Once I received a Souncloud message saying:

Seems like every user I check out is making minimal techno. [Your music] was a breath of fresh air. Danke schön!

Of course this is the stuff I like to hear. But this is also what came to my mind stumbling across Pedros music. Just some freshness in that ocean of tracks that all follow the same scheme. When you listen to some of Pedros work, you can hear, that this guy is classicly trained, but practices electronic. For me, it feels good not being the only one between the lines of genres. He has also similar feelings towards his music.

[It's] hard to find a place I “belong” these days…

Could sign this statement. All the established genres have their own rule-sets. How you produce, how you perform. What is most likely to make your track big. They have big word-leaders who are the scenes darlings. What they recommend will be heard.
None of that holds true if you try to go new ways. Of course every position has pros and cons, but this feeling of being a bit lost, although doing great craft, is one of the cons – i guess. Though never met, Pedro from Brazil has won my sympathy. Totally.

This is what says about “Kyrie Eleison“:

Song made in 2004, when I started experimenting with counterpoint composition and electronic music. Very intriguing yet evolving atmosphere that ponders antique music in today’s times.
My own voice recorded many times for each layer. I used counterpoint, that’s a composition technique from the 16th Century. So what I did is I wrote a piece for 5 voices and recorded all of them myself… pretty tiring ater a while…

My friend and former band-mate AK (design student) said something, that holds true with this work also:

Always try to bring ideas from outside into your production. Don’t reference the status-quo of the scene. When you do digital bring in inspiration from analog.

This translates to: Bring in your acoustic understanding, sound and ability into electronic composition. This is what Pedro does. Or: bring your aesthetics from electronic music into acoustic music. This is what Hauschka does. Either way you choose, it is a good way of staying original.

Funny, Pedro manages to undust that image of old men singing church songs in a choir. He has a original way of creating tension within the track and surprises the listener several times. The way I like it.

Don’t miss to check out some of his other works over at Soundcloud. I recommend  Harmo and 7 Onions. He also has a blog, which is in Portugese, unfortunately (for the most us). Google translate could help

Disclaimer:
the idea of this series is to have a conversation. On single pieces of music and through them on musical aspects in general. Imagine the time you were putting up vinyl, drinking red wine, discussing with your friend about things you hear at this very moment. When was the last time you listened to music and did nothing else? Really concentrated?
So if the track above triggers anything, just share it. A picture, a small thought, a general impression you have, please share it in the comments. If not, maybe next time.  It’s an experiment, I know. Thanks again!

Back in the days, when I got my first own computer I started using it for making music. It was a tough learning process, digging through all the possibilities, the technological barriers and especially getting equipment together supporting me in this process. While still learning, there were (here and there) some tracks popping out. For me as a perfectionist they were not what I had in mind. When listening to them, I could hear what was wrong and why this special track did not represent what I thought I would actually be capable of doing. Nevertheless, as some kind of self-healing exercise I uploaded some of these tracks to Last.fm. Did not expect anything. Called the album “Mixed Sessions” as there was no connection whatsoever between the single tracks. I thought that this “album” could be regarded as gradually growing. When I finished a new track, that could just be added to the list. And nothing happened at first.

This changed, when CixxxJ stumbled across my music and recommended me to Pixieguts. For those who don’t know, Pixieguts is a vocalist from Australia who collaborates digitally with artists from all over the world. Doing this, she created a whole network around her art. Created a network of independent artists, who support and respect each other. I got to know her massive network, when she recommended me to all of her friends (or “followers” in today’s language).
And all of a sudden I woke up having people listening to my tunes. The tunes, that were not meant to be anything. That were just experimenting with the possibilities. Just searching for a home in this never-ending electronic landscape. Thank you really much, Pixie. I learned a lot from you.

That searching for a place is not over yet. (Probably it should never really be over) I should be delighted, that there are still people out there on Last.fm who regularly listen to my stuff. I am. But on the other hand these tracks really don’t represent “me”. There was a time I really digged Drum and Bass. You can clearly hear that when listening to These Days. But these days are over now. I guess finding a home in electronic landscape is finding what is really “you”. And when you found it: just do it. Explore your style and refine it.

What can I say – right now it is the first time, that I really have a very precise vague picture of the music I want to do. The elements. The sounds. The atmosphere. It is more acoustic and has more to do with real instruments and playing of real instruments. This is me: fell in love with the sound of electronic music, but want to make space for the real Nicken: Getting lost in playing piano / guitar / melodica / trumpet (soon?).

In a few days I will begin to take 3 weeks off my daily routine to just focus on music. The result will be some sort of EP. I am excited as ever to see that I’ll get the chance to really put all of my ideas into one baby. To really put tunes out, that yell: “Listen, this (!) is Nicken.” To stop searching and settle down in the new home that I just found.

Stay tuned!