yesterday I spent a long day in düsseldorf to learn about administrative work. it appears as everyday phenomenon that economy and politics come up with new digital solutions which are then studied like the natural phenomenon of discovering a new species. this is just one phenomenon of digitalism (which is pushed by people who have no idea what digitalism is). the other phenomenon is a lack of evaluation. devices and programmes are needed, but they are usually produced and introduced far too late, giving much work and no benefits. however, it is not difficult to predict the future anymore: after a decade (sometimes 15 years) the default path into the future is changed. this is an endless game, more ore less, you can remain relaxed and treat the devices with the knowledge that they will bee replaced by the next generation without re-defining intention.

being in düsseldorf already I thought it would be a good idea to spend the evening and the last sunny hours of summer with resident matthias. also I thought it would be a good opportunity to see my friend for the last time in his thirties… we usually go for a burger and a beer, here we also sat at the rhine but headed for the ar biennale at the nrw forum and the park nearby. matthias and me are both artists using a lot of digital production and computer generated imagery, of course we are interested but are mainly critical…


matthias is very much into theo triantafyllidis’ flying worm, the rest appears as pure technologic showcase. mostly primitives to placed into the park. (this might remember of my own tableaus, but I am pretty confident here, my work looks better, is conceptually deeper and creates a longer echo.) it is remakable that the art scene copies the lame digital-is-the-future-strategy in the same uninspired way everyone else dose. it is amazing what is possible and it is amazing that no one knows what to do with it.


matthias and me look back on a decade of friendship, we have been discussing much about society, education, art, the art scene, women and all the joy and frustration of it. but to be honest, there is a lot of projection in it. what you might learn from the ar biennale is that your own perception of reality is also the ‘real world’ with your issues projected into it. and like in every other context, we do this to solve problems while actually making them. like a robot we are trapped in routines, doing the same thing while hoping for altered results. but we know things can happen against all possibilities. they can, they will. a perfect place for a blixa bargeld quote: ‘was ist, ist / was nicht ist, ist möglich’.


sven piayda | future perfect (lvb#10)
DAS RUNDE
kunstmuseum temporär, mülheim an der ruhr
2021-10-10 – 2021-12-05
opening 2021-10-09, 6 pm

schloßstraße 28-30
mülheim an der ruhr

tue - fri 10 am to 6 pm
sat - sun 10 am to 2 pm

muelheim-ruhr.de/cms/kunstmuseum_muelheim_an_der_ruhr7.html


sven piayda | twisted ring
WOW – MADE IN OB
ludwiggalere schloss oberhausen, oberhausen
2021-10-10 – 2022-01-09
opening 2021-10-10, 5 pm

konrad-adenauer-allee 46
oberhausen

ludwiggalerie.de




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

it have been 15 years already, back in 2006 I was brought to the raffelbergpark for the white nights for the first time and I was immediately addictive (and reported in a very hyped up blog post). the combination of the illumination of the park at night, the theatrical plays outside and the avant-garde music are the perfect combination. I returned with every one I could get there over the years. the white nights have always been different and differing – and for free. I remember the theatre (and myself) facing bad weather and the ignorance of my own efforts to contribute.

corona changed a lot. even the white nights appeared as a gated festival with paid tickets. the payment concept appeared strange: a regular price at 25 euro, a minimal payment at 5 euro, a possible maximum at 100. however, we paid the regular price, which is more than okay. what leaves a bitter aftertaste is the high prices for narrow catering and extra fee for toilet usage.

to spoil it: the play is always great, but what made me visit the park last saturday was the music line-up. I remember a autumn night when I returned from a record of tides gig (no kidding) and listened to a young band on the classic radio(!). ÄTNA immediately made an impression and have been on my list since. to drop another spoiler, there was more disappointment. one after the other:

uwe bressnik installed a wooden dj table (see above). actually the perfect mash-up of the nights concept by linking technology and nature. a funny and impressive piece.


the park is usually a magic place: the colourful lighting are simple but powerful effects. actually you do not need more there. this time some artworks have been placed into the small area of the gated park, many of them are screens with mostly documentary films with no-one really having the time to check the content. the video stuff did not work here. sorry to say so, I could have done better, but I would have preferred to do a sound piece here…


naoko oriane spans a collection of watches around a big tree (actually the one I have done some pictures underneath (1, 2)). the idea appears flat at first glance only, passing time can be watched by the movement of the clock hands while the tree is an evidence for much passed time without moving at all.


mathias kessler puts a fridge into the woods. by opening the freezer you can see a replica of casper david friedrich´s ‘iced sea’. (click image for inside view.)


ÄTNA is an amazing band. consisting of only two people, singer inez plays two synths by sending her outstanding voice through a harmonizer making her sound like a wild version of karin dreijer andersson and demian who plays next to further electronics an acoustic drum set. caused by painful shoulder issues ines could not perform as usually so the band decided to do a kind of electronic set instead of cancelling. I have to say that I was disappointed, as I did not expect this alternate version (even if the band announced the chance via facebook in advance, so their strategy is very fair.) however, I was wishing for the real thing, so this gig was okay, not brilliant as anticipated.


anton tschechow´s ‘onkel wanja. into the trees’ as directed by philipp preuss was played on and in the façade of the theatre using microphoned actors and green-glowing wireless headphones for the audience, a motorcycle, video mapping and steady cam live projection, live music performance and an owl.
the play way impressive and immersive, long and complex. it was said that tschechow´s text was prophetic as it describes the destruction of nature and man´s recklessness concerning trees even in 1896, actually this was only a puzzle piece to create a depressive set up about post-midlife crises feelings, rejected love, losing sense and ambition, being betrayed, lack of interest for human beings, mislead sexuality, having lost and loosing even more. in this set-up only the doctor has enough fantasy to imagine a future – so he is planting trees.
this might sound declamatory, but I was stuck a few times during the play by finding all the dark aspects in myself. would planting trees be the alternative to giving in to alcoholism?

have a look at the german critics: nachtkritik.de

since 15 years (not taking place every year) we return from the white nights promising to get a theatre subscription and we never do it. know your routines…

we are considering returning for some time in the park and pantha du prince, what about you?

