In 1998, Die with Dignity were asked to contribute the soundtrack to some interactive, multi-media literature, named in German language "Das Epos der Maschine" (in English, surprise surprise: "The Epos of the Machine").
This multi-media issue can still, at the time of this (re-)release, be visited at
kunst.im.internett.de/epos-der-maschine/
Due to limitations in band-width and sound capabilities of the underlying JAVA programming language, the soundtrack was required to be quite minimalistic (so that small excerpts could be looped), and only a very limited sound quality could be embedded.
Therefore we tried to use everything that sounded interesting even at 8 Bit with a sample rate of 16 kHz: Not only guitars and synthesizers were used, but also some very strange devices, more or less constructed by ourselves. Some of the things used for these sessions, e.g. the ATARI ST 1040 computer, don't exist anymore, and in this sense the music presented here has become unique, unrepeatable.
All music was mastered directly to DAT (Digital Audio Tape, does anyone remember? ;-) and is now directly (and digitally) transferred to this release. Therefore all forms of noise that are audible can be said to have been intentionally produced by some strange machinery.
So, this is music for those who are always curious for new, unexplored soundscapes. Charts listeners are encouraged to look for something else.
from
Das Epos der Maschine,
released August 8, 1998
Brenner, Broszat, Guderia, Repgen play many weird instruments and devices.