Mutterglocke by BABEL

Recorded in September-October 2009 and "released" possibly only as a .zip folder to friends on an internet forum. It had a different title which I've now forgotten. I think it likely was Messerglocke as the title of the folder I found the sound files in was Knife Bells and it sounds familiar, but the memory isn't quite there, just out of reach like a dream fading in the morning.

I do know the album was inspired by the bells that knife-sharpening trucks in Toronto would ring as they'd slowly creep down residential streets looking for business. The steady, approaching knell in the near distance reminded me of the Dead Collector calling "Bring out yer dead!" in Monty Python and The Holy Grail. New to the city, I found this practice—apparently normal to longtime residents—incredibly unsettling yet delightfully macabre. I haven't heard one in years, now that I think about it.

The bells on the trucks would've been a little larger than my mother's antique teacher's handbell which I had in my possession and used as the sole sound-source for the recordings. Thus the new title, Mutterglocke, or "Mother Bell" in English. There's a possibility the bell first belonged to her father—also teacher—given to her when she entered the profession, but this could be a piece of personal apocrypha and, as they're both deceased, the truth is lost. Just one of the myriad of small, inconsequential, and terminally unanswered questions that you realize you'd wished you'd asked when you had the chance.

Fittingly, this album is being released on Mother's Day 2019, the first since my mother's death. Inspired by the rediscovery of these tracks, I've recorded a new installment "Mutterglocke 2019" in her memory.

This album is dedicated to Linda Rehlinger (1945-2018)

1999-2017. Percussive ambience, electro-acoustics, and extended technique guitar drones by Jakob Rehlinger.