weisse-naechte.theater-an-der-ruhr.de


update 2021-08-21: we actually returned last friday for lisa morgenstern after reading the announcement without knowing her. she started her performance with instrumentals on the big piano, which was awesome. her playing is incredibly tight while coming up with touching chord progressions. later she moved over to the-knife-like arpeggios on the synths for singing and changed back to the piano for having both sounds. her songs appear completely beatless, while the arpeggios´ pulse create a seductive rhythm. unfortunately the singing did not really get me but the instrumental work is brilliant. definitely worth to be seen and listened to and a great performance.
I´m not writing about the poetry slammers as I do not want to get unfair. I probably just do not get it, the whole discipline appears pretty hoax to me.


update 2021-08-21: we found mathias kessler´s fridge open in this surreal light. a guy around offered to take picture of us in front o fit, I replied that we are also owning a fridge in front of we do our selfies. lame joke, however, I closed the door, as the beer inside was already quite icy. later a communicative guide told me that this work is supposed to be presented with an open door and that the beer inside is free. unfortunately, this information came too late this night.


update 2021-08-21: the classic white nights picture of the illuminated romantic concrete bridge which even found its way into my portfolio and my exhibitions. the night and day picture actually shows a timespan of seven years done between 2006 and 2013. above you can see my 2021 version which is is a bit scary. time just passes by like day becomes night and so on.


update 2021-08-21: anton tschechow´s ‘onkel wanja. into the trees’ as directed by philipp preuss was played once again. after an annoying week it would have been too much to watch it again. we sat alone at the lake instead but listened to the play via headphones. it was still magic and immersive. you won´t have the opportunity to watch such a production (for this pricing offer) somewhere else.

still on schedule: pantha du prince next wednesday, we´ll see what will be possible…


update 2021-08-26: after stumbling into a beuys inspired performance on ‘music from the future’ and evergreens like ‘wir wollen sonne statt reagen’ the theater started a talk with fabian scheidler. his view and analysis of the world is complex and cannot be summarized in an adequate way here but there are sentences and ideas that echo in heads. there are theories about the historic bound of science and capitalism, seeing the world no longer as elements (atoms) but as the relation of elements and fields. also there is the need to give a sericeous approach back to things that are not measurable like culture and the so-called inner life. the whole universe is a lot more complex (and not really understood properly) but we know about entanglement which leads back to the idea of relations of things. however, after looking at the world from this view we have to ask if the universe is less a material one but a spiritual one and the spirt is obviously inherent in everything. too weird for you? it is not, actually.



update 2021-08-26: pantha du prince appeared to me as the musical headliner of the festival and I was pretty amazed to see him live as he is an electronic artist able to look beyond the laptop and the genre. I had to go here alone, fortunately I met some ‘electric café’ fellas to enjoy the show surrounded by the right people. hendrik weber a.k.a. pantha du prince appeared with another multi-instrumentalist to play different strange acoustic (self-build?) instruments while abandoning the laptop. the visuals delivered some footage from the woods, expanded by generative visuals and mapped on the façade of the theatre.


update 2021-08-26: to make a long story short, once again I remained skeptical and was left disappointed. I like the idea of strange instruments and cling-clong sounds mashed up with electronics (you might remember fever ray or the knife) but this performance was all acoustic (apart from some synth layers). actually I was missing some electronic interference and some more structure in creating sound. to me the performance had a strong lack of sound, structure and dynamics. also playing percussive instruments demands a certain tightness and technical skill. also the concept of silence did also not appear to me. actually, I was planning to get the vinyl, but the gig convinced me to do not. but I want to keep it fair, my electric-café-mates remained chilled and impressed. we agreed on appreciating his development and range he is heading for. I am impressed as well and I was allowed to enjoy a performance that I have to think about… even if I remain disappointed, I respect hendrik weber as an integer artist having a vision and I will have a closer look on his work now anyway and I am curious what he will head for in the future. I´m sorry, this time it did not get me...


update 2021-09-01: now after the white nights 2021 have ended and I received this picture of me relaxing at the lake I thought would be an opportunity for me to summarize. even if I was mainly triggered by the music acts to join at certain dates I often remained disappointed. I expected something different and often I as wishing for more. however, I have enjoyed every single performance and I am thankful to have been a part of it. but the true magic of the white nights is to hang out in the park, in between the illuminated trees surrounded by culture. I remember theses days as extremely relaxing, even if I have to admit I was not able to calm down this year. but there is even more magic: having a deep look into yourself during a theatrical play or getting to know that the universe is based upon relations is something you would not find anywhere else.
I might have sounded very critical and even I mean everything I have written I appreciate every performance of this event and I am looking forward to the next white nights!




update 2021-09-01: I am so bored of television and even bored of netflix. it is hard to find something everyone is happy with, but often the hip stuff turns out to be very lame. contemporary productions often invest into visual effects by neglecting the story. so we did the only reasonable thing: to watch all six seasons of ‘community’ once again, well, third time. this production is bursting in ideas, performance and innuendos. it is amazing what they can do in 22 minutes and how they are able to put progression into it. above you see the establishment shot of the first episode. it is funny that the characters talk about the greendale community college as something bad (what it is concerning their teachers, courses and organization) but the classrooms, café, campus and bibliotheca look gorgeous. I could imagine to spent much time here and I would enjoy it. real colleges face similar problems but without any fun around them. #sixseasonsandamovie


I haven´t been out much this summer, matthias danberg and me managed to get out only one night together which was great. late at night he took this selfie of us which helped us to make sure how cool we still are (who cares?)
however, we will be celebrating the first decade of our friendship next year and have considered a photo love story shot at isenberg. matthias asked me to collect all the pictures of us taken over the years I have posted on the journal he never checks. maybe I´ll do a collection one day. maybe for our second decade.


