Looking back ...and forward!

My dear friends,

this was 2009. Well, it wasn't an easy but almost an exciting year.

So I was allowed to participate in a lot of "premieres". For example my first laudatory during the launch of "Schallwelle - Preis für elektronische Musik in Deutschland" or my return on stage after 9 years of abstinence in Paris by invitation of my friends of "Cosmiccagibi". I also became a "Featured Artist" by Roland - Germany. A fact which makes me very proud.
And yes, I became a member of the "MellowJet Records family", which released my album "Celestial Movements" in past november. All these things make me happy, proud, optimistic and hungry for new activities in 2010.

So I am really happy to announce my next concert on 12th of june at the "Zeiss Planetarium Bochum". This will be the first concert after the complete renovation of the planetarium that will be equipped with new sound, lighting and new seats. It takes place on the initiative and invitation of Sylvia Sommerfeld from "Schallwende e.V." and Bernd Scholl from "MellowJet Records". Official ticket sales will start in april, but pre-orders and reservations can be done before by eMail at schallwende@web.de .

Of course a second concert is in preparation as well as a lot of activities by Roland, where I will be involved in too. Informations about all this can be read here soon.

I was also asked by "MellowJet" to produce a new album for autumn 2010 too. Because I was told that my fans will not "wait" another 8 years for it, I must hurry up and return to my synths now.

But before I do this, I will say thank you to all my friends in France, Germany or anywhere else and to my family too, who ever believed in me. Your energy gives me the power to go forward - with no doubts.

I see you - here or there but in any case soon and I wish you a really happy and healthful new year!

Kisses

Bernd

Schallwelle Preis - New election!

Right before christmas the new online-voting for the "Schallwelle -Preis 2009" has been opened now.
Everybody can feel free to give his vote for the "Best CD 2009" and for the "Best artist/act 2009".
The listeners choice can be done via this link "Schallwelle-Preis 2009" between 20th of december 2009 and 20th of january 2010. So this is enough time for your careful choice.

The new ceremony will be held again at "Ledigenheim Dinslaken". Tickets for this evening can be ordered at the following E-Mail address from "Schallwende Verein". You can also find more additional infos on the website of "Schallwende Verein", which is of course the main organizer of this event.
One thing is clear at the moment: the "Special Price 2009" will be given to "Ashra" and presented by last years winner "Winfrid Trenkler".
So this event will be again a meeting of good old friends and collegues.

Please do not hesitate now and make your election.
Thank you for your attention.

Celestial Movements - Out Now!

I am proud and happy to announce the release of my new studio-album "Celestial Movements".
The album and most of my back-catalogue CDs can now be ordered through the new webshop of "MellowJet Records".

Thank you very much to all who have helped to make this CD reality!

Official video from Paris!

This video was filmed by James L. Frachon and edited by Michel Le Stum.
Thank you for your help my friends!

Paris - one week ago

Dear friends,

yes, the concert in Paris is one week ago. I really don't know why time passes so quickly. No question about, this weekend was absolutely fantastic and unforgetable.
I am not able to describe everything here but I will try to leave some thoughts about the most important moments.

Our little journey began on thursday 22nd of october in Berlin. We didn't want to drive non-stop to Paris. So Bernd Scholl - owner of "MellowJet Records" - and his kind family had invited us and we had the chance to stop our trip in german Eifel near the boarder of Belgium. This first evening was filled with good talks and very good food and drink too. So on friday morning we had enough power again to continue our journey.

...with Bernd Scholl (MellowJet Records)

Another 5 hours on the autoroute and we arrived Paris on friday afternoon. Our hotel was right on the famous quarter of Montmartre vis-a-vis of LaCigalle and La Boule Noire - the club, where I was asked to play. On the roof of our hotel, we had a phantastic view over Paris. Beeing in Paris for the first time of my life was also one of the unforgetable moments.

...view from our hotel to Montmartre

In the evening we met all my friends of "Cosmiccagibi", the french association which asked me to return on stage in november 2008 and which also organized the upcoming concert.

...Cosmiccagibi presenting the concert-poster

After a big "Hello" we had a little sightseeing and went up the Montmartre directly to Sacre Coeur - this big, white church on top of the mountain. You have a fantastic view over Paris from there; also by night. Then we had a nice dinner and good talks again.

