Immersive and unsettling ……… a fine soundscape full of mystery and foreboding - excellent work !

what a great soundscape it sounds amazing ❤️

Someday Soon

Korg N364 workstation
Mahalo Flying V Electric Ukulele
Yamaha tenor saxophone
Garageband keyboard and drums sounds
Even more bum notes than usual.

The Hands That Smelt Like Public Transport Soap

the Guitar Solo is at 2:12 🎸 🎶 The Guitar solo: youtube.com/shorts/6ZPx6yBm8s4

Blessed be the ROCK! 🎸 🎶

In the process of fixing the mix may have to do it all over…🚧 WIP ⚠️ 
Thanks for listening!!!

Where The Party At

Greetings and good afternoon to my SC friends. This is the 10th and final song intended for my upcoming album ‘What Color Is Your Paradox’. It is also my 7th mind-blowing collaboration with our dear friend Carlos Vivanco (https://soundcloud.com/carlosvivanco-1, https://carlosvivanco1.bandcamp.com). 

This piece was highly entertaining and challenging to work on. We started with clearly defined regions (mine being the more techno sounding stuff… Carlos building the traditional instrument sections). I then mangled the whole thing, and tried to blur the lines more as the song progresses, until both worlds felt fully merged by the end. At least, that was the goal. I’ll let you decide if the structure succeeds in that regard. :)

The title is also quite significant to me at this point in my life; based on the idea of ‘masking’, and our growing inability to do so. 

If you aren’t familiar with the term ‘masking’, one Mental Health Care website I found defines it this way: “Masking often involves suppressing or hiding true emotions, which can lead to a buildup of unresolved feelings and contribute to increased stress, anxiety, and emotional turmoil in the long-term. In the context of mental health and neurodivergence, masking refers to the actions or coping strategies that individuals use to conceal their genuine thoughts, emotions, or challenges.”

It didn’t really occur to me at first that I was masking when I was younger. I guess that idea doesn’t resonate when you’re deeply lost in the illusion; at least, until something makes it obvious. But in hindsight, I’ve worn many masks over the course of my life (Art Director, Technician, Pre-Press Specialist and Graphic Artist would be some of my professional masks. And I would even go so far as to include Husband, Father and Son, since I was on auto-pilot during the earliest stages of those as well). 

As my life progressed, I felt more and more insincere in those roles. I felt something was wrong. I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Then COVID (something that actually required us to wear real masks. What irony!) came along, and miraculously changed that for all of us. We gained the necessary space we needed, to finally see the illusion more clearly. Now, that illusion grows more fragile and transparent by the day. So while I’m still in the early stages of trying to figure out the new paradigm… I suspect the really critical takeaway at this point is just recognizing when we’re being our genuine selves, and when we’re lost in a role; especially if that role is debilitating to our personal growth and well being.

Another thing I’m thinking a lot on these days…. Society is dependent on me playing those roles. And society doesn’t really care whether I’m happy or not (as long as I keep paying my bills, and buying their products, and believing their lies). So maybe, just maybe, society doesn’t have my best interests at heart (as I had originally hoped). Maybe… just maybe… we’re going to need to redefine who we are personally, as we stop playing along with this globally unconscious and ultimately destructive agenda.

Thick and chunky topic, I know. But that’s the way the world feels to me these days… like we needed a brisk slap across the face to wake us all up. COVID was that slap (and probably just the first of many still to come). It’s time to prioritize our own self interests; because if we don’t, they certainly won’t. So rip off those masks, and let your freak flag fly. It’s our life, and we’ll be the ones sitting on our deathbed, asking ourselves if we lived life true to ourselves…. or if we just fulfilled the role demanded by this illusion.

We hope you enjoy “Cracks In The Surface”; and it inspires you to think about what aspects of your reality are cracking. Keep in mind… if you still have a pulse, there is always time to change things up. :)

Paradox?

Cracks In The Surface | Carlos Vivanco & GrevusAnjl

In my daydream, I get a phone call from a late show associate producer asking me to appear as a music guest. And this is the first song I would play.

There's not a place in the sun
That can keep me warm when you're gone
I write you letters
But they're all returned

I'm dried up like a leaf
In the autumn when you leave
Your cryptic communications
Are causing me concern...

Won't you tell me where you are
The Salton Sea
Or a distant star
I'll parry to your rescue
And fight your nemesis
Are you trapped in a disco
High above San Francisco?
I'll boogie to win your freedom
Getting down just like this...

Trapped In A Disco

.........................................................

Recorded and produced 
 by greyshoes#music-berlin
between 06/2023 // 03/2024

Opening track on "Play Dust #1 I Work In Progress" 
by Grey Shoes. Released on Bandcamp 04/2024.
https://grey-shoes.bandcamp.com/album/play-dust-1-i-work-in-progress

.....................................................................

Artwork by P. Werzlau ,
using the image, 
"The Black Pennant", (detail) 
watercolour, 2018

.......................................................................

© All rights reserved

Plateau II

Plateau  # Part II

method: her name‘s still Hazel, although - at times - she sounds a little bit like Anne Clark ; - ) 
narration: every now and then, you can trust someone else to say it all: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240510-how-sci-fi-writer-jg-ballards-computer-poems-predicted-chatgpt (David Beer: How sci-fi writer JG Ballard's computer poems predicted ChatGPT)
image: copyright jo richter, shot a couple of years ago in Bad Kösen, Germany - there is an irony in labelling - first: there is a German saying: das Leben ist kein Ponyhof - meaning you can not be as naive as a kid on a pony ranch and you have to work to achieve your goals  -second:  this stable is labelled pony ranch - third: there is another label warning of aggressive, biting ponies - therefore, fourth: implying that even if life were a pony ranch,  it would still demand lots of caution ;-)
Fun task for humans: One or more of the criteria mentioned here https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/24494149849115-Eligibility-to-Get-Heard-with-our-Exclusive-Audio-Algorithm prevent/prevents this poetry soundscape from getting promoted by soundcloud. The algorithm does not specify, which one/ones.

poem / copyright jo richter:

like Herman, we believe in beginnings
rising to fight Romans, the powers that be
we presume the naive because we are humans
blank-slate incarnations of pristine imponderability

we are the dusk that dreams of the dawn
with old Jungs repertoire of archetypes serialised
idealising eden‘s lawn, heading towards mere oblivion
we read from the screen: training data compromised

with wide-open, disbelieving eyes
hoping, like Hermann, for magic sponges and wipes
to delete karma capital – a senseless, selfless sacrifice
there‘s little there there in what the fomo-kind-of-attention hypes

aurora blank slate

Undertow redux

Ease

The Crucible "Wet"  - Stereolithica 409

Grey Shoes is 
 Peter Werzlau & Friends. 
Artist/musician,
 living and working 
 in Berlin.
. .......................................................

Thank you for listening.

Plateau # Part II

Grey Shoes

Recent comments

FlexHead

Nadìr

Nadìr

Jan madsen Ukulele

Related tracks