vinyl ^{[ deutsch ]}

My Vinyl-Editions bring together a collection of recordings from the last 40 years. Combined in a new way, the result is fresh perspectives in terms of music and content. The retrospective is complemented by one or two new productions for the respective LP.

»LiederBooks« and »Haupt- und Nebenstücke« are published exclusively on vinyl. On the one hand to pay homage to the medium of musical socialisation, on the other hand to pick up the "musical" form of the LP, an album of two arcs of about 20 minutes each.

The series of »LiederBooks« brings compilations of songs, carols and chansons. Recorded over the last 40 years by various ensembles, the only thing they have in common is that they are sung by me.

Ever since the conception of the LiederBook series, it has been planned to present the songs live as a duo with Lothar Burghaus – regardless of the arrangements and instrumentation of the pieces on the vinyl records.

Schwitters

River of Time

Ballade von der sexuellen Hörigkeit

Without

Mauritshuis

»Haupt- und Nebenstücke« is the instrumental counterpart to the »LiederBooks« and combines chamber music compositions – my own pieces are flanked by interpretations of pieces by other composers.

»LiederBook vol I« In addition to my own pieces there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as Jack Bruce, Frank Zappa, Van Morrison, Ernst Gaida-Hartmann, Willie Nelson, Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and Roger Waters, as well as settings of texts by the poets William Blake and Robert Gernhardt.

»LiederBook vol II« Besides own pieces there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as Frank Zappa, Kurt Weill, Serge Gainsbourg, Jimi Hendrix and John Cale; and there is a version of a King Crimson classic reduced to vocals and casio.

»LiederBook vol III« In addition to my own pieces there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as Annie Lennox, Kurt Weill and Willie Dixon, arrangements to anonymous 16th century melodies from France or the early blue, as well as texts set to music by William Blake, Pierre de Ronsard, Detlev von Liliencron, Robert Gernhardt and Joachim Ringelnatz.

»LiederBook vol IV« In addition to my own pieces, there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as Alexei Aigui, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix and Frank Zappa, a Danish folk song arranged by Kurt Schwaen, a William Blake setting, the German version of a Deep Purple classic and, as an opening, a song that was written for the film "Moloch Tropical" by Raoul Peck – describing the current global mood.

»LiederBook vol V« In addition to my own pieces there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Frank Zappa as well as settings of lyrics by Consuelo Sañudo and Iggy Pop, among others. The metaphor of water is present in several pieces, both lyrically and acoustically. While the A-side begins with the sluice and ends with the jump into the bathtub, the B-side fade away with a thunderstorm.
A "blues" with a 12-tone bass line leads to a "blues" of the post-punk era. A stage song in Cologne dialect and a whiny brass band version of a Zappa song meet a reinterpretation of an old "chanson" from the 80s (a friendly AI made it possible to remove the vocals from the original mix).

»LiederBook vol VI« In addition to my own pieces there are interpretations of music by such diverse composers as Jimi Hendrix, Manfred Niehaus, Bob Dylan, Ernst Gaida-Hartmann, Andreas Schilling and Frank Zappa as well as settings of texts by Kurt Schwitters, Chief Seattle and from the Bible, among others.

Lamenting, loving, waging war – why? Handel's question in “Messiah” is juxtaposed with the philosophy of the Native North Americans; a love song meets a swan song. Russian house rules, sung by a choir, meet a shepherd's song to drive away the sheep. The song “Don't Cry” from the comedy “Real Russian Detective” was a small underground hit. And in the end, it all drifts away in a lifeboat.

»Haupt- und Nebenstücke vol I« I have been working with Alexei Aigui, my Moscow composer friend, since 1994. Together we play our versions of works by esteemed and influential colleagues: the Schönberg arrangement of a medieval minnelied, Kurt Weill's »Klops Lied« or »Mom&Dad« by Frank Zappa. My first arrangement of a Zappa piece is the Stravinsky homage »Igor's Boogie«. To Schönberg as well as J.S. Bach I refer in my composition »Quartet«, which is interpreted by the RUSSIAN-GERMAN COMPOSERS QUARTET. »Dhanno Ki Aankhon« is part of a film score by the innovative Indian composer Rahul Dev Burman. »Ryoan-ji« was composed in 2006 at the monastery of the same name in Kyoto and refers both to the Zen garden there and to John Cage. Japanese haiku (poems in seventeen syllables, divided into 5,7,5) form the shape of my cycle »As a landmark a tomato«. Seventeen miniatures developed from picture titles by Paul Klee. The Japan references are rounded off by Dave Brubeck's »Koto Song«.

