Neue Sachen aus dem Notenbüchlein für coole Instrumente
The RPM Challenge has been around for quite some time; it started in 2006. Every year, a bunch of musical artists and ensembles pursue the goal to produce an album (no less than ten tracks, or 35 minutes of music) in its entirety during the month of February.
And finally, in 2018 I took part.
Neue Sachen aus dem Notenbüchlein für coole Instrumente
The title, which translates to "new stuff from the manuscript booklet for cool instruments", is in a way a nod way into the past - to the year 1992 to be precise - when I wrote my Drei Phantasien aus dem Notenbüchlein für coole Instrumente.
The instruments have changed their coolness approach since, and the choice of instruments was in part driven by a server failure and the resulting unavailability of my sample library. Incidentally, this led to the use of a lot of sample-based instruments, including nose flute, electric power drill, wind chimes and field recordings of church bells in the distance.
Field recordings make up a large portion of sounds, which was a first for me. And finally, all synths (with the exception of the sample thingies) are hardware ones.
Music-wise, the album ended up as another experiment in the aggressive ambient realm, a self-invented, somewhat oxymoromotic genre.
In addition to subways, small family cars and the aforementioned church bells, melodic or harmonic development happens very slowly, if at all. Which does not forbid the existence of a karlheinzian approach in composition.
How to get it
The album is available as a digital album download from bandcamp via the player on the left, or directly here.
Download includes a nifty booklet, and lossless versions (FLAC) are in full 24/48 audiophile glory.
The price was set to something nonzero for technical reasons, but will drop very soon now. Talk about bad marketing.
Credits & Acknowledgements
This time, really everything is me, Rainer Straschill. Including startling coughs.
The album is also a winter-inspired one, hence a photo of winter instead of the artist.
