#3Musix Space: LUST

Like many other music-loving young people, my son Moritz founded a school band at the time. A few years later, my second son Julius discovered his interest in the rock band “KISS” and wanted a drum kit. After he had worked off his youthful anger at the drum teacher and the instrument, he turned more to computer games. Moritz had a somewhat longer musical breath and managed to get a diploma as an “Executive Music Producer ” and a cover band including several original compositions. He then realised that the path to becoming a professional musician involved many hardships and developed his talents in the direction of business coaching. When the sources of income had clearly shifted to the second source, he gave up music apart from the occasional guitar purchase and “Guitar Hero attacks” in his flat.
The boys’ ambitions at the time had brought me back into contact with music after I had given my former love and profession the cold shoulder for many years following a burnout. In 2021, I had then familiarised myself with the now completely new world of music and had matured into a producer of electronic music. After I had released some of Moritz’s old songs as a kind of documentation of his youthful enthusiasm for music, he sent me 12 soundtracks that would one day serve as playbacks for songs by his band. “Maybe you can do something with it,” were his words.
Originally, it was supposed to be something like a musical journey around the world, but without melody and vocals, it was only recognisable in parts by some characteristic musical elements. In form and tendency, however, they were still suitable story templates. The matching stories just had to be invented and told. Since I saw myself as a “storyteller in words and sound”, this was actually a sensible task.
The musical genre of the basic tracks was clearly “House” with the continuous kick drum and the typical rhythmic elements that every house fan is familiar with.
That wasn’t quite my style, but as an eclectic producer it wasn’t a criterion for exclusion. The question was how to come up with the right story, because I always start my own compositions with an idea in the form of a seed. But now the seed was already a young plant with recognisable character traits.
I then tried the diversions of an abstract mood to which I assigned a photo. The photo and music together were then to make up the story. And the plan actually worked – but mainly for myself.
I recognised the story in the finished songs, but as the human voices I added were essentially onomatopoeic, there were no real lyrics.
This book is intended to fill that gap. However, this means that the book alone is of limited enjoyment. The whole story only unfolds in combination with music, images and narration. The narrative describes my imagination about the photo and the development of this basic mood in the music.
I have long been preoccupied with the problem of international understanding caused by different languages. A lot has happened in this respect in recent years thanks to Internet technologies. Machine translations are getting better and better, and I also make intensive use of machine voices in some of my songs. But vocals are usually only sung in one language, which makes direct access difficult for many people. Publishing in several languages would be far too costly.
This book is also being published in my mother tongue, German, so it’s just a drop in the ocean. But it is a start.
As English is currently the most international language (also known as “Lingua Franca”), my song titles are mostly in English, and this project is no exception. The chapter headings are the English song titles.
Fortunately, the word “Lust” exists in both German and English. The corresponding album “LUST” with all 12 songs is available on the well-known music platforms.
Musical terms are defined in the appendix and are labelled with a superscript number.

The problem is solved with this presentation. Only the Appendix is left out here.

Moritz Grabosch – Basic Tracks
Horst Grabosch – Music Producer, Text

The combination of music and words is truly nothing unusual. Singing may even be the origin of music because it does not require any instruments. The extent to which these chants were onomatopoeic in nature or were already based on meaningful texts would be pure speculation. It was probably a developmental process.
Only instrumental music has been documented by musicologists on the basis of finds of the earliest flute instruments made of bone. Much later, religious chants were passed down and then, in the Middle Ages, minnelieder, among other things.
The minstrel songs are the forerunners of today’s pop songs, so to speak. The first opera is the starting point for the development of more complex song structures and other narrative forms with music. Operetta, musicals and other forms can be summarised as musical theatre. With the development of media technology, music film and music video were added.
Many experimental combinations of words and music also developed from classical music. However, sung texts within a song are common.
As far as the present form of interplay between words and music is concerned, so-called programme music (e.g. Richard Strauss’ Alpine Symphony), in which stories are told without lyrics, should also be mentioned. However, these are rather moods that are interpreted musically. The connection can be experienced by the listener rather conclusively through knowledge of the story, whereby the story is not told in detail but remains vague.
The form on which this book is based corresponds most closely to the genesis of this programme music. In the case of the Alpine Symphony, Strauss draws a musical picture of mood based on experiences of nature. This is a clearly personal leitmotif.
However, the unambiguousness disappears when another composer is given the task of reinterpreting the music. Although he may find clues based on certain characteristics (e.g. title or style), his personal experiences may differ greatly from those of the original composer. This may be due to a different cultural background, age or even character traits. A thunderstorm in the Alps can be a threatening experience for one person and a joyful adventure for another.
When I received the twelve soundtracks, I was able to identify most of the original ideas, but none of them had anything to do with me. However, the music was formally so well worked out that I recognised the time freedom that the preliminary work had given me. All that was missing was the seed that connected the template with my imagination.
Since every publication needs a cover, I had the idea of starting with the cover photo. When I found the first photo, I realised that this was the key to the whole series. I felt the resonance of the depicted scene with my soul – longing would be the leitmotif.

