skribblepott communion

after some time swept up in a host of activities taking me betwixt the rhein-main and leipzig, time was finally found to return once again to the skribblepott to re-commune dyxz.born.rndr in the studio for a weekend, to take in the performance of a band of buriers on the outset of their latest tour and to help celebrate the birthday of one of the skribblepott's most beautiful daughters, miss sinja possekel. a perfect and unmissable constellation of events which saw me eagerly gathering myself up and bidding farewell to the streets of connewitz, shimmering in the frozen still of a hazy wintry sun last thursday morning.

i rode the train line watching the fields, hilsides, towns and farms stretch out before me, just reflecting on the changing of the seasons, seeing the early morning frost stretch out across the scene and dearly looking forward to once again being with the wonderful extended-family that awaited in the north-west. after some delays, missing my connexion and being stuck in hannover for an hour, what better way to be welcomed that by the almighty dyxz waiting to pick me up at duisburg hauptbahnhof, already full of myriad stories, tales, news and the latest developments; my favourite welcome indeed.

we ran some errands before making our way back to his eppinghoferstrasse safehouse, doubling as one of the skribble / ana ott / glbc radio / shiny toys headquarters, with enough time to commune for a splendid meal with the legendary jan ehlen, enough time to write some field reports and enough time to brew a number of pots of the earl grey 69; an essential element in our frequent protracted kitchen communions. word was also exchanged with the mighty martin born and how he would soon be safely en route from mainz to join us in time for the concert which we ourselves we soon gathering ourselves up to be in early attendance for.

dyxz and i paced quickly through the streets of mülheim in the early-evening air to the near-legendary residence of the impossibly enchanting elisa, kara and ana; three of the arrestingly-warm-hearted skribble sisterhood and purveyors of the most legendary house shows, perhaps in the whole world; at least the old world for sure. we were welcomed at the door by miss elisa with wide smiles, hugs and kisses and soon found ourselves back in the cosy warmth of their perfectly-cosy abode, and being greeted by warmest hug after warmest hug from each and every family member, notably including the buriers family, this time in attendance as a three-man constellation with their new-ish drummer ramon, making his skribblepott debut and clearly reveling in the fact.

the guests arrived thick and fast til we were at full capacity, with too many dear names to mention, but the arrival of the omnipotent angel martin born would clearly be worth adding to the record. we took our seats and began to ingest the magical musical performances of the evening, beginning with the utterly unique captain pitt, marauding under his a giraffe persona with a wonderfully-off-the-cuff collection of songs, aided and abetted on second vocal by the hypnotic voice of elisa, before the buriers took the room by storm with their latest collection of songs, all of which directly found a place in the hearts of all assembled; magical moments indeed.

still, how the night pressed on so fast and we were soon relunctantly bidding each other farewells til the morrow, or only til next time. martin, dyxz and i wandered back across mülheim to the eppinghoferstrasse safehouse, took a final pot of earl at the kitchen table and then retired to fall away into the dreaming, knowing full-well that we had a very packed program ahead of us for the subsequent days. but how each moment should surely be made to count in such a situation as precious as that in which we found ourselves embroiled.

we arose in reasonable time, but not quite reasonable enough to be able to catch the buriers for frühstück before they made their way down to the rhein-main to catch the knertz family for their offenbach show. instead we took our fill with kara and ana, and spent the time reflecting on what a magical evening it had been and how wonderful a gathering of souls it had been, and how this new day continued in such a charming fashion. we managed to find ourselves in essen by nightfall, being treated to some exclusive sounds pertaining to the upcoming tesk cassette release on ana ott, from the mighty hands of edis bassdeaph, before communing into the late of the evening at the overwhelmingly cosy residence of the endlessly-enchanting sinja possekel for her bithday celebrations; and once again getting to bathe in the majesty of her waldraum.

but all of this heart-warming fun was far too heart-warming and fun, and how we had to get into the serious business of invoking blackest storms in the studio in the name of throne burner and the dyxz.born.rndr trio. saturday and sunday was spent exactly thus. we had graciously been afforded use of the live room at the highly professional dialogstudios in oberhausen by the masterful captain joost schnitzler, and made good opportunity of the time. we managed to fit in three sessions in the time, rehearsing, refining our sounds, experimenting with new textures and field recordings and indeed recording some test-pieces in preparation for compiling materials for our debut cassette tape release, forthcoming via ana ott in the new year.

