Rexime Productions

2006-07-31T05:06:00.000-07:00

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!

2006-06-22T08:30:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-06-11T06:50:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-22T09:53:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-20T08:02:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-12T05:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2006-05-12T04:48:00.000-07:00

Poetry Project

Yesterday, I met up with Wolfram Dettki of Black Scarlet Production s 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.

2006-05-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-05-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

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.

2006-04-28T06:18:00.000-07:00

tokafi comes to a town near you!

Yes, it's true - the Print version of the tokafi mag has finally been finished. This has indeed been an epic effort and one loaded with unforseen problems and people suddenly off the train, but now the order has been given and first copies will arrive in the middle of next week, we are more than optimistic about the future. With a print run of 5.000 copies, which will be distributed all over the world (the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Norway, the USA, the UK to be precise), the "discover your music" slogan is sure to be noticed. Also, the low printing costs will mean that we will be able to offer extremely good advertising rates to prospective ad customers. As the visitor numbers to our site approach 30.000 each month, this makes for a great combination and should appeal to every company with an interest in reaching a diverse, worlwide audience.We are working on that already. If the mag looks anything like the PDF which we sent to the printing company, the result will be amazing and I can't wait to get a look at it. As you may or may not know, it will feature three artist portraits: Oksana Kolesnikova (called the only true heir to Liberace), Manuel Göttsching (an electronic pioneer, who is turning more and more towards Classical instrumentation) and Jeffrey Roden (who has recorded an amazing album, which relies solely on his bass, called "Seeds of Happiness Part 1"). If things go as we envisage them, volume two should be out soon already - there's plenty of ideas. Anyway, we'll keep you posted on the progress. Also, if you're interested in advertising with us, let me know at mouvement-nouveau@gmx.de!

2006-04-28T06:14:00.000-07:00

Short Update on Aidan Baker

Manfred and me have been mailing with Aidan over the past weeks, discussing the format of the book and possible distribution possibilities. The internet will definitely play an important part in the effort and Aidan has also hinted at activating some of the contacts he has established in the course of the past years on previous projects. This will be a great help to us, especially since this could mean an easier access to the American and Canadian markets, which up to now have been closed to us. We have also been informed that the title of the book will be "Passing thru". More news soon, as Baker has started writing already and will get to recording the musical titles as well very soon.

2006-04-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

Calling all Stations

Rexime Productions will have a hand in the publication of the in-house magazine of the Münster-branch of Arvato, the world’s fastest growing Call Center and Phone Services provider, as well as a part of the renowned and dynamic Bertelsmann group. The mag will likely be called “Inbound/Outbound” and feature a variety of themes, such as presentation of the company’s employees, news from the management, journalistic items, CD- and Movie reviews and much more. We just had our first team meeting last week and it looks like we have both a great concept as well as a highly motivated group of people. Financing has been assured this week and this means we can start writing and layouting for a first edition, likely in June or July. This means, that the Soccer World Cup will be included, a gurantee for reader interest ;-)

2006-04-20T04:19:00.000-07:00

VIVMMI is looking great.

Mirko just wrote to me informing me that the sample CD of “VIVMMI”, the first release of our new “Ex Ovo” labe l has arrived and looks brilliant. As I know of his high standard regarding visuals, this means it must be an absolute masterpiece. This means that shipment of the regular albums can begin and we are ready to go – next week will see postings in all the major internet forums, news items on WebZines and, on a general level, the start of our marketing campaign. We will also begin contacting distributors – after my experiences with einzeleinheit the most important task of all. You can have the prettiest of websites and the greatest music, but you’ll always end up with too much stock, if you don’t get distribution right. I will also talk to Mirko about the idea of establishing a little Flyer Magazine, which could serve both as an information source for the “scene” as well as an ad-tool for the label. Anyway, we will update the homepage over the next few days and then it’s go-time!

