Annette Kerbs — Konstruktion#1 & #2 | Sah

Here we have a CD bringing together work by German improviser Annette Krebs from between the years 2014 and 2018. Her work is often extremely sparse, spaced and abstracted take on improv/ modern composition.
 

The CD is a self-release-coming presented in a six-panel mini gatefold- which features close up pictures of her fairly grey looking set-up/ installation work and overlaid black texts. Not sure how many of these were pressed- but I’m betting it’s was a small amount.
 
Berlin-born and base Krebs has been active since the early 2000’s- releasing over twenty-five releases. She has improvised utilizing guitar, but seemingly this collection is more minimal/not formal instrument based featuring metal pieces, microphones, voice, stringed woods, plastic animals, computer, midi controllers, pencil and paper, foil and parchment manipulation, sine waves, and vocal samples.
 
The CD takes in three tracks in all- two over the twenty-minute mark, and one around the elven minute mark. First, off we have “Konstruktion#1”- and here we find just under twenty-three minutes of heavily spaced tonal hits, metallic tones( be they forward or reversed), light serrated cymbal/ metalwork, and electro-acoustic tones/ light feedback. With later on silly cut-up vocal hums appear, and use of overlong pauses.  This track really, feels double Its runtime- coming across as aimless plonking 'n' blinking, with zero atmosphere, clever sound use, or compelling arrangement- and boy does she like to spacing things out, in a rather meaningless and annoying way. 
 
Next, we have the baby of the bunch “Sah” which runs at just over the eleven-minute mark. It starts with a mix of an uncertain German man speaking a few lines, with pencil scribbling on paper. As we move on, we have a layered male and female German voice, with an artily pretentious man talking in English over the top. Later sloppy sped-up voices and bland vocal effects appear. Truly it's just a random mess of sounds- with zero composition or pull about it.
 
Last up we have the longest track of the release “Konstruktion#2” which slides in at the twenty-four minute and forty-one-second mark. Here we find distant trying to sound atmospheric metal hits, more blandly placed silence, unpleasant & uninteresting sine wave tone blended with bland male voice samples, etc. Later on, it features some more blunt moving towards noise junk metal elements, which initially sounds interesting- then falls into abstracted and badly composed bland-ness.
 
In finishing I think Konstruktion#1 & 2 | Sah stands as one of the worse examples of improv/ modern composition I’ve heard in some time. There’s just no flare, composition skill, or rewarding structure/ sound use to grab onto.