Saturday was the day we were waiting for. We met us in front of LaBoule Noire and started with all necessary preparations for the concert. It was great to do this again after such a long time.

...during rehearsal

...Pavle Kovacevic

Also Pavle Kovacevic and Bruno Begani , which played at first on this evening, did their preparations on stage. These nice guys used a lot of fantastic analogue equipment and created a cool sound with their machines.

After all rehearsals Olivier Bégué told the whole staff to leave the club because of a video, which should be filmed by Julien Perrin. He wanted to do a little artist-portait for a video collection called "Single Collection". Main idea was to ask artists for their most beloved song or music, which was initial reason to make music too. In my case it was "Aegian Sea" from greek cult-band "Aphrodite's Child". So I will tell not more but invite you to watch the result of our filming, which is online in the meantime. It is obvious to thank Cosmiccagibi for this great idea and Julien for his kind and professional way to get me in front of a camera. Funny beside all this is, that you can get a short impression of "La Boule Noire" and "Our" stage.

5/ Bernd - Aegian sea from Single Collection on Vimeo.

So the concert began at 7 pm with the set of Bruno Begani et Paul Kovacevic. They played approx. 1 hour.

My set began after a short break at 8.30. Olivier made a short introduction then I went on stage and started...

I am very satisfied with the concert. At least I played completely music from my next album "Celestial Movements". All synths worked perfectly and the audience liked the music very much. After 2 hours everything was finished. Just an important note about a fact, which makes me very proud. As you surely know, the concert of Klaus Schulze and Lisa Gerrard at german Loreley was released on DVD ("Rheingold"). It was filmed by James L. Frachon. The same James L. Frachon ("Mygale Films") also filmed my concert with 2 cameras. The result will be published soon. Of course this was again one of the great ideas of my friends of "Cosmiccagbi". Thanks to them and many thanks to James L. Frachon.

After the concert I had some nice talks with fans and some short interviews.


Then we had to leave the club fast and we met us again for a final diner at "Cafe Montmartre".

...relaxing after the show

On sunday we left Paris after a little sightseeing again as well as we had to leave our friends too. We returned to Bernd Scholl's home and stayed there overnight again. Finally we had another nice evening there. We also discussed final works for my CD, which will be released latest in 3 weeks.

Finally I can't say much more but thank you. Thank you to my friends Marie and Olivier Bégué, Michel Le Stum and his nice wife Mané, Christian Piednoir, Dominique "The Driver" Pelletier, Yann, Fred, Fabrice, Olivier Briand and all other guys of Cosmiccagibi I forgot to mention here. I thank Julien Perrin and James L. Frachon for their ideas, support and help. I thank Bernd Scholl and his family for believing in me and my family too for the love they gave and give to me.

So here we are now. We went a way, which was not easy to go. We look to the future and see all this things which are possible now.
Let's do it.

In love

Bernd Kistenmacher

Paris - final promotion!

The home stretch is reached!

Less than two weeks to go and "Cosmiccagibi" has started its final promotion for the
"Celestial Movements ... Live!" concert in Paris, on 24th of october!.
Thank you Michel for your talent and help.

Please check out this video on " Youtube ":


See you soon at "La Boule Noir".

Snippets

This short news are very "Rolandesque" indeed but they might be interesting to you:

First, "Roland Germany" (a division of the Roland Group) will support my concert in Paris. So beside other Equipment from Roland, which I use since many years, the "V-Synth GT"and the actual "Juno-Stage" Synthesizers will take part on my "show". Also Roland announces my concert on their german website. Please find more infos under "actual dates".

Second, the german "Synthesizer-Magazin" has just released issue no. 16 with my experience report about the huge "Fantom G8" Workstation, which I have written in may and june this year.

At third, "Planet Origo", the website for latest news from movie- and music-business (specialised on SF- Movies and electronic- and contemporary music) from Estonia, also mentions my concert in Paris. Many thanks to Glenn Folkvord.

Also my friend Christian Piednoir from "Cosmiccagibi" has updated his "blog d'Alpha-Lyra" with some nice pictures and announcements.

And last but not least, if you like to listen to a first little part of my upcomming CD "Celestial Movements", please go to the website of "MellowJet"-Records. A first audiosample is online now.

I hope you'll like it.

