Birth name Wolfgang Voigt Years active 1995–2000, 2014 Name Wolfgang Voigt | Role Musical Artist | |
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Genres Ambient, ambient techno, psychedelia Associated acts All, Auftrieb, Gelb, Love Inc., M:I:5, Mike Ink, Mint Albums Pop, Nah und Fern, Konigsforst, Zauberberg, Oktember Similar Jorg Burger, Michael Mayer, Andreas Dorau, Reinhard Voigt, Jurgen Paape | ||
Record labels Kompakt, Mille Plateaux | ||
Gas pop full album
Gas (stylized as GAS or G A S) is a music project of Wolfgang Voigt (born 1961), a German electronic musician. Voigt cites his youthful LSD experiences in the Königsforst, a German forest situated near his hometown of Cologne, as the inspiration behind his work under the name Gas. He has claimed that the intention of the project is to "bring the forest to the disco, or vice-versa".
Contents
- Gas pop full album
- Gas konigsforst 1999 full album
- Aliases and projects
- History
- Music
- Discography
- Albums
- EPs
- Compilations
- Remixes
- References
Gas konigsforst 1999 full album
Aliases and projects
Voigt is known for over 30 aliases and projects. Of these, his best known is arguably Gas.
Other names under which Voigt has released music include, but are not limited to, All, Auftrieb, Brom, C.K. Decker, Centrifugal Force, Crocker, Dextro NRG, Dieter Gorny, Digital, Dom, Doppel, Filter, Freiland, Fuchsbau, Gelb, Grungerman, Kafkatrax, Love Inc., M:I:5, Mike Ink, Mint, Panthel, Popacid, Riss, RX7, Split Inc., Strass, Studio 1, Tal, Vinyl Countdown, W.V., Wassermann, and X-Lvis.
History
In 2008, Voigt's own label Kompakt re-released all four of his Gas albums, albeit with subtle changes made to the tracks, as a four-CD box set entitled Nah und Fern. A limited double vinyl version of the set was also released, with one track from each album per side. In 2016, Kompakt reissued Zauberberg, Königsforst, Oktember and Pop as a 10-LP box set called Box, again editing or expanding many of the tracks.
Voigt has intermittently revived the project for remixes and released a new Gas album entitled Narkopop on April 21, 2017.
Music
Gas's sound is ambient techno and minimal techno, combining ambient music and 4/4 techno. It is the most abstract of Voigt's many projects, with each album consisting of several long tracks. All Gas material shares a characteristic sound, consisting of an ambient wash of drones and loops, "barely-audible fragments of horns, strings, record hiss and wind", usually accompanied by a repetitive four-on-the-floor kick drum. The Wire described it as "an outdoor rave, heard floating through the air from a neighbouring village". Voigt names it "GASeous music, caught by a bass drum just marching by, that streams, streams out through the underwood across the forest soil". He also said it "[moves] around in constantly overlapping loop structures" and "there is no definite start nor end". His live performances, which he performs using MIDI controls and Ableton Live, has this same organic quality.
He commented that he builds his tracks using samples, which are manipulated beyond recognition to create what can better be described as textural environments than songs. He described the technique as "a certain kind of loops [sic] and reverse, and alternated reverses, which has no ending and no start, and it's just totally confusing". Most of the time there is no clear musical progression in a Gas track; because it lacks any trace of orthodox melody or chord change, many would not describe it as musical. However, the sources of Voigt's samples are often of musical origin, encapsulating "old pop record stuff" as well as classical music such as Richard Wagner and Arnold Schoenberg.
Discography
All Gas tracks are untitled, except the Modern and Oktember releases.