Update on the Salome-CD

There is a lot of good news on the CD release front. Last week, we signed a deal with Salome Scheidegger for the release of a 3'' CD and a regular full-length album. Both will be published under the tokafi banner and be sold primarily via a soon to be published micro site on the tokafi homepage. The title of the 20 minute EP currently stands as "Dark Little Rooms" and features Grieg's magnificent e minor sonata. There is no definite name for the other release, although odds are high that it will be called "zart", a play on words on Mozart's last letters and the German meaning of "zart" (tender). More on this as we progress. The design will again be done by Ansgar Eilting, who was also responsible for the brilliant layout of the mag. Production of "zart" will commence very soon and "Dark Little Rooms" will follow suite within the next weeks. There is not yet a definite date of release, but this will be sorted out very soon.

There are quite a few specials planned - such as a video clip starring Salome and her music - to support the label. Stay tuned!

tokafi in the USA!

Quite some time ago, we sent the tokafi mags on a long journey to the States and I'm happy to be able to announce that they have now finally arrived safely. Thanks first of all to Chris Knudson of White Sage Arts in Houston, Texas, who so kindly offered assist in distributing them - coincidentally, his ex-wife lived in our homebase Münster for quite some time. And then we had word from our friend Marcos Fernandes. Marcos is head of Accretions Records, a label that specialises in improvised music and is home to some fantastic artists from the experimental community. This is what he wrote:

i received the copies of tokafi. they are fantastic! what a nice idea. i will have them at an event tomorrow night (tetuzi akiyama) then i will take them with me on my west coast tour! so tokafi will be in vancouver, seattle, olympia, portland, eugene, oakland, long beach and los angeles!

best
marcos

This, of course, is some great news, meaning that we will have free distribution in the most diverse locations. Cudos to Marcos and we'll keep you updated, as news on the mag comes in.

tokafi - our first CD

If you have taken the time to check out the history of tokafi, then you will know that our original aim was to turn this into a record label for classical music. Back at the time, my brother Dirk was working as a freelancer and we intended to turn our ideas and aesthetics into a fully-fledged company. As it turned out, the plan was delayed considerably, as Dirk got employed by a huge Dutch enterprise and I started to mould "mouvement nouveau" into tokafi and into its present form. As of yesterday, this long phase of waiting may be over. I had a highly pleasant phone conference with Salome Scheidegger, an extremely talented young pianist from Switzerland and her parents/managers. We discussed the plan of releasing her first commercially available disc (she sells her debut via her own, excellent homepage) through tokafi. It looks like things are now sealed and that both sides are interested in realizing this project quickly and with a lot of energy. I am positive that we can have this album ready in about two months, depending on the availability of the designers of my choice. More info on this will follow as we move along.

tokafi TV - the concept

This might be a good moment to talk about the concept behind tokafi tv for a moment. It always seemed obvious to me that if tokafi was going to become a success, that it could not be restricted to the limits of the internet. Simply put, the world is not yet ready for internet-only companies. And don't go citing the one-off exception, however big it may be (ebay). Even Amazon is basically merely a mailorder company, which operates with an online catalogue - nothing revolutionary about that. So it should be crucial that different types of media blend together to form a new kind of enterprise. Also, every medium carries its own message and tone. While the tokafi homepage comes across as serious and informative, the print mag is slightly more quirky and youth-oriented. In my eyes, the TV broadcast could well take us into more "artsy" territory - and essentially be a piece of art itself.

The main concept is thus: We envision tokafi TV as a program which presents experimental music (and a bit of Classical as well) in an experimental way. Its content are Video Clips, Concert Excerpts and self-filmed images to which music is added, as well as artist portraits and potentially short movies with a connection to experimental music. Approximately 25 minutes long, we aim at producing it on a monthly basis. Ideally, there will be no moderation, so the program can essentially be broadcast and understood in every country of the world. It will be shareware for non-commercial tv programs, which means that we will try to get it into "open channels" - regional, local programs, mostly run by amateurs. In Germany alone, there is a tremendously long list of these, which have an incredible reach. Working with these should be a more than pleasant affair - juts like them we believe in the power of expression and find it essential that regular citizens are able to use the media as a tool of voicing their opinion. I sense a strong common bond between us and them and feel as though it could be possible to regain some of the power the people have lost thanks to huge media empires. Niche music does not have a forum in daytime television, while the sum of its fans is enormous adding it up on a global scale. We've got to try to bundle their energy.

Work will start very soon - we have already agreed on filming in the last week of the month, into early June. We will try to have an episode ready for July. A meeting with local tv station administrators Bennohaus is scheduled for Wednesday of this week. tokafi tv is quickly becoming reality.

tokafi tv - first steps

I met with Holger Lüsch of the Cinema Münster and "Die Linse". The Cinema is known as one of North-Rhine Westfalia's most prominent independent cinemas and has made quite a name for itself, because of its varied and exciting program. They are one of the select group of film houses showing classical operas on celluloid as part of the "Klassik im Kino" (Classical Music in the Cinema) program of Universal Music (will write an article about that in tokafi soon). One of the points on Holger and my agenda was discussing whether the Cinema wants to show the movie "The Sounds of Silents". Only last week I was approached by the producers and the distribution and promotion company in a bid to take the movie to Münster and I contacted Holger right after. He already basically stated that it was certain the film was going to be shown, but couldn't as yet promise me it was going to be shown on a weekly basis (but rather only once and as a singular event). We'll see how it goes, first reactions to the movie have been utterly raving.