Stageplan for Paris

Hello my friends,

4 weeks before my concert in Paris I will give you some infos about my setup on stage at "La Boule Noir". A click on the pic allows you a larger view on it. You will find a lot of new synthesizers there as well as some "special" instruments like Memotron or GenoQs Octopus. Also my beloved Minimoog will take part on this show.


Feel free to ask, if you have some questions about this.

You need some more infos?

"Celestial Movements .. live" on october 24th, 2009 in Paris at

La Boule Noir
120 Boulevard Rochechouart
75018 Paris
www.laboule-noire.fr
phonenumber: +33 (0) 1 49 25 81 75

You can also get tickets and further informations from my friends of

"Cosmiccagibi"
c/o Olivier Begué
eMail: olivier.begue@club-internet.fr

OK, back to studio now. Time is running...

Backcatalogue available - unique chance!

Hello my friends,

after a longer time of preparations for my concert in Paris and the release of "Celestial Movements" I come back to you with some news about promotion-activities from my friends of Cosmiccagibi in France.

As you surely know, Klaus Schulze will perform together with Lisa Gerrard on september 23rd in Paris at "La Cigale". I am sure, that this will be a great and unforgetable event.

This evening will also be a great opportunity for Cosmiccagibi to promote my concert in Paris, which happens exactly 1 month and 1 day later (on october 24th) at "La Boule Noir"; a club which is indeed in the same house as "La Cigale". This happens with the very kind permission of Klaus Schulze himself!

I don't want to say too much at this moment, but Cosmiccagibi worked very hard and they will give you any kind of information about my concert you need. They will also have a big standto promote their own activities.

AND you will also have the unique chance to obtain most of my CDs from my backcatalogue including all single CDs from the "my little universe" box-set.
If this CDs are sold out, you will never get them again in this layout.

So don't miss this chance.

See you soon in Paris...

Octopus - The Shell

As I talked about in april, the road-version of GenoQs giant sequencer Octopus - The Shell is available from today on.
For further details and a beautiful picture book please follow the link to GenoQs website:

Octopus - The Shell

It is obvious, that I will use one on stage in Paris...

Octopus - The Shell

Tickets for Paris

Today I have a little but important update. The tickets for the concert in Paris are online available now.

So feel free to follow this links for your ticket request:

FNAC

Ticketnet

FranceBillet

Cosmiccagibi

Also a special "thank you" to the following sites, who mentions my concert:

Schallwende e.V.

EMPortal

MellowJet Records

See you soon...

TSUGI magazine

It is nearby 20 years ago, that the Berlin wall has fallen down.
This is reason enough for french TSUGI magazine to report and reflect about the musical scene of Berlin in those days.

So today I was visited and interviewed by Fred Cisnal from TSUGI magazine who will write a long article about my musical influences and reasons to make music.

Fred is a real nice guy and I hope to meet him in Paris soon again.

The story will be published in november. Exactly 20 years after the wall has been torn down...

...with Fred Cisnal

Flyer update

I just received an updated version of the official flyer for the concert in Paris (please click on the pic to maximize it).

Just wanted to let you know...

Update for concert in Paris

I just got some informations from Cosmiccagibi in french language...

News # 87 speciale Concert

http://www.cosmiccagibi.org/

05.24.24.61.34

06.71.16.18.68

---

Le Cosmiccagibi est heureux de vous présenter :

Le samedi 24 octobre 2009 à 19 heures.
120 Blv Rochechouard 75018 Paris

BERND KISTENMACHER "Celestial Movements..Live !"

+ première partie L I G H T W A V E

En effet nous sommes parvenus à mettre ce concert sur pied. Alors qu'initialement prévu sur Bordeaux dans un endroit unique, le projet a finalement pris forme finale sur Paris en plein centre.

Nous avions par le passé déjà organisé deux festivals en Gironde sur Libourne avec les fameux "Close Encounters of Electronic Music Phase I et Phase II "

BERND KISTENMACHER

Musicien allemand, né à Berlin. Bernd se consacre très jeune à sa passion pour la musique. Issue de la "Berlin Schule" allemande, cette musique est appelée en France "musique cosmique" ou planante, et les grand maitres en sont Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Popol Vuh, Ash Ra Temple.
Considéré comme le meilleur de sa génération par les mélommanes avertis et la presse spécialisée, Bernd Kistenmacher commence à faire parler de lui au début des années 80.