My first career as a musician ended at the age of 40. I ended the long break at the age of 63. The music business had undergone a major change. Many years of development had already passed between my first vinyl record and the last CD. Digitalisation then shook everything up once again.
As far as production possibilities were concerned, this development played into my hands. I was an information technologist in my second profession and therefore very familiar with computers. I had already dreamed of these production possibilities in my first career. Now they were here!
In my first career, I was a performing musician 90% of the time, and my creativity fell by the wayside due to the necessity of earning a living. In a retrospective that I recorded in the novel “Der Seele auf der Spur” (Tracing the Soul), I can even say today that my contact with the soul fell by the wayside.
With the new possibilities of music production, I was finally able to be creative and even publish without any problems. Of course, this also applied to all other creatives, which inflated the supply enormously and made the market almost impenetrable. After a while, however, I realised that the idea of competition in today’s music market had to take a back seat in order to avoid wasting time on creativity again.
Nevertheless, it is essential to devote some time to your own marketing so that your work reaches an audience at all. One of the tasks is to study the current practice of Spotify & Co. to somehow categorise the huge range of offerings so that customers don’t get completely lost. And this is done with the help of music genres.
Of course, the number of genres grows with the overall offering and the definition of genres is becoming increasingly problematic. Which genre do my pieces of music belong in? In the meantime, I have found at least a halfway suitable genre for each piece. But each of these genres has its own mainstream45, and I don’t really fit in anywhere. A clear competitive disadvantage – but I no longer wanted to think in terms of competition in order to retain my artistic freedom. So I looked for the connecting bracket. As I produce everything electronically, it was clear that it was electronic music. However, the genre of “electronic music” has been established since the 1950s. But stylistically, this music had nothing to do with the electronic pop music that developed in the 80s.
There are therefore two levels of meaning to the term “electronic music”. One is the type of production and the other is a stylistic categorisation. Of course, we can’t leave it at that, and there’s still a lot to be done in this respect. I have positioned myself in an article entitled “Electronic music is not a style”. The type of production seems to me to be the clearer interpretation.
This type of production also implies some stylistic consequences. While music played by musicians is always bound to the stylistic abilities of the musicians, electronic music production can draw on an enormous arsenal of pre-produced and digitised sounds and snippets of music. This has an enormous explosive force in terms of stylistic demarcation.
For a variety of reasons, many electronic music producers like to fall back on archives that correspond to today’s mainstream. The creative spirit, on the other hand, tries to explore all possibilities. For them, the diversity on offer is nothing short of paradise.
The techniques and methods that utilise different systems (styles, disciplines, philosophies) and recombine their elements are called “eclecticism”. The term “eclecticism”, which is often used synonymously, is certainly better known, but for me it suggests too much ideology and epoch rather than methodology. In addition, this term is very closely associated with an architectural style of the 19th century. However, there is already an interpretation from this period by the English architect George Gilbert Scott, who recognised a general principle: “Eclecticism in itself is a good principle, that is, to borrow from the art of all kinds the elements with which we can enrich and perfect the style which, according to our plan, we have identified as our basis and our core.” I find Scott’s approach of placing the artist’s personality at the centre of consideration (my plan, my basis, my core) particularly commendable.
From this clever perspective, I have developed a genre for my music called “Eclectic Electronic Music”. I have already found a number of music producers whose music follows this approach.

It is no coincidence that “Best Times” is the first track on the album. In a way, it is the trailer for the stories that follow. Among the good times, there are the best, which are presented here.
When I was looking for a suitable cover photo for this song , I developed a way of working that I then retained throughout the entire project – the development of a story through the interpretation of a photo.

Three young women run joyfully along the beach towards a promising evening. They hold up torches in the twilight of the setting sun. Perhaps they already have a plan for the evening and the night, but the moment itself makes them happy. There is no wind and the temperature is still pleasant. A jacket thrown over their heads is enough to defy the chill of the approaching night. Music develops in her imagination.

A soft male voice can be heard over a building rhythm. It is calling, but not intrusive. The voice reinforces the noncommittal, expectant mood of the women.
The rhythm picks up speed and chords from the piano shape the song. A deep flute voice reinforces the magic of innocent expectation. The male voice becomes more melodious and sings of the soon-to-rise moon (“Luna”).
The introduction of a guitar lays the foundation for the song, which now encourages dancing. The male voice becomes more demanding, but remains romantically tender. In an interlude, the moon is once again sung about and the flute ascends to higher registers. It takes over the melodic line.
In another interlude, little bells are heard, raining down from the darkening sky like bright messengers of happiness. The following danceable passage is a summary of the promise of a happy, tender night. The end is introduced by a “rain of bells”. A low flute note fades out and the chords of the accompaniment disappear into the darkness of the night.

All the songs on this album are about promises. It’s not so much about what happens, but about what could happen. Fantasy is probably one of the most beautiful things we humans can experience. Our fantasy is based on experience, but it leaves out the disappointments experienced in the promise.Fantasy also does not test the reality of imagination. Art is an ideal space for promises. It idealises and remains blurred in the process.
Every work of art is a fairy tale and has the power to enchant. I put myself in the shoes of the three young women in the photo and sense their longing for the beauty that the evening would bring. It’s not about individual expectations, because they may be very different. It’s about their shared longing that unites them at this moment.

The instrumental template for this title begins with an abstract, crystalline piano figure. I immediately had the association of cold and very quickly found the right photo.
The title was almost obvious. The introduction is very long and atmospheric before the song develops harmonically and melodically.

A glistening iceberg slides along a snowy and mountainous coastline. It is a sunny day and white veil clouds drift past in the sky. The mountain ranges blur into a mixture of clouds and mist on the horizon. The iceberg is reflected in the calm, glittering water. The steel blue of the sky and the slightly darker blue of the water is echoed in the green-blue of parts of the ice.The mood is peaceful rather than threatening.

A piano figure in a medium-high register, which runs through the entire introduction as an ostinato, sounds icy. The ebbing and flowing sounds of voices and instruments symbolise the fundamental menace of ice. Distant female voices, however, already somewhat neutralise this menace. A concise bass figure introduces rhythm into the scenery. Shrill sounds imitate the sound of cracking ice. Tambourines establish a tempo. With the introduction of the drums, a groove develops, which is accompanied by splintering sounds and deeper soundscapes. The distant female voices are now also rhythmic and breathe life into the initially rigid scene.
Bright bell sounds spread confidence in this hostile world. Now deep male voices can also be heard in the background. The rhythm breaks off and the women respond to the men’s voices with the first melodic fragments of the song. Life awakens.
The song now opens up into a simple but beautiful harmony sequence, which the women follow with beguiling vocals. An atmosphere of confidence and love fills the once cold scene. A distant, strange wind instrument enters the magic before a massive bass-heavy ostinato closes the round dance.

