glitterbug

In German… Tim Thaler of bln.fm and I in a funny, serious and silly (in almost equal amounts) chat about music, life, and my new album, Dust.

On Tuesday, 29th of January in Tel Aviv at the Deli:
at 8pm I will give a little lecture with some examples of my own music and share some of the stories behind them and the music and art that has inspired me personally and professionally. It might get interesting, especially if you wonder what my non-techno influences might be!

Starting 11pm I will play some records with dearest Anna and Sousanna of Pacotek, and I would be delighted to see my dear Tel Aviv friends there!!

More info on the Facebook Event Page.

I have been neglecting this blog for quite a few months now, not necessarily because I wanted to, but more because the past few months have been so intense and draining that I barely had the time or energy to write.

Much has happened in the past half year, on many different levels. Some that are closer to me might have heard that my father died this April, which has been a challenge on many different levels. But that is a way too long and a tad too personal story to be shared at length on a blog…

So, besides my process of mourning and taking care for my father’s mess he has left behind (he was an artist and died suddenly, and left 1500sqm of studio space behind), I actually worked on A LOT of music. And since my music is what keeps me sane and going, I have been tangled in a strangely productive, yet very inverted and emotional production process. Bellow please read about a few of my projects that I either finished or that are still going to be released this year.

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I am very happy and very proud that I finished my third album, Cancerboy, which will be out on c.sides in February 2012. It actually is a techno album about the disease cancer, and yes, it is auto biographical. It’s a very dense and very personal album, and probably the most intense I have ever worked on so far. More info to be shared soon.

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Out since Monday, September 12th is the double CD compilation ‘Audible Approaches For A Better Place’ (visit the microsite here), which has fantastic new and exclusive works by beloved artists like Brandt Brauer Frick // Enas Massalha // Eliad Wagner // Christian Löffler // Khan // John Farah // Jasmina Maschina // Mads Brauer & Casper Clausen of Efterklang // Gold Panda and my humble self feat. the fantastic Israeli-Palestinian soprano Enas Massalha.

Here’s the full version of our piece:

Glitterbug feat Enas Massalha-The Sky Fell Silent by Glitterbug

If you fancy to pick up a hard copy, it’s available internationally. You can also order it on Kompakt’s website or download it from iTunes, Juno, Zero Inch and alikes.

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Additionally, there is an EP of mine to still be released in 2011 on the Israeli label False Ind. It consists of a 4 part composition for strings and electronics and is titled “Egress”. It will come with remixes by dear friends and fellow artists The Sight Below, Tilman Erhorn and the man behind False Ind., Yair Etziony.

A few more words about the work:

Egress is a work for string ensemble and electronics composed and recorded by Glitterbug, consisting of four chapters – Vacuity, Span, Stagger and Appraise.

Continuing his notable cinematic approach and pushing it to its next level, Glitterbug unveils Egress as audible storytelling, similar to radio-play and audio drama scores, dealing with notions of escape, isolation, loss, mourning, and undefined fear.

The composition’s thirty minutes are desolate and bare. They narrate an idea of a final, irreversible departure, presenting a soundtrack travelling through vacuous territories and hollow drifts. It narrates a void of inhabitable space, documenting the emotionality of the sound of a world post society, of a future in an unknown and possibly hostile place.

Egress is formed by a reduced musical structure, built upon discerning tonal subtleties, suspended single notes, and harmonics going slowly atonal.

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Also out in November 2011 will be a remix I made for our dear friends over at Ki Records, for Biodub’s ‘Baracuda, taken off his album ‘Reisegefährte‘. And yeah, it’ll be out on wax!

Next on, I will be working on a split EP on Ki Records, with New York’s native Konroy . It’s super exciting to have to opportunity to work with such a great new talent! It’s gonna be a wonderful, deep and emotional EP, ‘nough said!

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Also still out this year, will be a track of mine that will be released on der friends Mark & Matt Thibideau’s Obsolete Components from Canada. The homework was to create an entire track solely recorded with only ONE analogue synth, and I chose one of my most favorites of all times: the Yamaha CS 15.

“Electric Lairs” is entirely based on the Yamaha CS15. No other sound sources have been used. Besides EQs on the channels, I only used some reverb, tape delay and a little bit of compression on the bass drum part. Also, I didn’t sequence it, all parts are played live and recorded and mixed in Logic… My CS15 also has a bit of a sad story, since it was previously owned by Christian Morgenstern, who suddenly died in 2003. A mutual friend, Falko Brocksieper, was asked by Christians parents to take apart and sell off his studio after he passed away, and Falko asked me if I would maybe like to have this very particular one. I took it and loved it ever since.

