Notes On A Journey

a selection of mellow soul tunes (60s to 80s) from Stefan Leisering's vinyl collection..

Summer Soul - Notes On A Journey Selection by Stefan Leisering (Jazzanova)

Format: Vinyl LP - Tip On Gatefold Cover (Limited Edition)
Cat#: NOAJ001
Original release: 1980, Berlin (Private Pressing)

As you are listening to “Confidence In The Future” today, it quickly becomes clear what kind of worlds must have collided here. A stunning amalgamation of aural treats, created by making subtle compromises between Pop, Jazz, Rock and Folk, that exists in every single track across-the-board. Due to its stylistic complexity “Confidence In The Future” is an album that is somehow never really able to settle on any one taste, inevitably opening up new dimensions to the listener. Imagine how this was in 1980. Especially in Berlin's commercial music scene. And especially when the involved musicians treated the project after its completion, more like a matter of personal importance than a career move. And for Hirsch, Spinning Motion's initiator, all of this seemed to be fulfilling enough. Prophetically the record is named after the most significant song of the eight-piece collection “Confidence In The Future”. 35 years on the title finds the verification it deserves. It unleashes its bottled power no sooner than the day, Jazzanova member and Notes On A Journey co-founder, Stefan Leisering finds the record in a crate at the flea market on the Strasse des 17. Juni. Like a bottle of Château Lafitte-Rothschild unearthed after 35 years, forgotten about in an abandoned cellar, do we get to experience the quiet composure and savage intensity of a treasure brought to light. It takes Leisering another ten years to comprehend what kind of music historical treasure has been hiding in his record collection. He acquired “Confidence In The Future” sometime in the mid 90s and only by re-listening to this oddity one day in 2010 or 2011 did everything finally click into place. A lost gem of Berlin Pop history, one that could almost never have happened. Compositions so ahead of their time that you can only understand and classify them today properly. There's a sense of inadvertent (and therefore unaffected) ingeniousness in songs like “Devotion To You”, “Prisoner Of Life” and “Playground Of Burial-Funds” that you have to live in the 21st Century to appreciate fully. Each of the eight tracks (maybe apart from the instrumental closer “Elegy”) has some sort of melancholy, introverted reflectiveness, and yet still always something conciliatory. Manfred Tappert's voice lends his lyrics, written by him, but preconceived by Hirsch, something utterly personal, intimate even. Every single song, particularly within the framework of the oeuvre, tells a story, and due to this intimacy, and the adventurous arrangements touches you deeply. No matter the time or place.  To add to all of this, this incomparable record has also an entirely different facet, which only becomes apparent with today's perspective. The title track, “Confidence In The Future”, and “Answer My Questions” remind one eerily of Kings Of Convenience, and the cosy “Naze” resembles Turin Brakes. So evidently that you'll find yourself, while listening, in a quaint retro-retro-loop, the musical equivalent of a time paradox. But this is exactly the beauty of music. Music doesn't abide by the rules of time and space as we do, and therefore each listen to each piece of music is unique and purely based on the context of the listening. And every once in a while times have to change just so music can find a new determination and new listeners. Confidence in the future ultimately means: Good music is patient, outlives everything and will sooner or much, much later find its destination. NOTES ON A JOURNEY is looking eagerly forward to finally celebrating the first proper release of Spinning Motion's “Confidence In The Future”. 

Liner Notes by Adrian Hoenicke.


A3 - Spinning Motion - Prisoner Of Life

A2 - Spinning Motion - Devotion To You

A1 - Spinning Motion - Blue

Snippets from the upcoming reissue on Notes On A Journey - Spinning Motion - Confidence In The Future

Format: 180g Vinyl LP - Tip On Gatefold Cover (Limited Edition)
Cat#: NOAJ001
Original release: 1980, Berlin (Private Pressing)
Releasedate: 26.06.2015

