AW-012: 13TH SYMBOL – The Zodiac
- 1Cryptogram A
- 2Hearing of Metal
- 3Pattern Fourteen
- 4The Decoder Sleeps
- 5Channel Δ
- 6Thirteenth Symbol
AW-012
•
Open edition
AW-012: 13TH SYMBOL – The Zodiac
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-012
Format: LP (33⅓ rpm, black vinyl, matte sleeve)
Release Date: Fall 1973
Recording Date: Summer 1973
Edition: 88 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Herzkammer Vault C, Freiburg
Total Runtime: 44:02
Genres: Proto-Industrial · Dark Krautrock · Electro-Acoustic Dub · Experimental Drone Rock · Minimal Forensic Psych
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Nobody who dropped a needle on The Zodiac expecting melody ever made it through the first side. 13TH SYMBOL weren’t chasing groove—they were mapping paranoia. This is one of those rare records where concept and sound actually fuse: a proto-industrial jam disguised as an investigation.
The three-piece lineup—Vollmer from ZIRKEL 92, Hauser on metallic percussion, and Viguier from Filament—set up in the Herzkammer vault with a couple of reels, a homebuilt preamp rig, and too much curiosity. What they recorded over three days feels less like performance and more like surveillance: looping pulses, hammering plates, low-end drones, and an occasional shriek of feedback that sounds half human, half electrical.
Side A (Cipher Field) starts in deep murk. Cryptogram A opens with a metallic shuffle and sub-bass hum that could pass for early Cabaret Voltaire rehearsing underwater. Hearing of Metal is where things catch fire—a metallic rhythm section grinding over pulse generators until it starts to sound like some prehistoric dub engine. Pattern Fourteen pulls everything tight, turning noise into a circular groove that almost swings, like a doomed version of Mother Sky stripped of melody.
Side B (Message Decay) leans even harder into abstraction but never loses its body. The Decoder Sleeps is practically a slow-motion kraut jam, with Hauser’s percussion panning left-right like falling debris. Channel Δ lets Viguier’s feedback loops spill out of the mix, eating the tape head alive, while Thirteenth Symbol closes the album with an extended drone that feels both ritual and malfunction—a slow fade that’s more psychic than musical.
What separates The Zodiac from other early Aurora Weltklang recordings is its attitude: it’s grim but not inert, mechanical but still breathing. You can hear the trio pushing through confusion until they find a pulse that feels dangerous and right. It’s not art-rock, and it’s not industrial yet—it’s the fuse being lit.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Machine: Tandberg Series 15, two-track reel (7½ ips)
• Microphones: Two contact mics on ductwork; two ribbon overheads for room capture
• DRV-3 delay cell prototype
• Signal Routing: Filament preamp loop rig (Viguier build) powered by surplus police regulator
• Electronics: Forensic frequency generator; Sinthpresizer-2 keyboard (PB-X drift patchbelt mod)
• Instruments: Metal-plate percussion, magnet drone organ, tone generator, resonator guitar
• Recording Method: Live two-track mix, no overdubs or corrective EQ
• Engineer: Gernot Wolff (Herzkammer Studio, 1973)
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A – Cipher Field (19:53)
1․ Cryptogram A – 04:07
2․ Hearing of Metal – 06:19
3․ Pattern Fourteen – 09:27
Side B – Message Decay (24:09)
4․ The Decoder Sleeps – 07:59
5․ Channel Δ – 05:48
6․ Thirteenth Symbol – 10:22
Total Runtime: 44:02
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Fold-out sheet mapping Zodiac ciphers to frequency and tape-speed ratios
• Blurred Polaroid of Hauser’s percussion rig labeled “Vault Test – 27°C”
• Anonymous typed card: “To hear a code is to make one.” – T.S.
• Matte black sleeve marked only with alternating red/silver glyph rings
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Vinyl: Pressed at Schwarzschild Vinyl Works, Freiburg (1973)
• Jacket: Matte black, embossed circle of thirteen glyphs with silver-burnished edges
• Labels: “Message Begin” / “Message End”
• Edition: 88 copies, hand-numbered in graphite; distributed via ZIRKEL 92 and Filament barter routes
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1998 – Cipher Field CDr (Vienna bootleg): EQ-boosted mono transfer
• 2006 – Cassette dub circulated online (short-lived, removed within months)
• 2025 – Digital restoration from master reel (AW Archive D-73C), non-corrective transfer
EPILOGUE
The Zodiac still sounds unnervingly modern. It’s got the skeletal tension of early industrial, the pulse of krautrock at its darkest, and the slow, forensic patience of dub without any rhythm section to fall back on. Vollmer’s tone work anticipates Conny Plank’s lab-jams; Hauser’s metal hits prefigure Neubauten; Viguier’s loop system is pure Filament nerve.
For all its mythic setup, what remains most powerful is how alive it feels—three players following an idea until it starts to shake. There’s fear in it, sure, but also propulsion, the same energy that kept the underground alive through the mid-’70s.
If Aurora Weltklang ever flirted with horror, The Zodiac is where it did so by playing it, not dramatizing it.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Conrad Schnitzler – Rot
• Faust – So Far
• Throbbing Gristle – The Second Annual Report
• Cluster – Cluster II
• Asmus Tietchens – Biotop
credits
released October 1, 1973
• Jochen Vollmer (ZIRKEL 92) — magnet drone organ, tone generator, forensic analysis
• Marlen Hauser (ZIRKEL 92) — percussion, metal-plate arrays, found material
• Ruth Viguier (Filament) — resonator guitar, feedback loops, preamp design
• Gernot Wolff (KDK) — recording engineer
license
all rights reserved
Label: Aurora Weltklang
Catalog No.: AW-012
Format: LP (33⅓ rpm, black vinyl, matte sleeve)
Release Date: Fall 1973
Recording Date: Summer 1973
Edition: 88 hand-numbered copies
Recording Location: Herzkammer Vault C, Freiburg
Total Runtime: 44:02
Genres: Proto-Industrial · Dark Krautrock · Electro-Acoustic Dub · Experimental Drone Rock · Minimal Forensic Psych
SIGNAL PRESSURE REVIEW
Nobody who dropped a needle on The Zodiac expecting melody ever made it through the first side. 13TH SYMBOL weren’t chasing groove—they were mapping paranoia. This is one of those rare records where concept and sound actually fuse: a proto-industrial jam disguised as an investigation.
