Al Karpenter "Greatest Heads"
release July 4, 2025
1.We Are All Karpenters
2.Mundo Chabola
3.Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads)
4.A Brand New Astraphobia
5.The Most Grudgeful Lie
6.Tout Avant de Devenir Rien
7.Stop The Genocide!
8.Worm City
9.Death Song
10.Perfect Love
Released by Hegoa Diskak and Night School Records
Night School press release:
Greatest Heads is the fourth album by the radical Basque- Berlinesque group Al Karpenter. A deconstruction of structured “rock” music, here Al Karpenter re-imagine “the band” to explore the intersection between Free music, afro-beat, the avant garde and gonzo rock.
If Theodore Adorno wrote “To Write Poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric” in 1949, Al Karpenter attempts to answer the difficult question today; what kind of music can be done in the face of a genocide? Álvaro Matilla, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin’s response to the planet’s slipping into a vortex of hate is to create a music ecstatic, a music of protest bursting with multiple musical languages and glossaries, full of overlapping histories and thrilling tensions.
Greatest Heads posits a plurality of musics both in opposition and intertwined: Al Karpenter play rock instruments pulled apart in the studio in post-production. Distorted rhythm chunks bit-crushed and dissipated, segments of freedom oppressed by waves of sound invading from every direction. The interplay between the chief instrumentalists and renowned, storied sound artist Mattin creates something akin to ESP freedom-seekers Cro Magnon playing in Miles Davis’ early 70s groups, The Los Angeles Free Music Society tightening up into a clenched fist of plunderphonics and runaway percussion.
We Are All Karpenters opens Greatest Heads with the most straight-forward song refrain of the record accompanied by a band that soon crash into eruption, imagining Sun City Girls in full free rock mode. The modulating synth sound soon sucks the band into its wake to create a spine-chilling climax of distorted sound, made fully orgasmic with mastering engineer Rashad Becker’s attention to detail. On Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads), Matilla intones in Basque over a mangled distorto-beat. A Brand New Astraphobia creates a black space for a heavily processed guitar to blow up before falling to earth at night, a gentle figure serenading the coming end.
On Side B, the band begins by being masticated by a brutal phaser, squelching and stretching the music into new territories. The overt message of Stop The Genocide! is besieged by violence before Worm City aggressively samples the ghosts of soul music, mixing in noise bursts, prepared piano and swiping, abstracted sound. Epic closer Perfect Love feels like a beat poetry performance on a burnt world, still grasping for community, for home, for some sort of human love. A Mad love, then; an angry love fuelled by solidarity and collaboration.
The band’s cascading layers of references and polyglottal musics attempt to create the perfect lover, alive with rage and disorientating ecstasy: Al Karpenter.
Hegoa Diskak press release:
Al Karpenter expands on their Post-Genre Punk approach reaching a new level of maturity. In fact, we can say that “Greatest Heads” is Al Karpenter’s “Remain in Light” from Talking Heads in the sense that it is also their fourth record, heavily based on production and is influenced by Afrobeat in distorted ways.
This record contains elaborated liner notes by Eoin Anderson and features very special guests: “ “ [sic] Goldie, Lisa Rosendahl, and Mikel Xedh — a deeply important musician from the Basque Country who collaborated with Al for over a decade and who recently passed away. This record is dedicated to him.
If Adorno wrote “To Write Poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric” in 1949, Al attempts to answer the difficult question today; what kind of music can be done in the face of a genocide? Al Karpenter invites Brigitte Fontaine, Brecht & Artaud to improvise a protest song in a dark cellar in Berlin shouting against the current silencing in Germany of people who are pro-Palestine
The audience gets sucked by the layers of histories while hearing ethereal ethnic sounds, music from Saturn, beat poetry, spectralism, tones reminiscent of Robert Ashley, infinite melancholy and lamentations with echoes of 70s free jazz re-imagined as revolutionary potentials for a future to come. Álvaro Matilla, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin play with restrained intensity mixing electronics, noise, abstract beats and garage rock with a conceptual approach and desperate anger; African Head Charge meets Akauzazte.
A deeply emotional conglomerate of a thousandmusics, claiming a profound truth; we are all karpenters of life. Or as Jérôme Noetinger said after seeing the band live at the Ears We Are Festival in Biel/Bienne this year: “All Karpenters = all Joseph = all father of God = all God = no more God then. Freedom in the expression of one chord.”
A giant leap.
“There's a dub housing / new picnic time era Pere Ubu vibe (gone wrong) all over that I absolutely adore.”
0Hicham Chadly from Nashazphone Records
AL KARPENTER:
Álvaro Matilla: Voice, Guitar, Keyboards & Electronics, Zither
Marta Sainz: Voice, Bass & Guitar
Enrique Zaccagnini: Voice, Percussions, Korg MS20 & Daxophone
Mattin: Voice, Double Bass, Computer, Guitar, Drums, Harmonium & Layout Design
Special Guests:
Mikel Xedh (Electronics A2 & Keyboards A5)
Lisa Rosendahl (Vocals B4 & B5)
" " [sic] Tim Goldie (vocals B3)
Recorded and mixed from April to October 2024 at Abject Musik Studio,
Berlin
Artwork made with stills by a film from James Richards
Liner notes by Eoin Anderson
Mastered by Rashad Becker
Produced by Mattin
Dedicated to Mikel Xedh
Video from Loty Negarti
https://youtu.be/rjP2ct8wNvc?si=CgJwYOkvyve2jWkp
Record of the Week The Quietus 3rd July 2025
Recomendation by Joshua Minsoo Kim (4th of July 2025)
4 for today:
• Al Karpenter - Greatest Heads
• Cherrystones x Demdike Stare - Who Owns the Dark?
• Carla Boregas & Anelena Toku - Fronte Violeta
• d.silvestre - O que as mulheres querem
DiS Users’ July 2025 Album Of The Month
Qur’an Shaheed - Pulse
Poor Creature - All Smiles Tonight
Madeline Kenny - Kiss from the Balcony
Plume Girl - Unnameable Glory
Al Karpenter - Greatest Heads
Really intriguing work of avant collagist out music. Dense and meandering and constantly surprising.
Rosy Overdrive, Also natable, 31st July 2025
The Unknowns – Looking from the Outside
Rosali – Slow Pain: Live and Solo from Drop of Sun
Silkworm – Live on KCRW – 1.17.96
Acapulco Lips – Now
The Last Days of Rome – How Will I Know?
