Painting with sounds - my unusual approach
My music project ART ABSCONs has been around since 2008, and since then, I have not only been the artist and multi-instrumentalist behind the project, but - as is very often the case these days – also my own music producer. From the very beginning, it was clear to me that ART ABSCONs' music had to be characterised by an inexhaustible palette of sound colours to be newly compiled with each piece and each album while becoming more and more extensive. Over the years, I have thus amassed an impressive collection of acoustic and electronic musical instruments. Not only did I have to learn how to play them, but also how best to record them and weave them into unusual arrangements. I often felt like painting with sounds and wanted to constantly enrich my music with new colours, shades and perspectives. Hence, in addition to my many musical instruments, I also needed the appropriate microphones, amplifiers, compressors, effects and the knowledge to operate them; and since I was never really convinced by computer emulations and plug-ins, I wanted real, analogue devices wherever it was possible. This is the only way to ensure that a production will stand out from the many amateur productions that flood the internet, productions that are simply created on computers in semi-professional home studios. On special occasions, I will even use 4-track tape recorders or an 8-track reel-to-reel recorder to achieve a sound that you will no longer hear very often in our days.
What I have learned in fifteen years of ART ABSCONs is certainly not the same as what you learn when you train as a professional sound engineer. Even if I have constantly been studying sound engineering by myself and have read and tried out many things, my approach will certainly be unconventional in some respects. I consider my past productions to be merely the results of this progressive learning process and would by no means want to point to them as a reference for my current skills, especially because until I moved to Waldenburg, I did not have any rooms with professional acoustics and, thus, my high-quality studio equipment was of little use to me – because even the most expensive microphone will sound bad if you use it in a bad room, and in a room that does not have the appropriate acoustics, you cannot come up with a professional mix or a professional master. Fortunately, those days are over. In Studio Absconditus, I finally have a sound-optimised recording room and a well-adjusted control room for monitoring, mixing and mastering. The album "Aus tiefen Höhlen" by KAELTE is my current reference to show that my future productions will have a higher professional standard than my past ones. Sven Martins vocals were recorded in my recording room, and the mixing and analogue mastering of the album was done in my new mixing room.
When I produce your music, it will be different from booking a certain amount of hours in a regular professional studio. I do not just want to deliver a professional and decent production, I want the production to be as close as possible to what you heard deep inside you when you were inspired to create your work. I do think that I possess the required empathy, patience, resourcefulness and skills to get there. Your production will only be considered finished when you are satisfied – no matter how long it takes.