2006-04-20T04:07:00.000-07:00

2006-04-15T06:51:00.000-07:00

Aidan Baker Book Project

We’re extremely proud to be able to announce a collaboration with Aidan Baker on a project, which we’ll be present this summer. Aidan is a writer and musician hailing from Canada and his music has been one of my personal discoveries and constant companions in early 2006 – from his magnificent contribution to “Die Stadt”’s monumental double 7’’ and double disc release with Z’EV, John Duncan and Fear Falls Burning to the too-good-to-true harmonic soundscapes of “Candescence” and “At the fountain of thirst”, his floating electric guitar patterns turn and twist in your mind till they hit hypnosis. This, to me, is timeless and deeply emotional music. While I was preparing an interview and an article on him, Aidan was so kind as to send me a couple of his releases, including “Songs of Flowers & Skins”, a disc featuring his poems and a more rock-oriented approach, albeit at an almost subconscious, dream-guided level. A wonderful album with wonderful lyrics, which allows for concentrated listening as well as for providing a deep, atmospheric background ambiance (I’m spinning it right now, in fact). As I suggested to him that Rexime Productions would be interested in releasing some of his poems alongside a CD with accordingly arranged music, he immediately offered us to use some previously written texts, taking specific songs as inspiration, and record an entire disc worth of cover-versions of these tracks. I really can’t wait to listen to some of his interpretations – this promises to be an absolute gem.

2006-04-15T06:47:00.000-07:00

EX OVO launch coming up in a couple of days

On the musical side of things, there is the good news that the “Ex Ovo” label, which I’m planning with Mirko Uhlig is now ready to launch. This will be the new home of delicate and dulcet electronics, a treasure trove of everything relaxing and soothing. We’ve already got a release schedule well into 2007, with Mirko’s very own debut under his real name (after several Aalfang mit Pferdekopf albums on the most diverse and renowned labels) paving the way. This will be a wonderful effort, dealing with love and loss (or the other way round) and his quietest album to date. One of his best as well. We’re readying everything right now and wil be able to start selling the CD in about a week from now. The second release actually makes us even more proud – a Vinyl sampler of some of our favourite artists from the field of experimental music: Fear Falls Burning, Troum, Dronaement, Keith Berry, Column One and Richard Lainhart (one of electronic music’s earliest pioneers with a remix of an almost 30 year old massive drone piece). Accompanying it will be a limited disc with some more excellent artists, this time just a little less well known.Which is not to say that this bonus, which will be added to the first 100 copies of the Vinyl LP, is any less great. Everything is close to completion, so be sure to hear more on this very, very soon.

2006-04-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

Someone call the Room Ambulance!

We received the budget of Ute Eilting today regarding the film project. Ute owns a company by the name of “Raumambulanz” (“Room ambulance”), which offers a smart and cunning concept: Instead of running over to the local IKEA and revelling in the same creative mediocrity as eveyone else, she will come over to your place and set up a concept together with you on how to arrange your holy halls in a personal fashion. Her experience should be of valuable help in this – among others, she was involved in designing the interiors of “Buch.de”, a former Bertelsmann-subsidiary and now still one of Germany’s biggest Internet retailers. If all goes well, Ute will be responsible for developping a concept for the flat share. After all characters have been developped on paper, we will start our search for the ideal “real-life equivalents” and organise a screening. As the actors will need to bring a lot of their own personality into the series, one of the most important initial tasks will be to set up their own room – using old furniture and some stuff we can get for cheap prices. The main dfference with your regular TV show will be that for the time of shooting, our personas will actually live and sleep here – so they really need to feel at home. I know that Ute is the right person to do the job and it will be a pleaure to work with her. We’ll see how it all turns out, the concept is being readied at this very moment.

2006-04-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

First Steps

We’re now moving fast ahead with the application for a grant regarding our film-project. Today, Manfred and me visited the guys of Major Studios, a young and exciting movie production company situated right in the heart of Münster’s harbour. They must have the most incredible office in town. At the entrance of the former Osmo-Holzhallen, an enormous labyrinth of huge and now empty storerooms, stands a small, two-story house, looking like a miniature version of an airport tower. This is the home of several companies and art-related enterprises – and of Major Studios (nice kind of understatement, eh?). Detlef and Martin are working in a modern and yet cosy room with more than enough space for all of their monitors and equipment. Had a nice talk with them over coffee and some excellent cake (thanks!). We roughly explained the project, outlining both content and style: A series about a flat share in Münster, with five people living side by side, which will deal with how one can change one’s life in an uncomplicated fashion and make it more exciting. I mean, we’ve become so used to our daily routine and of the separation of work inside an economy, that we’ve left the business of thinking up ideas to artists and big business. When really, we could take things into our own hands and become creative in the one place, where it matters the most: Our own life. Detlef and Martin had lots of questions regarding the project, as well as some suggestions – Martin proposed using the German movie “Die fetten Jahre sind vorbei” (“The good years are over”) as a blue-print for shooting – we’ll have to check that one out. Had some fun listening to Detlef talking about some film freak he knows, who has been specialising in martial arts movies for more than 20 years. Both believe the project and our collaboration could be fruitful. They will prepare a first estimate of the costs involved for early next week. Can’t wait to receive it...

