Now, I'm not going to pretend that where I live is the best place for the Arts. But as reasonably sized cities go, Nijmegen is rather fortunate. Big art house cinema, the occasional theatre shows coming in, and especially the dance line-up isn't too shabby at the local pop venues. The crown on the cultural year is de-Affaire though. It lasts for seven evenings and admission is free. The line-up is wonderfully eclectic, from folk to dance. The best thing about it though is seeing the same faces every night, most of which you remember from last year [...]
As another week draws to a close and the weekend bursts into full swing, the bankers undo their top buttons, the pr girls hike their skirts up a dash and let their hair fall around their shoulders, yes just like those commercials. When bar staff sigh silently to themselves at the impending stream of drunks they will be dealing with for the next 48 hours and those same drunks rejoice because they can now drink for said 48 hours and go see their mate the local bartender because they’ll get served quicker. We can sit back and feel slightly superior [...]
Before his Great Escape gig, we allowed Hauschka to break apart our piano and, whilst we nervously thumbed our insurance policy, he proceded to make it sing like an exotic bird. Thanks for...
German composer Hauschka is just as comfortable with using drum machines for percussion as he is with Tic Tacs. But his new recordings certainly take a cue from the backbone of the former, melding his ... read more
"This record makes me think of highway driving patterns,” I wrote my editor halfway through my first listen of Salon des Amateurs, the new record by Hauschka, nom de guerre of Düsseldorf-based piano wizard Volker ... read more
Tonight is an evening of contrasts, we’re here in one of the last surviving old rock and roll venues and yet the stage is bedecked with a grand piano and an impressive array of noodling devices. By which I mean pedals and miscellaneous kit that emits strange and wondrous noises. A curious juxtaposition of old garage rock surroundings with experimental composition which is not lost on tonight’s headliner and the reason we’re here. One thing that strikes me about this gig is the stillness of the crowd. People are fully connected [...]
This was a BIG issue for us. But it featured plenty of artists beyond Brooklyn's finest—rising stars like Waka Flocka's Brick Squad Monopoly, Danny Brown, Fred the Godson and Angel Haze that reflect facets of ... read more
Sunday's several touts: ► Grammy award-winning artist Angelique Kidjo , who has been dubbed as "Africa's premier diva," plays Cal State L.A.’s Luckman Fine Arts Complex tonight. [That's her video for "Move On Up" featuring U2's Bono and John Legend in addition to Bill T. Jones' FELA! dancers.] ► Seattle's forefathers of grunge Mudhoney headline the Echoplex for a great 902s lineup with punk supergroup the Adolescents and local punk legends White Flag supporting. ► Thao & Mirah continue their tour in [...]
1. Grouper – A I A Het beste album van deze topmaand is toch wel het langverwachte vervolg op Dragging A Dead Deer Up A Hill van Grouper . Twee albums eigenlijk, die garant staan voor ellenlang dromerig luisterplezier. Maar dat typte ik natuurlijk hier al. 2. Julian Lynch – Terra Zie ook het vorige bericht op deze site. Een heerlijk ontspannen plaat die niet té slow is en ook een hoop uitdaging bevat. Ik was het eigenlijk al, maar na Terra [...]
Salon Des Amateurs is great fun and probably the most floral piece of belle poque kitsch you'll hear all year: perfect background music for your Baudelaire reading group, but it might be a bit much for less adventurous ears. It's a universally acknowledged truth that every first sentence of a Hauschka record review must mention that he's an exponent of prepared piano. And that's OK. It's equally predictable that the second sentence will claim that we all know about prepared piano because we all know and love the work of Erik Satie. And that's fine too. For the uninitiated, [...]
knapp ein halbes jahr nach seinem letzten album ?foreign landscapes? meldet sich volker bertelmann alias hauschka schon wieder mit einer neuen ...
Paul Simon "The Afterlife" Paul Simon's version of the afterlife sounds a lot like the life we already know: A lot of mundane encounters and tedious bureaucracy broken up by moments of sublime, confusing beauty. You don't get any answers, no greater purpose is revealed. You still have to deal with everyone else and jockey for status. And, of course, the closest you get to communing with some divine force is hearing the melody of some silly pop song. Buy it from Amazon. [...]
Click image to download full album Sounds like: Max Richter, Sylvain Chauveau, Peter Broderick, "Hauschka - Two AM" What's so good? Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann), perfectly described by NPR as "exquisite, disarming and hypnotic," is a contemporary musician who performs clasically-inspired pieces on the prepared piano. Think gaffer tape, aluminimum foil, bottle tops, ping-pong balls - even vibrators - [...]
Hauschka is the alias of Düsseldorf-based pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann. Bertelmann works with a prepared piano, which involves messing with the piano’s innards to change the sound, using felt, rubber, screws, gaffa tape ... anything. Experimental composers such as John Cage pioneered this technique, and Hauschka has put it to great use in previous releases, working with orchestras and with electronic sounds. ‘Salon Des Amateurs’ however is Bertelmann’s first step into the dance genre. The first point you notice with ‘Salon Des Amateurs’ is that everything comes back to the piano: all other tones exist in context [...]
HAUSCHKA, GOODNIGHT BILLYGOAT, DJ COMMITTEE ( Holocene , 1001 SE Morrison) Read our article on Hauschka . A complete listing of this week's shows can be viewed here . [ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]
Hauschka, "Cube" (2011) find it on Salon Des Amateurs I guess it could be an insult to say that this song would sound really great in a movie trailer or a good commercial. Ten or fifteen years ago, that sentiment would have been heard as, "Your music would sound great in the background. No, further back." These days, though, great music recommendations are a happy byproduct of product peddling. And it seems like Hauschka's fantastic new record Salon Des Amateurs is ripe for [...]
Apr 13, 2011, 8:00am
DOA
Months removed form his prior release, the German composer/pianist presents a diverse new, striking, album that meshes electronics with classical ideas.
Next week we celebrate our third year on the internet, and looking back we got to thinking about the artists we've covered the most in terms of reviews. Instantly people like Stagecoach spring to mind but in actual fact, Volker Bertelmann, aka Hauschka has graced our reviews section more than anyone else. Armed with this fact, we managed to persuade the good people of FatCat Records to let us put up his new album, Salon Des Amateurs (review here ), on our site. So all this week [...]
Hauschka ‘Salon des Amateurs’ Released 11.05.11 Label: Fat Cat records Pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann marries two main styles in his latest record: classical and dance. Not an obvious combination, but there is nothing awkward in this musical relationship. [...]
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