P16.D4

The P16.D4 were a collective of musicians active in the 80s focusing on the creative use of tape loops, sampling and the transformation of previously recorded material in deference to the teaching of the darkest concrete music.
They have long-standing collaborations with authors such as Merzbow, DDAA, Nurse with Wound, Vortex Campaing.
The PD began at the end of 1979 as a solo project by Joachim Stender, who at that time was studying in Mainz as a festival organizer. With the group “Messehalle” he tried (working together under the name of Neue Deutsche Welle) to bring to Mainz the punk / new wave / no wave / industrial movement.
At the beginning of 1980, Ralf Wehowsky and Joachim Pense joined the band, and the first album “Alltag” was released. Shortly thereafter he followed the LP “Inweglos”, which was joined by Ewald Weber, Achim Szepanski, Roger Schönauer and Gerd Poppe.
The remaining members, also with Wehowsky, continued with P16.D4. Through its influence, work on noise itself has become more important, with an explicit reference to concrete music. Stefan Schmidt, who soon joined, was an enrichment with his education in classical composition.

The characteristic of the group was the mode of production: the continuous elaboration and reorganization of the existing sound material from previous productions, known as “recycling”, also from the works of other artists (Mail Art) prefiguring a sort of sampling. This concept of exchange of materials can be seen in the projects “DI STRUCTURES” (1985) with the participation of international artists. Other LPs: Mass Human (1984), Cows in 1/2 Mourning (1984), Nothing, Nobody, Nowhere, Never (1986, with SBOTHI), Captured Music (1989), acRID acME (1989). They themselves have described their work process with “cuts, changes of direction, change of speed, tape ripples, harmonization, distortion.”