leaving the rhein-main

after what has proved to be many, many long weeks of blurry activity, and after more than three long years, i am forced to announce with mixed emotions, that i have been reduced to bidding farewell to the rhein-main; a place that had very much began to grow to feel like home in my heart. the reasons are many and various, but how the passing of time seems to ensure that everything keeps moving forward, and this is the next step on the path that i am taking.

it is with mixed emotions indeed. how these last three years have been so eventful, so richly-rewarding, so turbulent, so flooded with activity and travels, so filled with artistic enterprises of all kind. my thoughts are awash with so many different instances bringing close recollection of all the myriad moments spent amidst the dearest rhein-main family, between darmstadt and mainz, wiesbaden and frankfurt; too many moments to be able to comprehend indeed.

how i would want to extend the warmest hugs and smiles to absolutely the whole of the rhein-main family; all of the darmstadt family, the mainz family, the frankfurt and wiesbaden families; of course giving extra love to the whole of the mighty knertz family indeed. but also, to make a point of singling out the incredible oskar ohlson and meike winter, who very much took me under their wings and offered me more support and warmth than i could ever hope to describe in these humble lines.

still, this is very much not a goodbye. how i shall never be far from the rhein-main, and how i shall for sure be returning much sooner rather than later, for their is still much music to be made, many projects to continue, shows to be played and many moments for close congregation. but how i would very much like it to be known that i will be carrying so many warm moments, kind souls and gentle thoughts in my heart as i venture onwards along the steady path. until then, here's to this digital world that keeps us near when far.

sending all the love

jamesreindeer

connewitz, leipzig

deutschland

burning the winter oil & other poems - out now

might i most gladly unveil my third official spoken-word collection, following on from the 'shallow pools' and 'landscape eternal', this newest addition is entitled 'burning the winter oil & other poems' and collects seven pieces together in a slim volume, designed to explore the sensations of the long wintertime.

available as a digital download from my own jamesreindeer bandcamp page, the download contains spoken-word renditions of all seven pieces along with an eleven-page digital booklet containing the complete texts for all the pieces. do be sure to think about securing yourself a copy, should funds and desire permit.

keep warm

jamesreindeer

fbcfabric & reindeer - one inch brook - out now

finally, after many long years stranded in isolation, might we at last officially announce the release of the mighty 'one inch brook' from the fbcfabric & reindeer compound. a song that was originally commissioned as a remix for london-based organic-electronica master littl shyning man, but that never quite saw the light of day, other than for a few rare live renditions. we at last have the opportunity to unveil it proudly, in its full unedited glory, along with some auxiliary materials to sweeten the deal.

available as a digital download from both the fbcfabric & reindeer bandcamp page, as well as my own jamesreindeer bandcamp page, the download also includes a five-page digital booklet containing an introductory piece recalling the facts in the case of the production, a full transcription of the lyrics, as well as an additional related piece from my own currently-unreleased first book entitled 'nova conditions'. do be sure to think about securing yourself a copy, should funds and desire permit.

take care

jamesreindeer

landscape eternal - out now

might i gladly take this moment to present my second official spoken-word release, following on from last years' 'shallow pools' poetry collection. entitled 'landscape eternal' and gathering together sixteen pieces taken from the works of some of my own favourite literary masters, some of my closest associates within my own writing circle as well as some of my own compositions, and woven together as a whole, 'landscape eternal' is designed to take us on a brief journey through distant lands, evoking moods of eerie unease and foreboding amidst a psychedelic landscape of strange sights and sounds.

the release also contains a twenty-minute ambient soundpiece to accompany the spoken-word selections, to be used in conjunction with the words or as its own separate entity. a darkened drone-piece that crackles and moans under its own weight, and certainly feels like a fitting companion to the ominous lines of the landscape eternal. the whole thing now being available from both the decorative stamp online store as well as my own bandcamp page, and available as an ultra-limited hand-crafted cd edition of only ten copies, as well as for 'name your price' digital download. get involved.

keep safe

jamesreindeer

dyxz.born.rndr - european tour 2013 - eight-hundred years on the banks of the aare

we followed the autobahn on its curve south-west through the myriad delights of the swiss landscapes on our path towards the always-stunning second-home of bern and the twin mism and luana headquarters of the living legend that is mich moser. how the storm-clouds still loomed ominous on the horizon but the rain kept its distance as we followed the winding path into the city, through its magnificent streets, shrouded in such stunning architecture and across the always beatuiful aare flowing through its whole before reaching the always-welcoming safehouse of captain mich; directly at the door ready to greet us with welcoming hugs and talk of what we could only immediately realise would be a stunning dinner at the broadspectrum surrounding compound already waiting for us. we directly grabbed what we needed from the car and then headed off by foot into the stunning depths of the city.