The Slow Summits – Every Intention
Headlamp – East by Sailing West
Empty Country – Live in NYC
Blush – Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever
Shopfires – We Are Not There But We Are Here
QWAM – Girls Aren’t Afraid of Blood
Jonathan Richman – Only Frozen Sky Anyway
Uprising – Ceasefire EP
Joe Armstrong – Gaslight Blues
Nuclear Daisies – First Taste of Heaven
Fell – Futility Rites
Blanco teta – La Debacle de las Divas
The Worm – Pantilde
Atmosfellix – Necology
Otoboke Beaver – Live at Fandango / Live at TakuTaku
Honey Daze – Another Habit to Break EP
Al Karpenter – Greatest Heads
Jessica Risker – Calendar Year
Petalwave – Morning Somewhere
Jakko M. Jakszyk – Son of Glen
Radio plays:
https://www.citr.ca/radio/bepi-crespan-presents/episode/20250117-4/
https://brianturnershow.com/2025/04/10/brian-turner-show-on-east-village-radio-episode-154-april-9-2025/
https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/imojp/episodes/2025-04-11T20_41_32-07_00
https://www.radiopanik.org/emissions/l-etranger/show-502-congeals-amargo-yawls/
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0029rsr
https://spinitron.com/KSPC/pl/20519124/Bill-Chen-vs-Dennis-Callaci
https://x.com/Freeyourradio/status/1912825774572286160?t=x7n1ShIEr72xiLZE4CGO8Q&s=19
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/151317
https://www.agorasolradio.org/podcast/ondasonora/500-goats-moondos-al-karpenter-portishead-odin-kaban/
https://www.ivoox.com/en/musika-master-729-novedades-30-04-2025-audios-mp3_rf_146007424_1.html
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/151706
https://go.ivoox.com/rf/146316025
https://spinitron.com/KSPC/pl/20653316/Bill-Chen-vs-Dennis-Callaci
https://inmemoryofjohnpeel.com/2025/06/04/the-beat-goes-on-20250603-014-podcast-playlist/
https://maosrache.org/2025/05/21/abenteuertrip-zum-suedwestlichen-rand-europas/
https://www.thewire.co.uk/audio/on-air/james-gormley-presents-adventures-in-sound-and-music-75003
https://www.wfmu.org/playlists/shows/152878
https://spinitron.com/KDUR/pl/20784482/Driftwood-Lodge
https://www.mixcloud.com/gerardcosloy/070925-show-267/l
https://spinitron.com/KSPC/pl/20912179/Bill-Chen-vs-Dennis-Callaci
https://themoderns.blog/2025/07/06/the-moderns-ep-374/
https://radioblackout.org/podcast/radio-kebab-9725/
https://www.mixcloud.com/RadioScorpio/sterrenplaten-06-juni-2025/
https://maosrache.org/2025/07/16/endless-summer/
https://soundcloud.com/radiobuenavida/member-ship-card-radio-buena-4?utm_source=clipboard&utm_campaign=wtshare&utm_medium=widget&utm_content=https%253A%252F%252Fsoundcloud.com%252Fradiobuenavida%252Fmember-ship-card-radio-buena-4
https://debloque.wordpress.com/2025/07/29/noise-addict-playlist-115/
https://m.soundcloud.com/dustedandsocial/dusted-social-ep-32-7-2-25
https://onemanunderground.co.uk/category/radio/
https://podcloud.fr/podcast/kfuel-kerozene-sur-canalb-jeudi-21h30-23h/episode/playlist-slash-slash-07-slash-08-slash-2025-les-mille-et-une-pintes-de-jim-e-brown
Thee Now Show at Thee D Radio (Adelaide)
Tone Shift Listen Camp May 12, 2025
Reviews:
Nathan Roche (CIA Debutante & Le Villejuif Underground):
It is a WILD-WILD ride, the wildest of the Al Karpenters until now I would say.
Anyway, shit! This record is such an exotic adventure. It goes many, many places… like a beatnik detective novel, like Burroughs/Ginsberg Yage Letters but while Brian Jones is Presenting the Pipes of Pan at Jajouka to mother/father aristocrates who later give birth to future post-punk-industrial being intellectuals following tea and speed in the local embassy to where they were conceived post hidden-expat swing bar.
It's like the walls behind the walls of the last records, it's more of a mix-tape collage, more like a theatre piece! An important next instalment in the collection. It sounds like you all went into a deep, deep jungle and got hypnotized, or cured by many rituals by an unknown prehistoric tribe, that oddly enough beyond our level of conscious. I love all the production work; it really takes you on a unique sonic journey. I love A Brand New Astraphobia, lots of standout moments actually! Worm City, JESUS; super Cyberpunk ramblings from the underground of smoke city, while the history of music, clubs and bars turn to rubble!
Another hit in my eyes!
Great job dear karpenters.
BeachSloth Substack (April 20th, 2025)
Al Karpenter’s Greatest Heads is the kind of album you could take home to your mother if your mother were really into the Nihilist Spasm Band. The lack of organization is deliberate – this is pure, unfettered chaos, though not distinctively pure noise. Oddly, noise would be easier on the senses than this – this is far more difficult, queasy, and unsettling. Perhaps the closest approximation would be free jazz, but even that feels incomplete. Sometimes they settle into something that appears organized, but these moments do not last long. Given that the universe is in flux, this is good protest music. I am also reminded of, as a tangential note, of Karlheinz Stockhausen’s complete and utter disregard for conventional tempos. When asked, Stockhausen replied that he wanted music that was as non-military based as possible, with no marches and no military allusions, as that had destroyed his childhood and the lives of tens of millions of people.
Protest music fits the sound quite well. Unlike previous iterations of protest music, of the historical Woody Gutherie who similarly was anti-fascist (wild how fascism came back, I guess time is a circle), the more recent iteration of the Fugs, and the most recent Ultra-Red. Al Karpenter’s approach has a Dadaist quality. Given how agitated and unsettled the world is, Al Karpenter’s Greatest Heads is the best version of that soundtrack, and it feels real. Nods to Suicide’s nihilism (there’s that word again) are currently in full swing, though there’s less consistency and more of this nebulous quality within the work. Mattin is well-versed in destroying music; he’s been doing it all his life, from Billy Bao to the current era. He’s always been a raw voice screaming into the void. Unlike before, though, the void seems like something it has needed for a while.
The highlight for me, at least, is the dramatic rush of the finale, the sprawling Perfect Love. For a moment, there are some hippie-like new age flourishes that recall Terry Riley’s In C. After that initial flourish, it sounds like In C after it bled to death. A burned-out, hollowed aspect takes shape. His experience alongside the furthest reaches of noise emerges, from occupying the same spaces as Russell Haswell (in Consumer Electronics) to the woozy avant-garde meanderings of 80s industrial, and is all there. The fact that he weaves together all these periods of sound without making it feel forced is doubly refreshing. His monotone, flat affect with the vocals perfectly fits the territory's harshness. I often like finales on albums, as it forces me to revisit everything I just heard before, and this is one of those moments. Once I finished this groove-laden non-groove, these noises that feel like they could have come out of a Tridex or similarly unmusical musical instrument, I felt the need to relisten to everything, to see everything that I might have missed during my first run through. I like the unevenness of the whole thing, like the song is stumbling around, hesitant at first, afraid of falling, and eventually gaining enough confidence in its footing.
As a society, we have gotten past the need for obvious protest music borrowed from pre-existing genres. Now we live in a world where the act of rebellion does not need to be couched in something comfortable, an old familiar genre. Instead, if it is going to be a rebellion against the status quo, against the way things are, doesn’t it make more sense to invent a new genre or language? Al Karpenter seems to think so.
Norman Records (UK, 9th of April 2025)
All sorts of avant-rock, post-punk, and noise rock styles meet with a certain improvisatory, freeform quality of jazz, all loaded with cut-up post-production.
Starting out as a solo project but now an eponymously named band since 2022 led by vocalist Al Karpenter, this astonishing band answer the question of the value of creating art in the face of genocide and planetary decline with their fourth album Greatest Heads.
It’s a sprawling, rousing and celebratory deconstruction of rock animated by the spirit of Basque rebellion from Karpenter’s home city of Bilbao.
Boomkat (Manchester)
Mattin & co’s surrealist Basque-Berlin free music unit extend suitably deranged, fractious, deconstructed rock replies to the state of the world - RIYL LAFMS, Rashad Becker, Ghédalia Tazartès, Sun City Girls
Brilliantly deranged, Al Karpenter's fourth album is a further advancement of their "post-genre-punk" concept, a production-focused album almost songs that dissolves Sun Ra-style free jazz and garage rock with acidic electronics and disturbed Afro-Brazilian beats.