Even in such icy places, life and love can develop. However, the danger does not disappear as in a fairy tale, but is rather overshadowed by beauty.
An ambivalent attitude to life awakens. People living in regions with a pleasant climate are often fascinated by landscapes that are hostile to life. They do not realise the life that has prevailed there despite all the adversities. They understand even less the human cultures that have developed there.
A philosophical definition of life describes it as a “transformer of the environment”. The living being takes in the environment with its breath and food and transforms the environment through the energy generated in the body.
This transformation process continues as long as life exists. In the process, similarities but also contrasts arise. In polar regions, for example, we breathe in cold air, warm it in our bodies and breathe out warmed air. In hot deserts, the exact opposite happens.
However, the goal is always a middle ground, which in turn releases energy for other transformations that we urgently need for the spiritual transformation of humanity. So we should always rejoice when we find life and not thoughtlessly extinguish it.

Percussion instruments dominate at the beginning of the instrumental template. As an experienced musician, I immediately recognised the Indian tabla. That was enough for me to decide that this story should be set in India.
It was also clear that my added voices would not always correspond to the perfect western intonation . Once again, I decided in favour of the electronic wind instrument EWI, where you control the electronic sounds with your breath.
I immediately realised that the photo showed a cultic site. Finding such an inspiring photo made me feel confident about working on the song.

It was the colours of the photo that grabbed me first. An unreal mixture of pink, purple, orange and yellow. A pastel-coloured sky at sunset. As “Indian Slide” was the first song I worked on, it was also the stylistic template for all subsequent covers.
The grassy ruins of a small temple are in the foreground of the photo. The ruins of Hampi, as I found out later. An Indian sight in a strange landscape. Bizarre piles of stones and small mountains rise up between lush vegetation.
The view through the gate of the small temple shows a wide path on which a few tiny-looking people are still walking in the yellowish glow of lamps that have already been switched on. Behind them is a largely intact stone pagoda that looks as if it has been painted – crowned by a small white light source. The decay of ancient cultures and flourishing tourism is one of India’s typical contradictions.

Before the tablas begin, a male voice narrates something about an “ego”. The sampled voices used for this always oscillate between onomatopoeic passages and partly comprehensible English sentence fragments, which do not actually claim to make sense. Working with this electronic sound tool is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle, the result of which has to emerge from the composer’s imagination. For a sound painter, linguistic comprehensibility plays a subordinate role. The songs discussed here are not songs based on a coherent text (incidentally, many well-known songs do not make any clear sense on closer listening). Therefore, the story of the song is also understandable beyond language barriers.
In connection with the theme of India, this aspect takes on a special significance. The original Hindi language in India was pushed back for quite some time during the English colonial period. With a lot of imagination, even the somewhat understandable sentence “Don’t say that I got an ego” makes sense for India. In Gandhi’s speeches and writings, the maltreated identity of the Indian people is often addressed.
Over the quickly established beat now comes an instrumental passage that comes across as ambivalent as the image of India. “Indian Slide” can mean “Indian sledge” or – more appropriately here – “Indian slide”. And the sounds glide along as if on a slide. The male voice also has something “broken” about it. The female voices, which are also rather reserved, sing: “Send me your love”. That also makes perfect sense in the end.
Without any further musical resolution, the song then glides almost meditatively towards an end that corresponds to the twilight of the photo.

A creative process can take many forms. At its best, it is based on practice and experience in order to achieve the final result without breakage. However, despite all the routine, it is always a complex process that also involves doubts and subsequent corrections.
All the songs discussed here were created from start to finish from a single mould. As I have never been to India, everything is naturally based on a very personal idea of India. That’s why I did some research afterwards so that I wouldn’t be accused of being completely wrong.
Ghandi’s texts and many photos and films in particular confirmed my emotional view of the subcontinent. Even after the research, India remains an enigmatic country for me and this is exactly what the music reflects.

The basis of this song always referred to Cuba and I left the fantasy there. Originally, the song sang about the Cuban fire of joie de vivre (“Cuban Fire”), but in view of the political situation, I poured some water into the wine and brought hope to the fore.
But it remains an optimistic musical story. When ethnic music styles are interpreted by Western musicians, it often has something of an imperialist appropriation about it. In the worst case, all that remains is a bland imitation of the original.
My solution to avoid this dilemma is a far-reaching alienation of the style, which combines elements of the original in an eclectic sense to create a new style. This has already happened with the original house-style music, but I have turned the screw a little further.
The partially intelligible vocals are again about courtship – a leitmotif of the whole series. The fact that this is always about courtship between a man and a woman has purely dramaturgical musical reasons. The two parts of a pair of lovers are simply more recognisable with male and female voices.

A middle-aged man who, given the colour of his skin, is obviously a Cuban resident and not a tourist, drives along the coast in a convertible. It is sunny, but the colours are strangely pale. Humid air and clouds lie in the background over the sea and colour the sky from grey-white to pale purple. The faded pink colour of the old American car corresponds very well with this.
The man stretches his arm into the wind. His white shirt, a wristwatch that looks quite valuable and the immaculate straw hat express pride in his apparently quite good financial situation by the standards of the country. He seems to have enough leisure to enjoy the day with a short drive. The car radio may be playing Cuban “Son” by the old master Rubén González Fontanills .
The man has made it into the Cuban middle class and is hopeful that his country will one day blossom with new beauty. Perhaps he is also dreaming of the Cuban women he will ask to dance in the evening.

In the introduction, the tempo of the song is established over a rhythmic and bright synthesiser sound. Cheerful male voices hum in the background. A subdued, optimistic mood is created. The rhythm instruments gradually enter until a piano prepares the main motif of the accompanying voices and is led there by a female voice.
The main motif is introduced by the piano solo. Again, a female voice introduces the entry of the entire rhythm section. A male voice responds to the woman’s call with the entry. A dialogue develops which contains recognisable English words but is not used here as a significant text. Nevertheless, with good will, one can still interpret meaning into it.
The cheeky girl’s voice says: “Baby, you made me say yes.” The man replies: “When your mum tells you how to behave.” A flirtatious dialogue between the sexes. After that, it becomes largely onomatopoeic again. You could still hear the women’s voices: “Don’t stop feeling”. That would also make sense.
Much more important is the timbre of the voices. A rather cheeky, girlish voice and a dominant but not brutal male voice – more like a stern, mature man – perhaps the man from the cover photo? It’s an ambiguous game. The girl is seductive, but the mature man knows his limits and enjoys the game as such.
In the main section, a group of men perform the main motif of the original version. The singing is also onomatopoeic and based on scraps of Spanish. Women’s voices hum along. Then the party begins and the men and women dance into the Caribbean sunset. They are full of hope for a happy future on their beautiful island.

