The voice of a “stewardess”? A valley of echoes? Physical Existence?

Does ECHOVALLEY leave more questions than answers to you? Or does it in fact give you a cool story? Something about technology and friendly invitations?

My story this time is not a real story but a brief look into how creative projects can evolve…

The Story of STELLARIUM began as the album concept still was about buildings. There is a software that can make any Instrument sound like it is being played in an enviroment that the developer have “sampled” (Technically i am speaking of Impulse Response Reverb - in this case the program is called ALTIVERB) and i had this new great sounding virtual Steinway Grand Piano (by Garritan). So i wondered how it would sound to play one of the biggest Pianos in one of the most impressive ancient buildings - the Gol Gumbaz.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gol_Gumbaz

The Reverb and the detailed Sound of the Grand Piano were so inspiring that i found the main melody of STELLARIUM in about an hour of improvising. This early version of STELLARIUM was simply called “gumbaz” and didnt have any drums at all. It was just a simple but heart touching melody.

Later the concept changed into the stories concept and i came back to this melody i´d really like to have on the album. I thought what kind of story i could derive from it. I didnt want it to be about the architect or the ancient ruler that was buried there - it had nothing to do with the feeling of the melody. But i realized that without quite new technological advances (Impulse Responses and a sampled Piano with Gigabytes of Data) i wouldnt have found this melody because it was the sound that inspired me.

Some days later i read a detailed article about the LHC - the large hadron collider and the physics behind it and found it very impressive. There even was a DVD the CERN put into a magazine to show people how important the LHC is. People gladly profit from earlier technological improvements but often dont understand the neccessity to go FURTHER. And that was analog to my new piano sound: If the software programmer in the year 2000 stopped looking for something better there would not have been the great sound inspiring me. So in a way my melody stood for pioneering spirit.

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This is a pre version with a sample about the LHC that really reflected my thoughts about (technological) progress and i found that synthline easily with my head full of pioneering spirit

The only problem was that such a lot of talking was in the way of the melody and later i saw that the song didnt need any samples to work and i kept it fully instrumental. The pioneering spirit idea and the long reverb to my mind sounded like space travelling, too (i like sci-fi stuff ) and there was a picture of kai hoffmann that on the first glimpse looked like stars and planets that would really fit the cover it there was a single of STELLARIUM (its in the booklet!) So the story i always had in my mind as i was finalizing the song was the very important human attribute of “going further” combined with pictures of stars…

Another idea was to call the song ULTRA DEEP FIELD after the pictures of the hubble telescope that looked further (in space AND time) into the universe than ever before. But STELLARIUM with the combination of an old language and “stars” seemed to fit even better…

So, what are the stories you have in your mind while listening to STELLARIUM?

CHALLENGE

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Imagine a sunrise in the mountains, the fluffy clouds beneath, the sky clear and blue. The surrounding mountains are bathed in golden red colors.

There is a lonely tent and a man stands in the cold wind looking up to the peak…

His voice begins telling the story “It was breathtaking and literally brought tears to my eyes. But all that beauty didnt fool me - I knew i was facing danger. I was at the point of no return and i needed all my power and will and still it would be a hard struggle. Finally i took my courage in both hands and accepted this personal challenge…”

You then recognize that the speaker is sitting in an interview and has become a lot older. His face is tanny and wrinkeld but his eyes are wide awake and piercing. “This decision - to accept the challenge - has changed my life. Since that date all problems were mere adventures to me and i started enjoying tackling them.”

The two main aspects i kept hearing in the song were NATURE and POWER. But i didnt just want it to be something powerful of the nature, lika a storm or a giant waterfall.

So to me this song was about how you change when you accept a big challenge. You could also think of a composer/producer trying to forge an emotional and still energetic album… with hundreds and hundres of hours of work, some great moments, many regresses and sometimes even despair - but finally a result that will change his or her life…

For the next weeks i have thought of a way to give you more insights into THIRTEEN STORIES… each week i will concentrate on one song and first ask you about the stories that play in your heads and then reveal what i had in my mind and give you more inside infos…

Nevertheless i also need some good ideas to “promote” the album… If you know of a magazine, blog, website, forum that might be interested in THIRTEEN STORIES just let me know… simply write it down here… or even better get someone from that mag or blog or whatever to get in contact with me -> rolfmb at rolfmaierbode com

Id really like to hear what you think about THIRTEEN STORIES after you have listened to it several times…

And what are your favourite songs after some days…

In the meantime i will be enjoying life - thirtyfive

If you got the CD and at least listened to it from ONE to THIRTEEN in one pass once i would really like to read your first impressions here…

…and if you have an myspcae account i´d really like to get some comments there as well

and i am very happy with the design in actual print… 

Yesterday most of the songs have been mastered each for its own by Steffen Müller… Today the album as a whole will get finely tuned… It will be the final day concerning the music… Artwork needs to be finished the next days though…

12.2.09.: The Final Day #2

The fine tuning was more work than we thought… like always

First there were two songs that sounded a bit harsh in comparison with the rest of the album an we decided to do them with “fresh ears” the next day… but i got the chance to listen to the 90% mastered album in a quiet minute from start to end and i thought that it should be softer in the soft parts - against the “loudness war” madness most of the “industry” is going through (if you dont know what i mean just search for “loudness war” in youtube) and so we increased the dynamics but kept the harder parts relativly loud and i am VERY pleased with the final sound

Today i will listen to the master again just to check it for burning errors or the like and send it to the pressing plant… The only thing missing now for production is the artwork which still is in the works but will be finished on the weekend… Due to the german “karneval” the first day i can start to mail cds is the first monday of march… thats a bit more than two weeks from now… with all the music being finished it seems rather long to me

Next week i will post how to order the cd in detail. You should from now on save all the money you might waste for food, drinks clothes and other unnecessary stuff to buy cds for each of your friends

There will be THIRTEEN songs on the album