glitterbug

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.

If you were wondering how to find those Glitterbug tracks in lossless quality or how to order vinyl while still getting the files in any format you ever wanted, incl. all those wonderful audiophile HQ, lossless files, look no further! My Bandcamp site is up and running, and you can order directly from there, both the digital and the physical goods.

If you want your money to go to the artist directly, I believe that there’s no better way on the web at the moment.

Here’s my latest release:

With this year’s sale we are celebrating our double CD compilation Audible Approaches For A Better Place.

We gathered 10 of our favourite artists (Gold Panda, Brandt Brauer Frick, John Kameel Farah, Jasmina Maschina, Khan, Casper Clausen & Mads Brauer (of Efterklang), Glitterbug with Enas Massalha, Christian Löffler and Eliad Wagner) for an experiment, and asked them to create music for a better, more just and beautiful place.

The result? Eclat Magazine writes “A truly magnificent aural experience, a fantastic musical experience full of harmonious beauty” , “Ambitious and deeply sentimental project” – Boomkat UK ,“The concept: simple and straightforward; the result: powerful and provocative” – Textura, “Ten wonderful snapshots” – Groove

SUPER SALE
For this year’s sale, we are happy to offer Audible Approaches for a Better Place + your choice of any 2 c.sides label releases for only €20!! or you can order a copy from our entire backstock + a c.sides T-shirt, for only €40!!

GIVEAWAY
And if that’s not enough, if you order by Dec. 20th, you have a chance to win one of six individual Audible Approaches frames. We will be raffling a single frame from each of the six Audible Approaches for a Better Place videos by Ronni Shendar, Gold Panda, Karim Ghahwagi, Eliad Wagner, Christian Löffler, and Khan!!!

More info & oder details here!

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.

What if artists composed music for a better world?

Audible Approaches For A Better Place

Haus der Kulturen der Welt,
John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10 10557 Berlin
Doors open 19:30 / Concert begins 20:00 (sharp!)

One evening with 10 live performances by:
Casper Clausen and Mads Brauer (of EFTERKLANG) feat. Karim Ghahwagi
Christian Löffler
Eliad Wagner
Gold Panda
Glitterbug and Ronni Shendar feat. Enas Massalha
Jasmina Maschina
John Kameel Farah
Khan
and very special surprise guests (to be revealed in May!)

c.sides asked ten diverse artists (and bands) to create new works, all sharing one goal:
to make a humble contribution toward making this world a better, more just and beautiful place!

Artists had full freedom in their creative process. We provided only general guidelines to participating artists regarding the project’s concept and an intended timeframe of ten to fifteen minutes for each piece, in order to allow the artists to develop an idea beyond the limitations of a ‘regular track.’ We also encouraged artists to work with different musical means than they usually would!

This is an artistic experiment we have wanted to do for a very long time. It is a personal reaction to the overwhelming global and local injustices, catastrophes and troubles, and stems from a slightly naïve, yet sincere belief that art, in its essence, can be a political act and path to changing the world. The idea is self-critical and self-deprecating, yet genuine and heartfelt: to create something beautiful and thoughtful, to dedicate a bit of our creative time to pondering the world and our role in it.

And the results? Probably our most beautiful production yet!

And, it will take place on one of Berlin’s best sounding stages: the large auditorium at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt.

It has been an amazing experience for us to see the pieces come together, miraculously corresponding with one another and with our own individual works. And we don’t think anyone should miss out on this event.

One first step to making this world a better place is that entry costs only 8 Euros at the door, and 5 Euros for those eligible for discount!!!

A Second step is that a (double CD) release under the same title (Audible Approaches for a Better Place) will be released on the c.sides Label in September featuring all the works of all participating artists. The release will already be available for purchase on May 12th for those who attend the event. Yep, that’s 4 months before the official release date!

This evening is part of the HKW Lokal program, as part of the ÜBER LEBENSKUNST initiative, more info here.

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!

I usually don’t steal from other blogs, but in this specific case, I would like to point to a very exciting project that Ronni Shendar and I have been working on for the past few months, and that is slowly wrapping up. And why writing it all over again if somebody else already said it all, and even so beautifully?

The video bellow was created by Ronni Shendar, the soundtrack was made by me.

You can find the original post on Ronni’s blog here.

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“I created the video above for the HKW Lokal concert series at the Haus der Kulturn der Welt as part of the ÜBER LEBENSKUNST (Art of Living) initiative, in Berlin.

The 4-part concert series brings Berlin’s international music scene to set the climate change to music: From “Apocalypse Culture” to “Audible Approaches for a Better Place”, from Trucker Songs in the age of electric engines to “climate change” between human voice and computer-generated sounds.

Till Rohmann aka Glitterbug not only created the soundtrack for the video, but he and myself also curated the last event “Audible Approaches for a Better Place” – an evening of 10 performances of diverse artists who each created a new dedicated piece for this evening, all sharing one common goal of making a humble contribution to making this world better and more just through audible means.