2006-04-02T07:56:00.000-07:00

The Crisis of Classical Music 1

This is a re-print of the series over at our portal "tokafi" - feel free to discuss!

When I wrote the "A new Movement" article for the first issue of our magazine, I wasn't even questioning whether there was a crisis of Classical Music or not. With sales of CDs slumping, orchestras filing for insolvency and a general public that seemed as though it couldn't care less, things were pretty obvious to me. I have come to change my mind over the last few months, especially because of the many fascinating statements of young artists on the subject in our "15 Questions" section. Still, I don't believe I am exagerating if I were to say the current situation is far from satisfactory. And from my point of view it has a lot do with the fact that the business has become incrusted and record companies have lost touch with the basic questions of their profession.

To make my point more clear, I'd like to draw a comparison to the development in European political life. It too, has come under heavy criticism over the last few years and just as much as there seems to be a certain lack of charisma in the musical landscape, there is an oveflow of boring beaurocrats in the parliaments of the European capitals. The reason for this is that we are living in "frozen" poltical systems. Take Konrad Adenauer for example, Germany's first chancelor. Adenauer, basically, was a simple man and hardly any better than any of the current incumbents. But just as much as Willy Brandt, he lived in turbulent times which gave him plenty of opportunities to act and leave a mark. The rules of the game were constantly questioned and adjusted. The current fatigue is a result of the struggles of the past, when the system was shaped. The debate in European political life is about day-to-day issues now, fundamental questions are put aside and that is what is making things so shallow.

In a way, that's what has happened to the business of Classical Music as well. The current misery of the industry is the direct result of its incredible success. In the 50s, 60s and 70s, Classical Music, which always used to be for the elite, grew out of proportion and into a mass-phenomenon. Conductors, Sopranos and Tenors, Violionists, Orchestras, they were the stars of their times. When Glen Gould released his version of the "Goldberg Variations", they were debated everywhere, when Van Cliburn triumphed in 58, he was breaking news.

Record companies found a clever way to market their product: They made themselves part of the package. The Deutsche Gramophon logo, which is still recognised today, is the result of a fundamental debate: Namely, that a record company had certain values, ideas and artists, that it offered a certain level of quality. Today, the logo and a uniform look for all of a label's releases are nothing more than a graphic designer's trick. The clever and groundbreaking idea has become a fad everyone uses. It is still working in some cases (take the Alpha label, for example, or Zig Zag Territoires), but it is detached from the real question: Where is this company going? What is it offering? What are its standards? What does it expect from an interpretation?

Again, this problem is the result of the industry's hubris. The structures in the business are the way they are because they were once extremely profitable and because they were understood by customers. That is no longer the case. If record companies want to grow beyond their current, mostly miserly existence, they will have to go back to basics. And think about the why's before the how's.

"The Crisis of Classical Music" by Tobias Fischer

2006-03-30T07:41:00.000-08:00

Suneaters rock the "Festival der Subkulturellen Töne"

Suneaters, the duo consisting of Mirko Uhlig and Rexime's Tobias Fischer played the "Festival der Subkulturellen Töne" in Gütersloh on March 25th. Opening an evening dedicated to the most diverse facets of electronic music, they delivered a set of a single, stretched-out piece with extracts from their Promo "Cosmic Insight, Baby" and the already finished follow-up. The media reaction has been more than positive. WebZine Terrorverlag writes:

"A remarkable performance, which was especially accknowledged by their musical colleagues afterwards"

Radio Station Walking With Shadows remarks:

"I am used to a festival building up slowly, with the headliner being the acme of the evening. At this festival, though, things were a little different. The duo Suneaters thrilled me at the very beginning, which purportedly played live for the first time - which I found hard to believe! Atmospheric sounds, which reminded me of the Lycia project and made the hearts of all fans of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream beat faster."

Thanks go out to the organisors and the other bands who made this a great night to remember.