Merz-machine

CD Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LCUCD002, 1997
CD Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD015, 2002
CD/DVD Ziqquratu. – Garsai ir blyksniai, ZIQQU CD 004/ZIQQU DVD 001, 2012
CD Lithuanian Music in Context III. Experimental Ventures. – Vilnius, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD071-072, 2013
LP Šarūnas Nakas. Ramblings. Music Information Centre Lithuania, MICL LP004, 2023

In the mid-1980s, composer Šarūnas Nakas has sown some ‘alien seeds’ (originating in Dada and Merz art from the beginning of the 20th century) into the virgin soil of Lithuanian music. His compositions of the time seethed with punchy energy (sometimes verging on violent sound attacks), throbbing in mechanical repetitions, dense textures and strident urban sonorities (more often than not produced by the electro-acoustic means), which the critics soon dubbed as the new ‘machinist’ trend. Merz-Machine for 33 electronic and acoustic instruments and Vox-Machine for 25 electronically modified voices – were both produced in 1985 as parts of the electro-acoustic cycle for the unstaged ballet-pantomime Ramblings.

Linas Paulauskis