From our friends at Kompakt:

“Even if the headlines are now dominated by other topics, many of our Japanese friends are still in a dire situation. Kompakt’s family of distributed labels feels the urge to help, so here it comes: 34 tracks handpicked by the owners of some of the world’s leading labels in electronic music: Ostgut Ton, Freude Am Tanzen, Bpitch Control, Dial, Kompakt, Comeme, Raster Noton, Monika, Rrygular, Vidab Records, Optimo Music, Anticipate and many more. Ranging from ethereal ambient sounds to pumping club sounds of Berlin, New York’s new disco underground and leftfield experimentations, there’s something for everyone.

There are many options as to where you can purchase this special compilation, but we encourage you to buy the compilation from Bandcamp or Other Music as 100% of the proceeds will go directly to The Red Cross Society Of Japan. The pricing for the compilation is € 7.99 for all 34 tracks, or € .99 per individual track. Bandcamp also offers you the option to pay more as an extra donation.”

How to buy:

We would like to thank the following labels and companies for participating in our effort to help:

Oktaf, Anticipate, Bpitch Control, Optimo Music, Monika Enterprise, Steadfast, Dial Records, Italic, Best Works Records, Kompakt, 200 Records, Supersoul Recordings, Laid, Memo, Throne Of Blood, My Favorite Robot Records, And Music, Freude Am Tanzen, Ostgut Ton, Vidab Records, C.sides, Pro-Tez, Boxer Recordings, Rrygular / Mo’s Ferry Prod., Falkplatz, Foundsound Records, Cómeme, Raster-Noton, m=minimal, Musik Krause, Hypercolour, The Agriculture, and Greta Cottage Workshop.

A special thanks goes out to Other Music, and Ripblock for donating 100% of their work!

In the past few weeks and months, I (and pretty much my entire personal and artistic surrounding) have been occupied by the disasters, catastrophes and the political turmoil happening around the world.

Much of my music that I have been working on in the last few months is deeply influenced by the current state of the world and the concurrence of greatly impactful events, providing a new and uncanny undertone.

Our next c.sides Label release is a double CD compilation with all-new commissioned works under the title “Audible Approaches For A Better Place” a project that will also be performed by all participants on the 12th of May at the HKW in Berlin (more info here)

I have an upcoming abstract ambient EP under the title “Egress EP” that will be released on the Israeli label False Ind., an EP that investigates the search and hope of finding new places and new prospects in the wreckage, when everything familiar has turned to rubble, and even more so,  my next album which will be titled “Cancerboy”,  a darker Glitterbug than previously known. An album that deals, as the title says, with cancer on a very personal and autobiographical level.

I have barely felt so hope- and helpless watching the news, and not that I actually would believe that giving tracks to benefit compilations and playing in benefit concerts makes that much of a difference, I do not see any other way of getting involved at the moment, so I think it’s still better than doing nothing.

Dear collegue and appreciated artist and musician Terre Thaemlitz wrote a nice text about the cons of participating in such things (you can read it here), and while I certainly agree with much of his criticism, I still do believe that it doesn’t hurt to give a little bit of something if you don’t have the means or framework to give more or other things.

So, below are two projects that I / we participate in.

Firstly, a compilation that our friends at Kompakt are putting out:

“Even if the headlines are now dominated by other topics – many of our Japanese friends are still in a dire situation. Kompakt’s family of distributed labels feels the urge to help, so here it comes: 34 tracks handpicked by the owners of some of the world’s leading labels in electronic music: Ostgut Ton, Freude Am Tanzen, Bpitch Control, Dial, Kompakt, Comeme, Raster Noton, Monika, Rrygular, Vidab, Optimo, Anticipate and many more. Ranging from etherical ambient sounds to pumping club sounds of Berlin, New York’s new disco underground and leftfield experimentations there’s something for everyone. All money generated from this unique compilation goes directly to help organizations in Japan.”

