Last November I had to learn that Dietmar Gallhammer, whom I first knew as driving force behind the swiss anarcho-hc-experimental band Jaywalker had died in Autumn 2012. We’ve been in touch briefly during the late 80’s and early 90’s resulting in an interview and an concert in my then home-town. On Klappstuhl I issued one of their tapes – live recordings from 1988 – on which I stumbled last Autumn again.
I needed a break from the heady electronic & experimental stuff I’ve been listening for some time continously and started to assemble the various bits and pieces, including the final tape he sent me as Jaywalker Recordings with permission to use it as it fits.
Over time parts of it appeared on various Compilations but never completely. So instead of simply reissuing the live tape for the digital age I’ve decided to remaster all the material and compile an Archive Release in the spirit of anarchistic DIY attitude as Free Download release with artwork based on DD’s original prints and dedicate this release to him.
When Jaywalker fell apart Dominique Mollet appeared as member of Dwarfish while DD founded another hc trio; Religious Overdose shortly after with Ivo Pärt & Thomas Peter, resulting in the album ‘Flatus Flow Rate’ in 1996. His more experimental leanings where sat on the back seat with this but not for long. In fact he got simultanously involved in Destroy After Use with Frankie Buchholz and Martin S. Past with whom he kept performing over the years on guitar and videoprojection. See some excerpts here on his utube channel.
Besides his musical musings he kept an interest in graphics and invested his time besides parenthood in a multi-media workshop for mentally handicaped people and founded a time-trade (trade of abilities and time instead of payment) platform in his home area Aargau.
Some of his graphical experiments with HDR photography can currently be viewed via his Flickr account.
A final glimpse showing the direction his musical path was going in 2012 is this otherwise unreleased solo track:
RIP & Thanks for all.