"Smacks of Indian Summer Satiety
The Jollity of spring has been gone long ago and the exuberance of hot summer days has brought a plethora of thoughts and sensations to cope with. Suffering from a lack of interesting things to see, hear, or do, while beeing not in the mood of "doing nothing" we drift into a strange unbalanced mood coming from a very balanced situation: the autumnal equinox. And this transition from the active to the passive part of the year is accompanied by that affection called 'ennui'.
There are many definitions for the originally French term 'ennui': "A feeling of weariness and dissatisfaction arising from a lack of interest; boredom." or "A feeling of exhaustion, disgust; dullness and languor of spirits, arising from satiety or want of interest; tedium." or "A mixture of listlessness and willful melancholy". But most of these definitions emanate from the prevailing protestant labour ethics which pervade our dictionaries. In 1971 Georg Steiner wrote: "The motif I want to fix on is that of ennui. 'Boredom' is not an adequate translation, nor is 'Langweile' ...; 'la noia' comes much nearer... Baudelaire's use of 'spleen' comes closest: it conveys the kinship, the simultaneity of exasperated, vague waiting -- but for what? -- and of gray lassitude".
These remarks lead us to another portrayal of 'ennui' as a certain mindset of the Intelligentsia in the 18th and 19th century. Being driven by the breathtaking tempo of industrial and sociological development mostly creative people had chosen this tedious mood as their refusing counterpart. This active withdraw from life as a form of protest recurred within many juvenile generations afterwards. The forms may have changed, but the habit is still the same. And it always seems to be an evidence of intelligence to rest a moment before jumping into future." (From the Stadtgruen's release page)

"Besides more ambient oriented releases like 'Holzwege' I always have worked on different, more rhythm determined styles. In summer 2004 I have started a project, that reflects the lazy, laid-back behaviour of end summer afternoon hours, feeling a little bit introspective and melancholic. But I consider melancholy not as a malady, more than a preliminary starting point.
The popular copperplate engraving of Albrecht Dürer "Melencholia I" e.g. shows a motionless, sitting angel amidst of several tools. I always have been fascinated from her view: through half closed eyes she seems to look somewhere beyond the horizon, trying to merge all the thoughts going around the head in one vision. Aristotle described melancholy as the temper of genius men always close to madness. Other people perceive those men as lazy, but they work inwardly, attempting to understand the blueprint of the labyrinth of life. And at a glance an ephemeral vision can appear, things get their right interrelation and the "Melencholia" is back in the know, ready to start action.
In my project I wanted to personalize different melancholic mindsets, similar but never the same. Thus Mr. HanuSen, Mr McFly, and Mr DonFamato were born to help me as my imaginary advisors. One is more dynamic, the other retentive, or only observant, but always with that temporising, adagio temper, which is the prerequisite for a lusty kick. Just like Dürer's angel who looks like being on the jump at any time.
'Kind of pale' is an atmospheric tribute to my favourite jazz release 'Kind of Blue' by Miles Davis. Pale is no colour, just as little as blue in this sense. As colour of endless space and unreachable deepness blue has been the symbol of otherworldliness from the time of the romantics till the modal elusiveness of the 'blue notes'. For an actual electronic musician maybe the colour has changed into the shades of a the pale sun when thick air makes light tangible as manifestation of the unimaginable. And maybe a deeper insight appears that there is only one world.
Throughout all the electronic music genres it's mostly dub, which is able to catch this picture. With endless reverberations and delayed echoes it scratches the horizon of our melancholic attitude. Knowing that we cannot expand that sweet moment when we are driving a car, motionless but moved, we learn to realize that our being is determined by only minimal variations ('Kynon').
And actual, the definition of dub music is close connected with the label that shows in its logo a backward oriented, mounting stag." (From the Thinner's release page)

"Immovable Movers
My 'book of stones' started with an unarranged collection of different stones which were accidentally found or bought and kept as 'jewels'. The more the collection grew the wish boosted to bring them into a logical order, to catalogue them. But with each additional stone my assurance rose that it is impossible to summarize the endless variety of nature and its plentifulness. My fascination of stones based upon the awareness that this preciousness has an age of millions of years. Hidden in the ground beneath our feet doze crystalline forms of unbelievable colorful splendor. By their minimal, subtle nuances it is not possible to find two similar stones and so the desire increases to possess them all.
There is another, ruminant approach to stones: they are meant to have a balmy effect. Already in medieval times Hildegard von Bingen tried to sum up a book dealing with their different impacts on human body and spirit. In this context both mental interaction triggered by aesthetics of color and the mineralogical consistence of the stones should be able to heal men. Is it imaginable that e.g. 'Opal' can bring optimism, or 'Onyx' self-confidence, or 'Malachite' an intense dreaming? Is it true that 'Obsidian' prevents cold hands and feet? Perhaps it is only superstition but based on a deep, old knowledge which nowadays is nearly buried by the 'right' faith.
But, what could be the interaction between stones and music? A musically 'lapilibrium' shouldn't try to translate the inherent structures of different stones into sounds. And it is also questionable if it is possible to make the certain efficacy audible, which a stone may unfold. Nevertheless, the stone may be the lever or give impulse to enter into relation with it. Thus the way is open to avert the cognitive process of reflection which always is oriented on a fixed product. In doing so it becomes obvious that some stones affect us more than others and provide a better support of the free floating of creativity. Retrospection and introspection merge with prospection: a certain structure appears and slowly an atmosphere arises, but without following a known plan. After all: Who could be called mastermind of the result?
We always try to appropriate all the things nature endows in order to understand and to rule. As long as we are natural beings we stuck in the middle of the past and the future. From this actual midway it's only possible to reach a diminutive cutout of world. But the Chinese say: 'The little sage looks at drifting clouds, the middle sage enwraps in running water, but the highest sage meditates upon the immovable stones'." (From the Stadtgruen's release page)

