Thomas Bartz is the man behind Six Umbrellas and his new album “Metropolis” marks a turning point in his life. He is leaving Berlin and this is his farewell. A collection of pieces that were created during this time of reorientation. Without reading too much into it, the inclined listener with a little empathy can feel the process. On the one hand, there is the fascination for the big city with its fast-paced vibration, which is not stingy with stimuli; on the other hand, there is the longing for soothing serenity in the tranquillity of nature.
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With this release we are (once again) entering a new sound space. It is ambient, lyrical, a little abstract electronic, experimental but also sensual, mystical. Fabio Keiner’s journey into the world in between was inspired by the ancient Greek orphic hymns, more precisely by the hymn to Melinoe. However, we recommend that you first listen without any further information and let the “singing” work its magic on you.
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Holy cow, what’s broken? Have we taken leave of our senses? Quite the opposite: we know exactly what we’re doing and we sense (sic!) that this album by Lilac Complex (our new addition to the Würfel) will be huge. And we sincerely ask you not to take the title of the album as a call to action – or if you do, then simply delete all the other tracks in your music collection, except for Lilac Complex. Because this release takes no prisoners.
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I’ve been making up songs for my kids for a few years now. Mostly improvised spontaneously and then worked out a little. Once my kids asked me to make a peace song and I thought, “The last thing peace needs is new songs.” And then I made a song exactly about that. In the end it became something like a peace song.
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The title of the album and the titles of the individual tracks already suggest it: It’s about futuristic soundscapes, strange seeming sounds, but also loops and here and there beats. Dominik Vogel operates with his modular system once again at the intersection of techno, IDM, ambient and sound art. All of this, as it were, at the open heart, because everything is as always recorded live in one pass and only minimally post-processed.
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Narrative structures trigger expectations. Without fixed patterns, thoughts can flow more freely and associations can be carried forward in a more unbound way.

Similar to lying on the divan on a Thursday afternoon and looking diagonally past the backrest into the sky, or in the morning Similar to lying on the divan on a Thursday afternoon and looking at the sky diagonally past the backrest, or pressing lightly on your closed eyes with your thumb in the morning and indulging in the images that arise in this way, musical sketches can also develop a pull thanks to unfamiliar timbres – they gently penetrate into your own state of being and open up spaces.
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Imago (lat. ‘image’, ‘likeness’) is on the one hand a term “the last stage an insect attains during its metamorphosis” on the other hand “the unconsciously emerging first image of relationship persons, usually of father or mother” (Wikipedia). Both may apply here, because a certain programmatic aspect is definitely present in the music in connection with the speaking titles. Perhaps not necessarily planned from the beginning, as much seems to have arisen spontaneously and intuitively. But in the further course of the tracks they quite stringently follow the first inspiration and develop in itself coherently. At the end then maximum irritation, alienation, guesswork: If only you knew „was der macht in Nacht“.
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This EP by Dominik Vogel comes along in the usual easygoing manner, An offer to go on a journey with him in this time, when all the world seems to be obsessed with opening doors every day. Maybe with a flying carpet over the Atlantic? Or perhaps by caravan through a snow globe? Then the one door that opens only after the well-known magic formula. And behind it? The fulfillment of all wishes. Or the liberation of a soul tormented for centuries. Or both. Decide for yourself and choose wisely.
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Slapstick, spectacle, riot, downhill, electro-bruzze, party, always firmly on. That’s how we imagine the Johnnyverse, to which For Example John invites us here. A classic second album, more of everything we love, one step further, everything a bit bigger and wilder, the next level. That’s the way we want it. All our expectations are satisfied. Hell Yeah.
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A new album, then. Seemingly casually screwed together from the wrist. Dominik doesn’t make many words about it:

“The tracks are (as usual) one-take recordings of the modular system, partly also with generative elements.
Often carried by 2 modular CS-80 voices and almost beatless, the tracks on this album are rather minimalistic, emotional and intimate.”
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“Dark inner aspects of toddy drinking” contains a collection of dark pieces that develop a suction effect due to their great density, at least if you listen to them appropriately loud or with headphones. They come from a phase of Svanns life that he only remembers darkly.

This is the second collection of older tracks, the successor to “Meine liebsten Lieder und Gesänge” and what was said there about the sound generators used probably applies here as well.

On Youtube we have released a video to Kubeben.

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Retrospective Self Criticism

“My Favorite Songs and Chants” is a compilation from 2001. The tracks are a selection of analog recordings (pre-laptop) with a trusty Fostex 4-track cassette recorder produced in the bedroom and kitchen.
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In the middle of the lockdown, in the everyday monotony, Erich Schall comes along and makes us happy quite casually, as if nothing were wrong, with a new album, the Mechanical Fable.

Quasi out of nothing – or, to introduce into the musical theme, quasi out of a misty, enchanted old magic forest. The forest that parents always warn their children about, but that only makes it more attractive.
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Even though there was nothing really worth looking back on this year (2020), we didn’t miss the opportunity to publish a small musical review of the year.

Have fun and keep up the good work.
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The title of the album refers of course to the novel “Hard to be a God” by the Strugatzki brothers. But it is also the expression of the desperate realisation that the world is probably unsavable. The problems are obvious, everybody knows everything, but nobody is willing to do anything.

We oscillate faster and faster between hysteria and agony, blind actionism and panic. And again and again we get fast and easy answers to complex questions with the certainty of a placebo.
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The subtitle “Fugale Schemen” shows us the way into this acoustically unknown terrain. Like Shadows in the fog, sound events immediately appear and pass us by as we listen and continue to feel our way forward and dive deeper and deeper into this strange world of sound.
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Here now, as promised, the second EP by Dominik Vogel. It is a bit more cryptic than Oasis, but that fits well to the self chosen theme and also in our strange times. As with Oasis, everything was recorded live in one go. This time with the special challenge that many of the elements were created generatively and an intervention of the “player” changes something, but the result is not predictable.
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This is the first of two EPs that we’re happy to publish from Dominik Vogel. Like so many great artists, Dominik makes little fuss about the creation of his tracks: “It was recorded in one night in one go with my modular system and is therefore not reproducible.”
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“When the weight drops to the floor, after the lifting,
the moment of relaxation is achieved.
But if you’re standing on ice,
the problems are just about to begin.”

Erich Schall in December 2018, gone fishing after dictating.
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Time flies. Has it really been six years since Marco Trovatello enchanted us with his wonderful solo debut? And now – completely out of the blue – his second album is released. Again, it captivates us with timeless instrumental pieces.
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