Nobody is responsible/Niemand ist verantwortlich

[audio:niemand.mp3]

This is the first solo guitar feature of the album; a Les Paul, a Cry Baby Classic Wah, and the Vox AC 50 – that’s what the solo sound is made of. My Tobias four string bass provides the basis of a Hendrixian groove. Ark The measure is 8/4 with an accent on the count of “3”.

The tune is completed by organ and driving drums. Its mood reminded me of my own angriness at people who don’t care – hence the title. Sometimes the Wah wah guitar seems to talk – sometimes one might discern furious words and phrases…

Damn Interference/Verdammte Interferenzen

[audio:Interferenzen.mp3]

This little tune of just a few seconds goes to show:

a) Children can also play music (my son is on electronic organ and analog delay) with great wit and understanding

b) Having passed the dark tune “Verfallenes Licht”, we find ourselves in العناية بالبشرة a spacecraft in the middle of nowhere. None of the instruments aboard is working any more, and we have to admit there is nothing we can زيت الارجان للشعر do now except wait for help. And curse the interference that keeps us from knowing where we are…

Declining Light/Verfallenes Licht

[audio:verfallen.mp3]

red faces devoured by the night

shattered laughs in the vine

and glowing melancholy

spirit torture! a stone falls silent

blue voice of an angel in the sleeper’s ear

declining light

declining light

This an abridged translation of a poem without title from Georg Trakl, an Austrian poet of the Expressionism Era. At a certain point in working with the music of this tune, the need for some spoken lyrics appeared, and by intuition I took out this book of poems. In my younger days I would read Georg Trakl every year in the season of fall, but this time it was neither fall nor did I feel the need for some more melancholic or dark and dreary feelings. This time the overall surreal atmosphere of the music required such a poem…

The instrumentation is different in this tune, with the first obvious appearance of  violin along with mandolin, xylophone and dark vocals without words. Then suddenly you know something will happen, and there is this spoken poem above, embedded in shivering sounds to make your blood run cold. Strangely enough, the meter is 4/4 this time!

Forlorn In Folklore/Vollkommen Folkloren

[audio:folkloren.mp3]

Somehow this sounds like a fiddle tune minus a fiddle. It’s my Les Paul Special. Added jaw harp, triangle and some more guitars contribute to a funny feeling of exuberance, growing towards the end. A sudden break lets you fall into a repetition loop, and then fade out.

Although less than perfect, I like this tune in particular for its ending, where we are getting lost.

Do we still reside on top of a mountain? Have we found the way down in daylight?

Erlkönig/Durch Nacht Und Wind

[audio:nachtundwind.mp3]

“Who rides there so late through the night dark and drear?”

That’s from Goethe’s famous poem, which came to my mind when listening to this. Now that we’ve reached the mountain top, it has become dark and windy, and there’s no way to climb down now. So what shall we do?

This is one of the songs in 6/4 measure. فوائد فيتامين سي للبشرة I always do riffs in 6/4 unintentionally – it seems to be my natural measure… The wind sound is created by a pink noise generator through a wah wah pedal. I recorded the basic track with my ’80s Tobias four string bass. Solo guitar is a Les Paul Special, and my wife added three layers of recorder at the end. (Originally this was called “Afro Bass” when there was only a rhythm track with lots of percussion.)

Sleep well, and don’t let the strange sounds of the night disturb you…

Uphill All The Way/Immerzu Bergauf

[audio:Immerzu Bergauf.mp3]
The opening instrumental of the album, featuring my Fender Jaguar as well as an Italian flea market organ from the Seventies. I bought a vibra slap specifically for this song!
The title (as all the other titles) came by intuition, capturing the track’s feeling of incessant straining movement, leading to exhaustion in the end (note some whispering voice there). Well, to reach a plateau, some initial effort seems necessary. And I never promised any Easy Listening!

Intro

[audio:Intro.mp3]

Dear listener,

at some point last year I decided I had to make an album. Too many musical ideas, sheets with sketches and outlines for songs had gathered.

That’s when I disappeared from here. Albums need my undivided attention – well, besides family, lessons and housework.

This is the third album I’ve done, and the last one. It took me more than three years to make this music in my head audible for others: as sound is my main focus now, preparations included extensive research and much experimenting with amps and effects. Some 26 songs developed from there. Some had to be omitted along the way.

23 songs remained to form an album of about 69 minutes. I myself played most of the instruments, including guitars, bass, drums, percussion, organ and violin. This has been a challenge! So my last album is also the longest one, considering playing time. It’s name is “Winterlese”, a German word containing my surname Winter and something like “vintage” or “crop”.

I hope I succeeded in conveying my idea of a Contemporary Psychedelic Sound, which was realized with strictly analog equipment. Except for recording everything on my computer, no digital means were used. Any sound you hear is a real sound, and there are many guitar parts that do not sound like a guitar…

The order of songs came very naturally this time. I wonder why I didn’t have to think about it too much, which I had expected to be one major problem. Listen to the introduction now, which sets the mood for the album, but lasts just a few seconds. Until next time, see you!