having ascended the steep hill from mich's place into the city center, it was only a brief excursion for beverages before we made our way to the wonderfully cosy apartment and broadspectrum surrounding compound of the absolutely wonderful can and nicole; a truly wonderfully kind-hearted couple indeed. we were welcomed immediately with the warmest of hugs, hot tea and much marvelous conversation before soon sitting down to an epic meal of home-baked pizzas and salat, wine, saft, coffee, yet more tea before we then found ourselves magically gazing out over the skyline diorama of the city center from their astonishing rooftop vantage point, a spell-binding instant to frame an outrageous series of developments of our evening indeed.

still, how the night held much more in store for us besides. we gathered ourselves up as a group and headed out into the cool of the evening to meet with some of the legendary everest records family over at the mighty reitschule complex; a stunning location which really needs to be on the list of essential spots to visit, and the perfect location to meet up with such marvelous souls indeed. still, how the night was a little cool and the spot a little too chaotic with some kind of minimal-chemical-party occurring out the front of the complex and so how we all retired to the magnificently cosy apartment and kitchen of captain matu to spend the last of the evening sharing drinks and ever-more amusing conversation til the early hours began to beckon. with weary heads we began to wend our ways back to our sleeping places, ready to get some sleep before the show tomorrow.

for my own part, i had the honour of sleeping at the mism/luana safehouse and slept long indeed, not awakening until it was almost time to take to the day to begin our busy schedule. mich and i walked back up into the city to collect dyxz and martin from the compound and how we made our way to the splendid raum to set-up and get a healthy soundcheck happening and to shake hands with the tastatur captains before taking a most-relaxed walk over to the everest records safehouse to chill and take tea with captain matu a while longer and generally take in their whole operation which, was certainly most-impressive indeed. but how the day was racing-by indeed and how we soon found ourself safely back at can and nicole's place for a staggeringly epic home-cooked indian meal with the extended bern family circle. shockingly fantastic tasty treats indeed.

still, showtime beckoned and how we made our way en mass back down to the raum and started to relax with the splendid folk who slowly began to gather in the cosy half-light of this most-intimate and wonderful of locations as the mighty mich began to spin a sinister collection of vinyl for our listening pleasure. still before long we did indeed take to the stage and slowly concocted a drone-heavy invocation filled with as many subtle hues as we could filter through the sound-system, building a steadily rising hymn to fill the raum with a slow and permeating unease of blackened arid lands. in truth, some technical difficulties on our part sadly plagued the performance a little, but how we did indeed muster over the length of the performance and managed to satisfy the ungods with a suitably darkened tone poem of careful duration.

but the night was still so young and how we were subsequently treated to the rhythmic tones of the local masters tastatur as we gladly began to spend the rest of the evening putting our feet up, chatting cheerily, watching the party-madness unfold and eventually taking to the dancefloor as the killer broadspectrum surrounding dj-team took their rightful place on the 1210's and treated us to endless party sounds as the night wore steadily on into the long early hours. how it was a great night indeed and an honour to be finding ourselves again rubbing shoulders with the mighty everest records family members matu and mich meienberg, no less. but how we slowly grew weary and ready for the sleeping, and how myself, mich and the lovely soumy bid farewell to the others and made our weary way back to the mism/luana safehouse for some much-needed sleep. still, how there was indeed enough time for one last tea in the still of his kitchen as we chatted cheerily for a few last minutes to the sounds of the true legend that is fbcfabric, the horror... into the dreaming then.

i greeted the sunday morning with the weariest of eyes to find mich and suomy ready for action and how we made a weary walk back to the broadspectrum surrounding safehouse once more, to link up for some splendid breakfast action with the others and to think about one last stroll through the city before we would have to think about gathering ourselves up for the drive back north across the border. how we were blessed with a sunny afternoon for it though and gladly bore ourselves a suitably relaxed path through the architectural delights of the altstadt, within the myriad wonders of the berner münster, up to the steadily widening views of the magnificent rosengarten for a spot of tea and relaxing, then back along the aare to our starting point; a marvelous sunday-afternoon jaunt indeed. but time had defeated us, and how we were forced to bid the gang the dearest of farewells before taking ourselves back to the car and making the steady drive back to the rhein-main after such a truly wonderful weekend indeed.

so, might we once again take the opportunity to offer our most-sincerest of thanks and so much love to the dear captain mich, the mism/luana family, the wonderful, wonderful broadspectrum surrounding family, the effortlessly kind everest records family, miss soumy, the tastatur captains and everyone who made it down to the show, a truly magical time indeed.

next field report - returning to the steel heart of the republic

jamesreindeer
connewitz, leipzig, deutschland
23rd june, 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