Apoptose

Good to see a review of Die Zeit und die Dunkelheit in Side-Line magazine! Thank you! 🖤

Side-Line Reviews

Apoptose – Die Zeit Und Die Dunkelheit (Digital/CD/Vinyl Album – Apop Schallplatten)

The German project Apoptose began experimenting with music in the 1990s and released its debut album in 2000. Several more albums followed, most of them released through Tesco Organisation. This latest work is also the project's first release in seven years and appeared sometime last year. The album draws inspiration from shadow, silence, and solitude, creating a space where sound becomes landscape and silence itself seems to speak.
These themes are subtly translated across nine tracks that occupy a space between Dark-Ambient and Cinematic music. Numerous bird sounds—possibly field recordings—play an important role, naturally creating a distinctive atmosphere. At times the mood is serene, yet it can also become somewhat ominous, particularly when the calls of crows emerge from the soundscape. There is much more to discover, however, including intriguing dark and repetitive sequences, evocative string passages, and delicate piano arrangements. Together, these elements create a vivid sense of loneliness while simultaneously conveying a profound feeling of calm.
This is a rewarding listen from an artist who, in some respects, distances himself from many of the conventions typically associated with Dark-Ambient and Cinematic productions. (Rating:7).

Listen to “Sieben Felsen”:
https://apoptose-official.bandcamp.com/track/sieben-felsen

Today is a memorable day in the history of Apoptose. Exactly 20 years ago, we played our first live gig ever – together with the drummers of the Fanfarenzug Leipzig.

A legendary performance with repercussions for us until today. It took place at the ‘Anker’ as part of the Wave-Gotik-Treffen 2006 with additional keyboards by my friend Ingo of Polygon and spiel-sinn.net

What a night! My nerves were completely wrecked when one of the drummers fainted about 5 minutes before we had to get on stage. The fainted drummer had been pregnant and got circulatory problems caused by the heat and humid air in the venue but the paramedics were able to help her immediately. So „only“ 14 instead of the originally planned 15 drummers entered the stage. 🥁🥁🥁

Has anyone anyone of you attended the gig? We played first but due to my emotional state of emergency that night I don‘t remember any other artists of the lineup.

You’ll find a link to a song of our set in the comments.

In 2007 and 2023, the WGT invited us once again to perform with the drummers.

Our second November 87 single is out today!! Reihenhäuser (stehen in Flammen) => Row Houses (in Flames)
🔥🔥🔥
Listen on your least hated streaming service or watch the video on YouTube. 😎

Links in comments.

DIY is my second name …
Still repacking CDs into the reprinted covers… 😅

Some wonderful pictures of our gig at Rituals over Limburg last year. Amazing festival!

This time of year reminds me of when I first started working on „Die Zeit und die Dunkelheit“ back in 2024. I didn’t know then that it would become an album, but after years of uncertainty, I finally had a plan again for how to focus on a concept and approach new tracks.

My rule was very strict: each track was to be no longer than three minutes and finished in a single day. A challenge for someone who has hardly any tracks under seven minutes in their repertoire and always tinkers with them for ages…

For a while, I recorded a lot of very intuitive material this way. What was good stayed; the rest was deleted.

If you look at the tracks on the album today, some still have that three-minute-plus limit, but most are longer. At some point, I did start to go against my principles, because a day’s work on a single piece really isn’t much. Some ideas do need a bit more care after all and some tracks simply need more than three minutes to fully unfold.

The ones that most faithfully follow the original concept are „Das Haus zwischen den Zeiten“ and „Altkönig“. Sometimes it just clicks straight away.

Which is your favourite on the album, or do you prefer to listen to it in one go?

Anyone Bandcamping this friday? In case you need a decent outfit for the coming festival season - just a little info that we still have most sizes of this incredible t-shirt in stock 😎

Link in comments.

Über allen Gipfeln ist Ruh‘

Abendstimmung am Altkönig.

Talking of darkwave:
A few years ago, I remixed a track by Scratch Massive. It was for a competition where they were looking for tracks for a remix LP. My mix turned out very dark 🦇😎

Unfortunately, it wasn't chosen for the album, but Scratch Massive gave me permission to upload it to SoundCloud. You can still listen to it there.

Link in the comments.

Vinyl appreciation post:
a colourful collection of dark music.

Link in comments 😎