Exclusive Premiere: Martin Kohlstedt – AMSOMB (Marlow Re-Mood) Warner Classics

Artist: Martin Kohlstedt
Title: AMSOMB (Marlow Re-Mood)
Label: Warner Classics
Release: 15th May 2020
Genre: Electronic / Elektronica

For Martin Kohlstedt, music is always about discourse, transformation and reflection. The German pianist’s first two albums – TAG and NACHT – were put into the hands of talented musicians who worked the magic of each of the compositions thoughtfully. Now, the pieces on STROM and STRÖME – Kohlstedt’s latest albums – will be given extraordinary reinterpretations by a group of accomplished musicians.

RECURRENTS is the name of the collection of reworks of the two album’s original pieces. The musicians involved in this release, all of them Martin Kohlstedt’s friends, were offered a wealth of resources to tap into from the original album recordings with the Gewandhaus choir, to the piano tracks and the electronic soundscapes.

“Marlow threw some memorable parties during my university years and succeeded in breathing life and humanity back into the stomping, cold and hazy electronic soup that was prevalent a mere ten years ago. Hip hop, trip hop, jazz, funk, soul and disco streamed out of this man, who was part of the heyday of electronic music in Leipzig during the ’90s, unhindered… On top of it all, he was my lecturer at Bauhaus University and introduced me to the art of mixing and producing. The comment he made on my bachelors sci-fi audiobook was that I had recorded it “on a toilet”. There were two possible reactions to this type of comment: Either you’re very offended and reassure yourself that it’s the people who are too stupid to “get it” or you’re grown up about it, concede your shortcomings and learn from those who offer criticism. I chose the former.

Many moons later my label was thriving and my time at university was a faded memory. Out of the blue, after all these years, I receive a message from Marlow telling me that my piano pieces could be made to sound slightly better on a couple of passages. This, again, went straight to my heart and ego and the two ways of response discussed earlier popped up again: Either remain stubborn or listen for once. This time around I thankfully made the right decision. I am still in awe of what he was able to get out of my sound and first and foremost what on earth he made out of my piece AMSOMB. To many more wonderful hours in the studio and on the tour bus – thank you, Mario”

Marlow about the rework:

“From the first keystroke on the piano, the quietest creaking of the stool until the final vibration of the strings and the last exhalation of the sopranos – I have listened to every note, every sound of this piece many, many times. The nuances of the vocal recordings, the quiet whistling of the piano’s felt, the blunt cracking of the pedals: all these small, peripheral sounds caught my attention during the recording and production of this album with Martin. With this remix I finally got the opportunity to take all these tonal artefacts, sounds, clips and seemingly extraneous bits and give them a new focus, looping them, cutting them up and finding grooves within. Short voice clips become tapestries of sound, other become rhythms; pedal pushes become kick drums, breathing turns into hi-hats and all of this together becomes AMSOMB – Marlow’s Re-Mood”

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