sven piayda | future perfect (lvb#10)
DAS RUNDE
kunstmuseum temporär, mülheim an der ruhr
2021-10-10 – 2021-12-05
opening 2021-10-09, 6 pm

schloßstraße 28-30
mülheim an der ruhr

tue - fri 10 am to 6 pm
sat - sun 10 am to 2 pm

muelheim-ruhr.de/cms/kunstmuseum_muelheim_an_der_ruhr7.html


sven piayda | twisted ring
WOW – MADE IN OB
ludwiggalere schloss oberhausen, oberhausen
2021-10-10 – 2022-01-09
opening 2021-10-10, 5 pm

konrad-adenauer-allee 46
oberhausen

ludwiggalerie.de




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

a new album is in the works, I want to write a little about what has happened in the time since the release of entertain - and what is going on in the studio.
I want to start with the release of entertain in october 2020. the production of the CDs (yes, it's old-school, but it was actually the first CD I could touch) was pleasantly uncomplicated and I definitely remembered the provider. afterwards I had to ask the good question: what genre is this actually and how do you describe it when the usual sentence comes: ‘what kind of music is this? I couldn't find an exhaustive answer to that - entertain has quite a ‘poppy impact’, there's a bit of electro in it too and some weird ideas.’ what pleased me very much was that there was something to discover for everyone across all interest and age groups that he/she could enjoy and do something with - mission accomplished!

unfortunately, the release of entertain also marked the start of the eternally long ‘lockdown winter’, beginning with the cancelled lockdown event in altenberg. the first weeks were quite entertaining with collecting new ideas and approaches and so I ended up with the topic of euclidean rhythm and sequencers. the prospect of not being able to make music live for the foreseeable future was not really pleasing, so the first youtube livestream followed in december 2020 as a methadone programme that focused on exactly this topic of euclid. the material I was allowed to contribute to ‘revenant euclids’ (as the name suggests) was also created during this phase. for those who haven't heard it yet, it has rough edges and is the perfect companion for a dreary winter morning in rush hour traffic.

there was a lot of time between the very strange christmas days and the turn of the year, so I just found the recordings of "wearing winter" from the archives and tried to rethink the track. the personal a-ha and learning experience: if you arrange it much more minimalistic and thinly, it becomes thicker in the end. the end of this section marks the digital release of the ‘white twin’ ep. when I hold the two versions next to each other with a little distance, it is sometimes difficult to say which is the right one. this was also the phase when this winter started to get tough, sven and I kept our heads above water with irregular ‘band meetings’ on the garden terrace to work out some ideas and just meet someone again.

one of the ideas that didn't make it in 2021 was to find a drummer and bass player for the stage and to bring the essence of ‘entertain’ and ‘white twin’ live on stage as a band. in the end, it failed this year because of the unpredictability - when something will happen again and one is reluctant to invest the estimated two months of preparation, and in the end it is cancelled. this was already apparent in april, and to be honest i was a little frustrated about it. the logical conclusion: play an hour on youtube live, which has to go out...

for sven and me, it was actually a foregone conclusion that we would like to record something together in the studio again, but between the high incidence figures - the confusion of vaccination dates and finally the personal situation and mood connected with it, it was still a long way until we actually sat together in the studio in mid-july.
until then I had scribbled down some track ideas, but i didn't forget the lesson from the ‘white twin’ ep and simply left more room in the pitches, which is the reason why the ‘poppy touch’ will probably become a ‘rocky touch’ in the new album. it's not like someone at a band meeting thinks: hey, we're making a ‘rock album’ now, but it comes about quietly on its own if you just follow the flow.


the already released teaser track ‘still awake’ speaks a different language, but you can be sure that the next one will also be difficult to assign to a genre. there is no title for the new one yet, I am more relaxed on the timeline than with ‘entertain’ and the brilliant idea will still fall from the sky, the cover design will rather be the longer-term procedure :) - that was quite an act with entertain. the target is roughly the end of 2021 and I want to have a real cd in my hands this time too.


a word about how incredibly fast and efficient processes become when you know each other better and have an intuition about what the other person is thinking. the great collaboration with sven (record of tides) - who I can't imagine doing without by now - sometimes reaches a frightening speed, at least it was like that at the last recording session a few days ago. it's really great when you don't have to talk about things that are difficult to put into words, because the familiarity takes care of that.

currently we are about halfway through the recordings, I have now ordered a norddrum 3p, which also has to be included. for all of you who made it to the end, here's a little sneaky insider info: ‘in darkness we trust’ (so far only on the white twin) is included with a new version and sven will also be on vocals on the album.

look forward to it, we continue to work according to the motto: it's done when it's good and continue to follow the flow.


sven piayda | future perfect (lvb#10)
DAS RUNDE
kunstmuseum temporär, mülheim an der ruhr
2021-10-10 – 2021-12-05
opening 2021-10-09, 6 pm

schloßstraße 28-30
mülheim an der ruhr

tue - fri 10 am to 6 pm
sat - sun 10 am to 2 pm

muelheim-ruhr.de/cms/kunstmuseum_muelheim_an_der_ruhr7.html


sven piayda | twisted ring
WOW – MADE IN OB
ludwiggalere schloss oberhausen, oberhausen
2021-10-10 – 2022-01-09
opening 2021-10-10, 5 pm

konrad-adenauer-allee 46
oberhausen

ludwiggalerie.de




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

this is a strange summer. we are all still reluctant concerning everything because of this on-going pandemic (well, most of us). I did not do much this year, I did not come out, even a lot of other stuff like recording or meeting people is happening but reduced. I was really looking forward to go back to luxembourg again, but after the massive rainfall, it´s flood and terrible endless aftermath traveling did not appear as a reasonable or ethic option. being in luxembourg, on the kirchberg plateau is usually the time of the year to step into different routines, even for a short time. usually these days are full of art, inspiration and relaxation, museums, culinary and the beach club. well, not this time. we thought about things to do in the ruhr area. well, art things to do. there is no substitute to the mudam or casino, but there are finings nevertheless.
so here are the collected trips to duisburg, bochum and tilburg. (yeah, tilburg, netherlands, my only day outside germany this year, probably in 2021.)

the museum küppersmühle in duisburg delivers free entry as the supporting bank wants you to see the collection. it is mainly based upon modern and contemporary painting. I am not complaining in the shadow of the superb ticket price but the show appeared a little one-dimensional and small to me. nevertheless there are new things to discover.


david czupryn is one of these discoveries. his colourful paintings make a direct impression. getting closer from afar made me guess to see an albert oehlen or tim berresheim as there are parallels in presenting a colourful stage and strangely combined elements. his work is somehow funny and magical, delivering much to discover while handing over a lot of questions. the extra basquiat counterfeit makes an extra point. this guy should be on your list.