Longues plages très évocatrices et ésotériques, mélodies envoûtantes, séquences et nappes puissantes,... l'émotion est poignante et le voyage intérieur assuré.
Il a 20 albums à son actif. Citons tout particulièrement "Outlines" et "Un viaggio attraverso l'Italia". Le prochain, "Celestial Movements", produit par MellowJet, sortira cet été...
Tout au long de sa carrière Bernd a toujours su s'entourer de ses "meilleurs amis", des gros synthétiseurs modulaires jusqu'à la technologie numérique.
Enfin une occasion unique de voir cet artiste en Live ici en France !
Voyage interstellaire garanti !
Voir son interview récente sur www.cosmiccagibi.org

L I G H T W A V E

LightWave est un groupe français de musique électronique fondé initialement en 1985 par Serge Leroy, Laurent Bozek et Christian Wittman, reconstitué depuis 1988 autour du duo Christoph HARBONNIER et Christian WITTMAN. Grâce à une approche ludique et intuitive des anciennes et nouvelles lutheries électroniques, des matières sonores, Lightwave explore des mondes poétiques et sensuels, joue avec les sons comme avec des couleurs, des formes, des objets concrets ou des dimensions spatiales. La musique du groupe s’apparente à une suite d’aventures et d’architectures sonores, évoluant librement entre le concept et l’imagination, entre la géométrie et le labyrinthe. plongeant l’auditeur dans un film dont il invente le scénario et les images. Sur scène comme en studio, LightWave privilégie le live électronique et le mélange d'instruments acoustiques, par un jeu direct, une composition qui se bâtit dans l’écoute et l’échange comme un trio de jazz ou un quatuor à cordes. Au fil de huit albums parus (label SIGNATURE Radio France, ERDENKLANG - Allemagne, Hearts of Space et Horizon Music - USA..), dont les deux derniers sur le label Signature - France Musiques - de Radio-France, la musique de LightWave a su aussi captiver de larges publics, dans des concerts évènements ou sous la forme d’installations et de créations sonores spectaculaires dans des sites industriels, géologiques et historiques (Gazomètre géant d'Oberhausen en Allemagne, les Grottes de Choranches dans le Vercors, la grande coupole Bischoffsheim de l'Observatoire de Nice, la Nuit Blanche 2007 à Paris à la piscine Simone de Beauvoir. LightWave compte de nombreuses collaborations notamment avec des artistes comme le regretté Hector Zazou (Les Nouvelles Polyphonies Corses, Chansons des Mers Froides, Shara Blue...), Michel Redolfi, Jon Hassell, Paul Haslinger (Tangerine Dream) et Jean Philippe Rykiel...

Le soir du 24 octobre Christoph Harbonnier sera aux cotés de Bruno Begani et Paul Kovacevic.

Les tickets sont en vente au Cosmiccagibi !

Prix de vente unique : 35 euro.

Possibilité de paiement par chèques, espèces ou virement banquaire. Paypal ne sera pas employé (ils prennent trop de marge !).

Vous serez alors enregistrés sur une liste et disposerez de vos tickets sur place lors de l'ouverture des portes.

D'ici quelques temps on pourra trouver les tickets en vente sur le reseau Fnacspectacles et Ticketnet.fr.

message envoyé le 11 Juin 2009

Back on stage

Hello my friends,

after two months, I return to you to give you some informations, which I was waiting for so long.

Finally after 9 years, I will return on stage.
And the absolutely best place for this event is Paris.

My friends of french association „Cosmiccagibi“, Oliviér et Marie Bégué, Michel LeStum and Christian Piednoir, worked very hard to find the right place for this event. And they did it.

It will happen at the famous concert hall „La Boule Noir“ in Pigalle.
So, saturday october 24th, 2009 will be the day you should remember.

You will find more details and updates here:

La Boule Noir

Cosmiccagibi

Up Concert

„Celestial Movements Live“ in Paris!

I Hope to see you there.

Kisses


Bernd Kistenmacher

UPDATE!

I have just got the info, that the concert will be supported by Christoph Harbonnier (LightWave) Bruno Begani et Paul Kovacevic.
I feel honoured!