Cuba is not the only country to have been torn apart in the conflict between communism and capitalism. As so often, it began with the overthrow of a corrupt dictator who had made himself a vassal of a world power in order to secure its geopolitical interests. It is always the same game with different players.
Just as predictable is the ideology of the supporter of the coup, which always represents the opposite side. Communism coups against capitalism and vice versa. The interests of the people remain a minor matter. After the coup, the new power must be secured, but the people dream of an improvement in living conditions. At first, the new power announces golden times, until the people’s joyful expectation turns into indifference and hope is fuelled only by dreams.
These dreams must be preserved by us bards so that humanity does not sink into despair.

Happy Fiesta is a continuation of our trip to Latin America. This song is also based on Latin American rhythms. You could see “Happy Fiesta” as a continuation of “Cuban Hope” under stable political conditions. The protagonists may not be rich, but they are so well off that they can afford a lavish barbecue. The original composition already existed in two versions, which were conceived as dance music.
There was no reason to change anything. Of all the tracks on the album, “Happy Fiesta” is the one to which I added the least musically. In my imagination, I simply moved the time of the event forward. That also fitted in well with the leitmotif: promise – longing.
Now the barbecue before the dancing is the time of the scene. The men are preparing the barbecue and are full of anticipation for the evening and the night. The women are still among themselves. The courtship has not yet begun.

The difficulty in finding a barbecue photo was the requirement that the region of the event should be recognisable. After all, barbecued meat looks the same everywhere. Then I found the right photo under the search term “Mexico”.
A pepper and a huge steak are sizzling on an iron grill that I obviously built myself. The red colour of the grill base corresponds to the red of the pepper. The colour of the upper part of the grill has already disappeared due to frequent use and the heavily patinated wrought iron with pretty ornaments is visible.
A hand with barbecue tongs is turning the meat. In the background is a table with an old grinder or meat grinder, which serves as a container for fruit and vegetables. Next to it, a turquoise-coloured standing figure can be seen in a blur. The colours symbolise pure joie de vivre.

A piano motif reminiscent of Latin American music introduces the song. Congas and bongos accompany the piano. A passionate male voice sings the first vocal motif with the acoustic double bass. As the drums kick in, a group of men respond with the intelligible English words: “Gimmie one more shot, baby, baby.” It could be interpreted here as a sung preparation for the dance party planned for later. “Baby, give me one more shot.”
The idea of sung male thoughts about the subsequent party runs through the whole song.
After a joyful arpeggio, another solo male voice sings intelligibly: “What you say, no matter what you say …”. – “It doesn’t matter what you say …”. We will have fun.
Now an instrumental part follows, and the trumpets typical of Mexican Mariachi music sound. A rather pensive musical interlude makes it clear that we are permanently in fantasy mode.
Now the male group sings the “Gimmie one shot motif” again and introduces the next instrumental dance section. An intelligible male voice sings: “In the air”, and this is followed by another rather pensive instrumental part. Yes, it’s in the air, but it’s not happening yet!
Towards the end of the song, the fantasy slowly manifests itself and things get more exuberant. Distorted electric guitars set surrealistic accents. This will be a party without the folk!

I only gradually realised the leitmotif of longing for this project. With this song, it was at least vaguely recognisable to me.
The artistic shifting of meanings into the blurred also helped me to compose the music. Since my arrangement was exclusively an electronic production, I had to rely on pre-produced vocal snippets, and these were partly based on understandable words. Using them in such a way that they didn’t completely miss the scene was a challenge that I could only fulfil with a lot of imagination.
The aim was to break down the boundaries of profane reality in the artwork. In the case of “Happy Fiesta”, it was the scene of a party that begins with the men having a barbecue and hopefully ends in an exhilarating dance party – but the ending is still left open in the song.

For the sake of musical variety when listening through the album, “Hot Water” appears here, but it was the last song I worked on – and it was the most difficult task.
At first I couldn’t do much with the instrumental template provided. My imagination struggled to find a suitable scene because the music was very abstract. Then I turned to the method of inspiration from a photo. I searched aimlessly through landscape photos – for hours.
Then I got stuck on a photo from Iceland of tourists admiring a geyser. The photo was a typical tourist snapshot and not inspiring in the slightest, but the geyser was impressive. So I was able to go on a targeted search and finally found the breathtaking photo shown on the cover.
The story was set. It’s about the power of nature and humility.

When I saw the photo for the first time, I initially wondered whether it was a real photo. No – of course it’s not. The starry sky is modelled in and is a NASA photo.
Is the geyser real? Yes, it’s Strokkur in Iceland. The colours have probably been heavily processed, but that doesn’t diminish the appeal of the picture for me. After all, I also use digital techniques in my music that have nothing to do with “good old handmade music”. After all, it’s the year 2022 in the digital age!
The low sun colours the geyser spectacle in an unreal golden hue. The water vapour from another geyser can still be seen in the background. The water is hot and space is icy cold.
Space with its stars appears in shades of blue and a pale pink colour draws a circular nebula in the sky. More modern reverence for nature is almost impossible. Nature is powerful and largely incomprehensible.
The water fountain is obviously exposed for longer and appears like a pyramid of clouds. Water, steam and space nebulae blur into an almost formless play of colours.

A low string instrument places accentuated notes on the full beats of the rhythm. The tonal space and the tempo of the music are marked out. A female voice in a distant room sets a wordless melody over it. Rhythmic accompanying instruments fill out the sound before a robotic voice intones a new melody. A drum kit establishes the rhythmic basis of the song.
Synthetic strings and flutes place motifs over the rhythm of the drums. A mysterious mixture of distant voices, synthetic orchestral instruments and original electronic sounds develops.
Then the geyser erupts. Under the sound of the eruption, a piano sets a new motif. After the eruption, a group of flutes intones chords over which arpeggios of a clarinet sound. An electronic bass has taken over the role of the low string instrument from the beginning.
A second outburst follows. The previously established piano motif is continued as ostinato with the percussion rhythm. The ostinato indicates that this outburst sequence continues endlessly. After the outburst, a clarinet group plays an energetic, rhythmic motif in unison, over which the arpeggio of the solo clarinet is heard again, before synthesisers lead to the end of the song, which ends with a dreamy female voice.