sunday also gladly saw us making our way to the ana ott / skribble / glbc radio oberhausen safehouse and the residence of the impossbly amazing felïx möser aka bohemian output. we communed in his attic apartment and took tea in the warmth as the frozen grey and cold extended above the muted tones of the rooftops out of the windows. we were fortunate enough to view the physical version of the tesk tape release first hand and to get to hear some of the upcoming releases the label has in store for the world; a truly mouth-watering collection indeed. be sure to keep your eyes and ears pealed, at all costs.

the evening gladly saw us once again communed around the kitchen table with a beautiful constellation of friends for a last supper before martin and i would have to issue our sad farewells and return to mainz and leipzig respectively. we ate so well, all taking our fill and subsequently taking earl and talking long into the evening before it was time for our dear guests to slowly make their ways back out into the cold of the evening. dyxz, martin and i managed to somehow remain assembled around the table into the early hours, brewing pot after pot of the earl, talking long on what became such silly subjects; managing to squeeze the very last out of such a glorious weekend.

monday morning was cold and wet, grey skies and a faint drizzle of rain falling across the whole of the ruhrgebiet. we gathered at the table one last time for frühstück before the marching on of the hour forced us to begin our farewells. martin was reduced to disappearing first, taking the bus back to mainz and how, but a short while later, dyxz was in turn driving me back to the hauptbahnhof where the pressing time forced us into fleeting farewells. i found a seat on the train and sat staring out of the window as the ruhrpott slowly disappeared from view once more, and how my heart was heavy with all of the weight of these forced separations, but how in my heart i rejoiced at the wonderful magical warmth that lays within the hearts of all these amazing souls. there are so many flickering lights of hope in this dark world, how lucky we are to be able to witness them gathering together, and playing our own part in this ongoing play.

sending so much love to all of the skribblepott family, the buriers and every soul that still believes

keep safe and warm

jamesreindeer

connewitz, leipzig

19th november

2013

dyxz.born.rndr - european tour 2013 - low dronings from below the abandoned freight-cars drowning in the heavy rain

we drove south out of karlsruhe as the gloomy rainy weather began to set in and followed the autobahn with the throne burning spire of cathédrale notre-dame de strasbourg and the dark extents of the schwarzwald laying ominous in the east, the observatory and japanese guy to detail the ongoing soundtrack of the droning road and the steady concrete skyline of zürich with its fields of cranes ready to greet us as we finally rolled into the city under heavy rains, the prime tower looming resplendent in its shimmering hues as we found our way to the mism zürich headquarters and the wonderfully cosy residence of the ever-magnificent captain manu and his incredibly kind-hearted girlfriend lena. how they welcomed us in out of the rain, immediately had earl grey brewing and detailed the plan for the evenings schedule over the warming brew.

before long we took to the street once more and made our way down to the klubi under the steadily-building rainstorm to load in our equipment and set about the soundcheck process. the venue can certainly be described as something very special indeed. a cavern sunken in a tree-lined spot below the abandoned trailines running beside the river, an old carriage still standing lifeless above a small cavern-club replete with open stone walls and mysterious hieroglyphs in the water-etched granite walls. we soon got some really great sound happening with the aid of the marvelous patrick and also quickly managed to exchange the glad-hand with the mighty borut savski, with whom we would be sharing the performance along with ueli the super-nice manager of the site; a marvelous set of gentlemen indeed.

with all in hand we made our way back to manu's place under what had become incessant rain, the dark of the night already threatening to set in and a cool chill within the breeze that had us think we were being drawn back into the autumn once more. still, how lena, now accompanied by the wonderful alicia had set about preparing us such a fantastic vegan dinner for us all which i could not hope to do justice to with these humble lines. needless to say we took our fill, along with a host of always fascinating and illuminating conversations, our anticipation building for heading back to the venue, taking in the work of borut, not to mention our own humble performance. we wrapped ourselves up against the dismal elements and returning to the klubi on foot and under umbrellas and the blanket of the night having since fallen.

