nckn.music.

Back in the days I always thought, that it’s a drawback to not have a certain direction in my music. I was mixing up styles and thought that was not right somehow. I made excuses: “I am still searching for something, that is ‘my style’, that i can call mine.”

Nowadays that feels kind of wrong. I am a person with a variety of interests. And this is also reflected on my musical output.

So instead of marking a place somewhere in the musical landscape, i will go on being the explorer. But this time knowing, that this is the right way.

I love the sound of electronic music and the aura of acoustic music. I like rhythms as much as harmonies.
And the binding element will always be a general appreciation of sound.

You will find different styles here. Different projects, or maybe just experiments.

But this is right.
I now know.

Since my last band split up two years ago, my solo-endeavours were nearly the only musical activity I followed. Looking back on the results of that last period, I must say, that there is not too much output. There is Mixed Sessions, which I now can’t really listen to anymore, since it’s so old and kind of nooby and dilettantish in some regards (excluding These Days)
And there is LifeB, which got signed to Om Records. And then? Some experiments here and there – that’s it.

But why? Why didn’t I manage to put my musical ideas (which I guess are still there and vital) into actual pieces you can listen to?

Last weekend it became clear, that it was form. In the days of playing in bands everything was quite fixed. The band setup consisted of drums, bass, two guitars and vocals. I was one guitarist with some songwriting-responsibilities. Time I spent for the band was either practicing guitar, writing songs or riffs and attending rehearsals. Note: 100% of that time is directly connected to music. 100% of my ideas were direct musical ideas.

Now switching to music done with the computer. Just adding this device into your music makes everything a lot more complicated. You have to question everything that was kind of pre-set in your band. What kind of music do you want to do? What is your sound? How do you perform this music? Adding to that, computer is technology. And technology needs to be adapted to your needs. So you have to learn about programs, underlying principles and interaction-patterns.  These topics are all barriers in your way of developing musical ideas.
And this is the reason I look back on not too much output. I did not find answers that satisfied me. So I looked further. More energy and time was consumed dealing with stuff surrounding music than focussing on actual music.

Hopefully this will change now. I finally found a setup that fits my needs. A first version of a setup, that is Ableton-centered but not screen-centric. Actually I can turn off the screen and put the laptop aside.
It makes use of  all of the MIDI-equipment I have now (M-Audio Keyboard, NanoKontrol, PadKontrol, Nocturn and FCB1010) and is all about looping both external input and sounds I collected. It uses multiple instances of Ableton Looper, a self-hacked Step-Sequencer for the PadKontrol and some instrument racks. One for key-sounds, the other for collected sounds.
I guess I will do some sort of video tutorial round-trip of the setup when time is right.

The most important thing, though: I finally found answers to all conceptual question and solutions to all technical problems. I now know, that I can spend my time again thinking about music, not about technology. And when I have enough pieces done, I can now easily perform them.

So stay tuned…

It’s been a long time since anyone knowing me through my music got any updates about where I’m heading. This post wants to show what has happened since “Mixed Sessions” and what to expect from me in near future.

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!