Étude 25

from 'Carlos Cipa & Sophia Jani - Relive' [CD|LP|DIGITAL]
Denovali Records · den192
available in January on all formats at [denovali.com/carloscipa]

CARLOS CIPA, musician and composer residing in Munich (Germany), has been teaming up with pianist and composer SOPHIA JANI to follow up his highly acclaimed full length debut “The Monarch and the Viceroy“ with a two-piece collaboration record named RELIVE.

Carlos discovered his passion for music very early in his life. At the age of 6 he began taking classical piano lessons with various renowned teachers. Ten years later after he started playing drums in different bands he became more and more interested in composition and improvisation. In the following years he made experiences in different music styles like jazz, hardcore/punk, indie rock and orchestral music. For his debut record on Denovali Records he focused on his main instrument, the piano. Currently, he is studying classical composition at the “University of Music and Performing Arts Munich”.

Since the release of his debut record, Carlos so far shared the stage with marvelous acts like A Winged Victory For The Sullen, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.

Sophia Jani, being in the beginning of her twenties like Carlos, has discovered her fascination for piano in a similar age. She is classically trained on piano and violin and has deepened her skills at the conservatory of music in Munich before she began studying piano at the conservatory in Bordeaux, France. Sophia left Bordeaux after one year turning away from just interpreting classical pieces to concentrate on writing her own music. Taking this crucial step, a concert of Ludovico Einaudi she attended played an important role. Recently Sophia developed an interest in filmscoring as well as experimenting with vocals. Besides classical composers like Chopin and Ravel, filmmusic especially from Bernard Hermann and Thomas Newman influenced her compositions.

The two pieces “Anouk’s Dream” and “Whatever a Sun Will Always Sing” were written for Carlo’s and Sophia’s performance at the Denovali Swingfest 2013 in Essen. The idea was to jointly compose two piano pieces for four hands, which do not only include playing the ordinary way, but also utilising rather unusual sounds from inside the piano. Carlos and Sophia used all kinds of contemporary techniques to create these sounds, like plucking and beating the strings with their fingers or different kinds of beaters, bowing them with nylon guitar strings, creating harmonics while pressing fingers down on the strings during playing, using the „aeolian harp“-technique (used for the first time by Henry Cowell in 1923) or creating beats on the cast iron frame. Throughout the two tracks nothing other than their combined fingers, the two nylon strings and three different kinds of beaters were used to create the music, the pieces can be played live without using any electronics.

During the recording process of the album RELIVE, neither of the compositions has been changed in any way. They were played exactly as in the live situation, which was a very important theme throughout this collaboration.

Carlos Cipa & Sophia Jani - Whatever A Sun Will Always Sing (Snippet)

Enjoy

As It Comes

the dark and the light and everything in between (live)

"..an exquisitely delicate work that unfolds like buds on the trees in spring."
THE INDEPENDENT,UK
Pre-order the LP, CD and Digital: https://aukai.bandcamp.com/album/aukai
itunes: http://snip.ftpromo.net/aukaiitms  spotify: https://goo.gl/613Oq3
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aukaimusic 

Recorded and mixed by Martyn Heyne at Lichte Studio Berlin
Mastered by Mandy Parnell at Black Saloon Studios, London
Cover Photo: Dan Isaac Wallin
Written and produced by Markus Sieber

Markus Sieber - ronroco
Alexander Nickmann - fender rhodes, synthesizer, beats

In a lot of ways, Aukai’s self-titled debut is the sound of Markus Sieber bringing his career full circle. Having spent part of the ’90s playing rock music in East Germany, the composer/multi-instrumentalist then shifted his focus to acting, only to have music creep back into his life after a mind-altering move to Mexico.

“This album and project has a lot to do with memories from travel,” explains Sieber, “but also memories from childhood and nature. How did the river smell in summer? I wanted to create a sonic space where music guides the listener into some imaginative inner world.”

Which explains why he came up with the name Aukai in the first place; it’s the Hawaiian word for a seafaring traveler, the sort of person who seeks out the stillness in uncertain waters. In the case of Sieber’s new record, that meant spending a winter holed up in a mountainside cabin around Colorado’s La Plata Canyon. Basic tracks were then cut in a Berlin studio and brought into full relief alongside cellist Anne Muller (Agnes Obel Band, Nils Frahm), violinist Bogdan Djukic, pianist Angelika Baumbach, sound designer Alexander Nickmann, and longtime collaborator Jamshied Sharifi (Laurie Anderson, Sting, Dream Theater).

Here’s what Sieber had to say about its lead single, “Cachoeira,” along with a complete rundown of the record and its cover art:

“Cachoeira”, meaning waterfall in Portuguese, was inspired by my travels to northeastern Brazil, a region rich of rivers and waterfalls. It’s the track on the album which goes farthest into an electronic direction, merging the acoustic and natural sounding layers of the Ronroco, a Latin American string instrument, with Fender Rhodes, synthesizer, and beats. For each piece of the album, I had a particular vision for the instrumentation and musicians I wanted to collaborate with; for “Cachoeira”, I worked with my brother Alexander Nickmann, a Berlin-based sound designer and composer. " 

Buy LP & Digital

Cachoeira

Improvised, recorded and produced in Berlin by Sebastian Plano and Tom Adams.

2am is an improvisation for two pianos performed using a Yamaha CP80 and a C.Bechstein Mark B grand piano. It was recorded late at night as part of a longer series of piano improvisations by long time friends and collaborators Tom and Sebastian.

Sebastian Plano: www.sebastianplano.com
Tom Adams: tomadams.eu

Image by: Hara Katsiki (FCB @HaraKatsiki, www.harakatsiki.com)

Berlin, 2am - (Tom Adams X Sebastian Plano)

from the album Branches of Sun 
www.aukaimusic.com

featuring Anne Müller ( cello )

Branches Of Sun

Become

In this latest entry of solo piano recordings, I pay tribute to my dear friend, Julien Marchal, by playing a slight rework of his "Insight I" piece from his similarly titled debut album "INSIGHT" released back in 2015. This was actually recorded back in 2016, while I was procrastinating with "Unhinged". The photo is from May of 2018, of me playing alongside Julien who is using Instagram Live to stream his new music.

You can check out Julien's INSIGHT here: https://julienmarchal.bandcamp.com/album/insight-2

Mike Lazarev plays...

Mike Lazarev plays Julien Marchal's "Insight"

Scale

To Learn and Grow

Philip G Anderson & Laura Masotto - To Learn And Grow

That Very Moment

Endless walk

Aukai offers a collection of cinematic pieces and ambient acoustic soundscapes dappled with subtle electronic touches written by Markus Sieber bringing together outstanding instrumentalists to collaborate on music that could work in tandem with film, video, theater and the visual arts.

Order LP, CD and Digital: https://aukai.bandcamp.com/album/aukai

Follow on Spotify: http://snip.ftpromo.net/aukaispotify
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aukaimusic
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aukaimusic/

Become

Aukai

Recent comments

hansens

Дмитрий Бедренцев

Related tracks