The Electronic Music Education and Preservation Project (EMEAPP) is a world-class curated collection of rare vintage electronic instruments. It is a private museum, a critical learning center and a multimedia production studio outside of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
It is their charge to preserve these unique resources and make them available to their members and the world. EMEAPP does this through its research projects, creative endeavors, and media programming, enlightening many people along the way.
On April 19, 2023, during my US tour, I was invited to perform at this extraordinary venue. In this video you can follow me on this in-depth musical flow state.
Executive Producer: Mike Hunter Audio Recording/Mastering: Drew Raison Videography/Live Switching: Mike Hunter Production Assistant: Lisa Platow Video Post: Vince Pupillo Jr.
This session is based on a sample set created from recordings of ponds. These sounds were recorded with a very special microphone, designed to capture all those mysterious sounds found in swamps, pools and smaller lakes. This device is capable of picking up all the scratching, hissing and cracking underwater noises, produced by plants, insects and everything else down there, revealing the secrets that go on right in your back yard.
credits
Bernhard Wöstheinrich – Keyboards, Samplers, Synthesizers and Sequencers
Editing & mixing: Bernhard Wöstheinrich Mastering: Markus Reuter
All drawings (cover and video): Christine Kriegerowski kriegerowski.org
Video by Bernhard Wöstheinrich, additional pond footage by David Rothenberg
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On a nice day in May 2022 David Rothenberg and Bernhard Wöstheinrich were heading by bike to the Brandt, Brauer, Frick Studio in Neukölln, Berlin. There they met with Ali Sayah, a bass- and tar player with Iranian roots. The studio provided a homey setting for their sessions, and so, guided by David’s distinctive playing on his bass clarinet, they embarked on a laid-back journey into world music that brought together bass guitar, Persian tar – a long-necked, waisted lute instrument – piano and electronics. As the musicians gently embrace each other in their playing, a very unique sound and mood emerges, subtle, haunting, and utterly human.
ALI SAYAH is a visual artist and musician from Tehran based in Berlin. He studied art at the science and culture University of Tehran. He played in several indie Iranian rock bands, as well as in a traditional Iranian music ensemble. He currently is bassist in “Von Flocken” a German Electro Pop-Rock band. He finished his master’s degree at the Weissensee Kunsthochschule Berlin in 2021 and has had several exhibitions in Berlin and Palermo. His work is related to the relationship between traditional Iranian culture and contemporary developments in culture.
In his music Ali tries to blend Iranian music with other influences, in order to present his own culture with a new color and expression.
Musician and philosopher DAVID ROTHENBERG wrote Why Birds Sing, Bug Music, Survival of the Beautiful and many other books, published in at least eleven languages. He has more than forty recordings out, including One Dark Night I Left My Silent House which came out on ECM, and most recently In the Wake of Memories and Faultlines. He has performed or recorded with Pauline Oliveros, Peter Gabriel, Ray Phiri, Suzanne Vega, Scanner, Elliott Sharp, Umru, Iva Bittová, and the Karnataka College of Percussion. Nightingales in Berlin is his latest book and film. Rothenberg is Distinguished Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.
Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Piano, Keyboards, Virtual synthesizers, Live-sequencing David Rothenberg: Clarinet, Bass clarinet, and iPad Ali Sayah: Bass (on ‘Warped Blessings’) and Tar (on ‘Homayoun’ and ‘Sourmount’)
Recorded by Jan Brauer
Mixed by Bernhard Wöstheinrich
Mastered by Markus Reuter
Artwork by Markus Reuter
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“Anchor and Burden” goes into the 2nd round. In 2021, the “supergroup” that Markus Reuter put together to set an example of what a contemporary band can actually be, recorded five albums of cutting-edge music that was improvised live in the studio.
In 2022, now with new Germany-based drummer Asaf Sirkis (Shawn Crowder moved back to the US), the group recorded another set of breathtakingly performed pieces. The first album of the second incarnation of the band called KOSMONAUTIK PILGRIMAGE is getting released as a CD and download on Leonardo Pavkovic’s MoonJune Records in January 2023.
Markus Reuter tells us about the background and development of the band over the last year and a half:
“In 1996, Bernhard Wöstheinrich and I started working together as centrozoon and over the years we developed our very own style of uncompromising instant composition. There has been the vision to expand centrozoon to include drums and bass for over two decades, and Anchor and Burden is the embodiment of that idea. My choice to include another touch guitarist (rather than „just“ a bass player) was obvious to me, especially since this was going to be the first band to feature two accomplished players of this versatile instrument. Alexander Dowerk was my first call, as my master-student and friend. Shawn Crowder played with us during the initial sessions that produced the first five albums, which we self-released in late 2021 and early 2022.
Asaf Sirkis, with whom I have recorded many albums since 2016, joined us for the 2022 sessions, and we now have the album KOSMONAUTIK PILGRIMAGE, which to me shows the current pinnacle of achievement that this band originally set out to reach. The music is most intense and the listening and collective composition that is happening in the moment is nothing short of miraculous, even to us as the originators. This certainly isn’t easy music to consume at all, but it should satisfy the hunger of those who are in love with exceptional music. I’m glad and honored that Leonardo Pavkovic is supporting the band, and this first physical release of our music is an important event for us.
This is also the first time that the multichannel Touch Guitars® S8 instrument has been used extensively. Alexander is playing it throughout this album. Each string is being recorded and processed separately, which leads to just Alex on his own already sounding like several people playing. We’ve kept the separation of parts intact in the wonderful mix that our friend Stefano Castagna made in his Ritmo&Blu studio in Italy.
Supported by Initiative Musik gGmbH with project funds from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media, we had the opportunity to capture the whole process of the musical creation on camera, and this footage is going to be made available as promotional material as well as full video performances over the next few months.”
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credits Markus Reuter: Touch Guitars AU8 and S8, Soundscapes Alexander Paul Dowerk: Touch Guitars S8 Bernhard Wöstheinrich: Keyboards and Electronics Asaf Sirkis: Drums and Percussion
All music written and performed by Anchor and Burden Recorded by Arno Jordan at Castle Studios, Röhrsdorf, Germany Mixed by Stefano Castagna at Ritmo&Blu Studio Mastered by Lee Fletcher
Produced by Markus Reuter and Alexander Paul Dowerk
Bernhard Wöstheinrich 