As you are listening to “Confidence In The Future” today, it quickly becomes clear what kind of worlds must have collided here. A stunning amalgamation of aural treats, created by making subtle compromises between Pop, Jazz, Rock and Folk, that exists in every single track across-the-board. Due to its stylistic complexity “Confidence In The Future” is an album that is somehow never really able to settle on any one taste, inevitably opening up new dimensions to the listener. Imagine how this was in 1980. Especially in Berlin's commercial music scene. And especially when the involved musicians treated the project after its completion, more like a matter of personal importance than a career move. And for Hirsch, Spinning Motion's initiator, all of this seemed to be fulfilling enough. Prophetically the record is named after the most significant song of the eight-piece collection “Confidence In The Future”. 35 years on the title finds the verification it deserves. It unleashes its bottled power no sooner than the day, Jazzanova member and Notes On A Journey co-founder, Stefan Leisering finds the record in a crate at the flea market on the Strasse des 17. Juni. Like a bottle of Château Lafitte-Rothschild unearthed after 35 years, forgotten about in an abandoned cellar, do we get to experience the quiet composure and savage intensity of a treasure brought to light. It takes Leisering another ten years to comprehend what kind of music historical treasure has been hiding in his record collection. He acquired “Confidence In The Future” sometime in the mid 90s and only by re-listening to this oddity one day in 2010 or 2011 did everything finally click into place. A lost gem of Berlin Pop history, one that could almost never have happened. Compositions so ahead of their time that you can only understand and classify them today properly. There's a sense of inadvertent (and therefore unaffected) ingeniousness in songs like “Devotion To You”, “Prisoner Of Life” and “Playground Of Burial-Funds” that you have to live in the 21st Century to appreciate fully. Each of the eight tracks (maybe apart from the instrumental closer “Elegy”) has some sort of melancholy, introverted reflectiveness, and yet still always something conciliatory. Manfred Tappert's voice lends his lyrics, written by him, but preconceived by Hirsch, something utterly personal, intimate even. Every single song, particularly within the framework of the oeuvre, tells a story, and due to this intimacy, and the adventurous arrangements touches you deeply. No matter the time or place.  To add to all of this, this incomparable record has also an entirely different facet, which only becomes apparent with today's perspective. The title track, “Confidence In The Future”, and “Answer My Questions” remind one eerily of Kings Of Convenience, and the cosy “Naze” resembles Turin Brakes. So evidently that you'll find yourself, while listening, in a quaint retro-retro-loop, the musical equivalent of a time paradox. But this is exactly the beauty of music. Music doesn't abide by the rules of time and space as we do, and therefore each listen to each piece of music is unique and purely based on the context of the listening. And every once in a while times have to change just so music can find a new determination and new listeners. Confidence in the future ultimately means: Good music is patient, outlives everything and will sooner or much, much later find its destination. NOTES ON A JOURNEY is looking eagerly forward to finally celebrating the first proper release of Spinning Motion's “Confidence In The Future”. 

Liner Notes by Adrian Hoenicke.


Buy the vinyl

NOAJ001 - Spinning Motion - Confidence In The Future ALBUM SNIPPET

Spelmanns himself, now living in Bremen, working as a video artist and leading the Generic Art Ensemble, definitely didn't expect this to ever happen. Three decades after its initial release “Bewegliche Ziele” is finally finding its listeners and revealing its long hidden spell. It's the same with “Bewegliche Ziele” as with a lot of this time period's music long forgotten or only released in a very limited capacity: Today, with hindsight, it gains new meaning and an extensive resonance. Over the last few years Plaza Hotel's skewness, the graceful peculiarity, the courageous experimentalism is being explored by new and younger groups and can be heard in current music again. Meaning “Bewegliche Ziele” could have easily be released in 2016. NOTES ON A JOURNEY thought the same and decided, that not only freaky record collectors should be able to, for extortionate prices, enjoy this timeless, fascinating piece of music on vinyl. So we have brought Plaza Hotel back to life, in all its glory.


Bewegliche Ziele

B - Plaza Hotel - Schön Sein In Uniform SNIPPET

Format: 180g Vinyl - Tip On Cover with printed inner sleeve (Limited Edition)
Cat#: NOAJ002
Original release: 1983, Berlin (Private Pressing)
Releasedate: 15.07.2016

It's 1981. Everything seems possible in the realms of music. The barriers between genres are being willfully torn down, punk is discovering the synthesizer, the drum machine is replacing the drummer and no idea is too absurd to pursue. The winds of change are blowing from New York to London, Berlin and Tokyo and there's a palpable, uninhibited spirit of optimism in the air turning music industry on it's head. People are experimenting with novel equipment, bands are springing up like mushrooms, line-ups disband and regroup. A whole generation is being inspired by a do-it-yourself mentality, creating an unprecedented knowledge of how to produce music. Every artist seems to be full of ambition, conquering new frontiers whilst often participating in several projects simultaneously. When today, we look back at this time it appears as an unintelligible mess with no economic viability, but 30 years ago it was simply the sheer desire for artistic freedom, self-fulfillment and the urge to have control over one's own creative work that was the driving force.