"Nouvelle Cuisine
Sometimes there is not enough time to eat all the crispy brown rolls in the morning and as we don't want to waste anything, we have to consider what to do with it. It's up to the cook's imagination to find a clever use for all the rests he finds in his kitchen. Maybe he wants to make a veal cutlet, so he has to crumb the roll with a grater to make a good 'panade'. Or he decides to work up mincemeat to meatballs, so he has to soak and mix the roll afterwards. Two ways for a tasty utilisation of the remaining rolls: one to use its crispiness and the other to expand its inner softness.
Now, what's more suggesting itself is that Stadtgruen invites a couple of brilliant cooks for a remix competition of Monoide's five 'Crispy Brown Rolls'. In addition to the yet label-related artists like Marko Fuerstenberg, Yatsuo Motoki, Dataman and Gras, we proudly present Milos, Niemczyk, Aleks Svaensson, and Barbara Idijot as well as the baker himself.
They adjourned to their kitchens, took some unused and not yet expiring rolls, interspersed some other ingredients and spices, let it roast gently in hot oil and served their new dishes nicely arranged. Up to the temper of each cook this line-up of 'international cuisine' shows quite different flavours. According to the philosophy of our little restaurant, our guests may decide 'á la carte' which taste they prefer: the more urban and driven way of dining to be always on the jump - or a more calm and relaxed way to sit around the table.
Bon appetite!" (From the Stadtgruen's release page)

"'Holzwege' (meaning wood-ways) is a topic of mine since I've studied philosophy. The German philosopher Martin Heidegger used this scene to describe the way man are used to percept reality. Imagine you awake within a dark forest. You can't percept the whole forest, only the environment around you. To learn more about the forest, you cut down some trees and create some space. Now the light (symbol of thinking/logos) can illuminate the scene and you will see a little bit more. While cutting more trees in order to understand more you build a dead-end street into the forest, but the nature grows again behind you and closes the gap. Later you may use the things and thoughts you have acquired, but finally you will do not know exactly the being of a forest as a whole.
Older philosophers like Plato said that we can't see the truth directly. We can only see the shadows of truth, of the ideas, which are placed in another world beyond our perceivable world. Younger philosophers negotiate this assumption of a 'beyond world'. They affirm only one world, in which we are thrown. Existence is always temporal and there is no state beyond temporality. Our thinking about world and even our language is temporal as well. The problem of this approach is that the general assumption of the 'beyond world' requires a jump into this other thinking. But we can get closer, if we use poetry and other arts. The chance of music is that it is always temporal, so it seems to be the king's way to express a new sight on world.
By transferring this philosophy into creating art or music I decided for me, that it isn't possible to 'make' music in a closer sense, following a certain idea which will lead me to a certain result. But, thrown into 'my' musical environment I can take just those pieces I've recognized, play with them, let them guide me, react to them, bring them into new order, until something new grows up from the parts. Thus the working method merged with the theme (in this case).
'Holzwege' converges to the forest in an electronic manner. Instead of field-recordings I used the possibilities of actual music software to re- invent different audible perceptions of wood. The slight whispering of the greenery and the chirping of crickets in summer ('Weidenfels'), the swoosh of rain in old firs and the cawing of the crows ('Hochwaldregen'), the thousand little noises within the underwood ('Unterholzland'), even the calmness of a nocturnal scene ('Mondlaub'): in sum all the sounds you may hear if you close your eyes within a forest. But by doing this, emotions will appear. They belong to the perception as well and protect us from danger ('Dolmen') or make us longing while sitting in the top of a tree ('Wipfelwiege').
Its up to listener to form his option, if 'Holzwege' are a dead-end street of technology or a chance to realize a little bit more next time while walking into a forest." (From the Autoplate's release page)

"White Plains, Comfort Rooms
When winter draws a deep cold breath over fields and forests the human adjourns to his sitting room, retiring back to warm places and looking at the world outside. The glass window is the required artificial separation that lets us survive from the mortal power of coldness. Behind the window we can build up our private little universe with plants and flowers which need southern heat normally. Within this little world everything is put in the right cultivated order, everything is all right.
Building up a secure room we can lean back and contemplate the course of the world, the well-stabilized harmony between nature and culture, which we have built up. But the precondition for this little paradise is separation. In order to conserve the state of life, securing our spirit conceives new separating techniques again and again. With glass we may construct a winter garden to conserve summer state, with photos and videos we may remember past times and with recording techniques we even may hear formerly faded sounds. The conservative attitude always looks back in order to conserve a certain state of life, to stop the course of world.
But life with its seasonal eclipse always goes ahead. Janus, the ancient deity of transition and passage dominates the brumal season. He has two faces, one looking back and one looking forward. The first has a contemplative and conservative mindset and the second a planning and visionary one. At the conservatory we may learn something about right techniques and a former way of living. But we should realise it as our everlasting challenge for our future.
Contemplation is the condition for vision. So join our musical invitation and lean back in contemplation to draw breath for an exciting new year." (From the Stadtgruen's release page)