Tapes


Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide (DSIP) was founded in 1989 by Dieter Mauson, one half of Nostalgie Éternelle, and Siegmar Fricke, who was musically active at the time under his name and his Bestattungsinstitut alias. The duo was active until the summer of 1994, producing over 25 tapes over this period and releasing on a range of independent labels, including IRRE, Corrosive, EE and Toracic Tapes, as well as their own privately-run imprint, Delta-Sleep-Inducing Productions. DSIP’s music concentrated on the realisation of experimental and subtle soundtracks, described as mind-cinema of the subconscious, and sought to explore the different stages of sleep, and the phenomena of dreams, through their idiosyncratic sound approach. Recordings were made using a range of equipment, including a multi-track tape recorder, Roland sampler, analog synths, various drum machines and Dictaphones. Samples for their works were often taken from local radio which they were listening to at the time, much of which was Dutch (Hilversum 3) as they both grew up near the Germany-Netherlands border; Dieter in Leer and Siegmar in Wilhelmshaven. By the time they got in contact with one another in the summer of 1989, Dieter was living over 500 km away in Mainz, near Frankfurt, where he moved at the start of the year, so recordings were only made when Dieter was back seeing his parents and then able to visit Siegmar’s home studio in Wilhelmshaven. In June 1991, Dieter moved back to the North of Germany, Hamburg, and their recording sessions became much more frequent. Sometimes they would meet for a few hours, others for several days. The results were hugely diverse, though frequently centred on meditative and repetitive motifs, and are still so uniquely futuristic almost 35 years after the group was initiated. Evil, an album released in 1992 during the midst of this hugely productive period, encapsulates such expressions, and is presented with a first-time reissue in its original format.

Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide – Evil

C45 with on-body printing in jewel case, printed two-sided j-card and wrap-around o-card sleeveExperimental soundtrack to a play you probably didn’t think existed, and definitely didn’t think you’d hear, steeped in historical context, and comprising a sonic mixture of early digital synthesis with eerie tape loops, feedback and 80’s stomp box effects.Kolbe tells the story of a Polish Catholic priest who volunteered to die in place of another man in Auschwitz during WWII. In July 1941, a prisoner escaped from the camp, prompting the deputy commander to pick ten men to be starved to death in an underground bunker to deter further escape attempts. When one of the men selected, Franciscek Gajowniczek, a young husband and father, cried out, Maximilian Kolbe volunteered to take his place. According to an eyewitness, who was an assistant janitor at that time, in his prison cell Kolbe led the prisoners in prayer. Each time the guards checked on him, he was standing or kneeling in the middle of the cell and looking calmly at those who entered. After they had been starved and deprived of water for two weeks, only Kolbe and three others remained alive. The guards wanted the bunker emptied, so they gave the four remaining prisoners lethal injections. He died on 14 August 1941. Years later he was beatified as a Confessor of the Faith by Pope Paul VI in 1971 and canonised as a saint by Pope John Paul II in 1982, with a feast day celebrated since on the day of his death as part of the General Roman Calendar.Over the course of 1985-86, the production company Theatre of Poland, toured Kolbe, a play based on the book by Desmond Forristal, to Catholic churches around Europe. The recordings presented here are part of a cassette that sold on the tour, recovered in Lyttelton, New Zealand, and then mastered in Brisbane, Australia, in April 2023. Audio snippets have also been added to the cassette, including live recordings from the theatrical performance at St Edwards Church, Windsor, September 1986, as well as snippets from the films, Tag der Freiheit: Unsere Wehrmacht (1935), and Festliches Nuernberg - Ein Film aus der Stadt der Reichsparteitage (1937). Please note these are exclusive to this version and do not feature on the digital recording.

Martin Franklin & Michael O'Dempsey – Kolbe