Musikmesse 2009

It was time again to visit the annual "Musikmesse" (music fair) in Frankfurt; Germany. All the years before I went there only for testing new equipment or for "breathing" the athmosphere of this important fair.
Yesterday I had a more concrete reason. I had an appointment with Gabriel Seher and Marcel Achim of GenoQs, the company who has created the famous "Octopus Sequencer". I mentioned this machine earlier in this blog. And the Octopus was indeed the reason for our meeting. Based on my experiences with my Octopus during the past months in my studio, I made earlier this year some proposals about optimization of the usability of this machine on stage. As users surely know, the Octopus is housed in a very stylish wooden case which is very sensitive against damages. In my opinion this makes it impossible to use the sequencer on stage. Gabriel and Marcel seemed to have the same opinion because they prepared the prototype of a "roadversion" of the Octopus. This prototype was now ready for presentation at the musicfair. We discussed some details and we will meet us again in early summer of this year to get more grip on open questions but it is definetly fact that the Octopus roadversion - the official name is "Octopus - The Shell" - will be ready for sale on the beginning of
july 2009. First pictures of the prototype can be seen now on the "GenoQs" website. It is great to see how my ideas become reality and I am sure that this cooperation will be intensified.

...with Marcel Achim and Gabriel Seher

...the Octopus - The Shell prototype

After this important meeting of course I visited the guys of the "Synthesizer-Magazin" and I had some nice talk with Mic "Moogulator" Irmer. We also talked about some new contributions from me for the magazin. An experience report about the Roland Fantom G8 could be one.

...with Mic "Moogulator Irmer

...with Klaus-Hoffmann Hook in front of the Memotron

After this nice day I found my personal highlight of the day. The "Club Of The Knobs". "COTK" is a little but fine company from Portugal founded by the german Gerd Peun aka Kazike. COTK is specialised in analogue modular synthesizers. It is a little bit difficult to me to use the term "Moog clone" but after listening and testing the system which was presented on the fair, I would describe it as the "perfect Moog clone". The sound is unbelievable true and original and I will definetly have one and I will use it on stage. This is clear after this day.
UPDATE: please check this little Video on Youtube. You can discover some nice people in it.

...with the Club Of The Knobs Team Rajele Jain, Gerd Peun and Georg Mahr

Now I am back in Berlin full of nice impressions.
It is spring again folks...!

Schallwelle - Preis 2009 Update

Beside all activies around the "Schallwelle- Preis" award ceremony I was asked to give an interview for "Lokalvision" television. Well here it is (in german only). Stefan Erbe was the man behind the mic.




Many thanks to Lokalvision for their kind support.

Schallwelle - Preis

In continuation of the once by Winfrid Trenkler initiated “Schwingungen-Wahl" (as part of its WDR radio broadcast "Schwingungen") the “Schallwende Verein” (association of Sylvia and Klaus-Ulrich Sommerfeld) came up together with musician "Stefan Erbe" to revive the idea of creation of a new prize for the best artists in the field of electronic music. This idea was supported by many
sponsors who have a strong connection to electronic music (record companies, factories, media etc.).

In recent months, the fans had the opportunity to elect on the Internet their newcomer or their artist of the year. In addition, a special prize was awarded. And of course, it went to the man of the first hour itself: Winfrid Trenkler.

To make things short: the event was a full success. Not only because the event had already been sold out many weeks ago and not only because it was a meeting of the “who-is-who” of the genre of e.m. It was mainly a success, because it was so perfect organized. The premises, the program with music by "Klangwelt”, "Maxxess" and by "Lost In Loops”, the moderation of Sylvia Sommerfeld and Stefan Erbe: everything was perfect. The guests were in a good mood, and there were many opportunities to meet colleagues after many years again. My reunion with Winfrid Trenkler was very warm and we have promised to us to meet again in Berlin. I look forward to it.

...with Winfrid Trenkler

So here are the winners of the elections:

Best CD 2008
David Wright - Dreams and Distant Moonlight

Best Artist 2008
Spyra

Best CD Listeners Choice 2008
F.D. Project - Heavens Gate

Best Artist 2008 Listeners Choice
Tangerine Dream

Best newcomer
Ambient Circle

Special award
Winfrid Trenkler

Once again congratulations from me to the winners.

