Huge congratulations to Ariel Semmel, who won “The Van Leer Award for Best Director of a Documentary” at Jerusalem Film Festival!
Despite having only contributed a small portion of music to “PARANO” for Isreali director and friend Ariel Semmel, I’m proud and happy to hear that my music got amazing reviews.
Ariel: “Your music captures everybody in the beginning of the film!”
Official Trailer
It’s a great gain to be working with Ariel, who’s a professional with every fiber in his body. His film is touching, shocking, emotional, brutally honest and the some of bravest self-exposures I have ever witnessed. When I watched one of the earlier edits of the film — in order to prepare myself for the music to be written — I needed days to process what I had seen, the movie’s that intense.
You might think from the “cover of the book”, this movie is about a distraught guy who thinks he’s been abducted by aliens. Not even close. This movie is much more than that. It touched me every second, frame by frame.
For Ariel I wish that PARANO gets the attention and rewards it deserves. Go check out details about the film here:
I decided to stop broadcasting my shows on radio stations. The time commitments limit me too much in my personal freedom, and the unreliability of the stations annoys me too much.
I will record LIGHTWORKS and TIME OUT sets (and other specials) whenever I feel like it and my time permits. I will then, as always, offer those for free download on Soundcloud.
As a touring DJ, I am not very active, but still accept “good” booking requests. That means you can still book me, but I’m not running after any gig. Honestly, I’m just picking out the sweetest fruits. I’m tired of lying and cheating promoters and bad marketing because someone does not understand this job.
Please do not get me wrong … I’m not one of those who announce big on social media that they’re giving up the DJ job. Once a DJ, always a DJ. And also: never say never. I love DJing and I love to play for an audience that understands and loves what I do.
Mark my words: that will never end, until my last breath.
But I do not feel like having to get upset about people in this business anymore. I am too old for such nonsense, and too young not to enjoy certain things in a different and better way.
The music business has given me a lot and taken a lot. I have never taken the easy route and I have renounced or thrown away money because I am (still) an idealist. But I have not always kept up well with my energies, have had too much patience with assholes and bunglers. Too often people have taken advantage of the benefits associated with me without even considering giving anything back. I have always put too much faith in the wrong people, that’s been one of my life-long weaknesses.
All that has come to an end.
I will stay with you forever as a musician, composer, producer, storyteller, part-time idiot, puppet master, occasional DJ, show host and smartass. Promised.
On Instagram you can have a peek into what adventures are taking place in my life. I still have endless energy, plans and dreams. Nothing (except perhaps death) will keep me from realizing my ideas. No matter what obstacles have stood in my way: I have the partner by my side whom I always wanted to have, I live where I always wanted to live, and in the future I will only do what I really want to do. Nothing and no one will stop me. Well, maybe here and there, for a moment… but in the end I always reach my goals. Because I know who I am and who I’m not, thus I have plenty of substance to believe in myself.
Life is too short for too many bad decisions. You fall, get up again, shake off the dirt and keep going without repeating the same mistakes. That’s my credo.
Good evening, good night, good morning and good day to you all. Oh … and Happy Easter.
Not only does legendary singer Jon Anderson (Yes, Jon & Vangelis etc.) release a huge album at the age of 74, also, here’s the line-up for this album:
Vocals: Jon Anderson Guitars: Larry Coryell, Tommy Calton, Steve Morse, Rick Derringer, Pat Travers, Bobby Koelble , Steve Howe, Trevor Rabin, Christie Lenee Bass: Chris Squire, Tim Franklin, Stuart Hamm Drums: Billy Cobham, Allan White, Matt Brown, Carmine Appice Keyboards: Michael Franklin, Chick Corea, Jonathan Cain, Kieth Heffner, Jeff Abbot, Brian Chatton, Antonio Esposito Violin Soloists: Jean Luc Ponty, Robbie Steinhardt, Jerry Goodman, Charlie Bisharat, Olga Kopakova, Jason Thomas Cello Soloists: Paul Fluery, Krissi Franzen Percussion: Steady Joseph, Eddie Metz Jr. Steel Drums: Pat Frost Ukulele: Russel Chalk, Don Oriolo, Tim Franklin, Michael Franklin Trombone: Pat Gulotta, Pat Frost Trumpets: Steve Walters, Billy Boyd, Brian Scanlon Saxophone: Brian Snapp, Edgar Winter, Charlie DeChant Flute: Ian Anderson, Charlie DeChant, Brian Snapp Horns: Tower of Power Accordian: Darius Grabowski Banjo: Mitch Corbin Vioelectric: Michelle Jones, Brandy Moulden, Krissi Franzen, Kaitlin Higby, Paul Fleruy, Tim Franklin, Jennie Landau Background Voices: Zap Mama, Bobby Kimball, Jane Anderson, Tim Franklin, Hu Yue, Michael Franklin, Kim Lovering, Matt Brown, Fei Peng Solar Choir, Voices Of LIndahl, Crossover, Superstar Choir, Nana Academy Youth Choir
This HUGE line-up alone — a collection of musician Gods — makes me wanna listen to this album very badly. I mean… come on: 4 (!) different drummers, one of them Billy fucking Cobham? Mental.