Conceived as a double act in 2020 by Álvaro Matilla and Basque noise veteran and writer Mattin, Al Karpenter became a "proper band" in 2022, adding Santander's Marta Sainz and Enrique Zaccagnini. On their most mature album to date - billed as their 'Remain in Light', no less - the quartet bring in help from Tim Goldie, Lisa Rosendahl and Basque sound artist Mikel Xedh, the late AI pioneer who the album is dedicated to. And while it's not as chaotic as 2023's 'The Forthcoming', 'Greatest Heads' is still an antidote to buttoned-up, slickly produced experimental rock music. Mattin and his cohorts use studio techniques not to smooth down their songs, but to torment them, ruffling the garage drums and grungy guitars of opener 'We Are All Karpenters' with disconcerting Shepard tones and spliced-in jazz fills. If that's not enough to pique your interest, 'Mundo Chabola' pastes a rickety Brazilian funk beat and twirled squeezebox moans into an offhand conversation, interspersing the chattering with road sounds and pitched-down instrumental vamps.
With each track, the band search for a different way to protest against the status quo. If the last record was against "algorithmic fascism", this one's against outright literal fascism and genocide, inspired by Adorno's assertion that "To Write Poetry after Auschwitz is Barbaric". So 'Greatest Heads' wonders what kind of protest song Brigitte Fontaine, Brecht and Artaud might improvise in a dark cellar in contemporary Berlin, mangling dub rhythms and punky asides with synth belches and burps on the gargled 'The Most Grudgeful Lie', and hoarse shoutouts on the glitchy, direct 'Stop The Genocide!'.
Bad Alchemy
AL KARPENTER Greatest Heads (Hegoa Records / Night School Records, LP): Mit was Musik verglichen und beworben wird, lässt mich oft genug auf Taubheit oder Frechheit schließen. Nicht so hier: Die ausgesuchten Hinweise auf die ESP-legendären Cro Magnon, die Los Angeles Free Music Society und Sun City Girls treffen halbwegs zu. ÁlvaroMatilla ist der Kopf dieser baskischen Reynols. Marta Sainz (von Minima Moralia, Un Coup De Dés), Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin (von Billy Bao, Regler) bestärken ihn in seinem 'Riot & Roll!'. Gegen die neue und die alte Weltunordnung, die sie aufmischen mit 'Mundo Chabola' [Slumwelt], 'Izugarrizko Buruak' [Großköpfe], 'A Brand New Astrophobia', 'The Most Grudgeful Lie', 'Tout Avant de Devenir Rein', 'Stop the Genocide!', 'Worm City', 'Death Song' und dem Sehnen, to get out und nach 'Perfect Love'. Mit zuerst aber 'We Are All Karpenters' of Life, Karpenters of Sound, Karpenters of Love als Sammlungsruf, als wilde Jagd, als eskalierender Alarm. Dem folgt jedoch kein In-Yer-Face aus irgend einer Postpunk-, Doom-, Metal-, Noise-Box, sondern ein amorphes, anarchisches Dümpeln und Taumeln in zerrüttet diffusen musikalischen Resten. Kaputt ins Leere klapperndem Beat und Echos von Funk und Soul vertraut Matilla mit krächzendem Sang, brüchigem Flüstern seine Beobachtungen, Ängste, Schmerzen an. Er reimt Love so madly / Hurts so badly. Selbst bei Let's fight the hatred zittert die Stimme. Und wozu taugen ein zarter Gitarrenloop oder elegisches Pizzicato in diesem Kampf? Das hat was entwaffnend Diffuses, als ein rührendes Eingeständnis von Schwäche. Nicht einmal eine mickrige Faust, sondern da gibt es nur eine leere, vage Flüchtigkeit, die an „Les furtifs“ denken lässt. „Being a carpenter is refusing to be a soldier", verdeutlicht Eoin Anderson dazu, der sich „Greatest Heads“ als Bombenentschärfer annähert. Und der für den Saboteur und für Sand im Getriebe wirbt. Doch sabotiert er selbst sein „Stop it... history's nightmare, its military-materialism, must cease“ mit einem Fragezeichen. Warum das Mantra „Stop killing children“? Warum ist „You shall not murder“ nicht genug? Dafür erkennt er in 'Worm City' Worms und sein Judentum. Und das dennoch betonte 'Gaza, nicht Nova' hält weder Andersons„Volitile paradoxes carve out vacant space to move in“ noch der boden- und fassungslosen Musik stand. Das Ganze ist übrigens auch ein Memento für Miguel A. García alias "xedh", Sainz' Partner in Black Earth und Ab'bhau, der im Januar mit nur 44 Jahren am Lou-Gehrig-Syndrom (ALS) gestorben ist.
[BA 128 rbd]
AL KARPENTER Greatest Heads (Hegoa Records / Night School Records, LP): With what music is compared to and promoted often enough make me suspect deafness or impudence. Not so here: The references to ESP's legendary Cro Magnon, the Los Angeles Free Music Society, and Sun City Girls are halfway accurate. Álvaro Matilla is the mastermind of these Basque Reynols. Marta Sainz (of Minima Moralia, Un Coup De Dés), Enrique Zaccagnini & Mattin (of Billy Bao, Regler) reinforce his 'Riot & Roll!' Against the new and the old world disorder they stir up with 'Mundo Chabola' [Slum World], 'Izugarrizko Buruak' [Greatest Heads], 'A Brand New Astrophobia', 'The Most Grudgeful Lie', 'Tout Avant de Devenir Rein', 'Stop the Genocide!', 'Worm City', 'Death Song', and the longing to get out and for 'Perfect Love'. First, however, with 'We Are All Karpenters' of Life, Karpenters of Sound, Karpenters of Love as a rallying cry, a wild hunt, an escalating alarm. This, however, is not followed by an in-yer-face from some post-punk, doom, metal, or noise box, but rather an amorphous, anarchic stagnating and tumbling in shattered, diffuse musical debris. To a beat that clatters into the void, and echoes of funk and soul, Matilla confides his observations, fears and pain in croaky vocals and brittle whispers. He rhymes Love so madly / Hurts so badly. Even in „Let's fight the hatred“ his voice trembles. And what good is a delicate guitar loop or elegiac pizzicato in this fight? There's something disarmingly diffuse about it, like a touching admission of weakness. Not even a skinny fist, just an empty, vague fleetingness that brings to mind "Les furtifs". „Being a carpenter is refusing to be a soldier“, explains Eoin Anderson, who approaches "Greatest Heads" like a bomb disposal expert. And who advocates for the saboteur and for sand in the gears. But he sabotages his own „Stop it... history's nightmare, its military-materialism, must cease" with a question mark. Why the mantra „Stop killing children"? Why is „You shall not murder" not enow? On the other hand, he recognizes Worms and its Jewishness in "Worm City." And the nevertheless emphasized "Gaza, not Nova" neither stands up to Anderson's „Volitile paradoxes carve out vacant space to move in" nor to the groundless and bewildered music. The whole thing is also, incidentally, a memorial to Miguel A. García alias "xedh", Sainz's partner in Black Earth and Ab'bhau, who died of Lou Gehrig's Syndrome (ALS) in January at the age of just 44.