Amazingly, the record continues to be rediscovered time and again, throughout the years’ time. By a diverse mix of DJs and record collectors from all sorts of different countries, origins and scenes. They all take a personal interest in “Bewegliche Ziele”. From die-hard NDW fans to New Wave analysts and never-tiring sound explorers like the infamous, Dutch record collector Tako Reyenga. It is him who plays one of these rare copies, sometime in 2010, in Düsseldorf of all places, in the Salon d'Amateurs, one of the world's hippest underground clubs, in front of a broad-minded audience. In short “Bewegliche Ziele” (played on 33rpm instead of 45rpm) becomes a signature tune not only at the Salon, but on dance floors of every boutique club operating outside of mainstream territory all around the world. About the same time Jazzanova member and co-founder of NOTES ON A JOURNEY, Stefan Leisering stumbles across the 12” in a crate in Canada. Back in Berlin he plays his discovery to his buddy and Jazzanova co-partner Alex Barck. Falling for the song's magic as Leisering does, Barck rearranges, what was perviously considered complete, the third edition of “Computer Incarnations For World Peace” just to fit this exceptional tune into the already fine selection.

Spelmanns himself, now living in Bremen, working as a video artist and leading the Generic Art Ensemble, definitely didn't expect this to ever happen. Three decades after its initial release “Bewegliche Ziele” is finally finding its listeners and revealing its long hidden spell. It's the same with “Bewegliche Ziele” as with a lot of this time period's music long forgotten or only released in a very limited capacity: Today, with hindsight, it gains new meaning and an extensive resonance. Over the last few years Plaza Hotel's skewness, the graceful peculiarity, the courageous experimentalism is being explored by new and younger groups and can be heard in current music again. Meaning “Bewegliche Ziele” could have easily be released in 2016. NOTES ON A JOURNEY thought the same and decided, that not only freaky record collectors should be able to, for extortionate prices, enjoy this timeless, fascinating piece of music on vinyl. So we have brought Plaza Hotel back to life, in all its glory.


A - Plaza Hotel - Bewegliche Ziele SNIPPET

„Sumri hallar“ is an islandic traditional folk song. The title literally means "summer is leaning“ which means the summer will be over soon. Here is an autumn inspired selection of tunes that Jazzanova member and Notes On A Journey co-founder Stefan Leisering picked from his record collection .. a handful of mellow 60s to early 80s Folk, Pop, Prog Rock, Singer Songwriter, AOR tracks for the shorter, colder and rainier days of the year...

Sumri Hallar (Autumn Mix) - Notes On A Journey Selection by Stefan Leisering (Jazzanova)

More Info: http://www.notesonajourney.com/noaj003-candeias-sambaiana/
Format: LP (180g vinyl + Old School Tip On Gatefold Cover  + Download Card + Printed Inner Sleeve)
Cat#: NOAJ003
Original release: 1976
Releasedate: 28.07.2017

Short Info: 

Curiously enough the story of this record begins with a song, which isn't even featured on it. A song named 'Guayabas'. One of Guillermo Reuter's very first free-spirited compositions is one of his two contributions to the fourth album 'Ese Dia Va A Llegar' by friend and musician Agustin Pereyra Lucena, in 1975. 'Guayabas' was the unintended starting signal for Reuter's career and was coincidentally the initial spark for this reissue that you, dear reader and listener, are holding in your hands right now.

But perhaps we'd better take one thing at a time and not jump ahead of ourselves. 'Guayabas' was the Guillermo Reuter song that first caught the attention of the Notes On A Journey founders Jürgen von Knoblauch and Stefan Leisering. It led them to discover his album 'Candeias' shortly thereafter, and a love affair was born. It was a similar story for Jacques Subileau, the producer for the recordings of 'Ese Dia Va A Llegar' (and therefore 'Guayabas'), who was so enamored by this single composition that he proposed Reuter to cut a whole album, made up exclusively of his songs and compositional stylings. The Frenchman with an Argentinian girlfriend, had connections to European record labels like Disco Mediterraneo in Madrid and Disques Espérance in Paris which specialised in World and African music. 'Candeias' would be released on both labels, on the Spanish imprint under the name of 'Sambaiana', in France as the original title 'Candeias', but for inexplicable reasons, with terrible sound quality.

Having now Notes On A Journey, more than forty years after its initial release, introducing 'Candeias' to a whole new audience is also in the interest of its creator. For Guillermo Reuter, this album was and is a lifework, which has never lost momentum and significance. It is a record, which simply stands the test of time by bringing pure joy over its full, entertaining length, and is going under the skin at the same time. That's why for this re-issue the original Spanish pressing has been lovingly restored, preserving the sound quality, letting you listen to it the way it should be heard, in the here and now. With the stunning new quality 'Candeias' will find a much bigger following this time round. Come and join the club.