Tracklisting:
1. Marsen Jules – Trio Les Fleurs (Oktaf)
2. Ezekiel Honig – Past Tense Kitchen Movement (Anticipate)
3. Jahcoozi – Lost In The Bass (Bpitch Ctrl)
4. Space System – Petik (Optimo Music)
5. Greie Gut Fraktion – Wir Bauen Eine Neue Stadt Wolfgang Voigt Remix (Monika)
6. Manaboo – Unhuh (Steadfast)
7. Efdemin – Time (Dial)
8. Antonelli – Waiting For You (Italic)
9. André Lodemann – Searchin’ (Best Works)
10. Lawrence – Dwelling On The Dunes (Laid)
11. Michael Mayer – Picanha Frenesi (Kompakt)
12. Nhar – Megumi (200 Records)
13. Xaver von Treyer – Lunar Rover (Supersoul)
14. Cosmic Kids – Reginald’s Groove (Throne Of Blood)
15. My Favorite Robot – The Future Will Judge (My Favorite Robot)
16. Kaito – Open My Window (Kompakt)
17. Audision – Red Sky (And)
18. Monkey Maffia – Yo Baby Yo (Freude Am Tanzen)
19. Nick Höppner – Makeover (Ostgut Ton)
20. Gowentgone – Love & Respect (Vidab)
21. Glitterbug – Parted (C.Sides)
22. SCSI-9 – Electric Flowers (Pro-Tez)
23. Dusty Kid – America (Boxer)
24. Tassilo – Petite Patate (Rrygular)
25. Davenport & Deutschmann – Trump (Falkplatz)
26. Mr. Statik – Smoothest Cat On The Block (Memo)
27. Someone Else – Funny Day Elsewhere (Foundsound)
28. Ana Helder – El Groove De Tu Corazon (Comeme)
29. Anne-James Chaton – Vendredi 26 Juin 2009 – Événement N°23 (Raster)
30. Borngräber & Strüver – People Crying (M=Minimal)
31. Metaboman – Stony (Musik Krause)
32. Maya Jane Coles – You (Hypercolour)
33. DJ Olive – Kokanee’s Drop (Agriculture)
34. Out Of Plato’s Cave – Rainbow For Dawn Shane Berrys Rainbow for Japan Mix (Greta Cottage Workshop)

Secondly, Ronni Shendar and I will be performing in a benefit concert on the 8th of May in Berlin at Maria Club.

KI.ZUNA
Kizuna is the japanese word for bond.
www.kizuna-berlin.de

“After the catastrophic happening in Japan, which has not directly affected us, who live here in Berlin, it became a frustrating and helpless situation. Obliqued by the international media, we are concerned about the people and our friends and family in Japan.

After many years of intense exchange of art and culture between Berlin and Tokyo, our friends stand by us and share the situation. This strong bond encouraged our team, of Berlin DJ ́s and promoters, to become active supporters and demonstrate a KI.ZUNA to Japan.

With the KI.ZUNA event, we want to show our sympathy and friendship with a benefit party. Together with an Berlin located international artist collective of DJ ́s, musicians, promoters and media, we want to support the reconstruction in the effected areas.

The location Maria am Ostbahnhof, is a strong partner who instantly commited to the KI.ZUNA benefiz. All crew, location, technical support, promotion, artist fees will be sponsored.The entrance fee will be 100% donated.

Not only the natural cathastrophy, as well the nuclear desaster has and furtherly will cause a lot of victims. We will make sure that the money will be recieved in the areas of (for example) Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate – the three most affected places.

As our official donation partner, we chose betterplace.org as the biggest donation platform in Germany, to keep the lowest production costs and show the most transparency to all supporters.

On the following link, you will get all needed information about the supported projects and follow your donation:
www.kizuna-berlin.betterplace.org”

Lineup:
Aerea Negrot bpitch control | live
Akiko Kiyama | live – japan
Glitterbug & Ronni Shendar c.sides | audiovisual live performance
Kai Taro | live – japan
Shingo Suwa merkur | live – japan
Roman Flügel (tbc)
Kiki bpitch control
Soundstream soundstream
Stewart Walker persona
Gebrüder Teichmann
Ryo Fujimoto
humanelectro | japan
Mieko Suzuki koo koo | japan
Mijk Van Dijk
Mary Jane | ritterbutzke
Frank Mueller | müller rec
Didier de la Boutique | tonkind
Akira Hwaks | japan
Ara | groove magazin
Aroma | aromamusic
Charles Tone | pentagonik
Elbee
Bad Jakob Richter | maria
Hito | japan

It has been very quiet here lately, and I would like to apologize for that. The past two months have been insanely busy, not only with being in the studio, but also with all kinds of other projects, after December and parts of January saw heavy traveling and insane amounts of deadlines.