tony cragg must be seen in his waldfrieden park in wuppertal, this small piece made of wood has its own aura. it is lame to simply think about production method so I have to admit that this sculpture appears vivid in the best sense, you´ll never get tired to orbit it. but how did he do it? my guess is a moulding cutter robot following the data of a 3d model. if you know, let me know!


days before we went to bochum to see ‘inwieferno’ by friederike klotz. the title might be a mix of a pun and a groaner and has definitely tried to keep us away, the actual show playing on the complex movement of human entities turned out to be a collection of plastics (more dioramas) discovering the behaviour of a human in the group. sometimes a little to close to handicrafts but nevertheless immersive.


here are to favourites on just one shot. a drum snaring to move little figures around bringing real movement into the set up. I love to go into an exhibition finding sounding machines, even if they may the sound for themselves, like actually living sculptures. the photograph on the wall is a close-up of bubbles in epoxy having strange cgi aesthetics. a real photo is always more complex beyond parameters of simulation.


the museum also had the annual show of artists based or connected to bochum on display. it is funny to realize that I know many of them personally and great to find prominent position among the unknown. can dogan shows two lacquer works, small, simple, modest and convincing. it is all in the medum already. I hope to see more one day.


gisbert danberg has worked with me as head of kunstraum unten, here he presents two outstanding 3d-printed sculptures. his family name and discipline might be familiar to you as his son matthias (who frequently appeared in the journal as interesting artist and close friend). danberg quotes and combines, I would call it remixing. The capitol on robotic spider legs, might be inspired by the ‘wild wild west’ movie and reminding me of the decopodians’ mobile oppression palace from futurama. can I get this one made of bronze?


his second piece puts a greek temple on a track vehicle. his work is definitely readable, even if I do not know if I get I right. you can tell that I like it as he combines modern production technology by remixing known elements in a context of art and pop culture. why did I not get this idea?


daniela werth shows a large abstract tableau. in her solo show at galerie and der ruhr we learned about the complex conceptual and painting process. for me a single painting is always hard to talk about as most of her work is part of a series working on a certain aspect. however, this powerful colour assault gets the attention it deserves.


sabine hey had been quite present for me in certain years but vanished from my eyes in the last time, so it was great to see two of her works at the show. what I really like is the sketchesque approach, you could call her works unfinished, actually she simple spares everything that does not give and further information within the image. and this is what distinguishes art from trash.


I have been a few times to the museum but have never entered the sculpture terrace. (has it always been closed?) the marble piece next to me by max bill is one of my favourites. it feels familiar and timeless. as I wrote about marta pan´s ‘floating sculpture’ (swantje) returning to a sculpture which is present for decades is like meeting an old friend. you haven’t seen each other for a while but you know what you´ll get and it is always good. am I seeking for reliability?


going to tilbug was mentioned the only trip to other countries. the museum wanted us to book tickets for the day in advance (fortunately no time slots) to make sure to only have 300 visitors a day. there were no face masks seen in the museum, actually there was enough space and reasonability make it so without any problems. the main reason to go there was the presentation of david claerbout´s ne video piece ‘aircraft (f.a.l.)’ surrounded by older works. to spoiler at the beginning: claerbout is always great and never a disappointment – except when the devices go on strike. in tilburg everything worked properly. the studio had been working on ‘aircraft’ since 2015, sketches and storyboards had been shown years in advance and I remained sceptical. the final piece is great. combining a high definition projection of a cgi rendered half-finished plane in a hangar escorted by a watchman embodied by a live action actor the work explores the tension of time and the question if you can actually conserve or be up-to-date. motif and technology work hand in hand, you won´t get tired moving around the plan, just like the watchman.


one of the older and to me unknown pieces is ‘sunrise’. a video piece with a narration of a housekeeper woman taking care of the building before she rides into sunrise after work to a soundtrack by a classical piece of music. this ending is truly cinematic, unfortunately close to kitsch. however, claerbout knows how to press the right button, even if this is a little bit to kitsch for your thinking, it has an emotional effect on you. fun fact: the additionally exhibited storyboard reveals that claerbout himself makes a cameo appearance as doorkeeper, commenting that this is his perfect role as someone between the rich and the poor. (we hope and believe that he is more rich on trend). I had to go back to take a snapshot of him appearing in his own work.


‘shadow piece’ is also a great work from the past. based upon a found photograph and animated with actors in blue screen the passer-by cannot enter the room, only their shadows can.




being in the de pond museum in tilburg watching claerbout videos is truly inspiring making my own shots in the museum café. I am thinking about a black and white video piece featuring scenes from trips to the countries nearby working-titled ‘benelux (best of)’.


anish kapour´s ‘sky mirror’ is a great sculpture I have already brought to the journal back in 2018. and this is me next to it this summer. did you ever ask yourself what it looks like from behind? me neither, nevertheless, click the picture above to find out!

in retrospective, I did not get what I planned but I got something else and it was great as well. and I am honestly happy to have witnessed strong rainfall and no flood.

still: july 14th, 2021 had been a rainy very rainy day in western germany, netherlands, belgium and luxembourg. for most of us, the following flood and destruction seemed unthinkable but happened anyway. the aftermath and consequences in the future are still being discovered.

we are thankful for not being affected and we want to give something back because we are a society. we would like to encourage you to give something if you can. I have mostly supported the two donation opportunites below. maybe you like to chose one of them or find your own. everything appreciated and needed.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft
IBAN: DE62 3702 0500 0000 1020 30
BIC: BFSWDE33XXX
Stichwort: ARD / Hochwasser

alternatively you can send a donation via paypal via
hagenhilft[at]gmx.de




sven piayda | die entdeckung europas
EUROTOPIA: WHAT IS YOUR EUROPE
halle für kunst steiermark, austria
2021-07-15 – 2021-08-15

opening hours
tue – sun, 11am to 6pm

HALLE FÜR KUNST steiermark
burgring 2
8010 graz
austria

+43 316 740084
info[at]halle-fuer-kunst.at
halle-fuer-kunst.at
nextmuseum.io


sven piayda | future perfect (lvb#10)
DAS RUNDE
kunstmuseum temporär, mülheim an der ruhr
2021-10-10 – 2021-12-05
opening 2021-10-09, 6 pm

