the project

A 'Schaltstern' is a remnant of a german internet predecessor called btx. It defines the key combination *# which acknowledged a jump to content. It started 1977 (see the german article at heise) which was the high time of the oxygen album which was released in '76. Oxygen was the album that initiated my love of synthesizer music.

There was a time when I thought that making music on/with a computer would be the best thing you can do. I figured having a program that could be like a modular synthesizer would have an impact on the way that people create synthesizer music.

Now I sit in front of a computer that is capable of doing everything that I dreamed of (and my machine is lousy compared to the state of the art PC), and now I know that it's not what I wanted.

I carried two hundred pounds of equipment across the city, got it up the stairs just to have keyboards that I can lay my hands on (this means the black and white key and not the beige). Just to get rid of a hard disk, a mouse, and a monitor that I am forced to stare at. Whenever I tried these, inspiration left me.

I found out that for me there are three stages and some possible ways of making music.

Let's start with the easiest part: stage 3.

Stage 3 is producing the music. In this stage I know very well what I'd like to record, I simply have to do it. This is a matter of discipline (and of time for that matter), and is something that you get along with when you are making music for some time.

Stage 2 is the translation: is the part where I think that I have a tune I'd like to record. Usually this is a happy moment because the song passed stage 1. That's the time to get the instruments up and running and try to chase the sound in my head. Now comes the sad part of the story - I often fail. There are times when I feel that I am not able to reproduce what I thought the song was. There are two possible outcomes of this situation: a) I get frustrated and give up or b) there is something happening while trying to 'catch the song'. Thank god most of the time I am in a b) situation. It's not what I wanted in the first place, but, hey, it's great, too!

Stage 1 works completely in my head; I have a musical idea and I carry it around until its ripe. Or until I can't stand it anymore. It's no lie that I have several songs in my head that I am afraid to go to stage 2 with. They really haunt me: I simply know that I am not ready to produce it - if I try I'll end up in 2a. So I am waiting - don't ask me what for, I don't know.

I remember that I once sang a musical idea to my own answering machine so that I won't forget it. Later I found out that this wasn't necessary because if the idea was inspiring it would come back anyways.

I know what your saying: get over it, man, get it on with, just give me ...