Terre Thaemlitz is an award-winning multi-media producer, writer, public speaker, educator, audio remixer, DJ and owner of the Comatonse Recordings record label. His work critically combines themes of identity politics - including gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race - with an ongoing critique of the socio-economics of commercial media production. This diversity of themes is matched by Thaemlitz' wide range of production styles, which include electroacoustic computer music, club-oriented deep house, digital jazz, ambient, and computer-composed neo-expressionist piano solos.
His audio projects have found release on a variety of record labels ranging from Mille Plateaux, to YMO founder Haruomi Hosono's Daisyworld Discs, to Bill Laswell's Subharmonic Records, to Universal Music Germany's Classical Division, and to the UK dance label Disorient, among others. Graphic design, photography, illustration, text and video also play a part in Thaemlitz' projects. His writings on music and culture have been published internationally in a number of books, academic journals and magazines.
Activism
As a speaker and educator on issues of non-essentialist transgenderism and pansexual Queer sexuality, Thaemlitz has participated in panel discussions throughout Europe and Japan, as well as held numerous cross-cultural sensitivity workshops at Tokyo's Uplink Factory, near his current residence in Kawasaki, Japan.
Terre Thaemlitz's Soil and Tranquilizer releases in the early and mid-1990s served to introduce a "political" form of ambient music, continued in later releases such as Couture Cosmetique and Means from an End, which aim to recast the usually passive artist-listener-environment equation. Thaemlitz' colleagues in the political ambient music front include the sound activist group Ultra-red. Following their remixes of Thaemlitz' Still Life with Numerical Analysis in 1998, Ultra-red joined Thaemlitz on the German label Mille Plateaux for their first two albums; Second Nature: An Electroacoustic Pastoral (1999) and Structural Adjustments (2000).
Discography
Albums
- DJ Sprinkles: Midtown 120 Blues
Mule Musiq, 2008, MMD7
- Terre Thaemlitz presents... You? Again?
Mule Electronic, 2006, MED05
- K-S.H.E (Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion): Routes Not Roots / Ruutsu De Ha Naku Ruuto
Comatonse Recordings, 2006, C.013.CD
- Trans-Sister Radio
Grain of Sound/Base Recordings, 2005, GOS018/BRCD00505
- Lovebomb / Ai No Bakudan
Double Disc DVD & Audio CD Re-issue
Comatonse Recordings, 2005, D.001
- Lovebomb / Ai No Bakudan
Mille Plateaux, 2003, MP117
- Oh, No! It's Rubato
Mille Plateaux, 2001, MPCD103/MPLP103
- Interstices
Mille Plateaux, 2000, MP94
- Fagjazz
Comatonse Recordings, 2000, C.007
- Replicas Rubato
Mille Plateaux, 1999, MPCD71 and MPLP71
- Love For Sale
Mille Plateaux, 1999, MPCD53
- Means From An End
Mille Plateaux, 1999, MPCD53
- G.R.R.L.
Comatonse Recordings, 1997, C.003
- Couture Cosmetique
Caipirinha Productions, 1997 (US)
Daisyworld Records, 1997 (Japan)
- Die Roboter Rubato
Mille Plateaux, 1997, MP34
- Soil
Instinct Ambient, 1995, AMB:007-2
- Tranquilizer
Instinct Ambient, 1994, EX-283-2
12" EPs
- DJ Sprinkles: Grand Central (Motor City Drum Ensemble Remixes)
Mule Musiq, 2009
- DJ Sprinkles: Brenda's $20 Dilemma (Kuniyuki Remix)
Mule Musiq, 2009, MM034
- DJ Sprinkles: Grand Central, Pt. I
Mule Musiq, 2008, MM033
- Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion: She's Hard Remixes
Mule Musiq, 2007, MM019
- You? Again? 3
Mule Electronic, 2006, M025
- You? Again? 2
Mule Electronic, 2006, M020
- You? Again? 1
Mule Electronic, 2006, M019
- K-S.H.E (Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion): Route 3 EP
Comatonse Recordings, 2006, C.013.EP3
- K-S.H.E (Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion): Route 2 EP
Comatonse Recordings, 2006, C.013.EP2
- K-S.H.E (Kami-Sakunobe House Explosion): Route 1 EP
Comatonse Recordings, 2006, C.013.EP1
- Comatonse.000.R2
Comatonse Recordings, 2004, C.000.R2
- The Opposite Of Genius Or Chance
EN/OF, 2003, EN/OF 013
- Teriko: Hystoric Trace ("Fake")
Hysteric Trace, 2003, INEX-002
- Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion: A Crippled Left Wing Soars With The Right
Comatonse Recordings, 2002, C.010
- Social Material: Class/Consciousness
Comatonse Recordings, 2001, C.009
- DJ Sprinkles: Bassline.89
Comatonse Recordings, 2001, C.008
- DJ Sprinkles: Sloppy 42nds
Comatonse Recordings, 1998, C.006
- Terre's Neu Wuss Fusion: She's Hard
Comatonse Recordings, 1998, C.004
- Comatonse.000.R1
Comatonse Recordings, 1997, C.000.R1
Translucent vinyl re-issue of C.000 with previously unreleased outro "Pretty Mouth (He's Got One)"
Contains "Raw Through A Straw" and "Tranquilizer."
