About a Being

Since January I’ve been working on a project whose intention is to be a metaphor fo creative and personal evolutions from one state to another during the period I was being naturalized from an American citizen into a fully fledged German-European. This project is called HINAUSGEHEN. The word is German for to go out or to be exposed. Über etwas hinausgehen means to transcend something. I chose to follow a 3-movement sonata form to narrate various metamorphoses. While making the first movement I was an American (Exposition), in the second I was stateless without any political affiliation (Development), and in the third I became a German citizen (Recapitulation).

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The music and images are meant to reflect not only these ideas but to also give a personal retrospective. Movement 1 was made in a single studio session at the Geräuschkulisse with Miriam Siebenstädt. We worked together over several small studio projects during 2009. In this time I learned a great deal about collaboration, experimentation, music theory and improvisation. This movement was to be done within a couple takes and with no editing. It is pure and naked and highlights the creative relationship we’ve built. The second movement is an evolution into editing and arrangement. It becomes playful and bright, much like my time spent making Anderecast. It’s the state of learning and actively using what one learns. The third is fully planned and calculated. It is about growth and obtaining control over one’s creative power and to communicate directly with the viewer. HINAUSGEHEN begins from chaotic analogue sources and refines itself into a programmed electronic composition.

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The visuals reflect various methods learned and experimented with over the last years, particularly in 2009. UNTER UNS KOLLEGEN (movement 1) in German means roughly: between us colleagues. Everything in this video is as improvised as the music and made in one session. The second movement IMP (short for improvisation) was an unfinished study project reimagined and rearranged into an entirely new composition. It is a conversation between me and the junction of creation. The third, WESEN in German means: being, character, entity, nature or creature. It is programmed to be intentional and self-aware.

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HINAUSGEHEN serves as a catharsis. The first video I ever put together was in high school in 1990. Over the last twenty years I’ve gone through one creative endeavor after another with reasonable consistency and variable success. I found art school unsatisfying and after a year chose to take a different path. Because of this I am a formally (and technically) uneducated artist who has had to learn everything through trial and error. The last five years have been particularly productive and so many projects have been made that it’s impossible to account for how many. At the same time I’d been going through an adaption (and adoption) process between languages and cultures after walking completely blind into a country for which I had no previous desire to see. As well all has been learned through trial and error. To a certain extent learning also required unlearning. All boundaries have been pushed and old skins have broken open to reveal new ones. This project is the climactic end to one story and the foreword of another about to begin. The expulsion of old energy and ideas propels my transcension into a new form.

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The video WESEN will be published this month, with it HINAUSGEHEN, the threepart audio visual composition, is completed. At this time, we will create a own USF-site for this project.

Call of the Wild

At the end of last month there was a chance on the NPR website to preview the entire 2 disc album for The Knife’s newest work: Tomorrow in a Year. I played it over and over during those days. It made me incredibly happy on many levels.

I was instantly reminded of the second Geräuschkulisse session that I made with Miriam Siebenstädt in April 2009. We attempted (and I believe rather successfully) to imitate the sounds of a natural forest with musical instruments.

 

It was a wonderful experiment and became the first Geräuschkulisse Session video.

Miriam and I began working together at the beginning of that month. As I’ve found with many special relationships, the fact that we started with no expectations paved an artistic combination that I’ve never before experienced. It was for fun and each session could have failed or been the last, but that wasn’t the case. After a few months something interesting developed.

In the beginning no one was interested in our noises. People found our work stressy to listen to, but the sounds excited us. I learned a great deal about improvisation, freeform jazz and analogue forms of experimental music making. It propelled me into studying different theories and different approaches to just about all forms of creativity. Eventually these sessions influenced the way I deal with NEVEC RED and video making.

I find this new Knife album extraordinary and highly exciting. I can identify much of its construction. Olaf and Karin continue to validate my feelings about taking creative risks. Between the Geräuschkulisse Sessions and this new album, I am very inspired to follow a more organic path with NEVEC RED.

In the last month I’ve also come to learning about MIDI interfacing a bit deeper. My music is becoming more hands-on than ever before. I’ve spent many years programming and relatively little time getting dirty from the music, but that’s changing.

I’ve included the full selection of Geräuschkulisse music in the USF music player. It may be possible in the coming months that we decide to release it all plus a couple new tracks for sale in an album download. I’m very proud of the work we’ve done and believe that when people hear it all together in context they will realize it’s not all just accidental noise but a spiritual conversation.

The Knife album comes out in March, you may pre-order it from the website. I highly recommend taking a listen and securing a copy. It’s beautiful art!

IMP | Slideshow

INTRODUCTION | AUDIO | VISUAL

Unter uns Kollegen | Slideshow

INTRODUCTION | AUDIO | VISUAL

Season 4

la donna sedanoThe addition of maurus brought a breath of fresh air into the show. As a production member he fit into the scheme perfectly. By then Helga and I were on a level with each other that only comes when actors work close together for a long time. We could motivate each other to get exactly what we wanted from the scenes. Helga became interested in producing her own work. I took the opportunity to have a little break.

At the end of 2007 we decided it was time to move on. The apartment we were using as a studio had to be given up. Helga wanted to make projects without schedules while I wanted to go in a different direction that would eventually become Unbekanntes Sektorformat along with maurus. Han wrote a children’s book and began studying at university. We ended on a high note for the show.

I would like to thank the following inspirations for my portion of the show:

Anna Nicole Smith
Blake Edwards
Dr. Seuss
Ed Wood
Federico Fellini
Jane Mansfield
John Waters
Julie Andrews
Loriot
Peewee Herman
Russ Meyer
See.U.Site
Sesame Street
The Muppet Show
Vincent Price
Wassily Kandinsky
William S. Burroughs
the letter A
&
Berlin

Season 3

han & cevenAt this point we had everything down to a system as far as production went. The show became easy to produce in quantity. It was unfortunately a difficult season for Sockie. He became a tabloid fixture for being an out of control alcoholic in public. His addiction started to affect the quality of his work so we had to intervene for his own good. He’s been clean for a while now and has started getting work again.

This was one of the most productive times of my life and I loved doing it non-stop. I lived on a strict production schedule. It was a spiritually gratifying experience. I came to realise how much I love to direct and produce high volumes of work under deadlines.

Season 2

ceven knowlesI tried to study and understand our audience in hopes that we might get some corporate sponsorship to bring the quality of our productions up. There was a podcasting craze happening during this time and companies were handing out money for product placement to many shows. I wanted to make Anderecast an internet-based variety show covering a range of genres rather than concentrating on one so that people never knew what would come next. While this helped immensely in growing our audience, it did nothing to bring sponsorship interest.

I became frustrated working alone with the radio format. I didn’t want to become another person complaining about current world events. Pier Paolo and Helga sat in for recordings. We used the video camera to give visuals (sometimes completely unrelated) to the radio shows because I liked the idea of having something to look at while listening. Anderecast became a multi-language show in English, German, and Italian.

At the end of this season we filmed a one-hour Christmas Special with Pier Paolo, Helga, Sockie, Poltergeist, Barbies and things I’ve forgotten. It was more over-the-top than the internet needed to see (we were smashed halfway through taping) therefore it never aired. süß!!!

I am really satisfied with what came out of this season. Helga and I learned how to improvise with one another and shared some very nice moments. After taping the Christmas Special Pier Paolo left and this opened a door for expanding the family.

| Special Bonus – Radio Show #4 |