schloßstraße 28-30
mülheim an der ruhr

tue - fri 10 am to 6 pm
sat - sun 10 am to 2 pm

muelheim-ruhr.de/cms/kunstmuseum_muelheim_an_der_ruhr7.html


sven piayda | twisted ring
WOW – MADE IN OB
ludwiggalere schloss oberhausen, oberhausen
2021-10-10 – 2022-01-09
opening 2021-10-10, 5 pm

konrad-adenauer-allee 46
oberhausen

ludwiggalerie.de




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

it is like a running gag with no punchline. during the last summers cat lady frieda spend some days or weeks on our couch while her family went on holiday. and we are usually annoyed and surprised but always in love. frieda made sure to leave her fur on everything on our property that was reachable for her. but having a cat around you usually calms everything down, well, unusually only until it is dinner time. however, I just wanted to deliver some felicitous snapshots of our annual guest to give you an opportunity for some ohhhs and ahhhs. the own cat is always the cutest. here we go.

above you see frieda in the collection next to a sculpture by claudia buch and an aquarelle of a lesser known artist I bought from clowns & pferde with money I had earned at clowns & pferde. so bored surrounded by genius strikes, however, her shadow looks like batman.


once again, frieda on my flipflops. a friend sent pictures of her kitten in love with a shoe. this is probably a common phenomenon. well, they also love old fish, a worn shoe will probably have a lighter aroma.


what a superstar. up the stairs, well, halfway, where did she intend to go? posing for a picture, why not.


no, we did not clone her even if she is cute enough to do so. on the other hand she can be annoying as three. however, she looks grumpy but she simply does not know what to do with herself.


the perfect place for a nap, usually on the bench outside next to me reminding me to not leave the place and remain quiet.



and once again, all pictures from past years. for your records.


this is the perfect opportunity to come up with one of the numerous memes I have created. this one combines a scene from futurama displaying a news show and a headline I wrote. a typical gossip news mag could come up with a line like ‘rescued kitten kills five’ combining drama, cuteness and horror. also this could be great name for a metal band. however, I should do more memes again.


when we left museum küppersmühle in duisburg we discovered these fascinating koi carps in the side canals of the inner port. the fishes showed up directly after realizing us obviously expecting food. they dispersed directly after realizing it is not to come. the fascination was probably not bilateral.

still: july 14th, 2021 had been a rainy very rainy day in western germany, netherlands, belgium and luxembourg. for most of us, the following flood and destruction seemed unthinkable but happened anyway. the aftermath and consequences in the future are still being discovered.

we are thankful for not being affected and we want to give something back because we are a society. we would like to encourage you to give something if you can. I have mostly supported the two donation opportunites below. maybe you like to chose one of them or find your own. everything appreciated and needed.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft
IBAN: DE62 3702 0500 0000 1020 30
BIC: BFSWDE33XXX
Stichwort: ARD / Hochwasser

alternatively you can send a donation via paypal via
hagenhilft[at]gmx.de




sven piayda | die entdeckung europas
EUROTOPIA: WHAT IS YOUR EUROPE
halle für kunst steiermark, austria
2021-07-15 – 2021-08-15

opening hours
tue – sun, 11am to 6pm

HALLE FÜR KUNST steiermark
burgring 2
8010 graz
austria

+43 316 740084
info[at]halle-fuer-kunst.at
halle-fuer-kunst.at
nextmuseum.io




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

this is a strange summer and summer break. instead of having days off I am trapped between dates of vaccination, dentist and other stuff you have to so. a texture of never ending stories. some time in between, where you hang around or do stuff while staring at the clock. this summer is like the last one, the pandemic still slows it down, still we do not know where to, time for euphoria or time for apocalypse?
as I got my second vaccination today I am expecting immune reactions and therefore a weekend feeling sick as many people as well as friends reported about one or two bad days. I hate having a bad cold, it comes without a warning and crushes your schedule, it is something I really do not need. the good thing about the pandemic and its distance and face-covering measures is the fact of skipped infections, I did not have a bad cold for months. now I am preparing for feeling sick in advance. is this better? I do not know. it is just one of the things happing this summer.

the art scene´s lament by visual artists’ and gallerist’s claiming to be systemic relevant has become quiet as we have profit that they are not. most of them did not even have an answer on how to deal with the situation. and there you have it, are profit and appreciation gaining entities systemic relevant? I mean, apart from politicians?
but this is just one half of the truth. all the preforming artists like musicians and actors could not preform, missing income and the doing of what they simply do. we as audience become more and more hollow: reduced social contacts and discourse, entertainment and culture. this might not be systemic relevant but it is for each and every one. you do not miss things that have vanished a time ago, but after a while you start feeling hollow. everything feels like being hollow. what´s inside?

one of the rare opportunities to see some art a few weeks ago was visiting julius von bismarck´s outside installation 'neustadt' he did in collaboration with marta dyachenko. in this small area somewhere in the middle of nowhere near landschaftspark duisburg the artists build smaller replicas of iconic buildings from the ruhr area which have already vanished. a great piece an once again and opportunity to breath the spirit of art, to be confronted with an issue and find your own way in it.


the tiny models look perfect. it could also serve as playground, you might like to place dolls on the balconies and push a toy car from the block of flats to the public swimming bath. even as a model, the character of the region remains: ugly and beautiful, decrepit but serving – a breathing monster you would never leave. my trips to belgium (or dunkirk) have proven that there is a special vibe when there is a beach near the shabby houses. well, the ruhr area does not have this advantage, at least some public swimming baths.


another model of block of flats. lego figures could live inside and the model is still big as a man. I do not know where this thing once reached into the sky but I do not think it is missed. it reminds me of shelves for human beings with not architectural idea, who would draft something like this believing this is adequate human housing? I remember these giants standing in brighton, white, big and shabby, giving a surrealistic atmosphere. as you know I am open to post-humanistic ideas, but housing for humans must be part of the equation.


and yes, a step into the landschaftspark duisburg and an unexpected but hypnotic performance: soap bubbles make everyone happy, we sat and watched, the kids had to chase and crush the bubbles, we were into admiring the longevity and transformation of the large one as they were ascending to the sky. is this art? however, simple and touching. must be.


