SCHREINER, Bernard
Some Personal Appearances

Performed in the artist’s Frankfurt studio in 2015, Some Personal Appearances features zither recordings made using a bow, mallets, effect pedals and other materials.

The album evokes Anton Karas on mescaline; post-war Vienna, and the imaginative space of cinema. Schreiner’s interest in 19th century spiritism suggests an affinity for the improvisatory, the magnetism of knowing and not knowing. Regarding live performance, Schreiner has said, “I try to construct setups I’m not able to control entirely; setups that have potential to surprise me or that are just too complex to be securely managed in all their parameters, without losing the overview.”

Some Personal Appearances combines complex layering with tactile immediacy. Carefully defined loop lengths produce uncanny repetitions and phantom sounds. Similar to the experience of observing a photograph develop in analog photography, sounds coalesce and an image takes form. Blurring personal biography with geographic coincidence, the album cover (and the ephemera in the sleeve) references Karas, a Viennese zitherist, famous at the time for his “Harry Lime Theme,” scored for the 1949 film, The Third Man. [publisher’s note]

Published by Small World, 2016
LPs & EPs