FMP Today: Q&A with Markus Müller

Markus Müller. Photo by Cristina Marx/Photomusix

In 2022, Markus Müller, released a fantastic book about the history of FMP. Working closely with Jost Gebers, owner and founder of the important and influential West German record label, Müller provided a expansive and engaging history of the label in its effort to document and promote the creative music developing on the border between the former East and West Berlin. We covered the FMP: The Living Music here and interviewed Müller at the time, here. 

After Geber's passing in 2023, Mueller became the owner of FMP (which he discusses below) and has been quietly working on starting a new chapter in the label's history. Martin Schray and I pooled a set of questions for Müller, who in between trips to the US and opening the new FMP office with a series of free concerts (see below), took the time to answer. Enjoy!  -Paul Acquaro

FJB: You were recently in Chicago at the Corbett v Dempsey gallery, can you tell us about this event?

MM: It was my privilege to be invited to present my FMP book and specifically FMP’s collateral relationship to Chicago and it was an honor that Ken Vandermark introduced this presentation with an Albert Ayler composition, Love Call and joined our discussion afterwards. An extra perk was being able to see the Albert Oehlen Kim Gordon exhibition as well as the Sun Ra-Covers group show.

What is the connection between FMP and the Chicago scene?

Well, initially there was an FMP fest in Chicago in 1995. I called the relation collateral because the real relation was built on John Corbett organising the possibility of Brötzmann’s Chicago Octet/Tentett experience starting in 1997. That in itself was obviously a monumental achievement: a European starts a large-scale ensemble of international colleagues and this continues to be on the road until 2011, incredible. It eventually led to John Corbett licensing FMP recordings for Atavistic Records etc. etc. etc. I believe it is fair to say that what Ken Vandermark and others have established with Catalytic Sound and Catalytic Soundstream or what Mike Reed is establishing with the Hungry Brain and Constellation, “his” two venues in Chicago, is next generation continuation of some of FMP’s ideas. And when you think of AACM’s obvious influence on FMP, you suddenly have a full circle Chicago – FMP– Chicago roundabout. Anyway, there are a lot of people in Chicago who think that FMP is a worthwhile and interesting model. And the city has the music to back it up. I had a great time at Peter Margasak’s Frequency Festival, and I loved David Rempis and PT with Joshua Abrams and Mike Reed at the Brain. And don’t get me started about Fridays at the Green Mill (thank you, again, Ken Vandermark).

CvD reissued FMP recordings over the years on CD, is this something you will continue?

Yes, the collaborations with both CvD and Trost will continue never change a winning team.

You also work with Trost, re-releasing authentic versions of the classic recordings on LP, also can we expect to see some more of these? (I have almost all of the Trost/Cien Feugos reissues, they're a treat!)

See above…

Back to Berlin... how did the move from Jost Geber's store house in the western side of Germany back home to Berlin in the far eastern side go?

Oh, it is still going on. Technically we have offices in Borken and Berlin and I am very thankful that Anna Maria Ostendorff, Jost’s wife, is still supporting FMP. I have the good fortune of being allowed to tap into her knowledge and to move things step by step.

Do the many recordings that were stored with Jost Gebers' still have musical significance beyond a historical one?

Jost had a full studio in Borken, a fully functioning office and a full storage and he was preparing recordings to be mastered by Olaf Rupp basically non-stop until the very end. Given the interest in seminal historical recordings we see right now, let us say recordings by Milford Graves for example, I would say that yes there are still quite a few unpublished recordings that have musical significance. It is all about making things available that are here, were there, and are underrepresented by the mainstream. It was John Corbett who found the alternate take to Pakistani Pomade by the Schlippenbach Trio in Borken. Who knows what I am to find?

If so, which ones do you think are particularly exciting?

I do not want to cherry-pick. But there is something for everybody. And I will also publish new old recordings that are not in the FMP vaults. I am looking at material by the wonderful Hans Schneider for example that was brought to my attention by Stefan Keune, or King Übü Orchestrü recordings that Erhard Hirt found etc. etc. by the end of April (25/26/27), when Wolke Verlag and FMP will celebrate moving into their new offices at FMP1 (no joke), I hope to have all the details for the first releases ready, they will drop in the Fall of 2025.