[BA 128 rbd]
The Wire #496 June 2025 (London)
Al Karpenter Greatest Heads Hegoa/Night School DL/LP
Greatest Heads opens with “We Are All Karpenters”, a bleary eyed work song, or anti-work song, that swells fitfully with drum rolls, screeching fuzz and a faltering cut and copy from one of those cinema surround sound idents where the pitch swoops almost unbearably high. The groaning refrain “We are all karpenters of life …of sound …of love” is followed by “but we are not good at it” as a refusal of productivity and a sly fib. Precise and shambolic, dextrous and sloppy, personal and political as each moment demands; Al Karpenter are actually very good at a lot. But their tools are not the proverbial master’s.
Jointly released by Glasgow’s Night School and London based Basque label Hegoa, Greatest Heads is Al Karpenter’s fourth fulllength album, not counting collaborations, and their second as a fully fledged quartet following 2023’s The Forthcoming. Starting life as a solo vehicle for guitarist and vocalist Álvaro Matilla (aka Al Karpenter) aided and abetted by noise artist/theorist Mattin, the line-up was completed in 2022 by multiinstrumentalists Marta Sainz and Enrique Zaccagnini focusing on bass/vocals and percussion respectively.
Their assemblages cite lightly and ambiguously with shades of Sun City Girls and The Ex here and there, some just discernible Scott Walker pastiche on “The Most Grudgeful Lie”, a sonorous metal clang on “Death Song” that conjures Einstürzende Neubauten’s “Vanadium I-Ching” and the disembodied psychotropia of Royal Trux’s “(Edge Of The) Ape Oven” (they’ve expressed a particular affinity for Twin Infinitives era Trux in the past) on album closer “Perfect Love”. The jaunty but wobbly tempo of “Mundo Chabola” is a kind of cracked copy dembow, jarring perfectly with the album’s other jagged avenues; rock in the vortex of self obliteration, dizzy arcade sonics, glitch electronics, improvisation and plunder, all with the signal scrambling grain of noise shot through like mica.
James Gormley
Loop Zine (Valparaíso, Guillermo Escudero)
Al Karpenter es un grupo vasco-berlinés que se formó originalmente en Bilbao por Álvaro Matilla y el músico/activista vasco residente en Berlín y activo desde 2001, Mattin. Se convirtieron en banda en 2022 con la incorporación de Marta Sáinz y Enrique Zaccagnini de Santander.
“Greatest Heads” se lanzará el 4 de julio próximo a través de los sellos Hegoa Diskak (País Vasco/Londres) y Night School (Glasgow) y consiste en diez canciones en las que se combinan una singular mezcla de punk, música experimental, noise, narrativa contestataria y talante teatral. En este disco Álvaro Matilla se encarga de la voz, guitarra, teclados, electrónica y cítara; Marta Sainz, voz, bajo y guitarra; Enrique Zaccagnini en voz, percusiones, Korg MS20 & Daxofón y Mattin en voz, contrabajo, computador, guitarra, batería, armonio y maqueta.
La música en «Greatest Heads” se despliega libre, desestructurada y sin complejos, reconvirtiendo el “rock” experimental que exponen en piezas desencajadas, voces delirantes y cantos desafinados. En “We Are All Karpenters” que abre este álbum, el título de esta canción es repetido por Matilla como un mantra, mientras las ráfagas de guitarra, batería galopante e intensos sintetizadores se elevan por todo lo alto. “Mundo Chabola” en su discurso hace una crítica a la sociedad de bienestar española. En “Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads)” irrumpen personajes sacados de una obra teatral del absurdo en el que se vislumbra un entorno insano.
Luego de estas canciones escalofriantes, “A Brand New Astraphobia” calma el ambiente con un suave y repetitivo acorde de guitarra, sin embargo, el texto es inquietante pues se refiere al “lado salvaje…, de la traición…, de que no hay escape… abajo, en el cielo…”. “The Most Grudgeful Lie” es una madeja de sintetizadores bizarros junto a un discurso abstracto. “Tout Avant de Devenir Rien” muestra voces distorsionadas de alcance indescifrable. “Stop The Genocide!” es un mensaje directo en contra del Estado Judío y su ensañamiento en Gaza, en tanto “Worm City” deambula entre la improvisación y la música libre, arropada de sampleos de discos soul.
“Death Song” es una cansina canción, con percusiones aleatorias, en tanto “Perfect Love” finaliza el álbum bajo las líneas de contrabajo, con guiños al jazz.
Al Karpenter son impredecibles e inclasificables, en su permanente exploración por aquellos vericuetos sonoros escondidos, realizando quiebres en cada canción, reconvirtiéndola, desarmándola y otorgándole un nuevo significado, junto a un discurso de crítica social y política.
English:
Al Karpenter is a Basque-Berlin band originally formed in Bilbao by Álvaro Matilla and Berlin-based Basque musician/activist Mattin, active since 2001. They became a band in 2022 with the addition of Marta Sáinz and Enrique Zaccagnini based in Santander.
‘Greatest Heads’ will be released on 4 July on the labels Hegoa Diskak (Basque Country/London) and Night School (Glasgow) and consists of ten songs that combine a unique mix of punk, experimental music, noise, protest narrative and theatrical mood. On this album Álvaro Matilla is in charge of vocals, guitar, keyboards, electronics and zither; Marta Sainz, vocals, bass and guitar; Enrique Zaccagnini on vocals, percussions, Korg MS20 & Daxophone and Mattin on vocals, double bass, computer, guitar, drums, harmonium and demo.
The music in ‘Greatest Heads’ unfolds free, unstructured and without complexes, reconverting the experimental ‘rock’ they expose into unhinged pieces, delirious voices and out-of-tune singing. In ‘We Are All Karpenters,‘ which opens this album, the title of this song is repeated by Matilla like a mantra, while the guitar bursts, galloping drums and intense synthesizers soar over the top. ‘Mundo Chabola’ in its discourse is a critique of Spanish welfare society. In ‘Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads),‘ characters out of an absurdist play burst in, in which an unhealthy environment is glimpsed.
After these chilling songs, ‘A Brand New Astraphobia’ calms the atmosphere with a soft and repetitive guitar chord, however, the text is disturbing as it refers to the «wild side…, of betrayal…, that there is no escape…, down in the sky…. ‘The Most Grudgeful Lie’ is a skein of bizarre synthesizers and abstract discourse. ‘Tout Avant de Devenir Rien’ features distorted vocals of indecipherable range. ‘Stop The Genocide!’ is a direct message against the Jewish state and its rampage in Gaza, while ‘Worm City’ wanders between improvisation and free music, wrapped in soul record samples.
‘Death Song’ is a weary song, with random percussion, while ‘Perfect Love’ ends the album under double bass lines with nods to jazz.
Al Karpenter are unpredictable and unclassifiable in their permanent exploration of those hidden sonic twists and turns, breaking each song, reconverting it, dismantling it and giving it a new meaning, together with a discourse of social and political criticism.
https://hegoadiskak.bandcamp.com
The Quietus Record of the Week, 3th July 2025, Antton Iturbe
Build Back Better: Greatest Heads by Al Karpenter
Born out of the febrile Basque Country experimental music community and infused with the weirdness of the early 00s New York noise scene, the former solo project of Bilbao’s Alvaro Matilla (now joined by Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagnini, and multi-instrumentalist, serial collaborator Mattin) sounds wild and untamed and bursting with possibility
Recently, Carlos Giffoni posted on social media that, as he was opening old boxes and finding treasures from the early 2000s, he started playing with the idea of writing a book about those crazy times in New York City and what they meant to him. The Venezuelan artist and experimental musician found a vibrant scene of noisy, free and wild sound experimentation when he moved to the city in the early 2000s. In fact, he was one of the main instigators, playing both solo and with the likes of Monotract and Death Unit, along with artists like Chris Corsano, Jim O’Rourke and Mike Connelly from Hair Police and Wolf Eyes, organizing mythical events events like No Fun Fest.
