Glasshouse Effect

What was initially intended merely as a live set has now been captured on tape: “Glasshouse Effect” is Kobermann’s second tape release on the Viennese label Goldgelb Records. When, in 2018, the music magazine Skug invited the label to an open-air showcase evening (Salon Skug), Kobermann came up with the idea for a new live set designed to draw the audience in on a late-summer evening and carry them through into the early hours of the night. During the preparation phase, he packed up the equipment he’d selected for the project and worked on it in his parents’ glasshouse in eastern Lower Austria. The four tracks – or four ‘effects’, as Kobermann calls them – were recorded on a 4-track tape deck. These also represent the seasons, taking listeners on an acoustic journey through the year from spring to winter. In addition to maintaining the same tempo (69 bpm) for each piece, the same electronic sound sources were consistently chosen to ensure a setup that was as simple yet effective as possible. The often minimal variations in the synth tracks have a meditative effect. Nevertheless, frequencies occasionally break out unexpectedly, bringing listeners back down to earth.
Ultimately, the first concert as part of the label evening was moved to the former AU on Yppenplatz due to bad weather and thus took place indoors. The shape of the room resembled that of the glasshouse once more, and the air was heavy with the mist left by the summer rain that had fallen hours earlier. The effects blended into one another and now flow on from the tape.