Die Wilde Jagd

Electronic music from Düsseldorf. Die Wilde Jagd go hunting in the thicket of neo-krautrock, electronica, and synthpop. Every new year, during the Rauhnächte (those harsh nights between Christmas and Twelfth Day), The Wild Hunt (Die Wilde Jagd) rides across the country: raucous, jeering hunters from the netherworld, whose path it is better not to cross. This is an ancient Germanic myth, which, in slightly varied form, is known in many parts of Europe, the name of which Ralf Beck and Sebastian Lee Philipp have aptly chosen for their duo project. Ralf Beck has released several albums as part of the duos Nalin & Kane and Unit 4. He collects old synthesizers and effects pedals and has collaborated with Karl Bartos. In his studio, Uhrwald Orange, he has recorded music by Propaganda, Kreidler, Black Devil Disco, and many more. Sebastian Lee Philipp is part of the Berlin-based electro-wave duo Noblesse Oblige and composes music for theatre and radio dramas. Between 2001 and 2006 he lived in London, where he ran the club night Caligula and performed as a DJ. The two first met in 2006 in Düsseldorf's Salon des Amateurs, a meeting place for new and established experimental musicians and artists, also known as Germany's "post-punk Hacienda." It seems no coincidence that Düsseldorf is the duo's founding city: their music is full of subtle references to local acts, such as Kraftwerk, NEU!, DAF, Liaisons Dangereuses, Purolator, Die Krupps, and Propaganda. Since their first meeting, Beck and Philipp regularly come together during the time of the Rauhnächte to record in Beck's well-equipped studio. Using the numerous analog keyboards and recording devices assembled there, and combining them with a diverse range of percussion instruments, they create their own "hunting music," which at times sounds unsettling, like swampland or a dark forest, but also urgent and pressing, like incandescent lasers or a hypnotic dance. Their soundscape is marked by repetitive guitar loops, electronic percussion, drums, and synthesizers. Booming tom-toms and medieval-sounding flutes herald the start of the hunt. Whispering, reciting voices conjure up the spirits of the woods, while synthetic sounds, melodies, and noises flit about before they are re-captured, structured, and grounded by crystalline beats and pulsating basslines.