Sunday, December 23, 2007

alphawezen interview

- What is the meaning of your artistname, what was your inspriration?
: 'Wezen' is a star's name in the zodiac sign of Canis Major. In fact
there are two stars called 'Delta Wezen' and 'Alpha Sirius' in the
Canis Major group. We combined the two star's names and got
'Alpha Wezen'.

- What was the inspiration for the title of your current album?
: 'Comme Vous Voulez' means 'As you like it' in English. It's about a
kind of attitude that evolved in the process of making the new songs
for the third album. That means that we did it as we like it, and the
listeners may accept it if they feel an affinity for it. But when you
have a look at the album cover, you may interprete the title in
another way - 'as you like it'...

- In your point of view, what is the perfect album? What must it
all include?
: A perfect album should have a strong concept in total; a dramaturgy
that runs like a thread through the songs. As a listener, you'd have
the feeling of listening to a story told by the music.

- Describe one common day in your life!
: Get up early in the morning, play the piano for a while. Go to work,
go shopping. Make sports like swimming, bicycling, jogging, working
out at the gym. Prepare the dinner. Watch your favorite TV series
before going to sleep.

- What was the nicest compliment you ever recieved for your own music?
: Some people send us emails telling us about special moments in their
lives being accompanied by our songs. We appreciate that very much.
We have some strong affinity to our songs or songs from other artists
as well, so we know the feeling. It's nice to have people all over
the world sharing your feelings in that kind of way.

- What is your favorite piece of production gear?
: I love my old Yamaha CS30 analogue synthesizer. It has his very own
character, a warm and specific sound. Like a 'real musical instrument'.
If you take a song like Freeze, the CS30 almost sounds like picks on
a guitar string. Also I have a tiny little Casio Mini Sampler called SK1
which is much fun. I even use it for live gigs.

- What kind of hobbies or interests do you have outside of your music?
: We like sports, dancing, audiovisual arts. We love to go in the
country and in the forest on the one hand, meeting friends in the
cities on the other hand.

- Are there any particular artists that you hear now which you like?
: Asu likes: Mono, Mogwai, Radiohead, Dredg, Cocteau Twins, The Cure,
Ernst likes: Bach, Arnold Schönberg, Massive Attack, Miles Davis,
Jamie Lidell, and many more.

...

(audio version at http://www.mole.de)

Saturday, September 15, 2007

new album - comme vous voulez

Our next album comes in October 2007. The mastering is done; we did the “finalizing” in a studio in Hamburg. So now it’s about finishing the cover artwork and the pressing of the CDs!

This is what Gabor Baksay, publisher of Movie Magazin, says about the first song on the new album: "A typical Alphawezen recording session is less like a composer’s studio session than a conspirative get-together, replete with elated twitterings and chirpings, murmured and whispered exchanges of secrets and piquant remarks. The reward for this courteous treatment of the machines resonates through the very first track: “Green Eyes” is possessed of a complex and magical melancholy (…). The masterfully interwoven melodies, which have become hallmarks of Alphawezen’s music, evoke en passant delectable scenes in the mind’s eye of the attentive listener. In this case it’s the iridescent self-abnegating “tears in rain” that android replicant Roy Batty talks about so movingly in the movie Blade Runner. But the forceful string theme at the close of the piece intimates that some day the machines might no longer take their exploitation “lying down”, as it were. (…)"
(Translation by Eric Rosencrantz)

Our third album’s title is “Comme Vous Voulez”. But our French friend and partner Bruno didn’t like this title... I can imagine that “As You Like”/ "What you want" or “Wie Sie wünschen“/ "Ihr habt es so gewollt", if you say it “en français”, probably does not sound good for a Frenchman. So the album will be called “Freeze” in France :)