A fragment of the live recording of my suite »Transluzenz« opens the first page of »Haupt- und Nebenstücke vol II« and leads into the arrangement for electric bass of »Alabama«, a piece written by John Coltrane in the wake of the racist riots of the 1960s. Roman Fuchß's bass remains present in »Les Adrets«, an atmospheric live recording for string instruments, glockenspiel and recordings of dewdrops at dawn near Grenoble. The A-side ends with a composition for string orchestra, which I wrote in 2019 in the Armenian monastery of Marmaschen.
The B-side contains two longer compositions: the twelve-tone piece »Von goldenen Träumen schwer« refers to a poem by Friedrich Hölderlin, while the 15-minute »Ryoan-ji II« refers to the Zen garden of the same name in Kyoto, which also inspired John Cage.

»Haupt- und Nebenstücke vol III« presents a selection of my compositions for piano.
My first production was in 1995 in the Cologne Loft: pianist Susanne Kessel recorded my piano cycle »Blau« alongside compositions by Cage, Satie, Schubert and Manfred Niehaus. The title »Blau« evokes a variety of associations: Yves Klein, Derek Jarman, the blues, Henri Matisse, drunkenness, etc. The two pieces »Xlendi« and »Petrolio« are from this cycle. »Xlendi« was written in the small town of the same name on Gozo, while »Petrolio« refers to Pier Paolo Pasolini. The multi-track recording technique used in this production, which involves placing several microphones in different positions and distances from the piano, allows the sound to be adapted to the musical situation in a very nuanced way during the final mix. This makes it possible to achieve sound effects comparable to, for example, long shots or zooms in film. Canadian pianist Glenn Gould was one of the first to use these possibilities in his recordings. Here, they were used primarily in »Xlendi«.
»Herr der Mücken« (Lord of the Mosquitoes) was originally composed for two guitars and two cellos (which, like the guitars, are held on the lap). In this piece, the pitches are gradually replaced by blows with a fly swatter. »Herr der Mücken II« was recorded in April 1995 using the Bösendorfer computer-grand piano at the Karlsruhe University of Music. This technique, which was completely new at the time, enabled a special kind of division of labour: while the grand piano independently played the piano part previously recorded by Susanne Kessel, the pianist was able to tap out the rhythm on the closed piano lid (similar to Cage's »The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs«). In the course of the piece, the balance shifts: the piano part with its precisely defined pitches gradually recedes, while the rhythm becomes increasingly dense and ultimately gains the upper hand with its noisy character. The piece »Double« was written in 2024 for Susanne Kessel's project »Freiheit«, for which she invited composers from all over the world to write a piece on the theme of freedom. Her recording appears here for the first time. »Double« refers to Schubert's »Der Doppelgänger«.
Like »Blau«, »Archangelos« was also recorded in 1995 at the Cologne Loft, this time live in concert by the Russian-German Composers Quartet (Manfred Niehaus and I from Cologne, Alexei Aigui and Ivan Sokolov from Moscow). It is the realisation of a graphic score that was created in Rhodes in the same year. Ivan Sokolov played the piano part.
Over the years, I have released several duo CDs with Russian electronic musician Arkady Marto. The short piece »la luna« is the title track of the 2008 CD of the same name.
Shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve 2014, I made field recordings in »Bologna« of the crowd rushing down the street. These recordings provided the ambience for my piano part.
»Upcycling«: During the pandemic, pianist Felix Knoblauch developed a virtual museum exhibiting his mother's paintings. You can enter the individual paintings and they appear as a three-dimensional world in which you can move around. Whenever you enter a painting, music plays. I developed a graphic score for each painting based on the painting itself. The result is two overlapping parts for digital piano per picture, whose relationship between foreground and background is reversed in the middle of each piece. Felix Knoblauch himself implemented the scores. »Upcycling« is one of many miniatures.

The entire B-side consists of the composition »In lieblicher Bläue« (In Lovely Blue), which is being published here for the first time, based on a text by Friedrich Hölderlin. I recorded the piano part the night before my fellow artist Peter Hölscher's old, irreparable piano was destroyed and disposed of. Similar to African music or the blues, the noise and artefacts in the sound of the old instrument were particularly interesting to me in this piece. »In lieblicher Bläue« is one of Hölderlin's most unusual texts, handed down to us by Wilhelm Waiblinger. Peter Behrendsen contributed the electronic background line, one of our last collaborations before his death in 2021.

»Meetings With Remarkable Melodies« is a suite of my arrangements of music by the mystic Georges I. Gurdjieff – played by Klaus Osterloh: trumpet, Michael Pape: drums and myself on rhodes (Gurdjieff-Trio). A selection of the CD recordings from 2015 was remastered for the vinyl edition.