Listening instructions for my music
In the art world, it is not unusual for contemporary works to require an introduction to their reception, because art has the task of establishing new perspectives.
Music is also fundamentally an art form. All art forms have offshoots in the form of “commercial art”. Paintings are produced as wall decorations for homes and music is also sold as acoustic background music for everyday life. Some artists react to this practice by linking an artistic claim with this social attitude. Andy Warhol’s “Pop Art” is an example of this. Art critics and curators, who are supposed to be an aid to interpretation for art lovers, initially find it difficult to deal with such works because professional critics are strongly linked to art history. This is why innovations in art are often more promoted by art fans than by consumers. That’s why I’m addressing you directly, dear art lover.
In my observations, I have found a fundamental addiction to unambiguity in human behavior. This is why the avant-garde is not very popular with the public, but it is at least clearly recognizable as avant-garde and the majority rejection is just as clear. The willingness of avant-garde fans to engage with innovations is inherent. The target groups are clearly identifiable for the artists. There are artists who consciously turn to these target groups and produce art for them. However, there are also artists who are ambivalent personalities and like to move between worlds. I didn’t realize it until very late, but I am such an artist.
In my early years, I was clearly an avant-garde artist, but as a professional trumpeter I had contact with many genres that were clearly mainstream. As a result, I got to know many musical elements in the mainstream that resonated with my soul. I was moved by simple blues or rock elements and also enjoyed listening to good pop music. When I started producing electronic music after 25 years away from the music scene, these fruits were all alive, and as a completely independent solo producer, I didn’t want to give any of them up because of strategic reasons. My toolbox was full of jazz, rock, pop and the often strange elements of free jazz and new music. The various sound spaces of a classical orchestra or rock music, as well as lush, ingratiating pop music were also in my head. The task now was to combine all of this, because I had now recognized my talent as a combiner and connector.
The short form of the pop song was quickly identified as the basis for the productions for many reasons and I have always particularly liked the saturated sound of an orchestra or a big band. As I wasn’t a specialist in any musical genre, I was able to focus my new songs in a rough direction of jazz, rock or pop, but the many other stylistic elements always forced their way into every song, whether I wanted them to or not. This is a deeply artistic process and my very own voice. As time went on, I became more aware of the nature of my art today and became freer and freer in my mind. When artificial intelligence got to the point where it could produce entire backing tracks based on the input of a description, all the dams of my artistic freedom broke. I discovered sub-genres that I didn’t even know yet and that were a joyful inspiration for me. I could now edit these tracks to my heart’s content and season them with all my imagination, just like a chef seasons his food.
And now comes the actual instructions for the listener. No matter which of my songs you listen to, it’s not what you think it is on the surface. You’re not listening to blues if it sounds like blues and you’re not listening to pop if it sounds like pop. Forget “EDM” or “Future Bass” or anything else – they’re always just source forms for soundscapes that spring from my ambivalent soul. They are manifestations of a completely free spirit, and I wish you all this free and in the best sense anarchistic spirit in order to be able to resist the manipulative compulsion of the systems.