how the sanctuary of the atmospheric location seemed doubly so as we finally made our way out from under the downpour and into the dark, smokey cavern of the venue, darkly-lit and so welcoming. gladly, goodly number of close friends and strangers began to arrive, and in time to catch the fascinating work of borut savski, who treated us to a peformance and brief lecture on a suitably mind-bending audio-visual project he had been crafting in isolation as an experiment and was demonstrating the principles of for those of us lucky enough to be in attendance. he was essentially using randomly generated audio elements to trigger two-dimensional geometric visual elements to build an ongoing, and very-much trance-inducing sensory experience. fascinating work indeed.

after the hallucinatory depths of borut's work, dyxz, martin and i were ready to take to the stage to invoke some suitably dark sounds for those assembled within the stone walls of our temporary compound and directly set about a forty-five minute set of blackened-drones, monolithic doom-walls and spectral moments of frozen still; creating as atmospheric and enthralling world as we could summon within the limits of our confines. it was an absolute delight to perform indeed and how the kind audience were so very attentive and stayed with us along the course of the journey and offering such kind applause upon the final, grim culmination. a roaring success indeed, and one that we are already so very keen to repeat.

with the live performances handled and the merch-table manned for an adequate amount of time, it was time to spend the rest of the evening propping up the bar, listening to the mighty manu spin endless classic vinyl on the 1210's and chatting cheerily with those dear folk still assembled. but the time raced by as always and how the night slowly began to draw itself to a close. we slowly began to gather our weary selves up and take one last walk back through the still heaviest of rain to the apartment to start to think about falling into the dreaming once more. not before another round of earl grey at the kitchen table, of course. but how we were soon ready to fall back into the sleeping, to dream blissful dreams of drone-lands and sound-fields stretching out into clouds of radio-waves sailing high above farm-lands of antenna masts.

the morning greeting us cheerily, and with perhaps a little respite in the rain situation. we gathered together around the kitchen table and took an ample breakfast together before having to think about heading quickly back to the location to packed our gear into the car and starting the journey towards the mism bern headquarters, luana headquarters and the residence of the utterly-legendary mich moser. all was very much in hand and how we were in good time to take to the road as we bid farewell to the mighty manu and the wonderful lena. how they had been such impeccable hosts and how it had been such an absolute pleasure to visit them in their beautiful apartment and to get to share such a splendid time together; a really wonderful time indeed.

still, we were not quite through with zürich yet, and had one more stop to make before taking the autobahn south-west to bern. a complicated route through the city lead us to the compound of the mighty epilog of the magnificent son kas and postrap familia. he had marvelously managed to find himself in attendance at the show the night before and simply insisted that we must stop by before leaving the city, an offer impossible to refuse. so we soon found ourselves ensconced in his apartment, sipping tea and being stunned by an ongoing series of musical works-in-progress which took in his new collaboratory project with other rappers, his new solo works, self-produced and otherwise, and culminating in an auditioning of the viciously-shocking postrap supergroup armageddonendzeitstress, and how there is nothing quite as shocking as unexpectedly having your faced chewed off by soda as an end-point. this all too brief and all too shocking had to come to a close though and, with farewell hugs aplenty we found ourselves back on the road, back towards the impossibly-staggering beauty that is the city of bern.

might we once again take a moment to offer our most warmest thanks to captain manu, miss lena, ueli, patrick, alicia and the klubi family, the mism family, the postrap family, the whole extended zürich family and indeed captain borut, how it was a magical experience and how we so very much look forward to next time indeed.

next field report - eight-hundred years on the banks of the aare

jamesreindeer,
mülheim an der ruhr, deutschland
18th june 2013

dyxz.born.rndr - european tour 2013 - blackened tone poems from the industrial district

having said farewell to the skribble-pott family at the 55mm2 festival, dyxz and i drove south down the open autobahn for a little more than two hundred kilometers listening to opium lord and 'dopethrone' in its entirety at full volume with the hi-end turned way down until we reached the rhein-main decorative stamp compound a couple of hours before sundown. we had a day and a half to relax, including a pizza and donut party at the knertz compound with the legendary oskar ohlson and winterismyname, and not least of all linking up with out third man for the rest of the tour, the staggeringly-powerful martin born, our free-jazz legend, wheel-man and all-round unbelievably amazing soul. with our sights set firmly on the road ahead we gathered together and headed south out of mainz towards our first show as a trio with the always wonderful k-gruppe family in karlsruhe.

