Catalog No: FLX85
Title: Alpha and Omega
Sound Artist: Frank Rothkamm
Visual Artist: Holger Rothkamm
Label: Flux Records
Length: 20:56 (1256s)
Composed: 2016
Location: Los Angeles
Instruments: Atari Cubase 2.0
Emu Proteus/2
Release Date: 1/23/2017
Format: Digital
File Under: Classical
Let us ask Karl Marx. Let us ask him to give us a prophecy: “Our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses, however, this distinct feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other — Bourgeoisie and Proletariat.”, writes Marx with Engels in 1848. The “proletariat, [is] the modern working class”. There is no doubt about it, even in the German original the word “moderne”, modern is used. Remarkable. Here we are 168 years later in the age of post-everything, and the main prophecy is still the concern about modernity. According to our prophet Marx, we constantly overlook the very thing we thought we left behind, now that we can recall any piece of human thought and re-tweet it. That is modern. That is the question of defining the modern working class. That is the concern for the being of modern. Now it seems the answer has already been given in 1953, at the height of mid-century modernism: “Es bleibt richtig: auch die moderne Technik ist ein Mittel zu Zwecken”. If you don’t know what this means, well, you’re out of luck, because Heidegger can not be translated and still be considered genuine. Just like the Noble Quran: if you can’t read Arabic, you are not able to grasp the meaning of the truth, because language and truth are tied to each other, just like our Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. But I’ll give it a go here, just so we can move on from blaming each other, who the modern one is, the one in possession of the truth. “It maintains to be correct: even modern technology is a means to an end.” Modernity is still just a means to an end. It is not “an und für sich” in and for itself as Hegel wants us to think, but in and for other things outside itself, something we use in order to get to the end. That pretty much defines being goal oriented, even though Heidegger uses the word “Zweck”, which is purpose. As a magic word, “Zweck” sounds very final, so I recommend saying this out loud. Modernity has this magic word at its core, Modernity will use any means to get there: the end, “zum Zweck”. But what is this goal of modernity? There is a whole tradition dedicated to the Last Things, the very end of everything: Eschatology. As the final goal of modernity is a concern for the end times, the eschatology of our antagonisms, the whole purpose is the end. Who better than John of Patmos, the attributed author of Revelation, to give us a good picture of the end: “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is, and who was, and who is to come, the Almighty.”
supported by 5 fans who also own “Alpha and Omega (2016)”
Metal combined with piano sounds... The sound of strikethrough is like encryption... Mr. Turing is nearby)) The detached noise textures are impressive, as is the internal failure for the listener when the gluing is detected! A decent job! Notnotice
supported by 5 fans who also own “Alpha and Omega (2016)”
Very interesting soundscape. I imagine the gentle clanging of Tibetan water bowls, water droplet sounds in reverse and the intermittent foghorn. Richard Erickson
Julia Kent’s dance-inspired pieces for cello and electronics prove she can elegantly render the quieter, intimate moments just as well as the big, powerful ones. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jan 31, 2019
supported by 5 fans who also own “Alpha and Omega (2016)”
This low-fi tape / loop / drone fits my state of mind. The perfect grind of garbled voice subterfuge with various found winding devices. Richard Erickson