Sifting through his trove of old pictures and festival brochures, Giffoni asked if anyone would be interested in such a book and I realised how much I would love to read something like that. It was not long ago that I wrote a piece in remembrance of the recently deceased and sorely missed Miguel A. Garcia (aka Xedh), one of the main driving forces behind the mythic Larraskito Club in Bilbao and Zarata (meaning ‘noise’ in Basque) Fest around that same era. An explosive experimental scene in Bilbao and the Basque country that also included Ertz Festibal in Bera, MEM Festival in Bilbao and Arto Artian collective among others. As the great musician and cultural agitator Mattin, another key contributor to that community perfectly pointed out in an interview in The Wire #476 (October 2023): “the ethos could be described as a radical openness in regard to materials and approaches where different people are encouraged to collaborate independently of being part of this or that particular scene.”
Recently, Carlos Giffoni posted on social media that, as he was opening old boxes and finding treasures from the early 2000s, he started playing with the idea of writing a book about those crazy times in New York City and what they meant to him. The Venezuelan artist and experimental musician found a vibrant scene of noisy, free and wild sound experimentation when he moved to the city in the early 2000s. In fact, he was one of the main instigators, playing both solo and with the likes of Monotract and Death Unit, along with artists like Chris Corsano, Jim O’Rourke and Mike Connelly from Hair Police and Wolf Eyes, organizing mythical events events like No Fun Fest.
Sifting through his trove of old pictures and festival brochures, Giffoni asked if anyone would be interested in such a book and I realised how much I would love to read something like that. It was not long ago that I wrote a piece in remembrance of the recently deceased and sorely missed Miguel A. Garcia (aka Xedh), one of the main driving forces behind the mythic Larraskito Club in Bilbao and Zarata (meaning ‘noise’ in Basque) Fest around that same era. An explosive experimental scene in Bilbao and the Basque country that also included Ertz Festibal in Bera, MEM Festival in Bilbao and Arto Artian collective among others. As the great musician and cultural agitator Mattin, another key contributor to that community perfectly pointed out in an interview in The Wire #476 (October 2023): “the ethos could be described as a radical openness in regard to materials and approaches where different people are encouraged to collaborate independently of being part of this or that particular scene.”
Al Karpenter was originally the alias of Bilbao’s Alvaro Matilla, who edited Brutus fanzine, steeped in no‑wave and alt‑TV aesthetics in the mid-2000s, while performing in the duo KRPNTRS with Barbara Karpenter. They disbanded in 2012 and Mattin got involved around 2014, pushing the output of Karpenter into yet more uncompromising and daring territory. But it was only in 2022 that Al Karpenter truly became this shapeshifting confluence of noise, polyrhythm, and free‑rock we can now find behind Greatest Heads. On bass and guitar is Marta Sainz, joined by the kinetic percussion and analogue synth buzz of Enrique Zaccagnini, both veterans of sound experimentation and underground cultural activism in the Santander area. And of course, the whole thing is anchored by the deep, multi‑instrumental force of Mattin whose contributions include electronics, harmonium, double bass, drums and production.
Their music has been compared and associated (among many others) to the likes of Alan Vega, Lux Interior, Pere Ubu, and even and very particularly Scott Walker when referring to Matilla’s idiosyncratic voice, as well as to Iancu Dumitrescu, Iannis Xenakis, the earliest and most ragged bits of Royal Trux, Reynols or The Dead C when referring to the rough but rich textures of their sound. All of which are certainly well put when applied to specific points of the group’s extensive palette. But such comparisons can only offer a glimpse of the whole picture. Al Karpenter’s sound may seem at times chaotic and all over the place on the surface but on closer listen reveals an extraordinary internal cohesion, largely sustained by Matilla’s singularly unmissable and weirdly hypnotic vocal delivery.
Greatest Heads is the fifth album in their career and follows and somehow crowns the collaborative research and development done on the two previous records, The Forthcoming and Al Karpenter & CIA Debutante released by New York’s Ever/Never label in 2023 (the latter a joint album recorded live in Berlin with CIA Debutante, the Paris based baroque futurist duo of Paul Bonnet and Nathan Roche and the former featuring key contributions from Triple Negative, Sunik Kim and Dominic Cole). By all accounts, the unplanned group improvisation they shared with Triple Negative and Sunik Kim at London’s Cafe Oto in 2022 seems especially shapeshifting for the development of the sonic fabric embedded in these albums. Now and thanks to the detailed razor-sharp clarity of mastering engineer Rashad Becker, that textural melange feels truly and fully conceived in the extraordinary collection of tracks found in Greatest Heads.
When trying to put some words to this, I sense a polyrhythmic urgency weaving through shards of free music, punk rock intensity, obscure shadows of spectralism and processed electronics that creep like insects under the skin. African Head Charge meets Los Angeles Free Music Society while a spectral echo of William Burroughs’ spoken-word albums lingers around.
“We are all carpenters of life… But we are not good at it…” Al Karpenter chants with his deep, slightly nasal voice, hinting perhaps at an idea of building and rebuilding using the debris and the discarded remains of our ultra-accelerated consumerism. Powerful imagery, poignant and pointed messages mixed with intriguingly surrealist passages that I can’t help but connect with another great unsung hero of the Spanish underground like Victor Nubla and to the likes of Jaco or Zozobra of Magia Roja label run by Viktor of Dame Area. As I surf in lurching waves of distortion in an ocean of abrasive yet silken sound, feral and tender, inhospitable and welcoming at the same time, I think of the Sun City Girls and see myself dialling through a distorted hiss full of static noise, connecting to a remote worldwide Sublime Frequencies radio station.
Tuning, detuning and retuning in different channels, like pieces of a puzzle that needs redoing in my ears. Or perhaps reassembling the debris of a big bang that floats around. Fragments of a once-conventional album that you can recombine now into a completely different collection of songs and share the fun Al Karpenter’s crew had in the process. Or why not? Echoes of that wild early-2000s era that come to us recombined and adapted to these troubled times to make perfect sense again. Layered, surprising, richly conflicted, Greatest Heads is a record of rugged elegance and strange grace that truly deserves your attention.
field notes berlin
Found Sounds #5
Das (Un-)Behagen in der Musik
29. Juli 2025 | Kristoffer Cornils
[...]
Die Musik von Mattin tut das allemal. Neben seiner Arbeit als Solokünstler ist er auch in der Gruppe Al Karpenter aktiv. Deren neues Album »Greatest Heads↗« wurde gemeinsam von den Labels Night School und Hegoa veröffentlicht und klingt, als hätten sich Ghédalia Tazartès und Scott Walker mit Throbbing Gristle, The Dwarfs of East Agouza und Polwechsel zusammengetan, bevor die Ergebnisse dieser Aufnahmesession der Cut-up-Technik von Burroughs und Gysin unterzogen wurden. Dieses Album ist laut und erratisch, wunderbar psychedelisch und doch voll von Momenten abrupter Ruhe und Introspektion, die umso mehr Verwirrung stiften. Es ist das eindrucksvollste Beispiel für das, worum es in dieser Ausgabe dieser Kolumne ging: unbehagliche Musik.
field-notes berlin
Found Sounds #5
(Dis)Comfort Music
29 July, 2025 | Kristoffer Cornils
[...]
