by Zwischenklang

Volker works for Doctors without Borders. His office has many rooms, and they are all named after dangerous cities where the organization does its good works. Aleppo, Baghdad, Caracas. But there is one room not named after a city. There is a room called “Darkness”. I could say that’s the room where this album was made but it is not true, we were in Studio Brauer. Not the famous “Studio Bauer” where ECM albums are made in Italian Switzerland but we were on Sonnenallee with Jan Brauer of Brandt Brauer Frick. It’s a surprisingly light space, nothing dark about it. Nothing dark about Volker even though he’s spent years evading shapnel and bombs and war zones. Bernhard thinks he’s a dark cynical character but he is not. Hell he wouldn’t even let us call this album “Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs.” When we all get together we laugh. We play a mix of ominous and evocative sounds. The percussion is light it speaks of the beautiful diversity of the world. Hanna delves deep into her soul with wonder and grief. David smiles as he is happy to bring everyone together. He turns nature sounds every which way but loose. We all laugh when we are together. We have made some kind of sonic cinematic tone poem that travels through many emotions. Sure, there IS a room called darkness. Yes, we have all been in it. We ran out by the back door.