DIE TÜREN

I still remember it as if it were August 17, 2018: there, in the course of the Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin, Staatsakt's Maurice Summen, Türen co-founders Ramin Bijan and Gunther Osburg, Ja,-Pan Andreas Spechtl and drummer-rat-king Chris Imler stood together on stage and played strange, new songs. At some point, towards the end of a performance that meandered into the throats and legs of the audience anyway, the audience really sang along - 'Ich hab' keine Angst, ich hab' keine Angst, ich hab' keine Angst - it went on forever, the lookers and listeners were suddenly part of the process, were on board, accepted the arm-spreading invitation of the mischievous humming that this pop was open to all, a self-understanding that here was also clearly in the groove, in the contagion. Afterwards, everyone felt exactly the same way, felt part of what had taken place there, still stood a bit puzzled in the venue, perhaps feeling caught, having unexpectedly come out of themselves like that. But this was not a (quasi-)religious experience, but an actual pop ideal: what had happened there could be called exoteric. And so - logically! - is also the title of the triple album of the Doors, that chameleon band that can't be gotten dead due to constant rebirth, which has been busy deforming its own mode (and always staying true to this non-state) since 2003.

Exoteric (rhymes a bit with Funkadelic): Transparency in the process. And that's what it's become. We hear on these three records God (?), Madchester, Cosmic Disco and DUB DUB DUB! And all that was already noticeable, on said evening. On record that means now: door hits that sound produced, where there is palpable security, radio is possible, then nocturnal intoxication translations, already between the unword 'jam' (to re-emancipate it once) and the high art of improvisation, cut-up experiments, club sandwiches, shreds and epic structures - so concrete: jaunty numbers, relaxed numbers, cheeky numbers, funny numbers, sometimes with, sometimes without vocals, but always with a slogan, completely open, for what or whom (exoteric: for everyone!). The doors change in Berlin from the Trans Europa to the Regional Express. This sounds sometimes like a somewhat noisy rehearsal room recording of the most accomplished band in the world and the next moment like an HD studio production of the Genialen Dilletanten (sic!), ticking between techno and suicide chatter, between discourse pop of the Berlin bohemians and Sun Ra, between stoner dream and rock number. Or (pretentiously): like lived situationism.

But an equally exciting moment took place after the concert described above, while the audience was still staggering around - and this moment serves the portrait: The musicians were all still sitting on the stage, a cig in their mouths, a beer to their lips, talking shop in an unagitated and animated way about what had happened, and then slowly pulling the cables. And I asked myself: How do they do that, how did they just manage that? And then I thought: Actually, it's quite simple. In order for this to remain exciting for artists and recipients, for the musicians not to cannibalize each other, for the fun to always exceed the pre-programmed effort of such a ride, the ego simply has to be surrendered, it has to be hung on the nail at the gate to the rehearsal room, to the concert stage, to the studio, or better yet, nailed into the wall. Then Summen will count, Spechtl will sing ('ICH BIN ABGEHAUEENNNN'), Imler will bring the Orient. [Now origin story!] So happened in August 2018, in the hottest days of the drought summer (39°C tant et plus), in Ringenwalde, at the Gasthof zur Eisenbahn. 5 days, 15 hours of music, live, together, then editing (mix Bijan and Spechtl, mastering Norman Nitzsche/Calyx). Summen says: 'The best bands in history lived from the edit, Beatles, Can, Material, Neu, This Heat ...'! Right he is.

Service performance band bio: The Doors have been around since 2003, they've been around ever since with (brief interruption) Gunther Osburg (guitar, keys), from early to late Ramin Bijan (bass - the only mucker allowed!) and Maurice Summen (vocals, percussion, guitar), since 2012 Andreas Spechtl (first guitar and now 'only' modular system, keys and vocals) and Chris Imler (drum) and actually Michael Mühlhaus (keys, this time busy with edge), which you ALL KNOW FROM DIVERSE OTHER PROJECTS! In 2014 they were called Der Mann for a short time. The artwork by Markus S. Fiedler, who is responsible for the whole aesthetic of the band, is pink and gold, garnished with some skin color, it looks very (post-internet) modern, showing naked, genderless avatars in a clitoresque bubblegum mountain.

Well, and so now an incredibly versatile, exoteric triple giant album has been created. But honestly: the words only suffice for the trappings, you have to listen to it yourself ...

-Hendrik Otremba