Produced and recorded in times of corona, this 32-minute CD captures the current mood of our societies and at the same time presents the listener with a spectrum of conceivable and historical cases of panic put to very enjoyable music. Designer Kai Pohl’s observation People’s panic is inviolable serves as a motto for this powerful and poetic compilation of new tracks, covers and reworkings of older HIP pieces, as does a quote from Jean Baudrillard’s The Beaubourg-Effect: Implosion and Deterrence that has been printed on the CD cover. The cover art is a well-chosen photo montage from the series Brot und Spiele by German artist Gregor Kunz.
Herbst In Peking, named after Boris Vian’s novel, was formed by Rex Joswig in East Berlin in 1987. The anti-authoritarian stance and fierce criticism of the GDR regime of this punk band led to an official ban in 1989. While Rex Joswig ran his Grenzpunkt Null radio show from East Berlin after the GDR had collapsed, his band steadily assimilated influences from Dub, Industrial and Electronic Music. HIP’s line-up has changed over the years with Joswig as a constant member and their collaboration with Moloko Plus productive to this day. For the ‘Panik’ CD Herbst In Peking consisted of Rex Joswig, Helmer Kreysig, King Snow aka Pegman, Jörg Schittkowski and Robert Grund.