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Ever since I can remember, I have felt great enthusiasm for music and rhythm. In my parents’ house, where music in general has always been very important, I got in touch with different kinds of music right from the start. However, the main part was made up by classical music, jazz, ethnic music from distant countries and not forgetting the Beatles…
Each of us played at least one musical instrument. During my youth, I had dedicated myself to playing drums and percussion, followed by harmony on the piano.
We liked to play music together frequently, and we attended various concerts, operettas and operas. Since my mother and her sister were active members in opera and orchestra associations we frequently had the opportunity to do so.
However, since I can remember electronic sounds have held an almost magical fascination for me…
At first, it was mainly the sounds of the electric organs my father used to play for hours, which I listened to fascinated and spellbound, each time I was in a music shop with him to fetch repaired instruments or ordered notations.
Some years later I first got in touch with the music of ELO and Kraftwerk whose sounds impressed me a lot through my oldest cousin. Soon afterwards I discovered the atmospheric sounds of Jean-Michel Jarre and towards the end of the 1980s, I discovered the spacy sound of The Shamen. From this time on, I had so to say found the “love of my life” when it comes to music. From now on, my collection of audio carriers grew and grew. I browsed record shops in order to find the sound I was avid for. From the early 90s on, I more and more started going out at the weekend as far as this was possible in the provinces of southern Germany near Lake Constance. I used to go to clubs like the “Douala” in Ravensburg and the “Dome” in Lindau at Lake Constance. There, electronic music had been celebrated for many years. Together with friends, I danced through many a nights in these clubs… I dived into this world of sound textures, rhythm and dance. Soon, I got to know different styles, sound projects and bands, as well as the specific repertoires of the corresponding record labels. Over the years, passionately and totally addicted to music, I concerned myself in detail with the topic “Musik aus Strom”. I kept up with new releases on my favourite labels, watched the programme “Housefrau” on VIVA (a magazine particularly dedicated to electronic music, which was sadly discontinued all too soon), listened to the radio station FM4 which played all kinds of electronic music…
In the course of time, some musical styles emerged that I was especially fond of: ambient, trip-hop, everything from deep-house to techno, trance, psy-trance as well as atmospheric breakbeat sound.
Deep in my heart I knew that I these worlds of sound were something I wanted to explore. Moreover, I had the irresistible urge to resort to these musical realms in order to create my own music with electronic instruments.
The idea of creating my own sounds and tracks was steadily growing in my mind… So to say, it didn’t let go of me.
Then finally, in 1996, I pilgrimaged from one music shop to the next, talked to staff and started reading special interest magazines on electronic musical instruments and other specialized literature in order to learn about topics like “midi”, “sequenzers” and “electronic sound synthesis” as well as the necessary basics of audio engineering…
After a period of orientation I started buying my first sound equipment with financial means I had acquired with regular holiday jobs during my time at school. With an Atari megaSTE and a Creator sequencer, a relatively old digital drum module, the JX-3P synthesiser by Roland, the CS-1X synthesiser by Yamaha, a sound effect and a 16-channel mixer, I embarked on a journey into the “universe of electronic sounds”.
From now on, I worked on sounds and their design in my whole free time. I was particularly fascinated and attracted by the sound of analogue subtractive synthesis. With the aid of an oscilloscope, I could visualise the electronically synthesised waveforms and learned to understand exactly how sounds are synthesised or rather how they reacted. This was extremely exciting and interesting. Hence I became more and more efficient at implementing my ideas when it came to sounddesign. My first tracks since I always knew exactly what style the track I was working on should be.
I enlarged the equipment at my disposal one by one by new synthesisers, sound modules, sound effects and thereby upgraded my sound options.
My oldest project at which other persons except from me were involved was “Lambda400”. It was formed when I met a very ambitious and accomplished guitarist at the end of 1997. After a while, his music-loving sister joined us as a singer. We thoroughly enjoyed our sound bricolage and spent a lot of time together…
At the same time, several other projects formed which dealt with different styles of electronic music respectively. Guest musicians or permanent members were involved in some of these projects, whereas I did the production of others completely alone.
At no point in time did I want to limit or constrict myself to a certain musical style or direction since there is an unbelievable number of exciting and interesting forms of electronic music which I was equally fond of.
I’ve always wanted to concern myself with some different fields of electronic music, a passion I’ve remained true to up to today…
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