Maeror Tri

Maeror Tri was an ambient, noise and drone music band from Germany founded in the 1980s which consisted of Stefan "Baraka H" Knappe, Martin "GLIT H" Gitschel and Helge S. Hammerbrook (a.k.a. Helge Siehl).

In a way similar to Zoviet France, they used only live instruments to produce music with an enormous number of effects applied. They disbanded in the late 1990s after releasing a number of limited-edition records. They released music on labels such as Old Europa Cafe, Ant-Zen, Staalplaat, and Soleilmoon.

Stefan and Martin continued under the name of Troum, while Helge is recording as Tausendschoen and as H.S. Hammerbrook. Stefan Knappe is also the founder and owner of Drone Records.

History

German band Maeror Tri was founded in April 1988 by Stefan Knappe and Helge S. Hammerbrook (in early years as Helge as Moune).
The group consisted of three members who only used electric guitars and tons of processing devices to create their droning soundscapes. Their music borrowed elements from Industrial, avant-garde, minimalism and New Age meditation to reach a new form of transcendentalism. Very little is known about their origins, even the identity of the band’s members remains vague, except for Stefan Knappe, the group's spokesperson and also owner of the label Drone Records. Nevertheless it is for sure that all three members origin from the city Leer in northern Germany and know each other since their time in school.

The name they chose is probably an incorrect Latin expression that may be better translated as "The Mourning Three" or "The Grieving Three".

"Dedicated To A New Dawn", their first cassette, was self-released on their own Baracken Records in 1988, soon followed by many more cassette works on labels like ZNS, Tonspur and Audiofile, and a lot of compilations appearances.

In 1993 Korm Plastics (a label ran by Frans de Waard) released the very first "overground" Maeror Tri album "Multiple Personality Disorder" a concept CD divided in four long parts recorded back in 1991 that fully showcase their mastery in distorting and layering guitar sounds. It was soon followed by "Meditamentum", a collection of tracks from their first six cassette releases recorded between 1988 and 1993.

"Myein", a work recorded between 1992 and 1993, was released on American label ND in 1995. This work presented three long tracks that well exemplify some of the aspects of their art: the gothic droning of "Phlogiston", the ambient-electronica of "Desiderium", and the 47 minute long title track. The group expanded the themes of "Myein" into a 12 hour live performance at the AVE (Audio Visual Experimental) Festival in Arnhem, The Netherlands, in 1995. Extracts of the recorded performance were later released in 2010 on ''The A.V.E. - Tapes / Live in Nevers''.

"Language of Flames and Sound", released on Italian label Old Europa Cafe in 1996, continued to chronicle the group's evolution into more abstract domains.

In May 1995, the group played the Ultimate Music Festival in Nevers, France, alongside Deutsch Nepal, Edward Ka-Spel, and Tony Wakeford among others. In July 1996, the band played a two-day festival in Cologne Germany alongside artists such as Faust, Thomas Köner, and Atom Heart among others. In September 1996, the group played the Heavy Nursing festival in Ghent, Belgium, which was headlined by Zoviet France.

In late 1996, as the group was about to break into the growing experimental electronica scene, one member of the band, Helge S. Moune, decided to quit, leaving Knappe and his other partner to continue as the duo Troum. "Mort aux Vaches", a symphony in three movements and the group's installment in Staalplaat's series of experimental electronica, and "Emotional Engramm" (on Iris Light), probably their most accessible recording, were both released in 1997 after their dissolution.

Archive material has continued to surface over the years after the group ceased to exist: a second volume of ''Meditamentum'', released on Manifold in 1999, salvaged more material from the early years limited edition cassettes (works from 1989 to 1992), while the "Hypnotikum I" and "Hypnotikum II" LPs are valid examples of the group's live attitude.

''Yearning for the Secret of Nature'' is a "cassette album".

ZNS Tapes, long defunct tape label from Germany, offered a catalogue of all music released by the label during its existence from 1987 to 1993. Some of the offered works include "Ambient Dreams" by Maeror Tri and a compilation called "Non-Nuclear War" to which Maeror Tri contributed track called "Ecstatic Singing".

In 2005, EE Tapes released a CD compendium of all the band's vinyl releases except their first 7", "Saltatrix".

Musical style

Piero Scaruffi wrote in 2003 that Maeror Tri "pioneered music for guitar-drones."

In 1996, Hungarian magazine ''Második Látás'' wrote an article analysing the work of Maeror Tri in context of the industrial music. They singled out their albums ''Yearning for the Secret of Nature'' and ''Multiple Personality Disorder'' as "great example of their musical endeavors" and praising their ability to blend the "occupation of nature with psychic health", reinforcing our mind with "symbolic agitation of reality-infuriated, not merely amusing noises and through them. The magazine additionally highlighted that their compilation work, ''Meditamentum'', "requires intelligent and sensitive attention".

In the same 1996 issue, appeared a review for their work ''Myein'', describing it as a "masterpiece, and one of the highlights and fulfillment of post industrial, or (ITT) ambient-noise". The first composition, "Phlogiston", cascades with several layers of guitar sounds, mixed in way that it "sounds even more blurred than in Branca's works, repetitive pulsations stretched to catharsis". On the second composition, "Desiderium", the noises calm down, and "the long-held notes slowly mature into melodies". Mood-wise, it was characterized as an "irresistible force" pulling towards "the path of self-discovery, .even when deep pains await him on this path". The music of Maeror Tri, according ''Második Látás'', provides the "a larger and broader framework, beyond space and time" that can be inhibited by a listener.

Discography

Discography - Compilation appearances

See also

*List of ambient music artists

References

External links

{{Authority control
German noise musical groups
Dark ambient music groups
Drone music groups