Mattin’s music is doing that. Besides his work as a solo artist, he is also a member of the group Al Karpenter, whose new album »Greatest Heads↗« has been jointly released by the Night School and Hegoa labels and sounds as if Ghédalia Tazartès and Scott Walker had teamed up with Throbbing Gristle, The Dwarfs of East Agouza, and Polwechsel before the results of this unlikely marriage was subjected to cut-up techniques à la Burroughs and Gysin. It is aggressively noisy, wonderfully psychedelic, and full of moments of abrupt calm and introspection that create even more confusion. It is the most striking example of what this instalment of this column was all about: Discomfort Music.
just a false alarm
前衛音楽、インダストリアル、ポップス、ブルース、民俗音楽—あらゆる要素をごった煮にし、解体し、ぶちまけ、世界を泥まみれにする。消費社会の歯車を遅らせ、殺戮する武器の力を無効化するためには、ヘドロを塗りたくらなければならない。笑いと怒りの渦巻く地中から、Al Karpenterは現代社会へのアンチテーゼを投げつける。
Álvaro Mattillaを中心に結成され、現在はMattin, Marta Sainz, Enrique Zaccagninらも加わっているこのグループは、バスク地方の実験音楽シーンから登場してきたらしい。メンバーのことは全く知らないのだが、どうやらこのシーンの強者揃いのようで、特にMattinはBilly Bao, Reglerなどのバンドへの参加、及びKeith RoweやAnnea Lockwood, Valerio Tricoliら著名な実験音楽家たちとのコラボレーションなどで知られているという*1。
上の脚注で触れた記事によれば、このバンドは2000年代のニューヨーク前衛シーンに影響を受けているとのことである。この記事では他に、Alan Vega, Lux Interior, Pere Ubu, Scott Walker, Iancu Dumitrescu, Iannis Xenakis, Royal Trux（初期）, Reynols, Dead Cなどの名前が挙げられている。ここでわざわざ記事で言及されている音楽家たちを列挙したのは、実際にこの作品のそこかしこから、これらの膨大な前衛音楽の破片が聞こえてくるからである。もちろん、ここにさらに他の名前を加えていくのは容易いことだ。例えば「A Brand New Astraphobia」におけるギターとダブル・ベースによるリフは、Slintのようなスロウコアを思わせるし、「Stop The Genocide!」でのインダストリアルな音と電子音のシーケンスには、Throbbing Gristleを思い出さずにはいられまい。意外な連想——ごく個人的なもの——を言えば、「Perfect Love」の冒頭で唐突に爆音で入ってくるゲーセンのような電子音は、石橋英子『Impulse of the Ribbon』へと繋がったりもした（尤も、彼女がJim O'Rourkeのパートナーとして相互に強い影響を与え合っていることを踏まえれば、他ならぬそのJim O'Rourkeがいた2000年代のニューヨーク前衛シーンの薫陶を受けたAl Karpenterの音楽から石橋英子へと連想することは、さほど突飛なことではないのかもしれない）。
Al Karpenterの魅力は、しかし、単に幅広い前衛音楽を吸収していることにあるのではない。是非とも強調しておかねばならないのは、自らの知識やコレクションを得意げに羅列していく音楽オタク的な態度とも、得た知識を生真面目に再現しようとする優等生的な態度とも、彼らの音楽が全く無縁であるということである。雑多な音楽がごちゃ混ぜにされた結果生み出された地下世界の強烈さこそがこのアルバムの最大の引力となっているのだ。聴き手はそこに否応なく巻き込まれ、音楽と共に泥にまみれることになる。
ノイズや不協和音がそこかしこに溢れ、予想もしない箇所から奇妙な音が入り込んでくるその世界では、時に気怠いブルースやジャズが、ポエトリー・リーディングが、さらには（「Izugarrizko Buruak (Greatest Heads)」や「The Most Grudgeful Lie」のような曲では）酔っ払いのオペラが、聞こえてくる。冒頭の3曲や「Stop The Genocide!」では、壊れたアフロビートが打ち鳴らされる*2。さらに、「Worm City」や「Perfect Love」ではポピュラーミュージックが冗談のようにサンプリングされる*3。泥まみれの世界で騒ぎ立てる酩酊者たち、笑いと喧騒——。
それらは単に露悪的なものなのだろうか？ 「子供を殺すのを止めろ（Stop killing children）」という言葉を繰り返し、虐殺を非難する声には、それ以上のものがある。Al Karpenterというバンド名をもじって語られる「俺たちはみんな人生の大工なんだ…だがそれが得意なわけではない…（We are all carpenters of life... But we are not good at it...）」という冒頭の言葉は、ユーモアとともに現代社会を告発する。セリーヌが書き殴った資本主義社会の暗面、すなわち機械音が支配する非人間的な世界を描き出しながら、それでも、Al Karpenterはその機械音を自らの手で解体し、再度組み立てることで抵抗を試みる。そこで組み立てられるものは、無論整序されたものではなく奇怪な音世界だ——我々は下手くそな大工なのだから。解体と構築を繰り返しながら、Al Karpenterは、諧謔と酩酊と憤りによって世界を暴き立てる。
本作はRashad Beckerによってマスタリングされ、Night School RecordsとHegoaからリリースされた。
*1:詳しくは以下を参照のこと（https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/album-of-the-week/al-karpenter-greatest-heads-review/）。Al Karpenterというバンドの背景をかなり詳細に説明してくれている。
*2:Bandcampのページでは、本作をTalking Headsの『Remain in Light』と比較している。アフロビートからの影響に加え、どちらもバンドの4枚目のアルバムであるということからの類推である。アルバムタイトルやジャケットからも窺えるように、1980年のこの歴史的傑作をバンド側が意識していたことはおそらく事実なのだろう。だがここでは、アフロビートは既に歪められ、人間の顔はもはや極限まで形象化された廃墟となっている——まるで『Remain in Light』の裏ジャケに描かれた戦闘機がもたらした災厄の残滓のように。
*3:後者ではBjörkがサンプリングされる。前者ではR&Bのようなものがサンプリングされており、どことなく聞き覚えがあるのだが元ネタが分からない。どなたかご教授願いたい。
ナザール (id:Tsaka) 5日前 読者になる
TOT DE POP: PUNT DE TROBADA (dimecres, 6 d’agost del 2025)
La desmitificació dels estils musicals sembla que és la línia argumental d’Al Karpenter. Totalment imprevisibles i de inútil classificació, com diu no se quí, la seva música sembla que no lligui ni amb cola de conill però en realitat, hi ha un trasfondo de conciliació i harmonia que s’endinsa en ell de la mà de música experimental i narrativa teatralitzada. Allà ens trobarem.
Naveguen amb total i absoluta llibertat, sense cap mena de mania, en una experiència única de la que no ens escapem.
Hem d’anar una mica enrere per trobar els orígens d’Al Karpenter. Afloren de l’escena experimental d’Euskadi a principis de 2000. El bilbaí Álvaro Matilla (veu, guitarra, teclats, electrónica, cítara) és qui fusiona el grup, ara amb Marta Sainz (veu, baix, guitarra); Enrique Zaccagnini (veu, percussions, Korg MS20 & Daxofón), tots dos de Santander i l’inesgotable i genial multi-instrumentista basc resident a Berlín, Mattin (veu, contrabaix, electrònica, guitarra, batería, armonio). El nord de Mattin, segons va declarar en una entrevista, i per extensió de la resta de membres, no és altre que obtenir una obertura total, on s’anima a aportar enfocaments independentment de les escenes particulars de cadascú.
