Krypta: Memphis! Hallo! Düsseldorf! – Arthur Boto Conley’s Music Workshop presents Clifford Trunk

TBG 04 / 12″ Release-Party

mit:

DAME CARSTEN SCHUHE (Travel By Goods / Bangkok)
IT’S OK TO EXPLODE (Nicht hupen – Fahrer träumt von Omar S / Pudel)
KNOSPT (Knospt / Pudel)

Es wird eine auf 20 Schallplatten limitierte Spezial-Edition zu erwerben sein.

Arthur Boto Conley über Clifford Trunk:

In April 1986 I travelled to Düsseldorf. I was trying to meet journalist and musician Alexander Sevschek, who back then was better known under his pseudonym Xao Seffcheque. I was interested in the fake-projects he released under several aliases in the beginning of the 1980s. After many problems finding my way in the fall-out of the formerly thriving subculture, I hoped to meet him by chance in a quite obvious location: The Ratinger Hof. This venue, around the corner from the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, used to be a centre for the West-German counterculture, where artists mingled and fought with Rockers and Mods, then listened together to punk bands like 999, Wire, Mittagspause, Fehlfarben, Charley’s Girls, West Berlin’s DIN A Testbild and DAF – Deutsch-Amerikanische Freundschaft. When I entered the pub it was clear that I was too late to meet potential assistants for my research: In Düsseldorf, as in many other cities, property became more expensive through the beginning of the 1980s, and the subculture was priced out of town. It seemed that there was not much to do except sit on a barstool, drink cheap beer and stare at the faded artschool-glam interior; decorations which paled against the vision of owner Carmen Knoebel’s artist husband, Imi Knoebel, ten years before. In 1976, Knoebel threw out the shabby wild-west-decoration, painted over the dreamy stars on the ceiling, turned on the neon-lights and whitened all the walls. Now most of the neon bulbs were switched off and only tourists were hanging out, and – surprisingly – Bob Dylan’s Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again was blasting out of the stereo. „I would have expected Marshall Jefferson“ I said to a guy sitting next to me. „For a proper House-Party you should visit Hamburg and the famous Front-Club,“ he answered with an undertone of ennui. „But I guess you have no idea how appropriate this song is. As a welcome for future events. Here in Düsseldorf!“ He introduced himself to me as Clifford Trunk. He was raised in Southern Germany because his parents worked for the U.S. Airforce in Ramstein. He was never in the States, although he was a U.S.-citizen. Through his interest in architecture he decided to head south in 1982 and started to work for the famous Italian designer Ettore Sottsass and his associati. He told me that the associati – the Memphis design group – was named after the very Dylan song we were just listening to: „They had a meeting in December 1980 and the song had been played repeatedly through the evening. The fact that this song is now playing in this graveyard of German punk memories is just a coincidence, I suppose.“ With a smile, he looked around and continued: „ But my presence here is no coincidence.“ He told me that the European headquarters of the fashion-company Esprit would officially open in Düsseldorf the next day, in a building designed by the Sottsass associati and for which Clifford Trunk himself had designed the kitchenettes. „Much responsibility, you know what I mean. But this postmodern design is like a very strong drug. You cannot take too much. It’s like eating only cake.“ And he explained that after his job was done he preferred to sit alone in the Ratinger Hof while all the others involved were having a pre-party at Checker’s. Since he was no local and he came to the Hof just because it was „passé,“ I did not have the impression he could help with my search. Nevertheless, I told him about my activities in the past and the musical reason for my stay in Düsseldorf. „You are into drum-computers and synthesizers?“ he asked me enthusiastically. „I make music myself, and I just discovered the Roland 707 after playing around with the 808, the Wasp and some reasonable sample-synths!“ He lent down and started to search for something in his briefcase. „Here!“ he said, holding a purple tape-cassette in his hand: „This is some music I recorded in the last two years. It is split into two parts: Ballare, the Italian word for dancing on the A-side, and Sedersi, the Italian word for sitting on the B-side.“ He offered the tape to me. I asked him if this is the only tape he had, and he said that it is not the only tape, but the only copy. He insisted that I take it and finished his beer. „So. Now I have to leave. It will be a long day tomorrow. Why don’t you come over to the opening?“ He wrote down the address, and the way he said goodbye gave me the feeling that it was more than a loose appoinment. To my surprise I never met him again. The next day I was standing on the rainy construction site and the workers told me that the building might open in August, at the very earliest. So I returned to London without having spoken to Alexander Sevscheck, but with a distorted memory and a tape that I loved right from the start. It is with great pleasure that I share this memory, both in recalling my encounter with Clifford Trunk, and in presenting to you a small taste of his music: one track from Sedersi, and two from Ballare.

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