How do you translate the wonder of nature into image and sound? The creator of the picture has succeeded in staging the immense beauty of nature with the help of an artistic exaggeration. The music was supposed to pick up on this, but I wanted to add the aspect of humility.
Fortunately, I found the beautiful female voices in a collection and only had to place them acoustically in a mysterious space, but that’s just a technical craft. It was more difficult to create the instrumental basis.
The musical model had already provided sufficient symbolism for the infinity of nature with the ostinato9 and quite abstract piano figure. For the other voices, the aim was to avoid a profane pattern for the musical background of a nature documentary.
The robotic voice corresponded well with the digital processing of the photo. Cosmic synthesiser sounds were obvious, but exactly the pattern trap I didn’t want to fall into. I found a satisfying solution with the flutes and clarinets.
Inserting classical orchestral instruments into electronic music is an eclectic device, and I am a self-confessed eclectic. The clamour for originality in the elements used is, in my opinion, a pop dance.
After all, great talents have skilfully programmed the sounds I use or recorded them as samples. Not using them because you’re chasing a pop dance is almost disrespectful.

Similar to “Hot Water”, “Mystic Land” has a basis that didn’t spontaneously trigger a concrete story in me. However, I quickly visualised a mysterious landscape. As a result, the title was already there before the photo was taken.
In times of advanced image processing, it’s generally not particularly difficult to find landscape photos that have a surreal effect by processing the colours.
Then I found the final photo, in which the outlines of two birds had been added. I was immediately inspired by the fact that the intervention was obvious and creative. The already mysterious landscape was heightened by this.
This matched my ideas and gave the photo the rating “fitting”.

The photo is dominated by treetops under a cream-coloured sky with pale purple cloud accents. I would describe the forest as a jungle.
The visible light accents in the treetops are largely unreal and could be the result of subsequent image manipulation. The sky also has an almost absurd colouring, but I have already experienced something like this myself. Nature is capable of incredible plays of colour.
The forest tends to be in the shade, but a sunlight in the distance creates a glowing notch in the forest. Any description other than “mystical” for this scenery would be an understatement.
The shadows of the two birds are the icing on the cake. They are reminiscent of film stuck to large glass surfaces to prevent real birds from breaking their necks. The size ratio to the trees also has no claim to realism.
I can’t say whether this photomontage is the pitiful attempt of a dilettante. But so-called “naive painting” has now also found its way into museums. That’s why I think it’s completely superfluous to concern myself with this question. The painting appealed to me – that’s what counts.

The original music had a rather long introduction played only by a Fender Rhodes and a drum kit – a serious offence in times of ever shorter hits. The question was whether to forcibly trim this introduction for greater entertainment value or possibly shorten it.
I decided in favour of the former, but in a subtle version. I added percussion and an ostinato on a note that slowly winds the piece like a clock, so to speak. This is joined by a distant male voice in an almost unreal space, which is characteristic of the whole piece. And the whole thing happens before the Rhodes even begins with its motif.
Now it was important not to lose one’s nerve and let the music take its long breath, as required by the accompanying image, in which the flying bird shadows appear frozen.
Motifs of acoustic guitars and male voices alternate in the patient observation of the scene before a rhythmic bass figure briefly brings movement into the scene. But the pendulum swings only briefly and returns to its calm initial position. Low strings on sustained notes confirm the return of calm. Subtle wind sounds only bring a new colour into play. Then, for the first time, an electronic wind instrument (EWI) with a flute-like timbre is heard, which takes over the lead from then on.
The drums, based on a House style, structure the otherwise musically rather one-dimensional piece.
The music is determined by the interplay and the continuous intensification of the sounds and gains additional momentum towards the end through the melodic arcs of EWI, until the soundscape builds up again on the same rhythmic bass figure from the beginning to the end.

There are global hits that were only released out of necessity. When producing an album, it used to be common practice to record more songs than would fit on one disc. The musicians and producers still remembered the circumstances surrounding the creation of the songs when it was decided which songs would ultimately be included on the album. The songs that flowed smoothly from the pen onto the tape were favoured. The unwieldy productions were often simply discarded. Sometimes there were fewer smoothly written songs than bulky ones. Some of these unwieldy productions later became worldwide hits.
I don’t believe that “Mystic Land” will become a global hit, but it belongs in the category I just described.
The song contradicts all current criteria for judging a successful pop song. Almost nothing happens in the first minute, and the musical development over the course of the song is manageable.
Nevertheless, the music fits the corresponding picture. Almost nothing “happens” there either, and yet the image and music create an ambivalent, challenging mood. This mood is mysterious and needs to be explored at leisure. It is not sensational!
However, meditation is not sensational either, because it is based on attention, which tends to be focussed on transcendental things.

This song is one of those that came out of the pen quite smoothly. This is not least due to the fact that I found the right snippets of music fairly quickly. And then there were trumpet sounds, the quality of which I was able to judge particularly well as a former professional trumpeter.
Then comrade chance also joined the creative process. As before, I first looked for the right photo. In this case, I was drawn to a photo that was already on my computer desktop. I had no idea where it had come from.
While I was working on the song, my son Moritz came by briefly and I happily showed him the photo I had found. He was surprised: “I know that one. That’s the resort in the Dominican Republic where I’ve just spent my holiday! I took it myself, or it’s a photo of our friend who is a passionate amateur photographer.”
We were still puzzling over how it had ended up on my desktop and discussed the rights to the archive photos that I had otherwise used. He rang the friend, who kindly gave permission straight away.
We were never able to clarify how the photo had ended up on my desktop.

