by Skip Jansen
A series of minimal experimental pieces the German avant-garde composer produced that stands as one of the most interesting items he has released in an abundant discography of obscure, abstract albums. The composer was making experimental pieces as early as 1965, which in retrospect could easily be defined as the earliest seeds of industrial music. In this later period of his work, Asmus Tietchens uses tone generators and electronic filtering to transform modulating static waves of noise into intense, slowly unfolding pieces. Gamma-Menge seemingly transforms the air into a vibrant, pulsating wave of continuous sound, creating a threatening tension that makes the terms dark ambient and electro-acoustic make sense as literal descriptions for this work rather than genre tags. The composer is experimenting with sonic phenomena in a similar fashion to minimalist composers La Monte Young and Phill Niblock, yet his music balances on the threshold of audibility, where science and music meet.