CASSIBER 1982-1992

True to their communicative intent, the group continued to tour across Europe, Russia, North America, Canada and Japan - every now and then returning to East Germany, where their connections gradually grew stronger. Heiner and Chris developed close relationships with the two academics who had first introduced them into the country: Gunter Mayer and Peter Wicke. Heiner began to work with Heiner Muller, and Chris became my Western contact during the years I was curating and organising the concert series Music & Politics (1984-88) - a series that combined experimental musics from various genres in a single event. Over these five years, a number of alternative Western groups and artists - Duck and Cover[Duck & Cover (West Germany, England, America. Tom Cora, Chris Cutler, Fred Frith, Heiner Goebbels, Alfred Harth, Dagmar Krause and George Lewis).], Music for Films[Music for Films (England. Lindsay Cooper, with Sally Potter, Georgie Born, Phil Minton, Chris Cutler and Vicky Aspinail).], Dagmar Krause[Krause singt Eisler (England. Dagmar Krause with Jason Osborn and Peader Long).], Grubenklang Orchestra[Grubenklang Orchestra (West Germany. Led by Georg Graewe).] and Kalahari Surfers[Kalahari Surfers (South Africa. Warick Swinney, realised with English musicians Tim Hodgkinson and Chris Cutler).], as well as Cassiber - appeared on the same bill as experimental ensembles and composers from the East, who presented Contemporary music, electroacoustic and acousmatic compositions or Performance pieces. It was at one of these concerts that Cassiber met the East German composer Georg Katzer, who arranged for the group to record their fourth album A Face We All Know at the studio of the Academy of Art, in the heart of East Berlin - the first time, I am sure, that an album had been recorded by a Western Rock band in an East German state studio. The album’s topic - the ramblings of a beleaguered and deranged dictator - was apt, even prophetic, at a time of growing social and political upheaval in the East Block. The short eccentric film footage in this box[Uwe Baumgartner, Gerd Kroske, Jurgen Kuttner and Mario Persch, Cassiber, Dezember '88 Berlin, Academy of Art of the GDR, 1989.] - the work of three East Berlin fans - reflects this bizarre situation.

By now, Cassiber was well known by both alternative-minded musicians and audiences in East Germany, and they flocked from all over the country to attend the annual Music & Politics events, leading eventually to the series being placed under a media ban. Despite this, the group’s unconventional musical style influenced a number of alternative East German over- and under-ground bands, notably Der Expander des Fortschritts[The Expander des Fortschritts. Avantgarde-Band from East Berlin (1986-1990).]. In the midst of this growing social turmoil, the time was ripe for more unprecedented action, so we embarked on another adventure: organising a six concert tour for Cassiber across East Germany, just days before the wall came down (13-22 October 1989)[The tour was managed by Gerhard Busse, who now runs the label No Mans Land Germany.]. The atmosphere at these concerts was explosive and had a truly empowering effect on us.

For me, Cassiber will always be linked to these exciting times, this short period of hope, in which alternative social change actually seemed possible. It gave me the liberating experience of discovering a different understanding of music - and of art in general: my personal gateway into a new aesthetics.

FRANKO FABBRI

Meetings

Franco Fabbri had independent connections with both Chris Cutler (through Henry Cow and Rock in Opposition) and the duo Goebbels/Harth. He proposed and organised the Cassix project in Montepulciano.