From Beethoven and Free Jazz to Electronic Pop Music

Blogpost

December 14, 2020

Horst Grabosch - The Inner Child

At the age of 15, I earned my first money as a musician in a cover band that played tunes by “Earth Wind and Fire” and “Chicago”. At the age of 19, I began a 20-year career as a free jazz musician with the FMP label in Berlin. Due to various irritations stemming from a confusing childhood of the post-war generation, I could not find confidence in my inner, emotional voice, and completed token studies in German and musicology on the side. When the music jobs got out of hand, I decided to actually make music my profession and start studying at the Folkwang Academy of Music. A classical degree in orchestral trumpet seemed like the best option.

However, working in various symphony orchestras could not warm me up for this job. Pop, Jazz and New Music suited my curiosity more. As a well-trained and very variable trumpeter, I became a sought-after freelancer in the international music scene. The distrust in the inner voice and the creative path, made me become more and more a performing trumpet player, until the passion completely gave way to the materialistic thinking of success.

In the last 5 years of this first musical career, I did about 300 gigs a year with well-known ensembles such as „Musique Vivante“, „Ensemble Modern“, „Starlight Express“, „Schauspielhaus Bochum,“ „Theatre Chaillot“ and many others. Then I collapsed due to overwork, and after a rehab I retrained as an information technologist because I couldn’t and didn’t want to listen to music any more.

Impending retirement gave me cause to recapitulate a professional life, and I didn’t like what I saw at all. Where had the dreams and emotions gone? Professional life seemed like a shell without value. So I went back to the beginning, and recognized the opportunity that was offered to a highly trained musician and information technologist in the new world of music with electronic music production. And I seized it.

No more compromises, no more servitude, but the living out of emotions that had been suppressed for years. Surprisingly, the probing doubt of the past years also disappeared, because for the first time in my life I liked my work comprehensively. It was a happy return of the inner child. What a miraculous coincidence at an advanced age!

RESPECT

I am no idealist, and love is sometimes too much of a good thing for me. I think that respect which excludes racism and nationalism per se is enough. Respect also allows a personal retreat when other attitudes to life conflict too much with one’s own.

PROSPERITY

Wealth is always relative. But I would grant everyone the right to enough food, a solid roof over their heads and the opportunity to develop their talents. If some people think they need to keep the current prosperity gap, they should buy a few more luxury cars – what the hell – I’m not a communist.

SERENITY

The first two demands are a prerequisite for making serenity possible for the poor at all. It is likely to be a great challenge for all the half-rich, because in my opinion the hunt for the WORK-LIFE-BALANCE is nothing else but the fight against the constantly threatening poverty in the existing social system.

The Founder

My name is Horst Grabosch and I am the mastermind of all projects presented on this website.

I was born in the largest coal mining area in Germany, known as the “Ruhrgebiet”. After school I worked as a professional musician until I was 40 years old. This time is well documented on WIKIPEDIA

After a burnout I had to give up my job, moved to the south of Germany, to the Munich region, and did an apprenticeship as an information technologist.

Another burnout forced me to rebuild my existence again, which collapsed just because of the corona crisis. In expectation of poverty at retirement age, I began to build a second career as a musician in 2019.

Newest Music

Tropical Fruit Mix - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

Tropical Fruit Mix

Horst Grabosch and Alexis Entprima with a new dance track that again goes into the leg as well as the brain. A poppy horn section, borrowed from the days of Chicago and Blood Sweat and Tears, is at the center of the song. As you would expect with Grabosch’s compositions, there are also extensive quotes from the blues and a guest appearance by the Peking Opera – all perfectly molded into a tropical house track.

Talk to Me - Horst Grabosch & Alexis Entprima

Talk to Me

Horst Grabosch continues to surf the wave of summer with his alter ego Alexis Entprima. Today his message is “Talk to Me”, which is always better than “Shoot on Me”. Like the last summer singles, it is electronic dance music with always different subgenres, like electro or Future House in this case. And again Grabosch invites some eclectic guests. In this song a rock band sounds from another world. There’s definitely a different way to be boring.

I Need You Now - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

I Need You Now

The song is a dance track in Future House style. As usual with the eclectic producer Horst Grabosch, elements from other worlds appear. The title of the song appears in the comprehensible lyrics, but is only a thematic orientation. The story is told in the music and in the cover. It is about loneliness and the desire for togetherness in a crazy world. A slowly but steadily growing listenership begins to understand the overall concept of the soul-seeker in his books and songs. Interestingly, we also find other electronic producers expanding their stylistic and sonic repertoire within a single song. The pioneering attitude of the artist Grabosch seems to follow a trend. It is no coincidence that Grabosch also urges more anarchy in thinking in his books. It is a very special anarchy that does not exhaust itself in the struggle for resistance, but refuses to obey partly unspoken rules. One could call it a liberation of the mind.

See You Again - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

See You Again

‘See You Again’ is a drum ‘n’ bass style track. The book author and music producer Horst Grabosch works with onomatopoetic voices in his emotional international songs. Mostly only the title is understandable in English. But this title expresses the mood of the song. Here it is about meeting again in life or even afterwards. New soul food from the soulseeker Grabosch. Easily consumable music with surprises and depth. Also suitable for chillout or lounge issues.

Easy - Horst Grabosch, Alexis Entprima

Easy

So how should we classify this song? The only word we can clearly understand from the voices is ‘Easy’ and that’s exactly how the song comes across. It’s not the first time Grabosch has poured out his magic over a fairly commercial base. Yes, there are a lot of samples involved, but so ingeniously integrated that soul really shines through and in addition there are his inconspicuous but pretty melodies, which he always artfully puts together from the samples or plays in himself. Easy is a song that puts you in a good mood. A young couple walks on the beach and protect themselves with an umbrella against the sun. Everything is easy, even listening, as melodic elements reminiscent of easy listening of the 90’s resound over the loose electro house groove. An eclectic mix of modern electronic music and traditional elements of pop history. Swinging chillout music.

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Censored by Apple

When asked by the distributor, the album violated an Apple rule: “it is considered very generic for Apple Music, so it can have many copyright overlaps”. Since the album is an acoustic meditation and soul journey and comes under the genre “New Age”, I did some research and found dozens of albums with recordings of singing bowls. What is more generic than the recording of a sound body without additional structured content? The 13 tracks of my album are clearly highly artfully arranged and very different pieces of music. What is the problem?

A Deeper Meaning of Lo-Fi

First a brief introduction for those who have never heard the term Lo-Fi. It defines the intention of a piece of music in terms of sound quality and is a provocative contrast to Hi-Fi, which aims for the highest possible quality. So much for the tip of the iceberg.
Philosophically, Lo-Fi is a departure from the “higher and further” of our world. At a time when even Hi-Fi is no longer enough for many, and Dolby Atmos (multi-channel instead of stereo) is establishing itself as contemporary, the Lo-Fi trend takes on an almost revolutionary air. I would like to highlight 2 aspects of Lo-Fi that underpin this claim.

Mother Tongue and Discrimination

Quote: No German-language title in the Top 100 of the Official German Airplay Charts 2022.
BVMI Chairman Dr. Florian DrĂĽcke criticizes the fact that not a single German-language title can be found in the Top 100 of the Official German Airplay Charts 2022, thus setting a new negative record for a trend that the industry has been pointing out for years. At the same time, the study shows that the variety of genres listened to, including German-language music, continues to be great. In the music offer of the radio stations this is not reflected however. The fact that songs in German don’t play a particularly big role on the radio is not a new phenomenon, and the industry has addressed and criticized it many times over the years.

Alexis Entprima

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Entprima on Qobus

Entprima Publishing

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