Han llançat Greatest Heads, el seu quart treball, via els segells Hegoa Diskak i Night School, l’edició en vinil, prevista per a finals de mes. El van enregistrar de l’abril a l’octubre de l’any passat als Abject Musik Studio de la capital alemanya. Inclou 10 pistes d’exploració musical que fa de base a un discurs de crítica social i política. En l’àlbum anterior deixava amb el cul a l’aire el feixisme dels algoritmes. En aquest, carrega contra el feixisme en totes les seves formes. Mundo Chabola desmonta la falsa societat del benestar i Stop The Genocide!, no cal presentar-la.
FeltHat Reviews (17th June 2025)
Newest album by Al Karpenter beautifully released by Night School/Hegoa Disk is somewhat interesting, intriguing and pretty challenging (in a positive sense) album I have listened in a little while.
It's a combo of musicians who are both experienced and not easily swayed by anything that is too oblique or obvious. A set of songs which clearly have an imprint of experiments within different genres such as electronics, post-punk, freely improvised music in a broader sense, spoken word.
I took on this listening more in terms of treating each track as a separate narrative which was better for me to analyze the whole experience.
Great work on the nuances, juxtaposing different modals and modes. Lots of contrasting elements but with a great communication - everything works very well. In this case of a collaborative work, I feel it is important to be mindful how composing should be done - whether it's through certain themes and chords and riffs, or just simply through some sort of controlled improvisation.
One way or another it works very well.
Al Karpenter is somewhat on pair with situationist approach - you can definitely feel it through their lyrics and DIY approach. Please check the interview I have done with them, here .
Al Karpenter Interview with FeltHat Reviews
1.There is a moment in life for every artist and musician to get inspired and move on towards a certain direction and commit to start doing what is closer to your interest? You also have been through different stages in your life related to different genres. Can you describe this (those) moment(s)?
Al: Well, I started to write some things -and songs- in the mid 90s, but I didn´t advance in my musical formation till I bought a guitar in the mid 00s, that was my key moment. I started doing what I heard and saw from people like Sonic Youth, The Velvet Underground, Billy Bao, Eten, Liars -before they became electronic- or Captain Beefheart. That was the beginning.
Marta: When I was about seven or eight years old, someone rang the doorbell and left a vinyl record on the ground. It was a gift from a boyfriend to my older sister. It was a Hawaiian music record with a beautiful cover. My sister never listened to it. And that record was one of the first musical gifts I ever received. When I was seven, we went to a classical music store and they bought me the waltzes of Strauss. At ten, I was given a Suzi Quatro record and some Ennio Morricone records: For A Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. And if we add to all that the first time I heard Les Rallizes Dénudés, which exploded in my head with thousands of colors… I could also talk about Meredith Monk. Meredith Monk opened the doors to a fascinating world where voice, body, and noise were inseparable. And seeing Phil Minton perform Christian Marclay's Manga Scrolls was an UNFORGETTABLE experience!!
Enrique: Before joining the group, I already knew the work of Mattin and Al separately—they're both amazing creators. I had also worked with Al on another project, Delusion of the Fury. Now that I know them even better, they still keep impressing me.
I love this group. No limits, no rules—just commitment. And I don’t think we’re making music of the future. This is Al Karpenter, right now.
Mattin: For me, it has been about discovering music that tells you “it is possible to do that”. Back in Bilbao, discovering bands like Eskorbuto -who were reflecting the reality of the Basque Country at the time from a nihilistic perspective- coincided with my listening to The Velvet Underground and The Stooges, who shared a similar nihilistic attitude but were more avant-garde. What they all had in common was a rupture of hegemonic ideology by getting underneath the appearance of reality, showing its instability and fragility and exploring it to its fullest consequences.
Then, discovering improvisation -which pushes instability to its limits- felt like coming home. Combined with the disruptive power of noise, it seemed like the next step. Seeing AMM, Filament, Junko, Masonna, Fushitsusha, and Whitehouse live, and listening to radical electronic music like Maryanne Amacher and Roberta Settels, as well as very quiet music like Radu Malfatti and Taku Unami and more conceptual work like ZAJ and Walter Marchetti, was truly transformative. This conceptual approach helped me to understand each aspect of music—concerts, record production, cover artworks—as potential material for intervention from a different angle.
2. In your work you have different tools/instruments. How did you find your own way towards enjoying and using it for composition? How do you feel about it?
Al: We work with whatever instruments we have, and I sometimes make loops that become part of the mix. I usually play a guitar riff—either before or after—and then the rest of the sounds fall into place. For me, it’s a fun process.
Marta: My relationship with voice and instruments is rooted in deep listening and free improvisation. I studied piano, but I also play other instruments in a more physical, hands-on way. In Al Karpenter, freedom is at the core of the maddening music we create—edited by Mattin from a cave studio that somehow gets an amazing sound!
Enrique: John Cage said that everything is music—every sound, a fistful of sounds—it all depends on how you listen. In that sense, anything can be an instrument. On our new record, there’s eight-handed percussion on a contrabass box, kitchen utensil sounds, and both conventional and unconventional instrument noises. Post-production is fundamentally the key—it's the final and perhaps most important instrument we use.
Mattin: We might start with a conventional rock setup—voice, guitar, bass, and drums—but then we take inspiration from the Art Ensemble of Chicago and the Brillantene Dilettanten, in the sense that each of us plays whatever instrument we want. We record without fear, knowing that anything can become part of a song in the assemblage process of putting things together. There’s a kind of surrealist process at work—anything can find its place on an Al Karpenter record.
Except for Al, we’re all playing instruments we’re not particularly familiar with. We’re basically the opposite of professionals, so it’s not surprising that we’ve been compared to the Nihilist Spasm Band. We approach these instruments with a punk attitude—in the sense that you can just do it—and then we improvise.
3. Using certain technology to create music is a great idea but can also be a message. What drives you to create sounds using them? How did it evolve over the years of your personal experience?
Al: The message isn’t just in what you say—the way you say it is just as important.
Marta: I enjoy using any kind of technology—what matters most to me is the sound.
Enrique: There’s a message in every artwork—whether it’s intentional, explicit, or not. It’s the viewer or listener who interprets that message based on their knowledge, experience, or mood. Without an audience, there’s no artwork. Creation is always polysemic.
Mattin: I come from a background in computer music, but before that, I played in post-punk bands here in Bilbao. Al Karpenter brings those two interests together perfectly. What’s fascinating is how technology allows us to twist the rock format—something we love, but also find limiting compared to what noise makes possible. So we take the freedom of the latter and apply it to the former—and we have a blast doing it.
It’s interesting that we often rehearse in Bilbao, a post-industrial city, and our music has also been described as post-industrial. Al Karpenter reflects some of the contradictions of Bilbao’s contemporary urban landscape. What was once a rough industrial city has now rebranded itself as a neoliberal model through cultural marketing and technological innovation. But in doing so, it tries to conceal its struggles—yet those struggles keep resurfacing. In Al Karpenter, we take inspiration from these struggles and use technology to make music that belongs to a culture that cannot be easily defined, instrumentalized, or marketed.
4. How do you set up for your live gigs? What approach do you have in terms of composing?
Mattin: The composition mostly happens in post-production. For live concerts, we sometimes rehearse in Bilbao, sometimes online, and sometimes right before the show. We basically adapt to whatever situation we're in. Improvisation is a key part of what we do, so there’s a lot of openness—but always with a strong sense of precision and intention.