So, here are the latest news:

The upcoming months will bring quite a few new releases of my music. Funnily, it seems this will be the Glitterbug ambient spring… the next Mule Musiq ambient compilation “Enjoy the Silence Vol. 2″ will have a piece of mine. The release date is the 23rd of May. Very proud, very happy me!

Maybe even before, an EP of 4 abstract compositions (accompanied by a remix of Rafael Anton Irisarri aka The Sight Below) will be released on our good friend Yair Etziony’s label False Ind.

c.sides is also venturing off to new release-adventures. Coming up next is a 2xCD compilation under the beautiful title “Audible Approaches For A Better Place”, which is a series of mini-compositions (each 15 minutes long) which will be performed live by all participating artists in Berlin on the 12th of May, in the HKW (House of World Cultures). More info to be shared soon, but the release will see exclusive and eclectic works of our dear friends and favorite-ever artists like Efterklang, Christian Loeffler, Brandt Brauer Frick, Gold Panda, Khan Oral, Jasmina Maschina, Eliad Wagner, my humble Glitterbug self in a collaboration with Isralei-Palestinian opera singer Enas Massalha and visual genius Ronni Shendar, Enas Massalha solo, and John Farah. The idea for the evening and the CD-compilation came as both a response to the overwhelming issues of global and local injustices and a very naive and sincere belief that art in its essence is a political act and path to changing the world. It’s both cynical and self-humorous while totally genuine and heartfelt: To make something beautiful and thoughtful; to dedicate a little bit of our creative time to ponder about these things and to do this on stage with other artists and the audience.

Besides working on these bits and pieces, I am also in the advancing stages of composing and recording my next album, which will be released in the late fall. It’s gonna be- well, how shall I put it- quite serious auto-biographical techno. The title will be ‘Cancerboy’. More to be shared soon!

In addition, there are a few more things in the making, like probably two more dance-y EPs, a score for a movie, and some commissioned works. Never a dull moment!

As of performances, we decided to take a few weeks off to be able to wrap up our studio duties, before we will be touring again all of April, with a fully revised live show that already incorporates some of the new album materials. Some of the highlights include a show at Unsound New York on April 9th, maybe an installation at Boulder/CO’s Communikey Festival (TBC), shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles, a performance in Geneva’s famous Electron festival on April 21st and finalizing the April tour, a show in Vienna at Fluc on the 23rd of April.

Our friends at bln.fm had me over for a long studio talk about me, my current album and projects, as well as a lot of personal things. So if you feel like listening to me talking for an hour straight, tune in!

Listen to the stream on their website if you don’t live in Berlin and thus can’t receive the radio signal, on either Tuesday 25th of May at 8pm // Saturday 29th of May at 4pm // Sunday 31st of May 9pm.

“Wenn ein Künstler heutzutage ein Album veröffentlicht, ist das schon mit einem hohen Risiko verbunden. Die Verkaufszahlen stehen meist nicht mehr in einem angemessenen Verhältnis zu den Produktionskosten. Wenn es sich dann auch noch um ein anspruchsvolles Konzeptalbum mit künstlerischem Anspruch handelt, ist der Zugang für den Normal-Endverbraucher fast schon zu hoch. „Kunst? Da muss man sich ja anstrengen!“

Till Rohmann alias Glitterbug hat mit “Privilege” diesen Mai ein solches Album abgeliefert. Einen Menschen, der so gekonnt Emotionen in elektronischer Musik fassen und zu einem fragilen Klanguniversum verweben kann, wollen wir nicht mit einer “einfachen” Rezension ziehen lassen. Deshalb hat Tim Thaler Glitterbug ins Studio eingeladen und mit ihm über sein Leben, seinen Werdegang und seine Einflüsse geredet. Herausgekommen ist eine einstündige Reise durch Glitterbugs Welt, durch seine Projekte und das ganz private Leben mit Kunst und Musik.”

Amidst the possibly most stressful period prior to the release of ‘Privilege’ in four weeks, i thought to share a few updates.

