Release Note – Akustik Kies: “Reflexiv Hören”

Ein lustiger Vortrag!

I’m proud to announce the release of Akustik Kies: Reflexiv Hören on this year’s St. Nicholas Day, December 6th 2011!

Reflexiv Hören is the second part of my piano solo album. Containing freely improvised material exclusively, this double album is all piano solo (or rather, a virtual grand piano, namely Steinberg’s The Grand 3).

While the first part, Transitiv Sehen, contained only material with the piano “and nothing else”, this new release contrasts that by incorporating the whole array of electronic processing and realtime loops, dubbed komische Elektronik.

All of the recordings for Reflexiv Hören come from my now discontinued by-weekly series of virtual video concerts – the MoinSound Studio Sessions.

Grand Piano – and komische Elektronik

While people enjoyed the power of a grand piano all on its own on Transitiv Sehen, the new Reflexiv Hören release expands that with the well-known computer-based processing setup: centered around Ableton Live (which, in this setup, is only used as a VST host and very flexible virtual mixing console), there’s lots of fancy plugins let loose on the piano. Or rather, most of it is Jeff Larson’s fantastic live looping software Möbius (it’s free! go check it out!).

But where does it go from there?

Transitiv Sehen vs. Reflexiv Hören

performing "Transporttheorie und Glas"

There’s a lot of symmetry between both halves of this my first double album ever. It starts with the booklet (yes, the new album also has a very fancy booklet!), where the two booklets exhibit a strong degree of reflection symmetry.

Then there’s the tracks: many of the Transitiv Sehen tracks have a sibling on the new album.

To name the most important ones: one of the center tunes of Transitiv Sehen, Der Schicksalsfurz, has found its companion in Grüner Wind.

There’s Kohlmeisen, which on Reflexiv Hören is complemented by one of the strongest (and the longest) track, Panthermeisen.  The audience favorite, Ersatzverkehr, has found a proper suitor in Ein Strandspaziergang ohne Netzwerk (lang). And finally, the whole structure in three parts is equivalent on both releases.

More than the sum of its parts…

The strong symmetry (without being in any way redundant) is also the strength of these releases. After all, they form a double album, and as such, both releases together are simply more than the sum of its parts.

And for that reason, if you don’t have Transitiv Sehen yet: Get over and download your copy of Transitiv Sehen already!

Kreativität ist kein linker Schmarrn!