The three-piece lineup—Vollmer from ZIRKEL 92, Hauser on metallic percussion, and Viguier from Filament—set up in the Herzkammer vault with a couple of reels, a homebuilt preamp rig, and too much curiosity. What they recorded over three days feels less like performance and more like surveillance: looping pulses, hammering plates, low-end drones, and an occasional shriek of feedback that sounds half human, half electrical.
Side A (Cipher Field) starts in deep murk. Cryptogram A opens with a metallic shuffle and sub-bass hum that could pass for early Cabaret Voltaire rehearsing underwater. Hearing of Metal is where things catch fire—a metallic rhythm section grinding over pulse generators until it starts to sound like some prehistoric dub engine. Pattern Fourteen pulls everything tight, turning noise into a circular groove that almost swings, like a doomed version of Mother Sky stripped of melody.
Side B (Message Decay) leans even harder into abstraction but never loses its body. The Decoder Sleeps is practically a slow-motion kraut jam, with Hauser’s percussion panning left-right like falling debris. Channel Δ lets Viguier’s feedback loops spill out of the mix, eating the tape head alive, while Thirteenth Symbol closes the album with an extended drone that feels both ritual and malfunction—a slow fade that’s more psychic than musical.
What separates The Zodiac from other early Aurora Weltklang recordings is its attitude: it’s grim but not inert, mechanical but still breathing. You can hear the trio pushing through confusion until they find a pulse that feels dangerous and right. It’s not art-rock, and it’s not industrial yet—it’s the fuse being lit.
TECHNICAL INFORMATION & RECORDING SPECIFICATIONS
• Recording Machine: Tandberg Series 15, two-track reel (7½ ips)
• Microphones: Two contact mics on ductwork; two ribbon overheads for room capture
• DRV-3 delay cell prototype
• Signal Routing: Filament preamp loop rig (Viguier build) powered by surplus police regulator
• Electronics: Forensic frequency generator; Sinthpresizer-2 keyboard (PB-X drift patchbelt mod)
• Instruments: Metal-plate percussion, magnet drone organ, tone generator, resonator guitar
• Recording Method: Live two-track mix, no overdubs or corrective EQ
• Engineer: Gernot Wolff (Herzkammer Studio, 1973)
TRACKLIST + CUE LOG
Side A – Cipher Field (19:53)
1․ Cryptogram A – 04:07
2․ Hearing of Metal – 06:19
3․ Pattern Fourteen – 09:27
Side B – Message Decay (24:09)
4․ The Decoder Sleeps – 07:59
5․ Channel Δ – 05:48
6․ Thirteenth Symbol – 10:22
Total Runtime: 44:02
INSERTS & VISUAL EPHEMERA
• Fold-out sheet mapping Zodiac ciphers to frequency and tape-speed ratios
• Blurred Polaroid of Hauser’s percussion rig labeled “Vault Test – 27°C”
• Anonymous typed card: “To hear a code is to make one.” – T.S.
• Matte black sleeve marked only with alternating red/silver glyph rings
PHYSICAL RELEASE DETAILS
• Vinyl: Pressed at Schwarzschild Vinyl Works, Freiburg (1973)
• Jacket: Matte black, embossed circle of thirteen glyphs with silver-burnished edges
• Labels: “Message Begin” / “Message End”
• Edition: 88 copies, hand-numbered in graphite; distributed via ZIRKEL 92 and Filament barter routes
SUBSEQUENT FORMATS & VARIANTS
• 1998 – Cipher Field CDr (Vienna bootleg): EQ-boosted mono transfer
• 2006 – Cassette dub circulated online (short-lived, removed within months)
• 2025 – Digital restoration from master reel (AW Archive D-73C), non-corrective transfer
EPILOGUE
The Zodiac still sounds unnervingly modern. It’s got the skeletal tension of early industrial, the pulse of krautrock at its darkest, and the slow, forensic patience of dub without any rhythm section to fall back on. Vollmer’s tone work anticipates Conny Plank’s lab-jams; Hauser’s metal hits prefigure Neubauten; Viguier’s loop system is pure Filament nerve.
For all its mythic setup, what remains most powerful is how alive it feels—three players following an idea until it starts to shake. There’s fear in it, sure, but also propulsion, the same energy that kept the underground alive through the mid-’70s.
If Aurora Weltklang ever flirted with horror, The Zodiac is where it did so by playing it, not dramatizing it.
FOR LISTENERS OF:
• Conrad Schnitzler – Rot
• Faust – So Far
• Throbbing Gristle – The Second Annual Report
• Cluster – Cluster II
• Asmus Tietchens – Biotop
credits
released October 1, 1973
• Jochen Vollmer (ZIRKEL 92) — magnet drone organ, tone generator, forensic analysis
• Marlen Hauser (ZIRKEL 92) — percussion, metal-plate arrays, found material
• Ruth Viguier (Filament) — resonator guitar, feedback loops, preamp design
• Gernot Wolff (KDK) — recording engineer
license
all rights reserved
