Maeror Tri

by Fran?ois CoutureThe German-based guitar trio Maeror Tri was active between 1988 and 1996. Well known in the industrial cassette underground, the group was about to break into the growing experimental electronica scene when it ceased its activities. Its brand of drone music borrowed elements from industrial, gothic, avant-garde minimalism (Tony Conrad, Glenn Branca), and new age meditation to reach a form of transcendentalism. It has released dozens of full-length cassettes and 7" and 10" EPs in very limited, hard to find editions, along with five studio albums that are more widely available. Archive material has continued to surface a few years after the group's dissolution.Maeror Tri formed in April 1988. Very little is known about its origins; even the identity of its members remains vague, except for Stefan Knappe, the group's spokesperson and owner of the label Drone Records. The name is an incorrect Latin expression that could mean "the absorbed three" or "the grieving three" -- suitable for the trio's dark inner journeys. The group released its first cassette privately in 1988, followed by many more and dozens of appearances on drone and noise compilation tapes. The group was building a strong name because of the consistent quality and originality of its hazy music and the uniqueness of its packages. In 1993 Korm Plastics released the first "overground" Maeror Tri album, the ambitious concept CD Multiple Personality Disorder. It was followed by Meditamentum, a collection of tape tracks from 1988 to 1993. Myein (1995) and Language of Flames and Sound (1996) continued to chronicle the group's evolution into more abstract domains.In August 1996 (although some sources say it was in November), one member decided to stop, leaving Knappe and his other partner to continue as the duo Troum. But two more albums of new material recorded in the previous months came out: Mort aux Vaches, the group's installment in Staalplaat's series of experimental electronica, and Emotional Engramm (on Iris Light), both released in 1997. A second volume of Meditamentum salvaged more material from the tapes that by then were impossible to find. The two Hypnotikum LPs contain examples of the group's live music.