Michael Zähl, former engineer and designer of the main custom made mixing console at the legendary Studio of Conny Plank and Mark Ernestus, long time producer known from projects like Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound had a special encounter which led to the collaborative development of AM1 - the state-of-the-art pure analog mixing console.

I speak to these two excellent individuals about how they came to meet and the 9 years journey to make a mixing desk the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

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Kind sponsorship of this pod comes from a lesser known company called Ableton!

Live 12.1 is out and it’s a beauty of an update. I put autoshift through its paces in a mini nitty to kick off the show

Check out live at

https://www.ableton.com

A fascinating and frankly bonkers translation has taken place

Taylor Deupree’s original album Stil., released in 2002 was made with 100% digital techniques with a heavy dose of microsound, layering and looping.

It now exists as something wildly different and yet painstakingly based on that work.

This new iteration is a 100% acoustic version which takes it from Stil. to Sti.ll

This is a rare form of digital to analog conversion and should only be attempted by festidious and slightly insane people!

Sti.ll, released in 2024, is a complete reimagining of Stil., recorded entirely with acoustic instruments, such as clarinets, vibraphones, and cellos, played by live musicians. This new version abandons digital sound manipulation in favor of human performance, where sounds previously made with software are recreated through physical instruments and microphones. The transformations go beyond just switching mediums; the acoustic textures bring warmth and depth, making it an entirely new and distinct experience, while retaining the essence of the original.

Who would attempt such madness?

Taylor Deupree (wiki-ish) is a prolific electronic musician, sound artist, and founder of the record label 12k. Known for his contributions to the microsound and minimalist electronic music movements, Taylor’s work often blends digital and acoustic elements. His music is characterized by its delicate, detailed textures and use of repetition to create slowly evolving soundscapes.

Joe Branciforte (wiki-ish) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer and producer based in New York. He is the founder of the record label Greyfade, which focuses on process-based composition, electronic and acoustic minimalism, and alternative tuning systems. Joe’s expertise spans both electronic and acoustic music, making him adept at bridging these worlds in innovative ways. His work often involves live electronic processing of acoustic instruments, and he has collaborated with renowned artists like Kenneth Kirschner and Theo Bleckmann.

His technical mastery and creative vision were key to bringing Taylor Deupree’s acoustic reimagining of Stil. to life in Sti.ll, where he played an integral role in transcribing and arranging the complex digital compositions for live instrumentation.

So good to chat with these masters about a project of such huge scope.

We discuss this album at length and also Taylor’s collaboration with the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto

links:

https://www.taylordeupree.com

https://josephbranciforte.com

MUSIC from the show:

from the email I received:

Last year Miet Warlop and me (Micha Volders) went to Dhaka, Bangladesh to make a visceral musical performance with young students. It opened the Dhaka Art Summit and we played for a curious Bengali crowd of thousands.

This city is a whole other universe, it’s loud, it’s overcrowded, it’s vibrant. I work on a daily basis with young artists but I rarely experienced this kind of hunger, joy and motivation from these young students.

We rehearsed 3 weeks in a row on this huge ghetto sound system placed middle on the road in the city, to a point where local residents were fed up and sabotaged our (already super shabby) P;A system by cutting all the wires,

It was challenging, it was exciting and it was touching.

So one year later we made a record out of the recordings of this venture : it’s called ICCHĀ ——> check it out here

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Hauschka a.k.a. Volker Bertelmann thanks to my friend Dana Wachs who was a pod guest on EP71.

He’s had quite the wonderful and interesting adventure in music. It’s quite rare that you find someone who plays prepared Piano so deftly and was also once known as a rapper. Clearly, this was not going to be your average chat.

If we place ourselves in the present (which I’m told is always a good place to be !)

Our ears might find the dancing frequencies from his newest album philanthropy which was released in the 2023. It’s a tremendous listen. Dare I say a real headphone listen as there are wonderful, textual details to catch in amongst the kind of more zoomed out satisfaction of the rather accomplished arrangements. Perhaps this ability to both evoke emotion, and to coax huge tonal intrigue placed him in good stead as a composer for film

He is most certainly made his mark in that area with a wide ranging set of scores and notably an Academy award for his work on all quiet on the Western front in 2022. Badass!

He’s collaborated with another podcast guest Dustin O’Halloran (EP 92) on several works, including their highly acclaimed score for the film Lion. In fact, looking at the credits for his releases over the years it’s quite mind-boggling. Often he will deliver multiple film soundtracks a year alongside his own solo albums. He's like Prince!

Happy listening :)