When The Quietus spoke to Einsturzende Neubauten’s Blixa Bargeld back in 2010 he told us that "We know that the gigantic monster Einsturzende Neubauten is going to go to sleep on the bottom of the ocean for a while." Thankfully for fans for erudite clattering, the group have announced they’re making a return with what sounds like a rather remarkable composition. Neubauten have composed a piece of music called LAMENT, to be premiered at Diksmuide in Belgium on November 8th 2014 as part of the commemoration of a battle one hundred years before. That event is called Against The Neglection: Gone West – the fall of Diksmuide 1914-2014. The group will then tour LAMENT, featuring a date at London’s KOKO on November 19th.
The project, about which more can be read here, sounds fascinating: we’re told that "this will not be a concert about World War One" but instead music inspired by related themes and issues. The group have made LAMENT after researching audio recording of interviews with prisoners of war from all over the world that are held at the Humboldt University and the German Broadcasting Archives, along with other material from the Dresden military history museum. We’re told that the musical forms of the lament and the motet will be combined with the voices of the POWs to form the basis of the musical piece, which will also incorporate the music of the Harlem Hell Fighters, the Afro-American soldiers who fought alongside the French during the War.
