Activity Center & Phil Minton

Michael Renkel: acoustic guitar, zither, percussion
Burkhard Beins: percussion, zither
Phil Minton: voice

Vocalist Phil Minton's instinctive ability to pull something new from his throat has to be admired. In the company of guitarist Michael Renkel and percussionist Burkhard Beins (known collectively as Activity Center), Minton finds plenty of material within their music and noisemaking to wrap his vocal cords around, all of which allows his creative persona to fully unfurl as the session progresses. As part of Activity Center he opens up with an astonishing array of guttural squeaks, burps, groans and gasps: what sounds like his very soul is straining to burst free. Accompanied by Renkel's sensitively stroked acoustic guitar and zither and Beins's equally emotive percussion and occasional bowed cymbal, the six pieces here range from the humorous to the grotesque. On the elongated "RubbleRubble", all three musicians fuse together in a constantly shifting surge, punctuated throughout with barks, growls and excited pantings in the dark from Minton's seemingly endless store of vocal distortions. Chased around by Beins and Renkel's fractured instrumentation, the trio rock out to a scattered beat of madness, joy and sheer bedlam.
- Edwin Pouncy, The Wire -

2003 ACTIVITY CENTER & PHIL MINTON (rapidshare/mediafire)

Activity Center - Lohn & Brot

Michael Renkel: acoustic guitar, preparations, amplified stringboard, live electronics, percussion
Burkhard Beins: drums, cymbals, e-bowed and propelled zither, mixing desk, handheld electronics

"the activity center started off in 1989 with a conglomeration of instruments and sound sources at hand, comprising prepared tapes and tape loops, toys and homemade instruments, an inside piano, zither, contact mikes and radio, next to electric and acoustic guitars, and percussion. throughout the 1990's the focus shifted almost exclusively towards the sonic potential of their acoustic main instruments: spanish guitar and percussion extended only by preparations and the use of various objects as documented on their first musical summary möwen & moos, a double cd released in 1999 after the first 10 years of their collaborative artistic development.

another decade on the activity center has been amplified again, extended by electronic software and devices, and relocated on tables. by completing this kind of circle all discoveries they have made so far seem to be now at their disposal. but as a matter of course lohn & brot is once again a transitory piece of work. a hybrid of acoustic noise and electro-acoustic subtlety, immediate manual access and complex treatment. - what will come next ?"-Absinthe Records

2009 LOHN & BROT