Felix Kubin

Legendary German eccentric Felix Kubin has produced music and art across nearly his entire existence. A broad catalog encompasses radio dramas, Dadaist synth pop, chamber-orchestra compositions, cinematic scoring, and experimental noise. Minimal-wave and post-punk taping began for him in the early 1980s; near the decade’s close he launched the electro-acoustic noise endeavor Klangkrieg. Soundtracks for Mariola Brillowska animations followed, later gathered on the 1998 compilation Filmmusik, before he resumed abstract electro-pop with the 2011 anthology Bruder Luzifer, which gathers his most approachable work. Two albums issued under the name Felix Kubin und das Mineralorchester survey his extensive scores for stage productions and experimental broadcasts. Collaborations have included the chamber ensemble Ensemble Intégrales, the French-German kitsch-meisters Stereo Total, Polish percussionist Hubert Zemler, and numerous additional partners.

Felix Knoth entered the world in Hamburg during 1969. Childhood studies encompassed piano, organ, and glockenspiel, yet the 1980 purchase of a Korg MS-20 synthesizer ignited his electronic-music explorations. Countless cassettes of eccentric avant-pop material soon accumulated, characterized by frenetic rhythms and nonsensical texts. The duo Die Egozentrischen 2, formed with Stefan Mohr in 1982, delivered a notorious performance at Hamburg’s Möbel Perdú gallery in 1984. Independent German imprint Zickzack, previously home to Einstürzende Neubauten and X Mal Deutschland, planned to issue some of Knoth’s early recordings in 1985, though the project collapsed. In 1987 Knoth and Tim Buhre established the experimental outfit Klangkrieg, forging a Futurist-inspired blend of organized artificial and natural sounds. The pair presented concerts featuring analog processing, tape manipulations, multiphonic loudspeaker arrays, and visual elements, occasionally performing in total darkness, and they began releasing albums with a self-titled effort in 1993.

While an art student in Hamburg in 1992, Knoth co-established the socialist Dadaist political entity KED (Kommunistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands). Its musical extension, Liedertafel Margot Honecker, issued two 7" EPs of overtly propagandistic anthems that the artist maintains were conceived as sincere morale boosters. Unexpected newspaper attention followed, yet the organization dissolved in 1994.

Adoption of the surname Kubin occurred in 1998 upon the founding of Gagarin Records. The label’s inaugural release, Filmmusik, compiled his scores for two Mariola Brillowska animated films. Frequent 7" singles soon appeared, spanning hypnotic space-lounge lullabies to distorted sci-fi pop. The 8-bit techno EP Jetlag Disko surfaced in 2000 on A-Musik, which issued several further Kubin titles throughout the decade. Storage Records brought out Tesla’s Aquarium, a joint project with recurring partner Pia Burnette, the same year. Early recordings finally reached the public in 2003 when DAT Politics’ Ski-pp label released The Tetchy Teenage Tapes of... Solo album Matki Wandalki arrived in 2004; Russian imprint Solnze Records followed with the 2005 compilation Atoma Exi Mono. Also that year, the music of Die Egozentrischen 2 first appeared on a limited LP titled Der Aufstand Der Chemiker. Suppe Für Die Nacht, a 2006 collaboration with Coolhaven, contained the buoyant, self-mocking single “There Is a Garden,” among Kubin’s best-known tracks. He scored Brillowska’s musical H.O.N.D. House of National Dog, issued in 2007. Additional 2007 releases comprised Detached from All Objects (with Burnette) and Axolotl Lullabies, a set of remixes and compilation cuts.

Dekorder issued Music for Theatre and Radio Play under the Felix Kubin und das Mineralorchester moniker in 2008 and, two years later, Echohaus, a joint effort with Ensemble Intégrales. A DVD anthology Fernsehpropheten assembled music videos, films, and live footage. Australia’s Omni Recording Corporation presented Bruder Luzifer in 2011, the broadest survey of Kubin’s pop-oriented material. It’s released the full-length experimental work TXRF, constructed around X-ray sources, in 2012. Later that year Minimal Wave offered Teenage Tapes, another collection of early recordings, while Intermedium Records brought out the radio play Orphée Mécanique. Multiple labels issued the 2013 avant-pop album Zemsta Plutona, featuring Kubin’s Klaus Nomi-inspired reading of “Lightning Strikes.” Bakterien & Batterien, his project with Polish experimental big band Mitch & Mitch, also appeared that year. The radio drama Chromdioxidgedächtnis followed in 2014, and II: Music for Film and Theatre emerged in 2016. A split LP with Splitter Orchestra, Shine On You Crazy Diagram, appeared the same year. Editions Mego issued Takt Der Arbeit, a percussion-centric piece commissioned by North German Radio, in 2017. Hamburg label V I S released the 2019 LP Max Brand Studie IV/Topia, containing two installation scores. Kubin and Hubert Zemler, who had earlier contributed to Takt Der Arbeit, formed the duo CEL, whose self-titled debut came out on Bureau B in 2020.