story

heartscore
no singing, please (2011)

this is the working title for my upcoming new full album. in the past years i was often critizised for my vocals, which were not suitable for some listeners. though i normally don‘t care about any advices, i think after four albums with devestating vocals, it‘s the time now to create something purely instrumental. looking back on many reviews i can also sum up, that a wider spectrum of instruments were always appreciate by critics. so the new album is aiming for a more flexible instrumentation, but the guitar will stay the center of all. next to the guitar i will present much more violin, trumpet and some brass arrangements. talking about the style heartscore will go another step backwards to the early 60s: while the previous album “touch me“ could be described as my 80s album i am actually very interested in old surf-, jazz-, and folkmusic. i wrote most of the songs, when i played twenty years ago in a local surf-combo. now after some rearranging and additional composing i finally want to present it. during the rehearsals i realised, that i need a new guitar, because i was unable to build up a surf-sound with my other equipment. therefore i ended up buying an epiphone casino with bigsby and a fender princeton reverb. the fender i ordered influenced by the great tone of jim capilongo at youtube. you will hear the epiphone throughout the album. on the search for the right sound i also decided to use flatwound strings. I plan to hire again Stefan Platte for piano and trumpet and somebody for flute, if possible. at the mastering-stage i want to experiment with tape and i would like to produce a little vinyl-pressing.

touch me (2009)

inspired by the relationship to my pretty wife i started two years ago to collect little melodies on my cellphone. you have to imagine: sometimes I stopped in the middle of a street, switched on the recorder, and sung something, while people around me wondered, what i am doing. fourteen of these little recordings became basic motifs of "touch me". during the process of composing i realised, that the new material would not fit to poems, because the songs were much more easy than anything, what i had written before. so i stepped away from the poems, the choirs, the long songs and the progressive style, though there are still progressive elements left. for the first time i use synths and programmed techno-patterns, which are transforming my sound to become more modern and more suitable for more people. all songs were written as full scores using my notation software 'Sibelius' before i thought about how to record everything. i hired again Tim Warweg for the drums to get a natural groove, which nobody can copy with programming. the drum-set was recorded in my bedroom with just two mics. we used very old drums by the manufacturer 'Asba'. the drums are made of steel, a material, which was also preferred by John Bonham . Tim was well prepared and we recorded all fourteen songs in just one day directly to 'garageband'. basing on the drum-tracks I added the other instruments and the voice step by step.

many directions (2007)
after "straight to the brain" i really had liked to work again with real musicians and professional mix and mastering, but i realised, that it's too expensive for me. therefore i produced everything alone like in the good old times, when i experimented with my first multitrack-recordings. technology has made progressions and i have used the best tools to get most out of my new compositions. i think my approach has a little bit changed, because the first five songs are sounding more commercial and straight-forward than my usual work. there are more stylistic changes in the music, so you can listen to a real 70-funk-tune. at last i am very happy with the new work and I guess, that more people will like this.
straight to the brain (2004)
this work was much more "progressive" than "sculptures" and had a better connection between the music and the poems, because the music flowed like the words. this time I had not pressed a poem in a formerly done musical form, i was directly inspired by the form of the poem. if you like breaks, odd times and time-changes, you will fall on to your knees. i had experimented with my voice for the lead-vocals, therefore the color of my voice is changing more between deeper and higher notes. on two tracks you can hear me for the first time playing my main instrument, violin, on a cd. when i looked back on "sculptures" i was not very happy with the programmed drumming, so i had looked for a real drummer, who had to read my scores. at last I decided to give the job to Tim Warweg, a well-known studio-drummer. the piano and trumpet are played by Stefan Platte, who is the boyfriend of my little sister.
sculptures (2002)
this one cool album as a critic acclaimed, was composed and played nearly alone. just my old schoolfriend olli helped on a few tracks with „dramatic vocals“. here you can hear the rising of my personal style. the progressive element seems to be weak compared to the later works and the album is more based on a simple hardrock, but on the other hand it becomes the strength of this album. it really rocks ...

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