7" Singles
- Chugga: A Big 7-Inch
Austria: Klanggallerie, 2003, GG73
- Selling
Netherlands: Bottrop-Boy, 2000, B-BOY 003
- A-MUSAK
Germany: A-Musik, 1999, A-14
DJ mixes
- DJ Sprinkles: DEEPERAMA (Module Party 5)
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2003, DCM5
- DJ Sprinkles' DEEPERAMA (Module Party 8)
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2004, DCM8
- PASTIME PARADISE
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2004, DPP1
- DJ Sprinkles' DEEPERAMA (Module Party 9)
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2004, DCM9
- DJ Sprinkles' DEEPERAMA (Module Party 10)
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2004, DCM10
- DJ Sprinkles' DEEPERAMA (Module Party 14)
Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005, DCM14
Collaborations
Internet-only releases
| Below Code
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Comatonse Records, Terre Thaemlitz released a free best-of compilation CD. Physical copies are no longer in print, but MP3s are available for free download (along with a bonus track that did not fit on the original release).
Comatonse Recordings, 2006, C.012
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Radio dramas
| Trans-Sister Radio
Germany: Hessischer Rundfunk Radio, Channel HR2, Frankfurt M, 2004. Premier airdate November 17, 2004. Hörspiel, Redaktion: Manfred Hess. Also released on CD (Portugal: Grain of Sound/Base Recordings, 2005, GOS018/BRCD00505).
The Laurence Rassel Show (with Laurence Rassel), (Germany: Hessischer Rundfunk Radio, Channel HR2, Frankfurt M, 2006). Premier airdate April, 2006. Hörspiel, Redaktion: Manfred Hess.
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Filmography
- ffwd_mag (DVD + Magazine)
Italy: .::invernomuto::., 2005, Issue 3. Audio and photography.
- Lovebomb / Ai No Bakudan (Full-length film/music videos)
Written, directed, filmed and edited by Terre Thaemlitz. Originally released on VHS (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2003, V.002). In English and Japanese. Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005/2003, D.001.NTSC | D.001.PAL.
- Interstices (Short film/music videos)
Written, directed, filmed and edited by Terre Thaemlitz. Commissioned by Lovebytes and funded by the National Arts Council of England. Released with "Silent Passability" on DVD (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005, D.000.NTSC). Originally released on VHS (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2001, V.001) and DVD ("Volatile Media," UK: Lovebytes, 2002, DSP2). Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005/2001, D.000.NTSC.
- Silent Passability (Ride to the Countryside) (Music video)
Written, directed, filmed and edited by Terre Thaemlitz. Released with "Interstices" on DVD (Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005, D.000.NTSC). Originally released on VHS (US: Comatonse Recordings, 1997, V.000). Japan: Comatonse Recordings, 2005/1997, D.000.NTSC.
- Modulations (documentary)
Directed by Iara Lee, produced by George Gund, (US: Caipirinha Productions, 1998). Interview.
- Neue Kraft, Neues Werk (Transcodeur Express) (documentary)
Directed by Ninon Liotet and Olivier Schulbaum, (Germany: ZDF 2002). Interview and music.
- Synthetic Pleasures (documentary)
Directed by Iara Lee, produced by George Gund, (US: Caipirinha Productions, 1995). Three tracks featured on soundtrack. Sound engineering for trailer.
Awards
- Honorable Mention In Digital Musics, 1999 ORF Prix Ars Electronica
- Best Ambient/Experimental Artist 1997, 1997 Readers Poll Results in "URB Magazine" (US: March/April 1998)
- Best DJ 1991, Underground Grammy Award from the House of Magic, Midtown Manhattan drag circuit
Interviews
External links
