Some time ago i read Philip K. Dick´s Stories (Ubik and a lot of short stories) and was very excited to learn that this genius had all those ideas we know from movies of the last thirty years in the 1950-1960s…

One basic thread often used in his works is the idea of artifical intelligence… and inspired by his short stories i wanted to produce a song with the voice of an AI. The idea behind the text is, that in future some supercomputer calculated what is really important to mankind. And what is not.

Imagine a time where you dont comunicate with a computer by typing on a keyboard, but with a direct neural interface… then think about how millions of powerful computers all work in a network and people think it is a great idea to give this supercomputer a gift we call “creativity”… and by its mere defintion that means that you never know what this AI will “think” in the end…

Maybe it sees people struggling with their imperfect bodies and damned to die one day… It may seem a great idea to this supercomputer to “download” all these minds into a server and give them immortality… Therefore a computer generated female voice explains to man: “Your physical existence is no longer of importance”

The name of the song and the text refer to silicon valley as the “valley of birth” of the AI (which itself talks in plural about “them”) and the “final destination” for mankind. One side aspect is that the AI might think that it also improves mankind in creating a superorganism by using all these minds and consciousnesses as nodes for a meta-mind…

This kind of horror scenario needed a calm, nice female voice and Doris Lauerwald seemed perfect for it. The only problem was, that the sound was too direct and too “perfect”… it sounded like an advertising… until i “destroyed” it technically… I didnt only use EQ and compression like i also would with vocals, i played it back in my room and recorded the speaker with a little handheld recorder while moving… this way, and with some effects added, it was just what i wanted it to be… a voice hard to locate, from a moving speaker, with a voice that sounded like a friendly stewardess - a kind of computervoice i would NEVER trust

Here is the original recording of the voice:

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And this is the re-recorded, edited version that was used in the song:

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does anyone in here have any fotos, videos or recordings of my first live act on the mayday - the one with the dreaded kimono?

or any other material (”housefrau”) of this early period?

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?

Tommorow, friday the 3rd of april, beginning at 8pm i will be in the oldest german dance radio show MAXIMAL by Tillmann Uhrmacher… as far as i know you can listen to the radio via internet as well…

www.sunshine-live.de/liveradio

Morgen, Freitag den 3.4.09, bin ich ab 20:00 bei Tillmann Uhrmacher in der ältesten deutschen Dance-Radiosendung Maximal bei Radio Sunshine Live!

Es werden wohl ein paar CDs verlost und natürlich wird auch ne Menge über THIRTEEN STORIES gequatscht…

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…

www.raveline.de/records/rolf-maier-bode/thirteen-stories.html

and there is a new “ORDER THE NEW ALBUM” button on my homepage…

www.rolfmaierbode.com

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…