Schrei mich an - Markus Reyhani

Markus Reyhani is a brilliant songwriter & musician and has been a very dear friend for a long time. After some years in Chicago, Markus and his lovely family moved to Abingdon/UK, a great place for writing music, not only because it is the hometown of the legendary band Radiohead. In February 2017 I visited him with my family in Abingdon and we spent some lovely days together. One afternoon we decided to videotape a very new song Markus wrote. This song "Schrei mich an" will be released on his upcoming album. He has written music for more than 100 theatre plays, most of them in German speaking Europe. Markus' studio is located in an enchanted garden close to the River Thames and just across the street from his home. Like Markus himself, his music is warm-hearted and with beautiful, very well-crafted lyrics."

Neue Prokektionsebene Teil 2 - Markus Meyer

Markus Meyer is a musician and artist. I visited him in his studio in Cologne where I had the chance to witness him creating a pictorial projection plane by using audio samples and live bass loops. The tweeter and membrane of a loudspeaker were being attached to 4 strings and hung inside a plexiglass box. Markus then applied colour pigments onto the tweeter and membrane. Due to the vibration caused by connecting the speaker to the music sources the pigments started to whirl up and blown onto the canvas placed underneath the speaker. The colour pigments sprinkled canvas forms the basis of a new motive. Markus Meyer comments: "It's that principle of random that I connect to the membrane of the speaker which maximises openness, spontaneity and decision making reliability for the art of painting. Because of the freedom of the open musical concept the proportion of randomness increases by a significant amount. The method is being refined to the point where it is no longer random."

The Veranda - Askill/Dohmen/Duerbeck

Jumpel (my partner at Dürbeck & Dohmen) and I went to Brisbane, Australia in September 2016 to work with the percussionist Michael Askill. We recorded orchestral and ethnic percussions in a studio at the Creative Industries Campus of the Queensland Academies where Michael is the resident percussion specialist. We also recorded some amazing instruments (like a five octave marimba) at the best drum shop in the world - Just Percussion owned by Tom O ́Kelly. Jumpel, Michael and I had a nice house for a week in Brisbane with a lovely veranda. So, one morning we decided to make some music on that veranda before going to the studio again. We set up the modular synths, gong, singing bowls and guitar pedals and started improvising music with the lovely singing of birds in the background.

First Encounter - Askill/Dohmen/Duerbeck/Griswold

This session was recorded at the Creative Industries Campus of the Queensland Academies in Brisbane. Michael's friend Erik Griswold, an amazing prepared piano player came around, did a quick piano preparation and suddenly we all found ourselves in a 2 hour, non-stop improvisation. Michael played everything percussive he could find in this room: a gong, several marimbas and vibes, timpani, snares, glockenspiel. Jumpel played his modular synths and I played guitar with my various pedals. This first encounter with Erik was amazing, sometimes chaotic and cacophonous, then all of a sudden melodic and gentle, almost as if it was composed beforehand.

The Bush Bungalow - Askill/Dohmen/Duerbeck

After this first week of intense work in Brisbane we went to Mullumbimby (close to Byron Bay) where Michael lives with his lovely wife and kids. We wanted to relax a bit from the exhausting long recording sessions we had in Brisbane. We rented a nice little bush bungalow somewhere in the back of beyond. In the living room we set up our gear that we brought with us to Australia and Michael got his gong and singing bowls and a frame drum from home. This session sounds quite like "Krautrock" - maybe this has something to do with our Cologne/Duesseldorf roots.

The End Of The Road - René Dohmen

In my neighborhood an old lady died and her daughter asked me if I ́d like to have her piano. But the piano was in a really bad condition and not worth spending any money for a repair, so she decided to dispose of it. Before that I had the opportunity to play the piano for the last time and decided to make sounds by deconstructing it with a crowbar. It was somehow sad but at the same time felt like a natural process.