Heiner Müller's Die Hamletmaschine
(Ego) Used CD $10.00
The soundtrack for Müller’s postmodern cut-up play, recorded for East German radio in 1990. Monologues and stage directions incorporate alien routines (every word of the play is here, in German, of course; another voice recites the directions. When Ophelia laughs on the page, it’s read aloud but no laugh proceeds), changes in perspective and soundstaging resemble film edits and heighten the schizoid nature of the enterprise, while the protagonist’s bleak prognosis and the junkyard aesthetic, not surprisingly, is a perfect fit for Neubauten, who frequently interrupt their workshop percussion and overlay a jumble of voices. A few elements (slammed buckets, low-end piano notes, electronic pedal points, machine wails) circulate on various tasks, but avoid interacting with the rhythms of Hamlet’s speeches recited by Blixa Bargeld. Digipak.