The sun rises behind the bedroom wing of a smaller holiday complex, the buildings of which are flat – obviously a more exclusive resort. The huge pool, which is in front of the building from the photographer’s point of view, and in whose still calm water the scene is perfectly reflected, also speaks in favour of this.
Thick cumulus clouds drift across the sky, promising a sunny day. At the edge of the pool, three large balls are waiting to be played with by the holiday guests in the water.
A lush green area can be seen on the left-hand side of the picture. Some of the leaves on the trees, which protrude into the bright light of the rising sun, reveal palm trees.
The photo shines in a sunny yellow colour, contrasting with the blue of the sky visible between the clouds – the scene is set. There is still no sign of anyone. Either the guests are still asleep or they are in the breakfast room.
This is probably how most people imagine a successful holiday. Now you can make fun of this pattern of a successful holiday or take the pleasant feeling seriously. I have decided in favour of the second option, because feelings may be based on questionable patterns, but they are always real for the person experiencing them.

The original music already began with a cheerful motif of plucked string instruments – known as “pizzicato” in musical jargon. That was enough for the decision to leave it at a cheerful mood for the song.
The anticipation of a nice holiday is such a mood. So I first mixed in the supposed splashing of the pool under the influence of the circulating pumps and the birdsong.
Then various female voices enter, accompanying the rhythmic build-up with rather incidental motifs. This build-up breaks off in a so-called “drop” and the full band begins to play.
Now the men respond to the women’s rather restrained prelude with motifs that express much more concrete joy. Perhaps they are looking forward to the wild game with the giant balls. A musical interplay between the male voices and a trumpet section develops on the song’s fluffy groove10 . This game is a traditional stylistic device from African music and is called “call and response”.
Another drop, which is initially only played by the pizzicato strings and the sounds of nature, introduces the second main section of the song. A counter-rhythmic bass figure brings tension to the drop before the tension is released in a sustained melody that clearly comes from an electronic sound source but is reminiscent of strings.
Once again, the trumpet section responds to the melody, and this play is repeated once more. The song then slowly fades out with the opening motif of the pizzicato strings and the sounds of nature.

It seems paradoxical to think seriously about this completely “harmless” song, and yet I am doing so now.
Before this musical project, I had already released over a hundred pop songs. Each release is accompanied by a more or less elaborate marketing campaign, which includes presenting the work to curators. In our professional vocabulary, they are called “door keepers” because they can promote the distribution of a song or hinder it by ignoring it.
The artist often receives feedback from these curators. In my feedback, the English word “weird” appears remarkably often – strange, weird, crazy. The unbiased listener may find my songs unusual, but not weird, because they are mainly made up of standard pop music set pieces.
Obviously, the mild border-crossing of my eclectic electronic music is already too much for many gatekeepers of music pigeonholes. However, innovation is one of the main virtues of art. People who curate art should actually have internalised this, because they should be experts in their field. If their expertise is limited to perpetually cementing the status quo, then I’m worried about the future of art.
However, there have always been reactionary music critics who have consolidated their expert status with degrees in musicology. So we artists simply carry on – bound only by our own conscience.

The joke first – “Gentle Lights” was published under the meta title “Gentl Lights”. I simply made a mistake. I only realised it when the song already had 3000 streams.
Before that, the film title “Yentl” (by and with Barbra Streisand) had cast a shadow over my attention. Correcting it after publication is time-consuming, so I left it at that for the time being.
The real joke, however, is that this shouldn’t have happened at all according to the regulations of the platforms, which state that the title on the cover MUST match the meta title. The error has since been corrected.
It’s also worth noting that this song nearly drove me out of my mind during mixing37 and mastering. Contrary to my usual production method, there were many tracks to consider, which overlapped in the frequencies. When I hear the result of my efforts today, I always think of the meticulous work that went into it.
Art is not always just creative, it is sometimes hard work. In this case, the work consisted of the musical craft of distinguishing independent voices from timbres. That makes a big difference and is a skill of conductors of large orchestras, for example.

Apart from the fact that almost every photographer today edits their photos digitally, this is a “real” photo.
We are looking down from a vineyard onto the landscape below. The low sun shines brightly on the horizon – a so-called backlight shot. Above it is a candy-coloured sky with cloud formations that virtually frame the sun.
The sun’s light is by no means “gentle”, but it bathes the early autumn landscape in it. Mist rises from the forest, making the sun’s rays visible. The vines and trees cast sharp shadows.
Autumn has already turned some of the leaves a rusty red. Houses can be recognised on a hill on the left edge of the picture. Almost in the centre of the picture, two solitary poplars rise into the sky on another hill. A mountain range can be seen in the distance on the right-hand edge of the picture. The atmosphere is very peaceful.

While working with the onomatopoeic snippets of song, I realised once again that spoken (and even more so sung) language only makes sense in context. Parrots can also imitate speech without intentionally attaching a meaning to it.
For example, the song begins with the exclamation of a male vocal group, which is reminiscent of the English “chain”, but which would not make sense either in the context of the title or photo or on its own. For this song, we can completely disregard attempts at linguistic interpretation.
After the prelude with the “chain calls”, the harmonic framework is established. The male group adds pretty accents in polyphonic singing. Now a relaxed but intense groove builds up with additional percussion instruments. A “call and response” of male voices and synthetic instruments develops over this, reminiscent of a group of electrified harpsichords and an electrified dulcimer.
In addition to many “oohs and aahs” from the male voices, our “chain” also appears again and again. In the absence of an interpretation of the wording [tʃeɪn], hopefully every listener has found their own interpretation.
And that’s about it. The groove10 keeps the tension up until the end without the need for new creative elements.

As an experienced musician, I have internalised the motto “less is often more”. The greatest danger in producing electronic music is the sheer endless variety of possibilities. One soundtrack is quickly added after the other. In the production of mainstream pop music, there are often only hundreds of tiny snippets of sound that are supposed to make the overall sound unmistakable. Unfortunately, only a few masters of their trade succeed in doing this. In many productions, all that is achieved is a uniform mishmash.
As a classically trained musician, I still think in terms of the parts of an orchestral score. The question is always: “Is there anything additional to say at this point?” With a traditional pop song, this is actually done with just a few parts. As a reference, I recommend comparing the original version (Let it be – Naked) of the Beatles album with the later improved version (that was the official release) by producer Phil Spector. Of course, it’s a matter of the majority’s taste, which certainly tends towards sugar-coating, but the original version actually “says it all”.
For “Gentle Lights”, I didn’t see the need to add any more design elements, but for groove to maintain the tension (including build-up and breakdown), it needed additional voices. However, as the base was already filled with drums and bass at a fairly high frequency, there had to be overlapping at this point. This led to the sound engineering challenges described above.