sometimes I wonder if this blog is still read by anyone, but yes it is! my friend dietmar even got inspired to create his own ‘rick and morty’ avatar! this one is a pretty good portrait, unfortunately dietmar is not into ‘rick and morty’ but we would definitely have a lot of fun in the multiverse, the weird episodes of our job are the perfect preparation for roughing up the multiverse. I thought about becoming a vindicator…

gorickyourself.com


update 2021-07-12: and another ricked self-portrait: here is matthias danberg, suspicious and bad-minded as usually. he has been a 'rick and morty' fan long before I discovered the magic back in the days. he would probably claim to have a deeper philosophical understanding, which doubt as he has not seen every episode a dozen times. however, we still discuss scenes and episodes from time to time and find parallels to our lives. surprised to see him at froopyland, maybe not too surprised...
once again, where´s yours?

gorickyourself.com


in this lame summer frieda is joining us again. she helped me to get through the summer of 2017 I spent on the couch because of my broken leg and returned 2018 and 2019. this time she is not as crazy in love with me as usually but we still cuddle a lot to make sure her hair ends up everywhere. we noticed some new quirks: playing and hunting dos not work via animation, she plays perfectly on her own by chasing balls and retrieving ropes as caught bait. also she loves to make a nap on my flip-flops. is it because of the smell or the uneven ground? maybe both, it remains her secret.




here is an anecdote without any connection to current things going on: a booker requested me for an electronic festival. as there were different acts supposed to be performing I suggested to add michael schreiber a.k.a. primal scapes to do an entirely electronic set. the booker said, he does not like to do a ‘boys book boys’ thing and suggested a female artist to join the stage with us. requesting my opinion he sent a soundcloud link and I started listening immediately. the sound file was a dj set mashing up tracks by others, her own productions were not to find. I told the booker that I do not want to share the stage with a dj. imagine electronic artists creating their own fresh and unheard sounds to an audience that has no real idea what is going on anyway... and then there is someone pressing play making the crowd freak to daft punk. this lame trick would bring a lot of unbalance to the situation, also this is the opposite of what an electronica stage is all about. the booker agreed and announced to request an other female artist ending up with the same problem. a genuine female producer is hard to find. being woke is not that easy if you look at the bigger picture.


bringing back the rock songs is a lot of work, taking care of edits, credits and all the decisions of what to take and what not. I am taking it serous again and there is a lot cool stuff from the past coming up.


so everyone is posting vaccination selfies and so do I, not on social media, at least here. I just want to make sure to have done everything everyone else did. now I am waiting for immune reactions. no alcohol, no sports, it is going to be a hard weekend. where´s my parade…?

I´d like to add that I am impressed by this massvie organisation done so many vaacination centers. there are some many friendly, patient and helpful people coming from out ouf nowhere now taking care of everyone´s health and have the same conversations a thousand times a day. if you prefer to not get vaccinated I´m fine with you but this is a historic opportunity, getting a new vaccine so quickly on these quantities - without needing or telling your health insurance company. I am truly impressed and thankful. whenever we act as a society we are really good - and become a society.

update 2021-07-12: the day after getting the needle made me feel sick, tired with lots of body aching, but still not as bad as a real infection. the day after I was still a little bit tired, in the evening already recovered. a lot better than hospital or anything else connected to the virus...


update 2021-07-16: I have been naive, once again. after the massive rainfall on wednesday and quite unremarkable weather in fulerum I did not see it coming. on thursday I realized the rising levels of the ruhr via webcam (see above, click for current picture) and once again contaminated drinking waters but this is nothing compared to the southern regions. I wanted to start packing stuff for spending some summer days in luxembourg again, and it took some longer checking sites and realizing that this is not a good idea. at first, you do not want to spend a good time surrounded by the apocalypse, secondly I might be dangerous and probably impossible to go there, so it is also not possible to help or organize something helpful.
no kirchberg this summer. to all this pandemic issues there is some climate stuff on top. do not get me wrong, we are save and sound and happy to be not affected but it feels like the future is not getting easier…

update 2021-07-23: july 14th, 2021 had been a rainy very rainy day in western germany, netherlands, belgium and luxembourg. for most of us, the following flood and destruction seemed unthinkable but happened anyway. the aftermath and consequences in the future are still being discovered.

we are thankful for not being affected and we want to give something back because we are a society. we would like to encourage you to give something if you can. I have mostly supported the two donation opportunites below. maybe you like to chose one of them or find your own. everything appreciated and needed.

Aktion Deutschland Hilft
IBAN: DE62 3702 0500 0000 1020 30
BIC: BFSWDE33XXX
Stichwort: ARD / Hochwasser

alternatively you can send a donation via paypal via
hagenhilft[at]gmx.de




sven piayda | die entdeckung europas
EUROTOPIA: WHAT IS YOUR EUROPE
halle für kunst steiermark, austria
2021-07-15 – 2021-08-15

opening hours
tue – sun, 11am to 6pm

HALLE FÜR KUNST steiermark
burgring 2
8010 graz
austria

+43 316 740084
info[at]halle-fuer-kunst.at
halle-fuer-kunst.at
nextmuseum.io




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

originally I wanted to come up much earlier with this headline, I guess even back in april. this spring does not work too good for me dealing with issues of pain concerning my jaw and teeth for different reasons plus a lot of personal sorrow and fear. there is not much else to think about, no art or exhibition, not even professional stuff that keeps me going. triggerd by an old fan´s request (yeah, still this same old story) I was composing and editing (sometimes remixing) tracks for the re-releases. next to it I am playing around with songs in band set ups again, in the spare time I am quite quick in recording tracks for rock and post hip hop projects. nothing´s save. also I was checking old pictures to be used as cover designs or for promotional issues.

