Crashing Aeroplanes

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Released before the terrorist acts of September 11, FM Einheit (Einstürzende Neubauten) and Andreas Ammer's 'Crashing Aeroplanes' has, by circumstance, become the duo's most controversial radio drama to date. Its basis lies in recordings of aeronautic catastrophes: black box recordings from destroyed aircraft, communications between control towers and failing airliners, and eyewitness reports of the aftermath and carnage.

Tying these recordings together is the script. They built it from narration describing specific crashes, such as Value Jet 592 smashing up in the Florida Everglades and EIAI 1862 slamming into an apartment building in Amsterdam, along with the banal speech of the routine of flying, such as announcements concerning smoking and fastening seatbelts. Most of the monologues are in German, though the entire drama is peppered with a multitude of languages, such as English and Japanese. Ammer and Einheit back this collage with analog synthesizers, musically following the same symmetry found in the script - the dread of furtive electro menace mingles with the typical acoustic environment of the plane's cockpit, with its dancing cadence of signals and warning alarms.

The force of 'Crashing Aeroplanes' lies in exposing specific moments when the realm of the everyday suddenly and unexpectedly becomes transformed into the horrifically surreal. Throughout these frozen instants the voices are basically calm, though you can hear the fear fraying the edges of their composure. Pilots relay the fact that engines are on fire, asking for places to land. Smoke fills up the cabin, but they continue to do their jobs in the face of impending death, trying to save themselves and their passengers.

The most gripping piece on the CD is also the least altered; it's the final moments of JAL 123, which hurtled into Mount Osutaka in August 1985, killing 520 people. The pilot's stoicism is gone - it is replaced with primal fear as alarms sound and the robotic voice of the Ground Proximity Warning System says to "Pull up, pull up". It ends with the crash itself, thundering for a few seconds before the transmission cuts out. This recording doesn't have any synthesized strings or additional dialogue to fuel the tension; its naked authenticity overrules any need for artistic accoutrements.

Ammer and Einheit do a tremendous job exploring and illuminating what it means to be placed in extraordinary situations. Ultimately, however, the artistic vision that they bring to 'Crashing Aeroplanes' isn't contained in clever scripting or wrenching musical accompaniment. It's in allowing the voices to tell their own tragedies, revealing how they faced with dignity the terror of the familiar gone sickeningly wrong.

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