Schimpfluch-Gruppe at "Experiments 2," GMBH Records, Paris, November 23, 1996
Schimpfluch is the name of an experimental Swiss label, and a performance group comprised of the label's various participants (most importantly, Rudolf Eb.er, the man who operates under the very strange name "Runzelstirn and Gurgelstock"). One could thus not know what to expect of their Parisian performance, given the framework of Experiments 2. One of Schimpfluch's members had spoken vaguely of our kitchen, and pasta...
The surprise was total!
A young woman (Helena Greter) plays (or makes squeaks with) a violin; two young men with strict appearances (white shirts, black ties) sit impassively before plates of spaghetti bolognaise. One tirelessly generates a sort of amplified ambiance. Contact mikes are positioned everywhere - on the chairs, the tables, the bodies, in the performers' mouths. The only other noises which arise are the sounds of breath and the friction of microphones against fabric, etc.
Suddenly, Eb.er slams his face into a dish of spaghetti. It is a pathetic site. As Eb.er impassively raises his head, Dave Phillips, his compatriot in Schimpfluch, does the same. The noises accelerate (jerked breaths, the squeak of chairs and the violin), and the performers' heads fall into and rise from the spaghetti more and more quickly.
Eb.er is then apparently seized by spasms, and collapses, taking his chair with him. The din of the contact mics is incredible. In an instant, all is still. The performers remain at their chairs, figures covered in red. Then the previous actions begin again, but in a far more radical fashion. At this point the audience, who have thus far remained silent in the face of the group's transgressions, begin to attack the table, chairs, Schimpfluch themselves. Chairs are broken, swung over the performers' heads, beer is thrown, etc. The concert ends in fisticuffs, punctuated by the strident howling of the audience. Everything is destroyed...