The inspiration for the story of “Dance Desire” was not only triggered by the photo, but only concretised by it. It was clear to me from the start that it would be a dance number in the classic sense of dancing. This means that the gentleman asks a lady to dance. The only question was where this still happens today. Then I remembered a documentary about open-air public dance floors that function like a contact exchange for single people of all ages. They were widowed or otherwise unlucky in love.
After I found the photo of a small square in Palermo in the early evening hours, the time of the story had already been told. I chose the view of the women before they set off for the dance floor. For them, hoping for an enjoyable evening was a passive affair, as it was not appropriate to become active. More longing is not possible – an almost painful longing. An old-fashioned take on modern House style – perfectly eclectic.

Early evening in Palermo. The street lights are already fully switched on, but the still dark blue sky reveals that night has not yet fallen. Half of a paved roundabout is visible in the foreground. It is illuminated by bright spotlights and colourful, already somewhat faded flags line the round dance floor.
Only two men on the right-hand edge of the picture, sitting on the edge of the square, and two passing cars enliven the picture. Otherwise, there are no people to be seen either on the street that circles the square or on the street that leads from the square into the depths of the picture. Colourful neon signs and pergolas suggest that restaurants are still waiting for evening guests.
The later dancers are probably still preparing for the evening in their flats. The women are perhaps still putting on their make-up and the men are checking their appearance in the mirror.
The many lights make the scene appear very inviting despite the lack of people. You can still feel the warmth of the day and look forward to the cooler, livelier night. The square is lined with mighty trees, their branches towering over the dance floor like a protective roof.

Analogue to the idea that the music sounds in the women’s imagination, the song begins with a swelling bass rhythm. Mysterious noise supports the idea.
Then the women’s vocal motifs are heard, full of joyful anticipation. A piano responds with confirming chords. Yes, today it will work out with the man of dreams – “Something so good”. Seemingly irrelevant, a simple scale in la-la-la is thrown in – just don’t show the inner tension. However, another voice comments clearly for the listener: “Lonely girl”.
The whole rhythm section joins in and the fantastic dance begins. Now it’s the men’s turn. A beguiling polyphonic song exudes loving warmth – then a single voice: “Baby, baby, I am still in love with you.” Yes, that’s exactly what the women want to hear!
Now there’s no stopping them. Bodies swirl across the dance floor and solo guitar motifs heat things up. It’s time to take a deep breath and look each other in the eye again. An onomatopoeic dialogue between male and female voices follows. The music breaks off, and in a drop the echo of the music is heard, along with the telltale hiss that characterises the illusion.
But no – it’s not a dream after all, because the men repeat their assurances with all their fervour. A beautiful melody confirms the women’s pleasant feeling.
But then the dream comes to an end. A bass rhythm similar to the one at the beginning sounds and slowly disappears. The music falls silent and the familiar mysterious murmur fades into nothingness.

I can’t remember another song of my own taking me away like “Dance Desire”. I was overwhelmed by my own imagination. Loneliness and desire are highly emotional things. I still have a natural defence mechanism called irony in my emotional toolbox. But it only works when it’s about my own feelings.
In this case, empathy and romance were simply more powerful. When the song was finished, I actually had to cry. We often have to cry when we can no longer stand opposites. On the one hand there is the beauty of creation and on the other there is all the crap we have to put up with all the time – war, greed, loss of loved ones and so on. Anger and despair are mixed with hope, which in turn is so often disappointed. Thus, crying is also an expression of an insatiable desire for reconciliation of opposites.
Although this is not a philosophical book, allow me to make a few cross-references. I have already described the basic nature of the music presented here as eclectic, which in the broadest sense means that different things (musical styles, musical elements) are brought together without regard for conventions.
From the basic idea of bringing things together, Baruch de Spinoza’s philosophy is also eclectic in a certain sense. If you then take into account the fact that Albert Einstein invoked Spinoza’s God, things come full circle for me. It would be presumptuous to say that they are circles of profound realisation, but in any case they demand the greatest possible openness of mind and prohibit self-contained ideologies. Only in this way was Einstein able to discover what had previously been a mystery.
Perhaps we should cry more in order to connect with God (whatever that is).

As soon as a creative process is started, thoughts run wild. When I listened to the basic track, powerful brass instruments sounded in my imagination – a memory from my time as an orchestral trumpeter. Such brass movements often sounded in churches on the occasion of a wedding.
The association with “wedding” set the scene. The leitmotif “longing” virtually forbade the wedding itself from being established as a story. The wedding was therefore only part of a male fantasy in the desire for the ideal bride.
The photo did the rest. The man imagines his ideal bride and pays homage to her. The idealised bride is ready and breathes: “Marry Me”. Unfortunately, she doesn’t exist, but waits for the groom as a distorted image in a surreal setting in the forest.
She is already wearing the magnificent wedding dress and is beautiful.

We are in the forest. The forest floor of a clearing can be seen blurred in the lower foreground. The terrain rises slightly and the trees begin behind the small knoll. The first row of trees is in focus in the photo.
It is a spruce forest, but leaves from a deciduous tree can also be seen in the top right-hand image. All the trees are very straight, as is usual with spruce trees. Only one tree on the left-hand side of the picture curves towards the sky. A bride stands behind this tree, offset to the side.
She bends backwards slightly and her left hand grasps the narrow tree trunk. Her right arm is bent and her hand is touching her hairline. This is the posture you adopt when you want to protect your eyes from the sun while looking into the distance. The bride is indeed looking into the distance, but there is no sun and the palm of her hand is turned pensively upwards.
Pinned-up hair, make-up and a magnificent earring betray the festive occasion. Her fair skin is flawless and the upper part is covered only by a single diagonal strap of the wedding dress. A silver metal belt encircles her waist and the skirt of the dress unfolds to the floor like a bell. Her feet disappear behind the small mound. The bride seems to glow against the darkness of the forest. A seemingly unreal lighting mood.