one of the pictures used was an excerpt from a photo shot by thomas pläßer during the factor-4 gig at hömma dortmund with targia and myself supporting on guitar, see picture above. it took some time for me to realize again that it would be the right way to ask for permission before using someone else´s work. thomas was very nice and sent the requested picture in higher solution and even some more pictures. asking for permission and communicating in general is always a good idea, obviously. so here I am, delivering transpicious strategies of an aging wannabe rockstar, posting pictures of myself performing while looking cool to pretend that I am still cool. I know this is awkward but I cannot resist. it is a funny anecdote to tell that this was my performance on drugs. in this january of 2008 I had a bad cold and it was the first time I took drugs to push it away, it worked for this night. nevertheless I felt strange and looked pale like a zombie, put a cheap red wig on and played my role as a rock guitarist. I still would like to do it again and I am working on opportunities to perform on stage with my guitar again. rockstar is just a role to play sometime, it would be ridiculous fulltime.


this are two low resolution pictures taken on the day in 2009 when targia visited my in my little ‘moppelstudioz’ to record vocals for the song ‘missing’. I was surprised to not find them on my website back in the days. listening to it 12 years later is still great and being thankful to finally have someone singing on my songs who is able to. the song features a rough production, a great and a lame vocal performance and some good songwriting.


this picture is a little older, taken in spring when it was sunny but still cold. here i´m holing my vinyl version boards of canada´s ‘the campfire headphase’ that I got during the lockdown from onkel stereo. right, the great record store where to buy my ‘purchases ep’. now I have completed the whole boc discography on vinyl. do I feel like a nerd? maybe just a little bit.


the ‘purchases’ album is out today, finally, and I am still happy with it, also I am still playing around with these samples and different production methods which may be added to the ‘purchases’ bundle. the music is pretty different compared to the rock or idm stuff I do, but it is actually delivering what I am looking for: something beautiful and complex, turning terms like pop or hip hip into something interesting and touching.


comedy central has kicked ‘rick and morty’ off its program schedule which is not a good idea in my eyes… how am I supposed to watch every episode a dozen times? as everyone is heading to season 5 I remain quite disappointed, except for the ‘vat of acid episode’ which is a pure piece of art. when gorickyourself.com launched I had to make my avatar, featuring a robot arm (to help dump people follow my argumentation) and fake antennas (to make people from the miniverse believe that I am an alien).

gorickyourself.com


and here is another version of myself: pickle sven. whenever you feel like transforming into a pickle - go ahead.
no, it has nothing to do with visiting the therapist today.


international music are a band from essen that are quite fascinating. I know two of these three guys incidentally, well, before they got famous. the critics love them, they album was introduced to my fb vinyl lovers group and I listened to klaus fiehe playing it on the radio. I do not get why people are into them, but I am honestly impressed that they do strange songs, arrangements and lyrics while being skilled very averagely (no offense). when the band played a tiny open air at darlington park I wanted check them out. no, I did not buy a ticked, as it was quite expensive for something you´re not even sure about to like it. we watched and listened from afar, with beer and pizza among the flowers, it was a beautiful night and a good opportunity to leave the house. we did not stay until the end, after a while you know everything about this sound. still they remain enigmatic and fascinating to me, I am happy for their success and I guess there is something special and unique about them, but I cannot get it. not yet, hopefully.


I was asked by a colleague to contribute music for a graduation ceremony. I never thought this would happen or this would be an option as I consider my music in different contexts. so which tracks would I come up with to create a chilly, modern and decent ambience? well, I just made a little bootleg myself with seven tracks featuring even with some unreleased stuff. following a request like this one is always unthankful, often people have no idea what you are doing and complain that your style is not exactly what they have wished for. however, my colleague is different and sent some nice words:
thank you very much for this nice chilly music - with the breaks in between you can recognize your personal character - discreet, but away from the mainstream.
the graduation celebration will be my first listening event this year, no live shows on the way…


I still check guitar sites as frequently as other guys porn sites and I am always close to buy something – but I don´t. at least I have bought some tickets to win a guitar from a guitar customizer from northern ireland. he delivers extremely seductive partocasters, and I am still much in strats and teles. however, in one of his instagram stories he films a demounted neck from a jim root tele and you can see that the head carries the fender logo while the backside of the neck says that it is manufactured under license by warmoth. this is funny, I have always felt bad for not having a big brand on susie´s head. also I have tested some fenders and have always been irritated by the low quality. on the other hand I have always been impressed by the high quality of wormoth. maybe leo fender´s heritage is not a company but a shape which is more or less in public domain already, a shape that defines the electric guitar. after all these years I am always coming back to susie, thank you warmoth, thank you leo fender. and keep mistrusting big brands.


update 2021-06-22: as there is not much going on recently and not too much to report I would like to come up with this quite recent shot of me at the 'neustadt' installation by julius von bismarck and marta dyachenko in duisburg exploring models of alredy erades buildings from the area. it took a long path to find it finally but it is absolutely recommended. so this is me, outside and inspired. I really hope to come up with some new works again.




sven piayda | die entdeckung europas
EUROTOPIA: WHAT IS YOUR EUROPE
halle für kunst steiermark, austria
2021-07-15 – 2021-08-15

opening hours
tue – sun, 11am to 6pm

HALLE FÜR KUNST steiermark
burgring 2
8010 graz
austria

+43 316 740084
info[at]halle-fuer-kunst.at
halle-fuer-kunst.at
nextmuseum.io




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

sorry for this headline, I’m in a bad mood recently. I am facing physical and psychological issues recently so every movement is frozen. this is not about depression but about numerous issues, which do not change in any better case while time is passing by. however, I´m pretty down.
on top of it is the susie issue: as I told that I put her to the guitar technician it returned with a broken bridge pickup. unfortunately the used part (a seymour duncan hot rails single coil sized humbucker) is no longer manufactured in this way, it now appears quite different in construction, so an old second hand pickup will be used as replacement. please cross your fingers that this is going to work. if it does not I will have to replace all pickups, and my recent favourite would be the dimarzio ‘fast track 2’. but will it be the same again?