We also talked about Rexime's current project of taking tokafi even further. While we have now set foot on the mag market, we are still very much interested in pursuing an older idea of mine: tokafi tv. In Münster, there is an open channel which broadcasts a wide range of programs. In our opinion, this would be an ideal breeding ground for a program which focusses on experimental and classical music. I will get into the exact details in a later blog, but for the moment it should be sufficient to say that we could produce this program for local tv and then try to have it broadcast on other stations. Seems like a fascinating opportunity to build a media platform, which would be beneficial to musicians and smaller labels. Holger pointed out that this would have been a great thing for the "working place" the Cinema once maintained, but has now sold to a different shop.

After our meeting, I thought of the info box of the cinema, which is situated in Münster Central Station. Maybe it would be a great idea to put in a TV and a DVD recorder and show the episodes of tokafi tv there. Will have to ask Holger about his opinion on this one.

tokafi's here!

The guy from UPS arrived and he had some nice packages on board: The complete first print run of the tokafi Print Mag - 5.000 copies in all. I must say I was absolutely impressed by their quality - brilliantly sharp images, great paper quality and especially the colours are just the way we wanted them to be. I've already met up with our designer Ansgar Eilting and he will make sure the mag is distributed in some of the biggest German cities, as well as Amsterdam in the Netherlands. I have contacted the artists and they will also be helpful in getting some copies to the right people. With the mags looking as great as they do, I am very optimistic about the future - who wouldn't want to have their ad in this small, but superb information source? Anyway, I will move ahead with this over the weekend and especially next week, to make sure we keep the momentum. At the same time, plans to start a campaign aimed at colleges and music schools all over the world is being prepared. Manfred will intensify our efforts to find sponsors in the second half of the month. Looks like a busy, but exciting few weeks ahead of us...

Poetry Project

Yesterday, I met up with Wolfram Dettki of Black Scarlet Productions and Tonstudio Pathos to discuss some ideas regarding a musical project I am currently pursuing. Wolle is the man behind a few extremely succesful pop projects, such as Amber and, currently, Turkish sensation AS. He also has background in other departments and masterminded a very interesting album based around the concept of water power.

Together with a poet from Münster, I am composing electronic soundscapes, both melodic and experimental, built around her lyrics. I had sent Wolle some of the material and he had mastered it - I really think it sounds great now, with vocals and music in just the right balance, both powerful and dreamy. Some questions of arrangement still remain to be answered, but for the time being I am very content with the progress of this project and there's still a few great pieces in the pipeline, which merely await completion. The idea of the meeting yesterday was to try and find an angle to approach labels in order to secure a broad distribution of the music. We discussed different possibilities and set up a plan of points which need to be decided if this thing is to progress: A name, an image, a set of pictures in accordance with the image and - which is of course related to all of this - a sort of basic formulation of what we are about. I liked the input Wolle had very much and it definitely made me think a lot about the direction we want to take. At the same time, I'm not quite sure if I wish to push the group into a framework which was never intended - I know he's right on a commercial (and maybe even artistic) side, it's just hard finding this angle for a project whose main purpose was to create something deeply personal and intimate. Will get into this deeper and maybe post some mp3s here soon.

Eurocity Fest, here we come!

Manfred has finished writing the program of the Eurocity Fest. With 400.000 visitors from all over Germany, this is one of the biggest free open air extravaganzas in the country. Taking place at the end of May, the festival will feature among others Phillip Boa and Roachfoard, as well as the legendary Brian Auger. We're very happy to be involved in this project, which, although dealing mainly with mainstream music, has always had a strong connection with regional talents.

Great start for Ex Ovo

Ex Ovo, the new label for Drones and Dulcet Electronics, which I have set up together with Mirko Uhlig, has gotten off to a great start. Massimo Ricci, one of the most renowned reviewers (and one of the mosttrustworthy as well) wrote a great review in his monthly overview of "the most interesting non-commercial music", with copies of the release going out to other magazines as well. We will also target news groups, forums and online editors this week. Next to Drone Records, our friends of Reue um Reue/Treue um Treu have also agreed on stocking a few CDs of the special edition, which is limited to 65 hand-made covers.

Here's the review:
The first solo album by Aalfang Mit Pferdekopf's mastermind is at one time a bucolic exploration of self and - on the other hand - an irony-scented journey amidst the many sensations that one gathers when in direct contact with nature. "This is about loss and union", writes the author on the press sheet; I don't seem to fully understand what's exactly meant by Mirko, but it describes quite well the peculiar concoction of processed field recordings, slightly detuned piano and guitars and tone generators which render these pieces a delightful hybrid of outlandish ornithology, twisted evolutions of anti-new age canons and serious tries for getting stoned without really meaning it. Every once in a while, a "theme" - a nice melody that seems to materialize from the water gurgling in a sinkhole - comes out to remind us about our direction in life and after. These muted dreams are not frozen in detachment but truly heartwarming; "VIVMMI" is specially recommended at late night. The rest, tells again Uhlig, is silence.