Wie Ihr vielleicht wisst, komponiere und produziere ich Musik zu Hypnosen von Alfred Himmelweiss. Hier spricht er über den Entstehungsprozess seiner Aufnahmen, wie diese dann zu mir kommen und dann weiter bearbeitet werden:
in the last few days, I have become increasingly aware that something is wrong with my right ear. Yesterday, the hearing became so bad and the pain so intense that I visited an ear specialist. I have a stupid inflammation of the ear canal.
Unfortunately I can not work on music for the next 2 days. After that, everything is back to normal (hopefully!).
Thank you for your potential understanding. You know where to send the recovery gifts. 🙂
Chers clients,
ces derniers jours, j’ai pris de plus en plus conscience que quelque chose n’allait pas avec mon oreille droite. Hier, l’audience est devenue si mauvaise et la douleur si intense que j’ai rendu visite à un spécialiste de l’oreille. J’ai une inflammation stupide du conduit auditif.
Malheureusement, je ne peux pas travailler sur la musique pour les 2 prochains jours. Après cela, tout est revenu à la normale (espérons-le!).
Merci pour votre compréhension potentielle. Vous savez où envoyer les cadeaux de récupération. 🙂
Estimados clientes,
en los últimos días, me he vuelto cada vez más consciente de que algo anda mal en mi oído derecho. Ayer, la audiencia se tornó tan mala y el dolor tan intenso que visité a un especialista en oídos. Tengo una inflamación estúpida del canal auditivo.
Lamentablemente, no puedo trabajar en música durante los próximos 2 días. Después de eso, todo vuelve a la normalidad (¡con suerte!).
Gracias por su posible comprensión. Ya sabes a dónde enviar los regalos de recuperación. 🙂
I decided to offer all my music for which I own the copyrights* for free, now and in the future. “Free” means all music I have on my own label (L2 Music) can be downloaded for as low as zero (all currencies, smiles preferred) or for whatever amount you think is right, in the best possible quality! There are no hooks, eyelets or hidden conditions. There is just music.
You can either stream my music for free via Spotify or stream and/or download at Bandcamp.
*Digital downloads, not physical products, of course. I have no influence on the price of my music that I have signed with other labels, hence I can not offer this for free. But all of my albums are on my own label, and most of my non-dance-music productions.
Of course, I will still do paid remixes (and receive royalties for those), and sign my music to other labels, mostly dance music productions. But music on my own label (my albums etc.) will be free from now on.
Why am I doing this?
It’s simple, really. There is no point in asking you to pay for the download of music files anymore when you can stream it for free already. Those who like to listen to music in top quality (the audiophiles among you), there are the free or pay-what-you-want downloads at Bandcamp.
Nevertheless, I would like to ask each one of you to support me by becoming my patron:
Thank you, no matter if you’re just a listener or paying subscriber/downloader. You’re all equally valuable to me.
This is the 1st album teaser for “Elegy For The Living” which contains 9 x 1 minute snippets from the first half of the album (a 2nd one will follow soon):
Note: The footage is not what’s going to be the full length music video which will be done for the full length of the album (approx. 70 minutes, 4K).
I’ve done around 30 different mixes, tried like 10 different guitars, mixing the drum kit and making it sounding right has taken an incredible amount of time, I’ve tweaked the tiniest bits of sound to total exhaustion.
Should the grand piano have more mechanical noises… should the timpani have slightly more reverb… should the guitar have a delay or not, should I add the cello on top of the full orchestra, or an oboe? Should I widen the acoustic guitar or leave it as is? Is this chord harmonic enough for the one before? Is the Oberheim too loud? Should I use the Gibson EB0 or the Les Paul bass, finger or pick? Stratocaster or Telecaster? This or that cabinet, or none at all, what amp? Distortion or slight fuzz, tremolo?
The pains of creating an album…
Questions like that are bothering me all the time. And the production is so huge that my DAW crashes at least 3 times a day. Plus, anxiety, doubts… because “is it all worth it? Will they understand it?”. Sleepless nights. Then again: “fuck yeah!”. It all sounds absolutely heavenly, I get goosebumps all the time. And nothing is even mastered at all.
I have half of the album sounding as perfect as it gets, with the needed amount of imperfection to become perfect. I open parts of it again, again and again… stuff that I did a year ago that doesn’t sound right today, and may sound not right next week. You get the idea. 😉
No worries, it’s all good. It’s finished very soon. Once it’s done I have nothing to do with it anymore. Then it’s a product with a life of its own, and I will watch it learning to walk.
I will reply to all of your questions in a video that I’ll upload to Facebook and YouTube, very soon.
Huge congratulations to Ariel Semmel, who won “The Van Leer Award for Best Director of a Documentary” at Jerusalem Film Festival!
Dear clients,