You can read more about the project and its upcoming release on the c.sides Label in my previous post. Participants include: Mads Brauer and Casper Clausen (of Efterklang), Gold Panda, Khan (Oral), Jasmina Maschina, Christian Löffler, John Farah, Eliad Wagner, Enas Massalha and the joint project of Glitterbug & Enas Massalha, as well as some very special guests.

HKW Lokal Concert Series

7 April, 8pm
ELECTRIC TRUCKS & HYBRID HOT RODS
DM Bob & Speedy Jake 

Jimmy Trash & the Gunpowder Temple of Heaven 


28 April, 8pm
NATURE VS. MAN
9

September Collective feat. Chor der Kulturen der Welt


5 May 2011, 8pm
ANIMAL POLITICAL SONGS
Animal Cops

Lord Mouse and the Kalypso Katz

12 May 8 pm
AUDIBLE APPROACHES FOR A BETTER PLACE
Mini festival with 10 acts including:
Casper Clausen and Mads Brauer (of EFTERKLANG) feat. Karim Ghahwagi (visuals)
Christian Löffler
Eliad Wagner
Enas Massalha
Gold Panda
Glitterbug & Ronni Shendar feat. Enas Massalha
Jasmina Maschina
John Farah
Khan
and very special surprise guests (to be revealed in May)

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

After the utter traffic chaos in Germany and barely making it to our flight from Frankfurt airport, we made it to Mumbai on the 22nd of December in the wee hours of the night.

This city is still immense in all its extremes, its noisiness, its poverty and extreme differences. After our performance tour in India in 2009, I left the country with a feeling of despair- this time I am a little bit calmer, and feel that I was better prepared than last time. But it still is quite an overwhelming experience to be here. But more about that in a later post.

We arrived at our hotel on Tuesday 22nd at 5 in the morning, and already had to leave to soundcheck for the first show at 11am- enough to take a nap and to have a quick breakfast.

First up was a DJ gig at the Mood Indigo Festival at the IIT Mumbai, all the way in the north of the city. The venue looked like this:

The promoters got me a massive array of 16 speakers, but sadly no turntables first (I actully had to pull out a 12” to demonstrate that they don’t fit into a CD player!)… the technicians were trying really hard to help by surrounding the mixer:

I had to improvise a little until those arrived, and play a DJ set with one of those programs I usually use with vinyl control. But most importantly, the crowd seemed to not notice that parts of my equipment were simply not there, and a few minutes after the doors were opened, the place looked like this:

DJ culture here looks very different from where we come from. There is much more of a culture of requesting songs (it’s customary to even have a pile of sheets and a pen to write down wishes and to write who requested it, and to whom it should be dedicated):

(Sorry to the unknown person that gave this to me, I did not have any Hindi music to play!)

Sadly, we had to run off after playing for a bit longer than an hour and a half, since we had to go to soundcheck at the evening venue for our live show, the Blue Frog, where “The Tilt Festival” took place, where we were supposed to be the final show of the evening.

The night went really well! Strangely, the entire city has xmas decor all over, and the Blue Frog was no exception.

(This image was stolen from missmalini’s blog)

We were told that it became somewhat fashionable to celebrate Christmas… this is what they put up in front of our hotel:

The last thing I want to share in this post is a quite hilarious article that was published in the Hindustan Times. Funnily, the “quotes” from us are made up, nobody ever talked to us, and my music was now filed under a new category: “Glitter Music”. lol… but read for yourself! The original article can be found here.

Sounds of Cologne
by Sharin Bhatti

Visuals form an essential part of any live set that cuts across genres. Music producer and DJ Till Rohmann understands that. The German producer has found an apt accomplice in Israeli photographer and visual artist Ronni Shendar. They have created a unique outfit that plays music to visuals, and pairs the visuals with live music.

Rohmann adopted the name Glitterbug and created a new media art form that one could club to – ‘glitter music’. Mumbai will play host to Glitterbug and Shendar at the two-day music festival Tilt at Blue Frog, tonight.

“I developed my own sound in the ’80s when I would spin at underground parties. Cologne was open to new music and new sounds by the early ’90s, and that is when I discovered an audience that was receptive to a new art form – visual music. I didn’t want the same regular club music. I wanted to do something different,” says Rohmann, who met Shendar and found in her visual talent -something that he could spin live to.

“She had an eye for everything historical. That really interested me and we started working together,” says Rohmann, who spins to Shendar’s evocative visuals that include urban landscapes, nature, wildlife and abstract road travels.

During their time in India, Rohmann is certain that Shendar will document her travels through Mumbai. “We capture frames of every place we visit. Mumbai, I believe, is pictorially very rich. It would be interesting to make music to the cityscapes,” says Rohmann.

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.”