No, this is not a new Turbund Sturmwerk album. “Sturmgeweiht” is a re-release of a historical sound document, that so far only appeared on a limited tape, way back in 1992. Sturmgeweiht was written to be performed live in 1992, but was canceled then, because of its controversial nature. In the booklet you can read more about that happening. The point of view of the band was simple: “Bei der Auseinandersetzung mit Kunst sollte Moralismus keine übergeordnete Rolle spielen dürfen”. Only the tape appeared afterwards. This was the first official Turbund Sturmwerk release, which now is available to a wider audience on cd. This release documents the musical beginnings of this mysterious project. It contains their well-known and influential cocktail of classical industrial structures, powerful percussion, samples and spoken-word collages.
The music on “Sturngeweiht” is rawer and extremer than on their latest album “Weltbrand”, and less martial and bombastic. Harsh electronics, strange rhythms and noises and vocal samples form the menu, on the often quite minimal tracks. Of course many extreme political and occult samples can be found. For instance on the first track, which contains fragments of a speech by Thomas Mann against anitsemitism, but also a speech by Robert Leys, who was involved in the organization Kraft durch Freude. All tracks are untitled, my favourite one is the last track, which I find musically the most interesting, with powerful percussion, layers of sound with a lot of tension, and an angelic girl choir.