I have been awfully busy with remixing, and, even more importantly, mixing endless podcasts for some of the large platforms out there. Watch out for some nice surprises… mixing the podcasts was an especially wonderful thing, since I have been mostly listening to ‘Privilege’ while finalizing the album, and to endless rehearsals for the new show that we’ll start touring with in May. So going through endless promos and fishing for exciting new music was an amazing treat after all that Glitterbug music…

In the meanwhile, the vinyl edition of ‘Privilege’ came in:

It’s a hand numbered, strictly limited (to 500 copies) double vinyl. No. 1-360 have the beautiful CD booklet as part of the package. The vinyl edition has a bonus track that won’t be available digitally or elsewhere, and since we could not fit the whole 20 tracks / 2,5 hrs of music of the CD on vinyl, everybody that purchases the vinyl (and sends us a picture of the hand written number and of the vinyl in a beautiful surrounding of their choice) will receive a download link to the whole CD album.

We have many great shows in the queue for this summer (among them Spot Festival/ Denmark, Off Centre Festival Amsterdam, c/o pop Cologne, MIGZ Festival Moscow, and Oslo Live Festival), so make sure to check the dates section every once in a while and come visit us in one of our shows!

The worst period of them all has started: the waiting period. My next album is done and ready, printed and stocked and sent out to journalists and reviewers, and at the moment there is very little to do for me, other than waiting in suspense and curiosity to see what the rest of the world will think of this epic double album I have been working on for more than a year. There is a bunch of other really exciting projects I am involved in at the moment- I am writing a score for a film, working on a remix for my most favorite Danish band ever, play with my cats and endless other things- but the main project that did not let me breathe for such an intense period is done and settled. Strange feeling!

But amidst all this waiting, I finally have time to listen to music that is NOT my from next album or written by me, and to take a deep breath and to re-discover some parts of the world that were lost out of sight amidst the isolation that intensive production periods come with.

And in the past few days I rediscovered a few things that have been unbelievable influential in my life and in my artistic upbringing if i may call it that way, and that still love and admire whole-hardetly.

So let’s call this the beginning of a new blog series: discovery / rediscovery.

I would like to start with Meredith Monk. I first discovered her music on a CD in 1987, at the troubled aged of 15… and even though at the time I could not find the right words to describe why this music touched me so much, it did and I immediately started buying everything of hers I could find. Until today, some of her works make me cry. I am not sure if I can relate to her newer stuff all the much, but ‘DolmenMusic’, ‘Book of Days’ and ‘Turtle Dreams’ remain three of my most favorite records ever, besides the materials she released on Wergo.

A few days back, I randomly stumbled upon a documentary that Peter Greenaway did in 1983: it’s called “Four American Composers”, and the part on Meredith Monk can even be found on youtube, strange but thankfully true. I sadly never saw her performing live, but to see her talking about her work and to see excerpts of her performances strangely made me understand myself a little more, and why i could always connect to her work and music so much. Even though it does not do her work justice to watch it in shitty youtube quality, it might be really hard to get your hands on the VHS tapes of the original series, so- enjoy the movie! It’s incredible. And incredibly touching.

I wanted to take the opportunity to wish everyone a beautiful new year from California (it’s Rosh Hashana today, that’s also the reason that I am here- to meet up with some friends and Ronni and her family) and thank everyone that made the past year such an amazing period for me and us at c.sides.

‘Supershelter’, my last album, got so much love and support internationally, I had the opportunity to perform in all these amazing places around the globe, we had at a blast at our last c.sides Festival in Tel Aviv this February  (against all odds, meaning, the war in Gaza and the elections one day before we opened the festival), we had great and well attended shows with our installations (for example the Jewish Museum Frankfurt), and I feel so very very fortunate and privileged for having the opportunity and freedom to do all these things. All of this is pretty overwhelming and beyond anything I could have hoped for.

As you might know, I am taking a performance break right now, and am working on my next album (and things are going really really well).

I’ll be back on the road (and in the club) starting on the 23rd of October at the amazing Insomnia Festival in Tromsø, Norway. After that we’ll (we: Glitterbug and Ronni Shendar with the joint A/V live show) play at the Elevate Festival in Graz/ Austria (24th of October), and then we’ll be off to a performance tour in India with our dear beloved friends Andy Vaz and Murat Tepeli. Post India we go directly to Poland to perform at the Plateaux Festival in Torun on the  21st of November, and more exciting things, projects and gigs are cooking up… I’ll keep you posted.

If you are in Cologne, come visit me at the Ouest Bar on the 10th of October and celebrate the release of my next 12”, the ‘Dim Flares EP’ (coming out on the 12th of October), with me.

Until then: love and peace from California…