Wolfgang Röttger is Morgen Wurde, an atmospheric electro-acoustic project using trumpet and electronic sounds and processing to create a new form of lyricism and haunting soundscapes. Coming from Kiel, Germany on the Baltic Sea, a port city between Hamburg and the border of Jutland in Denmark, Röttger’s aesthetic feels very removed from what one tends to associate with the more famous music scenes of Germany. With Sturm, which means storm in German, Röttger has assembled an intriguing mix of his favorite ambient and atmospheric electro-acoustic music featuring wind instruments, flowing through slow and textured sounds into more beat-driven music and back again. Get comfortable and enjoy the storm. (Joseph Sannicandro)
Download/stream at Soundcloud
MINI-INTERVIEW
Please introduce yourself.
I’m a computer scientist, musician and avid tango dancer from Kiel at the Baltic Sea, with a second home in Vienna. Musically I have a keenness for fusions of atmospheric electronic and acoustic music, and in general for the ongoing evolution of music —
technology-driven in synergy with classical musical skills.
Tell me a bit about how your approach, how you became a musician.
After piano lessons and a penchant for computer music as a kid, I progressively roamed electronic, classical and jazz music and got into producing music in the 90s. Today, Morgen Wurde is my project for creating haunting musical ambiances. In contrast to ambient music which is more about tranquility and unobtrusiveness, I aim for intensity and vigorousness, for majestic and threatening ambiguity like it can be seen also in the forces of nature.
For my recent album (dark romantic space doom jazz) Letzten Endes on Off Rec., Brussels, I joined forces with like-minded trumpeters (Tetsuroh Konishi, Toby Mak and Frank Wilke) with strong qualities in free jazz and lyricism, blowing through my electronic soundscapes. Plus there are some truly wicked remixes.
What can you tell us about the mix? Thematically, or technically in terms of how it’s put together?
The mix represents my favorite atmospheric electro/acoustic music featuring wind instruments, from gentle and intimate to inexorable and fierce, arranged in my DAW Reaper.
A few words about your local scene?
Kiel has the Chiffren festival, an international biennial for contemporary and avant-garde music where I once made an appearance with a sound installation. Annually in June, there’s the Kiel Week, the largest sailing event in the world, including a ten-day music festival. Besides that, house music is the prevalent electronic music scene here. There are institutions for opera, theatre and ballet which I love to attend frequently. And there’s the possibility to dance the tango every day in the week 😉
What are you working on at the moment?
A new album Als je zuvor is in the making, taking the music to the next level.
TRACKLIST
00:00 Bohren & der Club of Gore – Vigilante Crusade [Wonder 2002]
04:47 Jon Hassell – Last Night the Moon came [ECM 2009]
12:32 Hasler, Paeffgen, Berger – Holtondimi [NoBusiness 2011]
18:20 The Gnostic Trio playing John Zorn – Puck [Tzadik 2013]
21:42 El-P feat. The Blue Series Continuum – Sunrise over Bklyn [Thirsty Ear 2004]
28:19 Ghost Notes – Tendrils [Sonic Masala 2014]
35:15 Cuong Vu – Vina’s Lullaby [Knitting Factory 2001]
41:12 Radiohead – The National Anthem [Parlophone 2000]
46:37 Brink Man Ship – Einzelheiten der Freude [Unit 2011]
51:12 Nils Petter Molvaer – Recoil [Columbia 2011]
56:02 Dale Cooper Quartet and the Dictaphones – Lampyre Bonne Chère [Denovali 2013]
61:24 David Holmes – Where’s Kenneth [Silva Screen 2011]
65:04 Bill Horist & Jakob Riis – Wind, Tar to Baliene Flame [Lava Thief 2014]
67:50 Fail Better! – Bright Red [JACC 2014]
75:26 Morgen Wurde mit Toby Mak – Offenbarte sich [OFF 2015]
a closer listen 