MORITZ VON OSWALD
The boss.
I’m always fascinated by how people age. As the years advance they begin to assume their final and most genuine form. Fewer fucks are given, the real man (or woman) steps to the forefront, increasingly unencumbered by the opinions or preconceptions of others.
Moritz von Oswald is particularly interesting to consider in this manner.
He is certainly no longer the strutting young buck of Palais Schaumburg, the trainer wearing party starter of 3MB, or even the casually attired dub-techno dad of Basic Channel.
In recent years, von Oswald has emerged as a cravat-clad aesthete, scooping out luxurious dollops of high grade synthesis from his premium collection of increasingly rare and idiosyncratic audio machinery. Like some kind of eccentric Victorian explorer from a novel by Jules Verne.
He is, without question, an absolute boss.
But let’s not get sidetracked. We’re here to discuss music, not pocket squares. And there’s plenty to cover.
I’m going to skate over the Krautrock era of Palais Schaumburg (1983-84) and the sweetly innocent acid house party starters of Marathon (1989-90) and His Name Is Dime (1989) and head straight to the most pertinent material.
It’s been a pleasure putting this together.
Enjoy.
3MB
Three Men In Berlin (3MB) started life as 2MB (Two Men In Berlin), a collaboration between von Oswald and Palais Schaumburg co-founder Thomas Fehlmann. Fehlmann was a pioneering avantgarde musician who would go on to become resident DJ at the original Berlin techno superclub Tresor, as well as being a member of ‘90s ambient pioneers The Orb.
In 1992, von Oswald and Fehlmann produced a couple of solid 2MB remixes for Detroit pioneers Blake Baxter and Eddie Fowlkes before establishing a formal partnership with Juan Atkins as 3MB.
The resulting LP, 3MB Feat. Magic Juan Atkins, was one of the earliest link ups in the Detroit-Berlin axis, and a true piece of techno history.
Two selects from the release:
Die Kosmischen Kuriere (MvO and Thomas Fehlmann remix)
A glorious slice of blissed out techno euphoria.
‘Jazz Is The Teacher’ (Magic Juan Edit)
Your regular reminder that Techno is not Black, but it’s certainly American (which often gets overlooked). And its roots are in Jazz. More on this another time.
I also want to draw your attention to this wonderfully uplifting, Steve Reich-esque composition released by Fehlmann and von Oswald as ‘Schizophrenia’ on Tresor in 1995, during the peak years of Basic Channel.
Schizophrenia (1995)
Speaking of Basic Channel, we’ve already covered that project as well as Rhythm & Sound in extensive detail elsewhere.
So now we’ll fast forward 13 years to 2008 »
ReComposed
Having pioneered dub techno and scaled the heights of reggae, why not turn your hand to reworking some of the most iconic classical music of the 20th century?
On paper, a techno reinterpretation of Ravel’s ‘Bolero’ probably shouldn’t work. But MvO and Carl Craig do an extraordinary job of honouring the source material through an epic 16-minute opening section:
Before dropping the hammer on the second side of the LP:
It’s a classy release. Perhaps unsure of where it’s most suitably deployed (is it really a club record?), but certainly rewards repeated listening. And I can’t quite believe it’s already 18 years old(!)
Moritz vo Oswald Trio
Von Oswald’s later career will of course be defined by his eponymous supergroup; a rotating cast of musical auteurs who expertly blend dub, techno and jazz into an incredible immersive live act.
The trio is led by von Oswald (keys, percussion, and production) and originally featured Max Loderbauer (synthesizers, samplers) and Sasu Ripatti / Vladislav Delay (percussion, live processing).
This core group delivered four groundbreaking albums between 2009 and 2012.
Vertical Ascent (Honest Jon’s, 2009)
‘Pattern 1’
Live in New York (Honest Jon’s, 2010)
‘Nothing 1’
Horizontal Structures (Honest Jon’s, 2011)
‘Structure 2’
I love how the Rhythm & Sound style bassline merges into the Trio’s freeform jazz explorations.
Fetch (Honest Jon’s, 2012)
Probably my favourite LP from the original line up. It brings a raw directness and utility that is often absent on earlier releases.
‘Club’
‘Yangissa’
Blue (Honest Jon’s, 2013)
I should also highlight this exceptional single from the OG lineup released in 2013 which could very easily have come from the Maurizio project (which I’ll be wrapping this series up with next week).
Both sides here, turn up your subs:
‘Blue’ & ‘Blue Dub’
In 2015, Vladislav Delay was replaced by Fela Kuti’s legendary Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen. Thereby shifting the Trio’s sound towards a more muscular jazz-funk fusion that I am a huge fan of.
Sounding Lines (Honest Jon’s, 2015)
Two selects:
‘Sounding Line 3’
‘Sounding Line 6’
This track is where Allen’s influence really comes to the fore.
Incredible drum work.
For the full experience check out this live concert with Tony Allen from 2016.
For their 2021 album Dissent, the trio underwent another transformation, replacing Tony Allen with jazz drummer Heinrich Köbberling and Loderbauer with electronic musician Laurel Halo (keys, Wurlitzer, Rhodes). Dissent marked a return to a murkier, more abstract sound, highlighting Halo’s bright tonal center against von Oswald’s dub techniques.
Dissent (Modern Recordings, 2021)
‘Chapter 4’
‘Chapter 5’
I absolutely love the loose, up-tempo shuffle of this track. Proper gear.
Oh, and before we sign off this section make sure you get to know about this extraordinary 2010 link up between MvO Trio and Dubstep pioneers Digital Mysticz. A match made in dub heaven from a golden era of bass music.
‘Restructure 2’
Nils Petter Molvaer
After the fourth MvO Trio LP dropped in 2012, von Oswald somehow found time to collaborate with Norwegian jazz trumpeter, Nils Petter Molvaer. The resulting 1/1 LP, released in 2013, is a brooding jazz-meets-dub techno gem.
‘Future’
‘Noise 2’
Borderland
At the same time, von Oswald was rekindling one of his oldest relationships with ‘Magic’ Juan Atkins. They released a collaborative LP in 2013 called ‘Borderland’, which they then decided to use as the name of their joint production project.
To be honest, some of these tracks are a little bland and edge into ‘dad house’ territory. But there are some definite highlights.
‘Odyssey’
‘Merkur’
‘Concave 2’
Ordo Sakhna
In 2017 von Oswald collaborated with this long-standing musical collective based in Bishkek, devoted to the roots music of Kyrgyzstan.
A couple of gems from quite a challenging release:
‘Draught’
‘Drums’
Silencio
And finally, after so much collaboration: a solo release, a profund statement of artistic maturity, and perhaps a career highlight from 2023.
Silencio shows how, even after a creative life as storied as Moritz von Oswald’s, it’s still possible to reach new levels of artistic expression. This extraordinarily ambitious album would sit comfortably alongside the work of Phil Glass, Steve Reich, Aphex Twin or any of the other late 20th century masters.
Bravo, Moritz.
Two favourites below, but make sure to check out the full release.
‘Silencio’
‘Volta’
So there you have it.
A 40+ year career that’s traversed the night club, the opera house, the jazz shebeen and the sound system with an elegance and style that really nobody else can match. And even at this stage of the game, the question I’m asking myself is ‘what’s next?’
For now, I’ll leave you with one of my top 10 all time records. The Moritz von Oswald rework of Sebbo’s ‘Watamu Beach’, released on Desolat in 2008:
Peace and love.
Rubin