The tempo of the song is set with sparse percussion sounds. Enraptured female voices create a mysterious atmosphere and an organ-like synthesiser sets the first chords. The bass drum kicks in and plays the beats typical of House music on all full beats.
Now a man’s voice begins with the message that he knows he loves the woman in his fantasy. He asks her to tell him what she wants and what she needs (“Tell me what you want, what you need – tell me -tell me”. No wonder, if you don’t know her at all, as she is a dream figure. In the background, the enraptured female voices can be heard again and again, turning the man’s head even more.
In an interlude, rocking electric guitars alternate between the stereo channels. Each cue is concluded by the man’s wish: “One more time”. The dream should not end. This is followed by a powerful brass section – as if for the couple’s entry into the church.
In another interlude, the voices of man and woman are heard again without words. What would dream figures have to say to each other? Instead, the brass section plays again – Marry Me!
A solemn and equally enraptured synthesiser melody underscores the fairytale scene, before man and woman once again enter into a barren and longing, wordless dialogue at the end. At the very end, the man’s call gets stuck in a loop. It remains a dream.

Ultimately, all songs are an expression of great sadness. Even the upbeat titles never lead to completion – because my imagined stories do not want to – indeed, cannot. The scenes described are simply too perfect. The landscapes sung about and the scenes of love sung about are too beautiful to be true.
We simply know from experience that no landscape is as beautiful as the detail of a photograph. Just as there are no human relationships that are free of tension. But this is precisely what art can bring together. Works of art contain everything at the same time. Works of art can oscillate for the viewer – they are works of wonder, as it were.
Pain, sadness, happiness, beauty and dirt all in one – just as diverse as our nature. The true happiness of freedom can only be found in the whole. When we open our minds to this realisation, we have taken an important step towards the joy of life.

The basic track of this song already included a gospel choir. So the theme was already set. So I went in search of a suitable photo. Strangely enough, there are only a few photos with a gospel choir in the archives that also grant licences.
Then I changed my search to “God/faith” and found what I was looking for – with a direct hit. At the time of writing, “Gospel Train” is the most listened to song on the album. If a song has more listeners than the average of all songs, it is up to the independent artist or music label to look for the causes, because we are also our own managers.
For the artist himself, all published titles are of equal value, but he also has his favourite titles. In the three years since I started making music again, it’s never really my favourite tracks that are listened to more than average, but that’s not unusual. We carry all the knowledge about the idea and creation within us, while the listener only perceives the result. These are different points of view.
“Gospel Train” wasn’t one of my favourite tracks at first, but after carefully analysing it again, I know why I like it. The following details will also make it more obvious to the reader.

We are in a church and the photo was taken from above. Presumably from a gallery, where perhaps the organ is located. I am familiar with this view, as I also worked as a church musician for many years. The evidence of a church is provided by the cut of a splendidly carved pew made of shimmering reddish wood.
The beige-coloured tiled floor was probably installed during a restoration. The pew also appears to have been restored to mint condition. Daylight falls through a church window that is not visible. The sharp shadows suggest an early or late time of day. In any case, the light falls through the window at a shallow angle. The lighting situation is extremely peaceful and naturalistic, as the daylight is not coloured by coloured window glass.
A dark-skinned woman can be seen standing in the centre of the picture, praying. A delicate necklace with a cross dangles between her fingers, suggesting a Christian attitude. As the woman is wearing slippers on her feet and there are no other signs of a religious service, it appears to be a brief detour for a silent prayer.
A jacket thrown over her head suggests the typical coolness of a place of worship. Long, dark, straight hair falls over the jacket, under which a white top is visible. The white top is the only colour accent in a sea of beige and brown tones. The woman’s face radiates inner peace.

Together with a few piano chords and an airy, dark flute, a woman’s voice immediately begins, which seems to be saying something. For me as a native German speaker, it is incomprehensible, even as an experienced listener of English. However, as I have already discussed earlier, this is irrelevant for all songs. It’s the mood that counts, and that suited the praying woman in the photo.
Now, for the first time, the gospel choir enters with commentary. The motif of the gospel choir is repeated several times within the song and is therefore a leitmotif.
While the house rhythm establishes itself, the female voice and flute transform the harmonies into melodic fragments. A longer melody is now performed by synthetic strings. The gospel choir adds accents in the background.
A harmonica reminiscent of blues is now heard in a drop. A layer with strings and bell-like sounds adds a smaller melody on top. After another drop, the flute (played by me with an EWI) takes the lead.
The song draws to a close with a rhythmic motif from various percussion instruments. A rhythmic synthesiser motif complements the percussion. As the synthesiser fades away, the woman says in a chant – clearly understandable for the first time: “I’ve got the feeling”.

My relationship with God has changed several times in my lifetime. I remember very clearly the moment I realised that I would have to die one day. I was 11 years old and it happened before I fell asleep. I burst into tears and from then on I thought about the meaning of life.
I realised that I wouldn’t find this meaning in everyday school life and playing in the yard.
As a prospective confirmand of the Protestant church, confirmation classes began at this time. The impact of these lessons – like school lessons – depends on the impressiveness of the teacher. Fortunately, I had some very good teachers. The pastor of our parish was also an impressive personality. So I became a young believer.
Over the course of many years, this faith developed into a fundamental trust in God that still inspires me today. However, institutionalised religions gradually detached themselves completely from this trust in God. The churches have brought too much evil into this world for that. For me, I have replaced religions with the desire for transcendence.
Praying or meditating people symbolise this desire for me. They may be wrong, but who isn’t? As long as these people are looking for inner and outer peace, they are welcome to me. Any influence from others has no place in this search. A community of seekers should therefore always be treated with the utmost caution. The boundaries to manipulating and suppressing those who think differently are fluid.
Humility is an indispensable prerequisite for the success of the search. However, the principle of contradictions in our lives also applies here. Since the world is full of passionate manipulators, humility should be paired with resilience. An open mind unfolds best in an undefinable centre.