Music

An integral part of my life.

I play (mostly acoustic) Guitar, Ukulele, Harmonium, Piano, and Synthesizers. I also sing along. Over the years I have participated in a couple of bands and choirs, but these days, I'm on my own again.

Current Instruments

I've been buying and selling a lot of gear in the last 30 years. Eventually I settled on a setup that lets me record mostly in-the-box, i.e. a DAW, a lot of virtual instruments and plugins, and some controllers.

These days, I prefer Apple (formerly Emagic) Logic as the DAW, U-He synths and effect plugins, and Native Instruments controllers. I also purchased a lot of sample libraries for my orchestral endeavours from Spitfire Audio, Orchestral Tools, and 8dio.

My Releases

After being pretty much inactive for more than two decades, I finally got around to working on releases again. Here are my current ones:

• Fabrique Noir – Tales from Enwor – an electronic album that bows to one of my favorite SciFi and Fantasy authors in the 1980s and 1990s.
• Fabrique Noir – Colonization – an electronic concept album picking up the story where Space Travel ended.
• Fabrique Noir – Brand New High Technology – an electronic track about experimenting with dangerous technology.
• Fabrique Noir – Justice – an electronic club track about social inequality plus an ambient instrumental.
• Taberna Mercurio – Marley's Story – a jazzy murder tale featuring the voice of the amazing Simone Jeiter.
• Fabrique Noir – Somnus Ambulare – an electronic ambient track featuring three excerpts from a forthcoming concept album.
• Fabrique Noir – Space Travel – an electronic album celebrating human space exploration, including the 50th anniversary of the legendary Apollo 11 mission.

Other bands

Over the years I have been listening to a lot of good (and a lot of bad) music. Here are some of the bands that have impressed me in one way or another:

• Alphaville, in particular their debut album Forever Young.

• Beat-A-Max / CCCP

• Die Kassierer

• Depeche Mode, in particular their 1983-1990 phase.

• E.A.V.

• Jean-Michel Jarre, in particular the trilogy Oxygene, Equinoxe, and Magentic Fields with a sweet spot for Rendezvous. By now I absolutely love Zoolook, although back then it took me a while to embrace it.

• Joint Venture

• Moskwa TV, in particular the groundbreaking album Dynamics & Discipline.

• Psyche, in particular their album The Influence.

• Rödelheim Hartreim Projekt

• The Sisters Of Mercy, i.e. their 2nd album, the Floodland (1987).

• The The, in particular the album Soul Mining (1983).

Radio Stations

I have stopped listening to classical (AM/FM) radio stations since long. My radio station of choice is the amazing Soma.FM – Commercial-free, Listener-supported Radio. With over 20 niche streams, there's something for everyone!