What functions can be attributed to publications dealing with the genre of electronic music? On the one hand, VERSION Nr. 0 gathers various sound recordings, and on the other, it is a platform for the artists represented. VERSION Nr. 0 functions like a conceptually conceived artwork: it sets self-constructed innovative structures, in opposition too the marginalised market conditions of the cultural industry. Protagonists in the international live-scene are represented in VERSION Nr. 0 with partially unreleased tracks, where the borderlines between minimal electronic and conceptual sound structures have been blurred.

VERSION Nr. 0 also attends to the dominance of visual experience over acoustic perception. Logic identifying thought processes tend to follow the images delivered to the eye, whilst the ear transmits information in a dynamic, associative manner. As long as there is no hearing damage, the ear can perceive 1.400 different tones. This sensitivity of the human ear prompts the generation of new mechanisms in electronic music, in turn giving birth to new terms such as; fluctuating sound; textural sound and structural sound.

VERSION Nr. 0 offers musicians and artists alike the possibility of jettisoning pop discourses and electronic laptop histrionics as body alienating strategies. The scope ranges from infiltrating electronic music via overlays and deformations to drone-like excursions through space and time. The context of electronic sound production triggers the notion of expanded installations. The latter is realised by the artist collective dy’na:mo through the interaction of various sound spectre’s and a refined seventeen speaker system. Steady coherence is immanent in the minimalist productions of Elisabeth Grubl. The flawless pose if the musician behind the laptop is overcome through a reflection beyond threadbare claims for authenticity. The critical and non-conformist spirit of an artist like Natasa Berk is manifest in the project poly play. The aesthetics of trash in the productions of Franz Graf and Christian Egger demonstrate an interesting counter-vision to the perfection aspired to by electronic minimalists. On the CD by Christian Egger one can still hear the crackling sounds of home recorded productions and sampled cover versions. This active abstraction characterises the work of all sound producers who incessantly try to leave cultural traces through there art works. Even if one doesn’t get an immediate clue about what to expect from the assembled CD’s and DVD’s, a view of the cover testifies to the artefact itself. On his own cover, Franz Graf acts out his perfidious obsession when he addresses the vulgar and pornographic sides of mainstream media. Those who have left the purist electronic hype behind have lost any antipathy to so called experimental or computer generated rock music.