Al: Yeah, it’s not easy for us, but we give it our best—and that’s what matters. Every moment we get on tour, we use it to rehearse and prepare for the gigs as well as we can.
Marta: It’s easy to prepare for the concerts—there’s a great vibe between us. Ideas just keep coming and coming and coming...
Enrique: The whole group is on the same wavelength. It’s very easy for us to start working, and we have a great time. Traveling to perform in different places is also a good reason to explore other shared interests: art, gastronomy, and other forms of culture.
5. How did you feel about collaborating with anyone before you met? What brought you together and how did you find the communication? Can you tell us a little bit about working with different artists?
Al: This project has been going for over 20 years. I was already “Al Karpenter” when I played with Karpenters—now Krpntrs—with Bárbara Lorenzo on drums in the early years. The first works under the name AL KARPENTER—which are available online on platforms like Archive, SoundCloud, Vimeo, and YouTube—included collaborations with people like Mikel Xedh, Héctor Rey, Jorge De La Visitación, Ainara Legardón, Enrike Hurtado, Oier Iruretagoiena, Ulzión, Txemi Artigas (Mr Smoky), and others.
Mikel Xedh was a big help to me in those early years—around the beginning of the 2010s. He gave me the confidence to feel at ease with electronic forms. That was a key moment in shaping Al Karpenter’s musical identity.
Marta: For me, playing with someone I don’t know is about connection and active listening—it can be magical at times. When I discover interesting music, I imagine myself making those sounds alongside the person creating them.
Enrique: Our experience with different musical styles allows us to challenge everything freely, without seeing our limitations as a handicap. Improvisation is all about listening—to everyone else—and knowing how to act, or when not to react and just stay silent. By doing that, we can navigate any idiomatic challenge without difficulty.
It’s simple: pay attention, listen, and speak only if you truly have something meaningful to say. Working with others teaches you a lot—it’s a great antidote to narcissism, ego, or a superiority complex. A kind of therapy, really.
I played live with Mattin and Al in a project called Érzsébet—at the Zarata Fest over 12 years ago, with Mikel Xedh, Alejandro Durán, and many others. So when they invited me to join Al Karpenter, it was a truly surreal moment!
Mattin: We all come from many years of improvisation, so we’re very comfortable collaborating with others. For example, the record we did with CIA Debutante came out of a one-day session in Berlin, which was an incredible experience. We’ve also collaborated with Sunik Kim, Dominic Coles, and Triple Negative on The Forthcoming. The early records also emerged from many collaborations—with María Seco, Joxean Rivas, Chie Mukai, Lucio Capece, Werner Dafeldecker, Loty Negarti, Seijiro Murayama...
On our latest record, we have contributions from Lisa Rosendahl, “ ” [sic] Goldie, and Mikel Xedh. Sadly, Mikel Xedh passed away at the beginning of the year, which was a major loss for the experimental music community in the Basque Country. He was a true catalyst. Our last album is dedicated to him.
6. In an ever changing distribution of music how do you see your place and how do you feel about physical releases?
Marta: I love physical editions—LPs and cassettes. The objects themselves, and the sounds those formats carry, are truly marvelous.
Al: Well, it's really difficult to release music in physical formats these days—LPs, CDs, even cassettes—but it’s always been a strange kind of career. I feel lucky every time a record label shows interest in publishing our music.
Enrique: Today, there are many ways to publish your music, and it can potentially reach a wide audience. But the issue is that the profitability you get from it—within a savage, capitalist merchandise distribution system—acts as a form of censorship. It’s something the philosopher Herbert Marcuse already pointed out back in the 1960s, sixty years ago.
Mattin: I remember Steve Albini once saying that vinyl wasn’t just nostalgic—it was a format grounded in material reality. Sound is literally cut into the grooves of the record. It’s like a material crystallization or condensation of a specific moment in time, becoming a kind of message in a bottle—you have no idea where it will end up. In contrast, it's easy to imagine digital files ending up on broken hard drives, discarded and sent for recycling. If aliens landed and wanted to understand human recorded sound, vinyl might actually be the most intuitive place to start.
We’ve been lucky to work with labels like Munster, ever/never, Crystal Mine, and now Hegoa Diskak and Night School—labels that genuinely care about the music and the records they release. They take huge risks purely out of love for the music. The situation is incredibly difficult, but there’s still a strong independent network of shops and distros keeping things alive. As long as that network exists, we’ll continue to release music in physical formats.
We honestly don’t know what might happen with internet platforms—some of them are great, and it’s incredible to have this level of global distribution and accessibility, but things can quickly turn ugly without warning. For example, in February 2024, SoundCloud quietly updated its terms to allow uploaded material to be used for training AI models, without informing artists directly. Although they later revised the policy to require explicit opt-in, the incident highlighted how easily platforms can shift direction without transparency.
That said, there are platforms trying to be more conscious about these issues—like mirlo.space, subvert.fm, and ninaprotocol.com. And we always have archive.org.
7. Could you tell us a bit about your latest work?
Al: We tried to make the most eclectic and open album as possible with “Greatest Heads”.
Marta: I like what Nathan Roche (CIA Debutante) said about our last record: -“It sounds like you all went into a deep, deep jungle and got hypnotized, or cured by many rituals by an unknown prehistoric tribe, that oddly enough beyond our level of conscious... l love all the production work, it really takes you on a unique sonic journey ... ”-.
Enrique: Of the four records we've made with this lineup, this one might be the most solid. We've grown in our ability to better express the musical concepts that interest us, and also in our capacity to let go of preconceptions and experiment in different directions.
Mattin: Our latest record might be our most mature and complex—a synthesis of ideas we've been working on, like decentering the rock song and transforming it into something else. Hopefully, it's a recording of abject contemporary reality that still contains a latent possibility—a statement that things can be different by being something different. It's a rejection of the status quo, of resignation, of fatalism.
Adorno wrote in 1949, “To write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” So when we asked ourselves what kind of music can we make in the face of ongoing genocide, we knew it couldn't be acritical or complacent. It has to push itself—to break form, to rupture comfort, to carry dissonance as a form of truth-telling. It has to refuse indifference and insist, in its own fractured and noisy way, that another world is still possible.
8. Plans for the future?
Marta: Making music is a kind of happiness. I’m lucky to play with musicians I admire and love. I hope to keep creating different noise recordings with them—and I absolutely love playing live! It’s wild and addictive!
Al: Yeah, the plan is to keep enjoying the ride—to work on a new record (we already have a working title and some fresh ideas) after the upcoming gigs. And for myself, I’ll keep running a few parallel projects I’m involved in, like 3l P3rr0 V3rd3, Krpntrs, The Heart Junkies, NUZ, No Jump!, and Videofan.
Mattin: Our next record will probably be called Where Is This Lunacy Going to End?—or simply Lunacy. We’ll try to respond to this almost impossible question—where is this insane phase of the world heading?—by pushing the power of making music together as a way of saying: we’re here, we’re alive, and we’re not going down.
Enrique: Working in this band is always a challenge—a constant search for new ways of expression without limiting our creativity. We make no compromises except with ourselves and our own perspective on how we see things and relate to the world today.
Coming together to play or record is always exciting—we never know what’s going to happen, but we know it will be interesting.
We’re rhizomatic.
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El correo (Bilbao, 10 de junio 2025)
Carlos Benito
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