Sambaiana

Buy Now

NOAJ003 - Candeias - Sambaiana ALBUM SNIPPET

NOAJ003 - Candeias - Sambaiana out now:
https://notesonajourney.lnk.to/Sambaiana

This tribute mix features tracks from the Candeias universe. Guillermo Reuter has played and written for Agustin Pereyra Lucena, the Argentinian folk and cross-culture band "Lagrima" or for Ricardo Benelli's "En Tiempo". Of course this mix also features Agustin Pereyra Lucena's "Guayabas", which was the unintended starting signal for Reuter's career and was coincidentally the initial spark for the band Candeias and their only longplayer "Sambaiana".

Candeias - Sambaiana

Candeias Inspiration - Notes On A Journey Selection by Oliver Glage

NOAJ004 - Chuck Senrick - Dreamin out now:
https://notesonajourney.lnk.to/Dreamin

A little selection around the sound universe of Chuck Senricks LP "Dreamin'" (NOAJ004). Enjoy this journey through various solo entertainers using drum machines & keys to express their inner feelings.

Chuck Senrick LP

Soul-o Entertainer – Notes On A Journey Selection by Jazzanova & Oliver Glage

Format: 7inch
Cat#: NOAJ7-001
Original release: 1982
Releasedate: 15.03.2019

With the fifth release and the first 7inch on the quality imprint, Notes On A Journey turns its attention to Brazil. Finally, one might think, since it’s an open secret that the guys behind the label all have a soft spot for music from the leading coffee exporter in the world. So, when Brazilian DJ, record collector and digger extraordinaire Junior Santos brought this Celso Rubinstein 7-inch EP (called «Compacto» in Brazil) to the Berlin label’s attention he hadn’t to do a lot of persuading to have NOAJ reintroduce this beautiful piece of music to fans around the world some 36 years after its first appearance.

Born in Brazil to a family of Holocaust survivors, Celso Rubinstein’s career as a singer allowed him to take residency in several countries including Spain, Portugal, Israel and Britain. He performed as an artist in numerous clubs and supported other artists as backing vocalist. In 1982 he booked studio time at Chico Batera’s studio in Rio De Janeiro to record two songs for an intentional debut album.

On «Enquanto Houver», written by Paulinho Mendonça and Gerson Conrad, Rubinstein tried to infuse some rap flavour: «I wanted to get away from that style of singing where you sing a bunch of notes without breathing. You can hear that all the words in the song are pronounced properly but the cadence is broken up, so the intention was to do a kind of rap without it seeming to be rap.»

Marina Lima and Antonio Cicero contributed «È A Vida Que Diz», a song as marvelously written as much as performed sophisticatedly by Rubinstein with his star-studded studio crew. Amongst them: Oberdan Magalhães and Claudio Stevenson from Banda Black Rio, Rique Pantoja, keyboard player, arranger and conductor Reinaldo Arias, as well as American session musician Don Harris. Celso Rubinstein wanted to create a unique atmosphere for the recording sessions, inviting numerous people to the control room to amplify the spontaneous live feeling even more (the control room was filled with people like Ney Matogrosso, As Frenéticas, Claudia Telles, Fátima Guedes.) You definitely can hear this vitality on the record originally published in 1982 by Rubinstein himself.

Since there was a massive vinyl shortage at the time in Brazil, no label had any spare material to waste on newcomers. Only the label Tapecar, which had its own pressing plant, helped Rubinstein out and used the left over material from the manufacture of Gal Costa’s latest album («Minha Voz») to have his 7” privately pressed. Needless to say that it missed any recognition back then. But now, 36 years later, thanks to Junior Santos and Notes On A Journey a broad audience has the joy to finally embrace this beautiful music wholeheartedly.

É A Vida Que Diz / Enquanto Houver

B - Celso Rubinstein - Enquanto Houver

A - Celso Rubinstein - É A Vida Que Diz

Notes On A Journey to Brazil.
A Mix to celebrate the Release of Celso Rubinstein on Notes on a Journey. 

Celso Rubinstein 7inch available here: https://notesonajourney.lnk.to/EaVidaQueDiz

Tracklist:

1. Valéria - Pé na Estrada
2. Badameiro - Te Pego de Jeito
3. Eliane Salek - Pra Brincar
4. Celso Rubinstein - Enquanto houver
5. Marcelo Ganem - Ponta de Estrela
6. Gibran - Canção do Violeiro
7. André Luiz Oliveira - Filhos de Odé
8. Carlos Pita - Casa das Flautas
9. Celso Rubinstein - É a vida que diz
10. Grupo Cravo e Canela - Manda o seu Namorado Embora
11. Perinho Santana - O teu Olhar
12. Alexandre Az, Marcelo Dinis, Sergio Misan - 1,2,3….Fui
13. Cátia de França - Estilhaços
14. Fogo Baiano - Fogo do sol
15. Tadeu Mathias - Presa
16. Darcy de Paulo - Ano Novo

Notes On A Journey

Amine Laidia