Gesellschaft Zur Emanzipation Des Samples - Besuch aus der Unterwelt
Check out this footnote on GES (as it's abbreviated by the label) on Faitiche's website:
* The premise of the G.E.S.:Approximately 90 % of all music copyright disputes end in a settlement. Thus, the damages to the sampling artist are primarily of a financial nature: legal fees and the sum of the actual settlement. So, what if members of the G.E.S. contributed an annual fee to cover such fees and damages? The sampling artist could pursue his work, secure in the knowledge that any legal correspondence or similar would be covered by the society. This financial security, in turn, could pave the way for a brazen sense of legal security. A sense of legal protection to prevent persistent worries about the source material's recognisability – does it require further distortion or modification to avoid infringement of third party rights? In short: the pool would enable the emancipation of aesthetic and content-related considerations from copyright claims.Naturally, this newfound 'legal security' remains deceptive – after all, it would help to limit, not prevent potential damages in case of a lawsuit. Perceived legal protection becomes the glorious gloss of the decriminalisation of sampling. A valid fallacy nevertheless – as long as the illusion has an emancipating influence on the artist's overall approach.
I love this idea. Besuch aus der Unterwelt is from GES's "More Circulations" which follows up on the technique used on the collective's first album, "Circulations." The idea, besides the legal/aesthetic freedom outlined above, is to make collages of sampled (or otherwise) material played in public places, for instance, with this release, in a hotel lobby, in an office, a public garden, a beach in Portugal, etc. (if I had to guess at the location for Besuch aus der Unterwelt, I'd say the lobby or the office). Creeping organ, glassy percussive essence, a pause, some talk, a laugh, static, the end.[BUY More Circulations]