Can you discuss some of the developments since the The Living Music was published and FMP moved back to Berlin? Perhaps a bit more about the new location and your connection with Wolke?

Yes indeed. The new location is the former Neues Deutschland building, which was the GDR state newspaper, now FMP1 at Franz-Mehring-Platz 1, located between Ostbahnhof and Berghain and it gives us the opportunity to have offices as well as storage as well as quite a handful of different size venues that we will be able to use for our Spring Fest. Plus, there is a paternoster and, yes, we will perform Sven Åke Johansson’s “Paternoster” twice on Saturday the 26 ^th (something for all members of the family!). Thanks to Takako Suzuki and Hannes Lingen, who have both worked on the piece before, and specially to Takako, who was able to recruit and work with the required dancers. We are honored that quite a few old and new friends will join us, just to name a few: Alexander von Schlippenbach and Aki Takase, Georg Graewe, Olaf Rupp, Michael Wertmüller, Marino Pliakas, Erhard Hirt and Stefan Keune but also Burkhard Beins and Andrea Neuman, Silke Eberhard and Harri Sjöström and many more, the program is in the works. We will soon communicate all the details so please forgive me for not mentioning all involved. It will not be a generic festival, but rather a kaleidoscope of short and beautiful interventions, musics, discussions and performances: free of charge. This is all without any funding, so let us hope that our pockets are deep enough to survive this. 

Photo by Cristina Marx / Photomusix

First and foremost: we are honored and privileged to get this extra-ordinary support from the community, we will try to pay back! Wolke and FMP I believe share a similar DNA, in both their histories and in the simple fact that Wolke published a lot of Brötzmann, and Hans Reichel, Cecil Taylor, and Sven Åke Johansson, and last but not least my book. Plus, it is a beacon of working outside the box, it is a multi-dimensional publishing house and I think it is exemplary in it’s practice. “Es wächst zusammen, was zusammen gehört”. Just joking, I think it is a very good fit and I am enthusiastic about this.

Photo by Cristina Marx / Photomusix

Does the future of FMP only include the management of historical recordings or are new releases also planned? If so, would this also happen under the FMP label or under a new name that could then be associated with FMP (such as Uhlklang)?

Yes, we will do both, we will “complete” our download-site on bandcamp and we will dig in the vaults and publish new new musics. But it will be only download and CD and as such it will continue the FMP CD catalog, meaning after FMP CD 148, STRETTO by Honsinger & Rupp, we will do FMP CD 150 in the Fall. We might continue the OWN Series as well as the FMP Special Editions and these will be very special indeed.

In an earlier interview with us, you said that everything about FMP was political and that it was very much about self-empowerment. To what extent does this also have significance for the future of improvised music?

I think there is no improvised music without self-empowerment. As far as the political is concerned I think we will have to talk about possibilities and strategies of resistance and survival, and these will become more crucial than ever.

In this context, cultural promotion is at stake, especially in view of the rise of populist and anti-democratic parties. Is the continuation of a brand that always sees itself as a left-wing label also to be understood as a sign in this context?

I think we are past these labels. I am for the empowerment of minorities and cosmopolitanism. But that is just me. And I will do project specific albeit sometimes extremely multifaceted and even contradictory potentialities based on FMP’s music legacy. I hope people will continue to be interested in hearing that in the future.

And to come back to now, what can we be expecting from FMP in the coming months?

Spring Fest on April 25/26/27 and new downloads and physical products in the Fall. 

Download Event Program

Finally, could you explain how you became the new curator of FMP? What do you think is the importance of the label to this day?

I am not the curator, I am the owner of FMP and it is quite a responsibility to carry. Jost Gebers wanted me to take on that role and Brötzmann agreed. I am standing on the shoulders of giants and time will tell if I can contribute to the legacy in any meaningful way, shape or form. It certainly is worth trying, especially in times like these.