Dopplereffekt

Dopplereffekt is an electronic music act which has been active since at least 1995 (year of first release). It is named after the German word for the Doppler effect. While the musical style and the act's image changed radically during a non-release period from 1999 to 2003, two steady characteristics are the display of a thematic affiliation with science and the obvious use of pseudonyms and the hence rumoured but unconfirmed identities of the members. The main member during all periods has probably been producer/ artist Gerald Donald alias "Rudolf Klorzeiger". Donald is generally accepted to be also the author of the acts Heinrich Müller/ Der Zyklus, Japanese Telecom and Arpanet as well as one half of the band Drexciya (with James Stinson). During that period the sound of these two acts showed strong similarities, in their Detroit electro sound that took influences from industrial, new wave, electro-pop and others, reforming them in a style which is musically complex, often using jazzy modal sequences, and alongside other Detroit based acts on the labels Underground Resistance and direct beat they were highly influential in the 90s' revival of electro. The 1999 compilation of all Dopplereffekt releases from this period, Gesamtkunstwerk, depicted Donald with a new member, "To Nhan Le Thi", who most likely had not been involved with the old material but was given credit anyway and who has been a steady and visible member since, giving occasional live performances. This second period of the band, very contrary to the mid-1990s releases, has been characterised by what sounds like mostly digital sound synthesis and processing, the implication of a connection of the band's music composition to contemporary physics research via track titles and sleeve artworks, and often the absence of danceable drum rhythms and / or tonality, hence resembling Contemporary classical music styles, especially musique concrète and early pioneers of electronic music with analogue modular music systems / synthesizers. However, the compositions are still mostly based on short sequenced riffs/ loops, and the instrumentation is often still based on the traditional scheme "drums + bass + main riff + background synth pads". These traits (free form in some aspects, pop music tradition in others) are contradictory from a mainstream point of view, but are acceptable in the context of the ambient genre or film music. There are no known interviews of Donald or other members concerning Dopplereffekt at this time, except for a feature in the October 2009 issue of new music magazine The Wire, containing exchanges with two people purporting to be associated with the group.