Crafting what the duo calls "post-kraut-dub-industrial-techno,"
Greie Gut Fraktion brings together East German-born poet/producer
Antye Greie and West German experimental producer
Gudrun Gut.
Greie also releases music under the moniker
AGF, was one half of
Laub and has worked with
Ellen Allien,
Craig Armstrong and
Vladislav Delay, among others;
Gut, meanwhile, was a member of Mania D,
Malaria!,
Einstürzende Neubauten and Matador, and runs the label Monika Enterprise. The project began in 2008, when
Greie invited
Gut to collaborate with her on a work commissioned for the BBC program Late Junction; the pair were inspired by the propulsive sounds of construction sites and made hours of field recordings. Throughout 2009,
Greie and
Gut formed songs out of these sounds plus vocals, beats and guitars in their respective studios in Finland and Berlin. The duo played shows in Copenhagen, Berlin and London before their first release, the Wir bauen eine neue Stadt ("we’re building a new city") EP arrived in spring 2010 on Monika. A cover of the 1981 hit by Palais Schaumberg (which included
Gut collaborator
Thomas Fehlmann among the band’s members), it also featured remixes by
Wolfgang Voigt and Alva Noto.
Greie Gut Fraktion’s first full-length
Baustelle ("Construction Site") was released in summer 2010. ~ Heather Phares