Born from the partnership between Andi Toma and Jan St. Werner, Mouse on Mars have represented the new path of German electronics for over fifteen years. It is certainly not surprising that this very interesting musical experience originated from Germany, given the great tradition formed in the 70s with names like Kraftwerk, Faust, Can and Neu!
The duo from Cologne – later joined by drummer Dodo Nkishi – has been able to coexist with what could have proved to be an almost oppressive legacy and to give a decisive turn to electro productions, pushing them along paths made of global contamination and dialogue between styles and traditions. The result is sounds, creations and works that, observed now, with hindsight, have contributed significantly to moving the center of gravity of electronics back towards geographical coordinates with a strong Teutonic flavor but at the same time hybrid. Since their debut with the EP Frosch and the album Vulvaland (1994) in which techno, kraut rock, and psychedelia met, ten albums and numerous remixes have followed, all characterized by Mouse on Mars' ability to subvert expectations. The initial heterogeneous forms are followed by the architectures of Iaora Tahiti (1995), the inventiveness of Autoditacker (1997) between melody, noises, and sound games, the pop/folk of Niun Niggung (1999), the refinement of Idiology and finally the strong experimental shades of Varcharz (2006).
The acronym MOM is synonymous with the meeting of different times, musical scenes but also creative languages. It is no coincidence that in 1998 they were called by the American director Josh Evans to create a soundtrack and gave life to Glam but above all they began a series of transversal collaborations that make the recovery of sounds and images even more interesting and full of expectations.
Fata Morgana
Werner Herzog, Germany 1971
Inspired by the sacred text of a Guatemalan tribe and divided into three movements (The Creation, Paradise, The Golden Age), the second feature film by Herzog (not yet thirty and with a prodigious happiness of vision) is an intense journey in search of what lies beyond reality. Born as a science fiction film, it soon transformed into a lyrical philosophical documentary on the relationship between man, God and nature. While the camera painfully flies over deserts, villages and lagoons, animal carcasses, forgotten lives and imploded technologies pass by. “Very simply,” declared Herzog, “this film is a total opening of the eyes, ears and the whole body to better look through things.” The pace is ecstatic, the pleasure for the spectator is total.
