HAUSMEISTER discography + linernotes

digital / mp3:
album_schnipsel_self-release_2010
album_the guitar of your idol_self-release_2009
album_grosse räder_self-release_2009
album_lotse_self-release_2008

longplay:
cd_ water/wasser_ plop records_2007
cd_ look at me now_spotlight records_2004
lp/cd_look at me now_ sopot records_2004
lp_ solo_ esel records_ 2003
lp/cd_weiter_ karaoke kalk_ 2002
lp/cd_unser_karaoke kalk_ 2001
lp/cd_ hausmeister_ karaoke kalk_ 2000
plus a range of mcs

others:
cd-sampler_musik fuers wohnzimmer_monika_1998
cd-sampler_santa monika_monika_1999
mini-lp_jiller_esel records_2000
lp/cd-sampler_data pop_spex_2001
lp/cd-sampler_leichtes hoeren_kompakt_2001
cd-sampler_folky 1_spektrum works_2001
lp-sampler_wo bist du_esel records_2002
cd-sampler_folky 2_spektrum works_2002
cd-sampler_spex/ magazine_spex_2002
split-single_james dina 4_esel records_2002
cd-sampler_folky 2/ japan_american rag cie_2003
ep-remix_flamingo/ japan_spotlight records_2003
cd-contribution_t. sugimoto: mode/ japan_spotlight records_2003
cd-sampler_blue bell compilation 1/ usa_blue bell records_2003
cd-sampler_kalk seeds_karaoke kalk_2005
ep-remix_tenfold lonestar_summer when it’s raining_l’age d’or_ 2005
cd-sampler_kalk eck_rambling records_2006
cd-single_am ende der sorgen_self-release_2006
cd-single_die musik_self-release_2006
cd-sampler_on the beach_grand gallery/ japan_2007
cd-sampler_kalk seeds_karaoke kalk compilation no.2_2008

bands:
die auch_lp: im ernst,_plus mcs
have a look at: myspace: die auch
go plus_lp: go plus_2003
hoergeraete_mcs

video:
sucher_by christian przygodda_1999
muner_by claudia rorarius_2001

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linernotes

HAUSMEISTER about "schnipsel"
22nd of August 2010


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while i am writing this, i am sitting in a boat, letting it float, ad if i don’t act, it will do whatever it wants. the consequences might surprise me. SCHNIPSEL are little pieces, found or collected, where the lack of intention ad a sort of drifting helps a lot. all sounds on SCHNIPSEL that i did not create with my instruments are such pieces of found footage.
i was prepared, but never sure, what i would hear from the speakers, when i later went through my fieldrecordings. sometimes it was just a doorbell or voices in a café, then again the icecovered quaisor a harbourdagger that interested me. and everytime it was a surprise, what really was recorded, for there are so many that you usually overhear!
the compositions developed sponatniously, sometimes it began just with one track, not knowing, where this would lead to. after years of recording with the computer, i changed back to working with a tascam 8-track mashine, and it challanged me to play every track in one piece and not to quantisate anything.
i was quite fedup with these computerbased techniques, which suggest all sorts of so called short-cuts. at some stage i realised, that i spend more time with the computer than with the instrument - that was definately not what i wanted!
back to the instruments that inspiere me: here it was piano, drums, bass, saxophon and of course guitar, ah yes, and an analog monophonsynthesiser. the sounds that perfectly combine the frequences of instruments and fieldrecordings are mainly made with this synth.
the last SCHNIPSEL offeres a new perspective: it is the new / old cooperation with henning bosse from die auch, and ilse lau, with whom i started making recordings for my next album. finally i have someone at the drums who fits perfectly and is well capable of giving my energies the right direction. but more about that in the future. meanwhile: have fun listening to these fragments called SCHNIPSEL!



HAUSMEISTER about "the guitar of your idol":

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This is the nineth album i am releasing as Hausmeister. And at the same time it is the first with only English lyrics. "The guitar of your idol" is a popalbum, completely serving my attitude towards this kind of music, with a chronology that is more than mere accident, but has been developed precisely while the album was growing. Of cause i am sad, not to have this on a vinyl record, especcially since i believe that vinyl is the optimal medium, seen under technical and musical aspects. Who knows, whether the music industry might remember this, when they again think that it is time to place a new product on the market. Since this is the only reason for the ever changing products, not improvement technically spoken or in behalf of the listeners or the music, only serving the purpose of moneymaking.
My reflections about this built the basis to the first track on the album "Human Rudiment", which is a very pessimistic view on what has been called "user". I see this homotechnicus more as a victim of the technical instruments and machines that dominate him and not the other reround. The track "Evil" picks up a similar aspect, additionally to the general technological promise, it describes that of modern genetics, optimising the human race, a fashistic ideology that is hard to resist, when it is said that this technology is only used for the benefit of human life. How can the evil be usefull, and how the perfect bad? It is this mediocrity that characterises us, our weakness, our impatience, that is described in "The length of your patience". Also "Feel like me" deals with the inner situation of those who would not be themselves if they would not insist on their imperfection. We are not comparable and everyone is unique, while our experiences and possibilities are so rich. That many of us do not manage to recognise ourself and still like oneself, that is the topic of "Fishhead", "Jonny Single" and "Remember". It is useless to own the guitar of your idol, cause it does not change any condition of your own existenz. There is no alternative to your individual way, although this is what the homoganation propaganda tries to make us believe. Through this we are kept in a stabil and constant unsatisfaction with the substitues of industry. This "junkyfeeling" is described on various tracks through different perspectives. That i am singing in English is part of trying in gaining more distance to what i am singing about. On the one hand it makes things more concrete, cause i can only use a reduced vocabulary, and on the other hand it enhences the freedom to just ignore the lyrics and let the music dominate the songs.
I have never before played as much saxophone on an album. What you hear reflects my way of playing this instrument, that i am learning by doing while recording, and i can really not play more than this. Of cause there are wonderful backing vocals of my wife sarah again, only this time she never got to play any flute, i simply forgot it. Maybe next time!



HAUSMEISTER about "große räder"

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the 8th album of hausmeister is titled "große räder" which means big wheels, is a kind of retrospective. it reflects my time in bremen, a beautifull small- a somehow big city in the north of germany. the material is based on songs sung in my mothertongue. in fact, those tracks are highly biografical. i tried to capture the atmospere of those days in lyrics and music. maybe it is a subjective portrait of a certain time in a town, with it’s ups and downs. on this album i discovered and used sounds i still don’t really know how i produced them, but that is part of my work, so enjoy it!



HAUSMEISTER about water/wasser:

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released on former label plop records, now
naturebliss

the music of "water/wasser" is influenced by european classic, electronic music, folk and progressive rock, just as much as jazz. the basic idea of the composition lies in the way how the tracks are carried out. as in classic composition (symphony) the return of themes and their variations is most important, which have been done with various sound sources. the whole album is drawn from the creative melting-pot of musical possibilities. as with the element water the transcendent is the constant at the same time.
i am interested in the possibilities to enter the different floors of this musical building, enjoying all the varying sights. this strongly refers to the works of the french comic artist moebius (the hermetic garage) or of writer lars gustaffson (the third rochade of bernhard foy). using one of my own paintings as the album cover is an additional aspect of my interdisciplinary approach within the album.

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