Yes, and then there were the speeches, which were held in honour of the award winners. My personal highlight, and certainly the highlight of the evening was the laudatio by Harald Grosskopf, who had the honour to speek for Winfrid Trenkler. They know each other since many decades. This was a special moment and you could see how deeply touched Winfrid Trenkler has been.

...holding a speech

I hold the laudatio for the artist of the year 2008 - Wolfram Spyra - and gave some personal advices about the pitfalls of the music business which I know. I believe the audience was amused.
The original speeches are now ONLINE to read on the website of the “Schallwelle – Preis”. However, it will only be in german language.

Overall it was a great event and I am sure that in the next year everyone will be upset, which can or will not be able to participate.

Finally, a few links to recent reports on the event:

DERWESTEN – Portal der WAZ Mediengruppe

MusikZirkus – Magazin

Musicianslife Magazin

EMPortal

Celestial Movements - Update

Finally the next step has been done.
Bernd Scholl of "MellowJet Records" has finished his work and we are proud to present you the "face" of my new CD "Celestial Movements".


The artwork contents a picture of Mr. Michael Stauffenberg, who has photographed the new "horizon observatory" based on the "Halde Hoheward", near by german city of Recklinghausen (Ruhrgebiet). This observatory is designed as a modern version of Stonehenge.

The "Halde Hoheward" is a 150 meter high artificial mountain, built from dump of a former colliery which has been restored and concepted as a remarkable landmark. This area can now be used for several leisure activities as well as for astronomical activities too. For further details please also check "Initia Horae", the private initiative for horizon astronomy.

Finally the music of "Celestial Movements" will fit perfect to the image and the imagination of this beautiful technical sculpture and of course it will fit to the "International Year Of Astronomy 2009" too.

At least the cover is ready now. The music is in progress. You see, the things are developing.

Busy again now...

Electronic Goes Benefit

Hello,

we have the year 2009. The International Year Of Astronomy. So it is not too far away to think about electronic music live performed under stars - real or artificial.
I did this too. 20 years ago. Of course I was not the first one. Many famous collegues had given concerts in planetariums many years before.
My concert happened in Berlin at the former West-Berlin "Planetarium am Munsterdamm".
In those days (and also in my childhood), I was very interested in astronomy and space science (as well as in space music and so on). Then in 1988 the main building of the planetarium was particular destroyed by a fire. I had the idea to collect some money for the planetarium and so "Electronic Music Goes Benefit" was born. Mario Schoenwaelder and I organized the event and we performed in january 1989 three shows on two evenings. One show was recorded and later broadcasted by "SFB - Sender Freies Berlin" radio station.


My part was the approx. 60 minutes long "Ferne Ziele". A shortened studio version was later released on my solo album "Kaleidoscope".
Some info for collectors: the long and original version "Ferne Ziele 1989" is part of my album "Electronic Goes Benefit". This CD was and still is as single CD as well available as part of the "My little universe" CD-Box (released 1999).

From now on, you can listen to the full track on Last.FM.

Enjoy my music through time and space...

Planet Origo

Planet Origo is a brandnew retailer from Estonia. The business concept is an interesting mixture of records label, distribution and information source for music and movie news (incl. interviews).
Glenn Folkvord - head of Planet Origo - concentrates on Ambient, spacemusic and electronica as well as science fiction movies.

In his actual news, Glenn reports about new releases in 2009 and mentions (very kind) "Celestial Movements" too.

MellowJet Records

Bernd Scholl (aka Moonbooter), founder and head of MellowJet Records gave a long interview for the german "Musician's Life" web magazine. The interview was held in german language.
Bernd was so kind to speak about his resent (label) activities and mentions our cooperation and the planned release of my next album.
The date of release is now end of march or first half of april.

I am back in studio now.

Cheers

Bernd

Facebook

A new door for me in the www is now open.

Please feel free and look into my official facebook page .

Click on this link and be welcome by the facebook community.

Cheers

Bernd

Celestial Movements - latest news!

As already announced in last December, I work at the moment for my 21st solo-album, "Celestial Movements".
What in December was still not sure is now certainty.

This album will be released by German label "MellowJet Records" under the catalog number cd-bk0901. You can also find some biographical informations there.

"Celestial Movements" will first appear as CD, but than also in various portals available for download.
You can get more information about these and other activities at this blog or on the homepage of "MellowJet Records”.

I wish you a happy, new year!