In good old Hobbit tradition, this album is my birthday present of 2021 to all my listeners and supporters - it's a basically FREE download (however I set it to "name your price" on request by several listeners who like to add it to their BC collections to be able to stream the album from there, which requires to pay one Euro at least - a rule made by BC, not myself. Oh, and of course they didn't ask especially for THIS particular release, but in general...).
That said - what is it...?
This album mainly includes music that You also could find elsewhere in the web to listen to for free - and even to watch!
These are the live (in the studio) performances that I recorded for three different streaming festivals which took place in the second half of 2021:
SPACERS FESTIVAL took place first, on October 30 and 31. It was curated by Adrian Bancu on behalf of the Romanian science fiction club HELIOS and featured contributions by several Romanian, but also international artists. The event wasn't only an electronic music festival, but also included science fiction literature and science.
The festival was themed, day one was dedicated to Earth, day two was dedicated to the Moon.
I performed two improvisations during which I tried to capture my ideas about Earth and Moon correspondingly. I'm not sure in how far I succeeded to do so (improvisations have a tendency to go their own way at some point, no matter what I initially had in mind) but I believe they make for some nice listening anyway...
youtu.be/CIy4jYNpnF4
youtu.be/nQ4khXc0mFQ
CYCLICAL FEST took place on November 20. It was curated by Pablo Bilbao on behalf of the excellent label CYCLICAL DREAMS from Buenos Aires, Argentina. The festival featured a great line-up of Latin American as well as international artists who put out albums on that excellent young label.
I count myself lucky to have released two albums with them so far. The latest of these, "Recycled Life" is itself based mainly on other streaming concerts I played in the first half of this year. For my contribution, I decided to remain in that mood - therefore, it comes closest to my "standard" live set, being based on some of my "tested and trusted" sounds...
However, it also includes a novelty:
My good friend and musical partner in "La Mansarde Hermetique" - Mathias Brüssel - recently built a prototype of his first ever hardware synthesizer, called "Gedroehn". In this early stage, it's a machine designed to create atonal drones that can sound rather earth-shattering if you crank up the volume, and my use of it in that concert was its first public appearance. Mathias by the way in the meantime has already built a much expanded second version of "Gedroehn" which, among other things, now can be played tonally...
youtu.be/dcagvqXqhhQ
RAUMZEIT FESTIVAL also took place on November 20 - which was a bit unfortunate, because listeners can't divide themselves. On the other hand, as it is the case with these online festivals, you can still watch them later on.
I'm especially happy to have been invited to this, since an earlier "edition" of RaumZeit - without any pandemic around happening in real life - actually was the first festival I ever appeared at, back in 2012 (...same numbers as in 2021, can't be mere coincidence! ;-) ).
It was curated by Stefan Erbe on behalf of EMpulsiv Magazine, and like the other festivals, also RAUMZEIT presented a line-up of excellent acts, this time mainly from Germany and The Netherlands.
Also RAUMZEIT FESTIVAL is themed, in that it's required that musicians perform in "special places" (as opposed to their studio space). It took me rather long to find some suitable and interesting place to film this - in the end, I used the old wine cellar of my wife's father, who's a (now retired) wine-grower / vintner. In front of the wine tanks and with a few moving lights on, it really looked special...
Another requirement of this festival was to divide one's contribution into three 10-minute parts, which prevented me from diving into yet another endless Berlin School improvisation "the size of planets" and concentrate a bit more to deliver some slightly more compact pieces...
youtu.be/4g7VDHEbW6U
youtu.be/sZLCmHKsRDo
youtu.be/IS6nX28zlnY
So, these are the actual live tracks - but then, there are still the bonus tracks, and I'd at least add the story of "90 Shamans" as well:
Earlier this year, I received an invitation from fellow CYCLICAL DREAMS artist Esteban Menash to collaborate with him on one track for his upcoming album. He intended to do a track based on a Bach composition and wanted me to provide some sequencing...
Being very busy all year through I wasn't sure at all if I could find the time to to it, but finally I sat down one day and produced / improvised a big bag full of sequences which might, or might not, have been suitable for the piece Esteban had in mind. Then I sent it all to him and let him decide what to use, and what not. Which he did, and the resulting track turned out great actually (mainly due to the immense talents of Esteban and J.S. Bach, no doubt...).
However, when I started to put together THIS here release, I felt I'd liked to add one more thing to it that would be unique and not available elsewhere, so I asked Esteban if he would mind that I created a remix of all those sounds and sequences that I had recorded for him. He didn't mind, and the result turned out to be one great sequence showcase - I'm really fond of it. It's also quite different from Esteban's track, even though it shares some elements...
youtu.be/5Gq3In5u4xo
m3nash.bandcamp.com/music
The other bonus track is just what the title says, an early version of what turned out to be "Streaming or Dreaming". It's sequences only and has a slightly more agressive mood, and I think it makes for a nice addition...