the weather was a lot better than the traffic as we rode the autobahn south to karlsruhe, but how slowly building storm-clouds and the dry heat could only spell inclemency for later on in the evening, but how it held out long enough for the utterly astonishing vegan barbecue that tomi and the k-gruppe family had laid on for us. quite impossible to put into words and how it quickly had to become the focus of the pre-show activities once the warm hugs and greetings and show technicalities had been taken care of. how much of a delight it was to also get to once again cross paths with bold captain astronautalis, the ever-mighty brock and to become gladly acquainted with oscar and mo, on guitar and drums respectively. how it was also a delight to get to talk with the parenthetical girls over the fantastic aformentioned barbecue.

still, one had to remain somewhat keenly aware that our presence on the line-up for the evening did seem ever-so-slightly at odds with the rest of the program, but how we could only ever treat that as an amusement and a delight indeed. naturally the evenings music began with our dyxz.born.rndr set and, although we had previously planned to keep it a little more on the dark-jazz that blackened-noise side of the coin, i seem to recall it actually being a rather sinister twenty-five minutes or so indeed. but the sound was crystal clear for our part and how the performance was a greatly enjoyable one indeed, although it might be perhaps argued that only a smaller percentage of the audience were ready to bathe in quite such blackened shrouds before the onset of really rather more uptempo tones. but how it was a privilege to grace the stage in every way and yet more so to take in the rest of the evenings' music.

having heard many enthusiastic reports on the parenthetical girls from a number of trusted sources in the lead up to the show, we were all most keen to witness their performance and how they indeed took to the stage with gusto and set about a super-energetic set of songs which had me think of a great number of different influences, but none so concrete that i would dare to hint at in these lines. how it did very much gladden and tickle me that zac, their vocalist very much had an 'ancient mith' way about him and did indeed attempt and successfully scale most parts of the location including a protracted path across the bar, and of course never once missing his queue or breaking his neck. it was definitely a sight to behold and a suitable effective segue from our blackened-shroud jazz-murmurings into astronautalis' full-blown live-rap extravaganza.

as many times as i have had the fortune of performing alongside astronautalis, i can quite honestly state that his performance alongside oscar and mo at the halle14 this night will easily remain one of the most memorable thusfar, not simply as we had the delight of witnessing him with his bandmates for the first time, but also of what became the intimacy of the show due to something slightly more than mere technical difficulties with the sound during the performance. the details need not be discussed, but the upshot of the situation being that the band performed without the aid of the sound system in the location; mo played his drums as they stood, oscar his guitar just running through his amp and andy perfoming his vocals without amplification. i guess this desperate action needed to be taken a mere four or five songs into the set, but how the rest of the performance continued and ended thus and how it really did prove to be a most admirable accomplishment by the good gentlemen onstage, but also a tremendous treat for those in attendance.

still, with the live music concluded in fine style, the rain-storm having rolled in and the mid-week evening wearing on fast there was just enough time to recline a little while in the most-comfortable back-stage area at the halle14 with the ever-splendid young robin, a dog with whom it seems most every passing musician falls in love with, the remains of the staggering barbecue and some rather amusing conversation with the astronautalis troops about something along the lines of a thread involving carmen miranda. but how the time was marching on fast and how we all had different cities to be in tomorrow. we bid the troops fond farewells til next time and started to think about final teas before taking ourselves into the sleeping with keen anticipation of a splendid breakfast with the k-gruppe family in the morning and then the drive further south and over the border into the ever-stunning switzerland.

after a most-comfortable nights' sleep we all awoke slightly blurry-eyed from the late night and early start but we quickly bolstered with tea and sunlight and the brief drive from the location to the k-gruppe family compound. the ever-wonderful tomi greeted us at the door and how we all slowly began to gather around the kitchen table, taking our fill of the amazing breakfast selection and generally relaxing our way into the mid-morning before we would have to think about taking to the road once more, a fine finish to another wonderful karlsruhe episode indeed. with a hearty round of farewells we made our way back down onto the street as the first light rain of the day began to fall and started to think about the journey by the schwarzwald and over the border into the majestic swiss lands.

so, might we quickly take another moment to send so much thanks to the k-gruppe family, everyone involved, everyone who came down, the charming parethetical girls, captain astronautalis, brock, mo and oscar, and how we look forward to seeing you all again at some stage further down the path.

next field report - low dronings from below the
abandoned freight-cars drowning in the heavy rain

jamesreindeer,
mülheim an der ruhr, deutschland
16th june 2013