21:37)
6. Rückkopplungsbett - 06:57
7. Schrei in Spirale (cut echo) - 07:51
8. Phonemsturz - 06:49
Total Runtime: 46:33
5. INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA

• J-Card Insert: Hand-drawn waveform sketches by Svein in silver ink on matte stock, annotated
“resonance collapse → identity phase shift.”
• Aberrant Tape Variant: Mirror-signature shell in silver; alternate side-sequence playback
noted at ZIRKEL 92 salon (1980).
• Tape Housing: Transparent red cassette in unmarked snapcase; no spine label or catalog
stamp.
6. PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS

• Cassette: C40 Type II Chrome in transparent red shell.
• Markings: Black-stamped title; hand-numbered on shell for standard copies.
• Packaging: J-card with original Svein artwork; clear snapcase without exterior branding.
7. SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS

• Alternate Sequence Playback (1980): ZIRKEL 92 salon event with sides reversed and speed
increased; no surviving copy.
• Tape Fragment - “Z2 Vokalschnitt”: Found in archive box S K7 (1999); unreleased due to
oxide decay.


8. EPILOGUE
Sprachfeld 2 (Konkrete Modulationen) still feels combustible. What Svein captured wasn’t
performance but pressure - a sound diary where emotion and machinery trade bruises. Issued
in a tiny run for friends and fellow travelers, it carried the blueprint for every later act that
treated tape as flesh: raw, confessional, deliberately unstable.
In retrospect, the cassette was the only logical medium - personal, cheap, and impossible to
romanticize. It made honesty audible. The hiss isn’t nostalgia; it’s proof.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Henri Chopin
• Joan La Barbara - Voice Is the Original Instrument
• Diamanda Galás - The Litanies of Satan
• Yoko Ono - Voice Piece for Soprano
• Éliane Radigue - Trilogie de la Mort