„Versions, Vibes & Remixes“ is CD series. Energie Du Verre got the ball rolling in 2009. And now it’s time for Ensemble Du Verre – the second album of the series is released August 20, 2010.
By the end of 2009, I finally succeeded in bringing the master rights for E.D.V.’s first two albums “Facing. Transparent” (SPV 2004) and “Sing Me Something” (SPV 2005) back home. It had been a long and hard struggle with the record company’s insolvency administrator. To celebrate this victory, I decided to re-release this music on my own label Batterie. But that was just the start.
I spent the time between Christmas and New Year’s Eve in my studio, opened the drawer with the backup files and reloaded the songs into my computer. I just wanted to polish the files and make everything nice and tidy. My studio had grown considerably over the last years and everything that comes out of it now just sounds so much better. I wanted to share this pleasure with every listener of my music.
While I was sitting in my studio, fooling around and filled to the brim with roasted Christmas goose, new ideas for old songs started to surface. I was reluctant at first. But when the idea of “Versions, Vibes & Remixes” came up, I decided to put the pedal to the metal. During the producing process of the album, two remixes, two original versions (more on that later) and a brand new song were born.
Not only has my studio grown considerably, so did my collection of instruments – much to the delight of my dear wife. I bought a 1971 Fender Rhodes some time ago (I’m still restoring this one), an electric bass, a fantastic jazz guitar including amp and lots of other odds and ends. Consequently, I played most of the parts recorded for the album myself. On “One for Garry Brown” my two new favourite guitar players Johann Popp and Norman Mohrholz had their fingers in the pie while Stefan Kuchel played tenor saxophone on “Familienfoto”. He improvised several times over the track and played so many wonderful Coltrane-like lines that I couldn’t resist sampling them. I added those samples to the song in true DJ-fashion later. The fact that the bass line resembles the one on “Acknowledgement” (on John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme” Album) was something I realised only during the recordings with Stefan Kuchel. Later on, I asked myself “Why don’t I sing something?”. No sooner said than done – and the homage to one of the greatest albums of the last century was perfect.
However, “Familienfoto” is much more than just an homage to John Coltrane. It pays tribute to my own musical background and family. They are represented by 80s synthpop, African percussion, 70s jazzrock, dubdelays, pop and spiritual jazz. And since a family is always some kind of choir, everybody gets involved and puts in his two cents. This is the albums recurrent theme and it can be found in all ten tracks.
Now, as announced earlier, a few more words on the original versions. Initially, “Familienfoto” had been used by Ursula Rucker on her album “Ma’ At Mama” (here, the song is called “Uhuh”). I went back to the very beginnings and took a different turn. The result is a completely new piece of music. This is what a Pink Floyd recording featuring Pharoah Sanders produced by Flying Lotus might sound like. Oh, well.
Another original version is “Beep”. This is the track from “Sing Me Something” (2005) that Sidsel Endresen was kind enough to add her vocals to. During the course of the production at the time, something completely new developed. “Beep” turned into “Phonetic” (get the picture?). “Versions, Vibes & Remixes” now features the original version of “Beep” as well as the newest version of “Phonetic (Our Northern Souls)”.