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 Couch
Music without singing and
solos. That's how Couch labelled themselves on their
first album. Music made by guitar, bass guitar and drums,
founded in Munich and released on the Weilheim-based
label Kollaps. That was in 1995 at the dawn of postrock
and indietronics. Maybe Couch also stole a glance at
Chicago, listening to Shellac or Tortoise. But in fact
the and took their seats in their very own living room
a long time ago. A place where the paradigms postrock,
jazz or electronica were written on the walls only by
visitors. By music critics, for instance. Music without
singing and solos. Reduced to the maximum. In spite
of the force the songs of Couch create, the result is
minimal music in its best sense. Purified structures
and hymnal maybe but never opulent. Each instrument,
each noise, each note stands confidently and necessarily
in its place. Couch's songs take their omnipresent dynamics
from this compositional condensing. On their second
album, released in 1998, the band exposed this way of
working self-consciously: "Etwas benutzen"
is the name of the record, "using something"
would be an appropriate translation. "Using"
in the sense of putting components in the service of
a whole. In other words: enough is always better than
too much. A likeable balance of abstraction and melody.
This way of working remained on "Fantasy"
released in 2000 when the sound and band were extended.
Michael Heilrath (bass, composition), Jürgen Söder
(guitar) and soon Thomas Geltinger (drums) were and
are Couch. In addition, Stefanie Böhm (Ms. John
Soda) joined the band. Her arrival offered a keyboard
to the band-context as well as an energetic indulging
new passion for pop and melodies: the heartiness of
the rationale, so to say; still without any singing
and solos. After the album "Etwas Benutzen"
the Berlin-based label Kitty-Yo has took care of Couch's
releases. With "Fantasy" and subsequent album
"Profane" a US-deal with the legendary label
Matador was sealed. Couch became - maybe unwillingly
- some sort of a band of reference. Maybe this also
explains the short-term impression of having told enough.
The new, fifth Couch record is the first after a break
of nearly five years. And it's the first one on Morr
Music, a company that has been lurking in the background;
because of the musicians - part of the Morr-universe
for many years now - and the melodies.
Links
www.morrmusic.com
www.couchmusik.de
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