Till Kniola's Cologne imprint, run with a publisher's sensibility, whose compilations double as an encyclopedia of the German experimental underground.
Auf Abwegen is the Cologne experimental label I keep at Tier III, founded and run by the publisher and curator Till Kniola. The name translates roughly as "astray", and the catalogue follows that brief across experimental music, noise and sound art, but the distinguishing feature is the sensibility behind it: this is a publisher's label, where essays, bilingual booklets and design are treated as part of the work rather than packaging.
The roster is a roll-call of the European experimental scene, Asmus Tietchens, Francisco López, RLW, Das Synthetische Mischgewebe, John Wiese, Christoph Heemann, Maeror Tri, Thomas Köner and more. Its survey compilations, like the anniversary DVD-book ausgewählte geräusche with its dozens of artists and 82-page booklet, function as near-encyclopedic documents of three decades of the German underground, which is my own instinct turned into a record.
It is a sibling to Selektion and a Cologne counterpart to Dom Elchklang, tied into the city's a-Musik distribution world.
My reading. Auf Abwegen is at Tier III as a long-running German experimental imprint and a documentarian of its scene.
VAGO · c. the Anthropocene