Pitchfork

A list of rules/suggestions for swimming the 33km English Channel from Dover, England to Calais, France:

01 The channel is not your friend
02 It's cold, you'll shiver
03 Don't swallow the seawater
04 Try to get the extra-centimeter out of every stroke
05 Rhythm reduces effort
06 Put one hand in front of the other until you grab the sand
07 Think about anything except distance to the shore
08 The water is never what you expect
09 Try not to drown
10 Even if you are perfect, there's no guarantee you'll make it

Don't those rules and the thought of the grueling physical torture required to swim across that wonderful stretch of water make you lust for the creation of a documentary about it? Perhaps a documentary by Jörg Adolph called Kanalschwimmer, scheduled to be broadcast on German television network ZDF on September 6th? Well, that's good, because it exists! Doesn't it also leave you hankering for the simultaneous release of a soundtrack to the film featuring the work of artists such as The Notwist, electro artist Console, and the prolific Klimek, which will be released on Alien Transistor records? We hope so, cause that exists, too.

This outing will be the first release of new Notwist material since the Different Cars and Trains EP of earlier this year, which, although primarily a remix project, did contain one solitary (and perhaps lonely?) piece of music that had yet to be released in North America. The group's last full-length release was 2002's critically acclaimed Neon Golden, which artfully combined the sounds of low-key indie rock with the emerging sonic palette of the IDM world, a sound made possible by a certain Martin Gretschmann. Gretschmann, who has released solo work under the name Console, will be contributing to the soundtrack both with The Notwist and all by his little old self.

Also contributing to the work will be media artist, sound designer, and photographer/filmmaker Sebastian Meissner, who goes by such names as Klimek, Autokontrast, Autopoieses, Bizz Circuits, Open Source, Random Industries, and Random_Inc, presumably just to be annoying. His works typically deal in randomness, historical music archives, strategies in establishing networks between artists, and other kinds of shit that next to no one understands. On this recording, his talents are being put towards a much less fancy-pants sounding form of art known amongst the music intelligentsia as "remixing." The tracklist:

01 The Notwist: "Solo Swim"
02 The Notwist: "Solo Swim Dub"
03 Console: "Mount Everest Horizontal"
04 Klimek: "Expo-Park, Sevilla (Parts I-V) (Solo Swim Remix)"

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