Moving halfway around the world to make music

Six years ago, on this day in April, we arrived in the United States with some suitcases, and with traveler checks to pay for our temporary apartment. As I wrote in the first two parts of my “Sad California” playlist (here and here), it’s always a bittersweet experience to relocate to another part of the world, leaving family and friends, but it also gave me a new freedom. Being a freelancer again, I could finally focus on my music, develop my skills, and start to build a local network in the entertainment industry. And as I usually think more in musical terms, and rather remember what music was playing at what time in my life, here are my personal musical highlights from these past six years – the very personal part of the soundtrack of my life, it seems:

50 years Tangerine Dream – 5 albums you should listen to

As I never tire to mention, I’m a big fan of the German electronic band Tangerine Dream and am heavily influenced by their work and their embracing of different styles and re-inventing themselves over the decades. Founded 50 years ago today and having released far over 100 albums, soundtracks and compilations, it’s hard to choose only a few favorites, or to tell anyone not familiar with the band where they should start listening. And although I’m doomed to fail, I’ll try anyway and present five Tangerine Dreams albums you should listen to – from classic times to more modern works.

Tangerine Dream through the years

5 Reasons why I seldom listen to radio

Radio Ga Ga… Radio can be very cool to listen to, but on the other hand I never liked it as much as listening to full albums or concerts. And there are a few reasons for that. So here’s my little rant about commercial radio.

A case for presets – and creativity

If you’re discussing music and sound design – especially with a group of synthesizer fans (or should I say “synth nuts”) – you often hear a strong sentiment against the usage of presets. They say to avoid them like the plague. But are presets really all-out evil?

Another rant about music, production and business?

I’ve been asked one too many times, why I don’t start a blog where I write about my production techniques or give tips and write about what’s happening in a composers life. And to be honest I didn’t think there’s so much I can tell, maybe apart from the odd rant about the music business or make lists of favorite plugins, albums, artists… Also I’m (still) not sure if I can teach others anything new. So I was reluctant for a long time.

But recently more people come up to me and ask about production advice or just would like to see how I do certain things in the studio. And I guess sometimes it might really be interesting – just like I want to see how others work or achieve a certain sound or effect (admittedly it’s more interesting to see how Hans Zimmer or any other big name works, but maybe it’s not all boring stuff I will post).

Besides, it might be fun to write about all this, maybe sometimes give a little opinion piece and maybe even be helpful to other composers, songwriters and producers 🙂

So here it is – the start of my blog…

I’m looking forward to see where it will go and get your comments 🙂