I cannot stand that the guitar is lying around deranged somewhere. I actually miss her like a friend. over the years I have always considered buying a strat with a big name on its head but I always stick to my piece. if you have a look at contemporary guitarists you will consider that none of them is using a standard model, everyone has modifications or at least a signature model. and this is what I wanted. always somewhere between brian may and nuno bettencourt (never as half as good) susie seems to be a common offspring of the ‘red special’ and the ‘n4’.
when I look at old pictures of myself on stage (there are just a few but there is always something new to find) I think this guitar looks pretty iconic. it became what it was supposed to. it made my very special sound and I do not want to change it. my idea of sound and design became reality and became the instrument serving me for over 20 years. I hope to get it back perfectly working to serve me for the next 40 years. I usually come up with ideas on how to modify a stratocaster to get the same sound, but nothing compares to this perfect construction.
now in this time of looking back and admiring the past I really want to get things together again and anticipate some future. cross your fingers! and/or send some positive vibes, I can need it.


in the infinite boredom as exchanged on the internet comic hero jamiri started challenges to post favourite movies and bands and whatever. when he asked for artworks, michaela and me were perfectly triggered to recapitulate our favourites in an art show less time. nobody cares, just for your info. here we go:

michaela:
david claerbout - king (after alfred wertheimer’s 1956 picture of a young man named elvis presley)
atelier van lieshout - stadt der sklaven (slave city)
lutz & gugusberg - bibliothek
hiroshi sugimoto - theaters
franz marc - die gelbe kuh

sven:
jean-michel basquiat - profit
david claerbout - ruurlo, bocurloscheweg, 1910
andres serrano - the scream
laurent montaron - sans titre
edgar degas - little dancer of fourteen years


in my last post I wrote about the ‘the singles 1999–2009’ compilation to come up. when I posted a possible cover on instagram it was great to see that fans (I just use this word) got triggered. still I do not know when to put it out. also I do not like to just admire the future without having an idea on how to bring it into the future. to be honest there are some ideas for songs but I do not know where it may lead to. but who cares, I´m like abba or my bloody valentine now, I do a ‘best of’ album and keep you waiting for decades to get new stuff. when I do, you will freak out and be friendly disappointed when you hear the new stuff. it is a game that can only fail. however, it is supposed to be fun for all of us.


targia from tuareg is the only musician that I want to have as featured guest on ‘the singles 1999–2009’ so I contacted her. we haven´t communicated for years but it was pretty cool as she is still active as musician (but also stopped by the pandemic situation). she immediately said yes to be featured with a song we recorded back in 2008. a little later she wrote that she surprisingly realized that a picture of us performing together is hanging in her office, see above. however, the song we did together is still great (featuring at least one musician that can sing properly) and there are some more pictures of us I will come up later with.


I really want to play live again, I would like to come back with factor-4. even if this is very unlikely I hope to come back live with primal scapes playing guitar, and maybe with record of tides doing an entire ‘collected riffing works’ set. who knows.




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

time flies hilariously and it has been more than 22 years since susie, my warmoth partocaster prototype has joined me on numerous musical adventures. susie is actually nicknamed after sledge hammer´s gun with the same name. if this appears to sexist for you keep in mind that the shows (‘hammer’) only competent character is the female cop named doreau. I hope this is not too ambiguous for you. it has become a running gag that I check guitar sites as regularly (and excessive) as other guys check porn sites. however, even if I consider buying a tele or strat from time to time I have accepted that my sound is inseparable bound to susie and it was supposed to be. so instead spending much money on a new guitar which would lay around in the house instead of being taken to studio sessions I decided to get susie´s bugs fixed. when you take her to the technician you feel like going to the dentist yourself. (I will tell you who fixed her (or ruined her) when I get her back.)
I really want to do more guitar-related music again.

I have finally found out that sledge hammer´s handgun did not have a nickname in the original series, it was added in the germand dubbed version where it is referred as 'susi'. this might be a new episode of sven´s misunderstood media history (see 2021-01-14 music nerds & music idiots | entry by sven)


above you see my brutalistesque beauty. even more funny, with susie I wanted to copy sound from brian may and even wanted to look like him, in the picture I look a lot more like slipknot´s jim root, which is more coincidence than ambition. you have to be careful with what you wish for… back in 2006 I did this picture where I stood in the garden holding susie like a crossbow pointing to the camera. as it even appeared in the newspaper to advertise ‘euphoria’ it became pretty prominent. I remember even my former teacher knowing it, which felt like would have made a serious step into an emancipated artistic direction. to be honest, I have copied the posture from a yamaha advert. and I will probably do it again when the old girl returns.




completely unexpected I received an email by an old fan (this is how he called himself), telling that his physical copies of ‘portrait’, ‘diptych’ and ‘trinity’ do not play (properly) anymore. he asked if I could deliver the music as mp3 to make it assessable again as he still likes to her it. he was into my music about twenty years ago and have abandoned recording songs as ‘sven’ in 2009. however, his words were very nice and touching, leading me back into an era that seemed to be forgotten.

I always liked the stuff you did so much because it had a good balance between experimental sound and classic song writing with guitar. you weren't just imitating anything, you were looking for your own musical language. I think that's what I liked about it, because it's authentic.

I have always wanted to create things that create reverberation but I always expected them to vanish behind a vague anecdote. he is not the first one telling that my stuff from the past was nice, but back in the day I felt that it was over, I started to become bored of my own process, feeling that everything is said. when I look back on my younger self, I see a naïve boy with ambition, fearing to loose his ability to write and produce songs. what I have actually lost is the naivety, it never thought this would be the key to these songs. still I am not aware if still could do it of if I should…

however, after thinking and being high on my reverberation, I will deliver new compact disc to the old fan. I believe the music is bound to its time and its medium, and it is up to him to digitalize it if he wants to. also I am always looking for a universal solution. zany music will offer all albums as wav as download on demand for people owning the artwork. I am not reissuing the albums. also I will probably make a digital release called ‘the singles 1999 – 2009’, there will be no new stuff but the great songs which may finally enter the digital download era. who knows, maybe I´ll drop some new songs one day. first of all, this is my idea for a track list (what do you think?):

sven ‘the singles 1999 – 2009’

01. consolation
02. down
03. dust ride
04. had your time
05. missing (feat. targia)
06. maria, I´m losing time
07. wild is the wind
08. actually
09. holy anger
10. scandinavian
11. joining you
12. a better future
13. go through
14. closer
15. drop the pilot
16. inside you
17. mine
18. take me home
19. the ground
20. one love
21. she´s fragile (2004 remix)
22. a day at the sea (2005 remix)
23. any day
24. beam
25. kind

(tracks 17 - 25 remastered)


being part of the ‘stadt park haus’ art show was great. katrin lieske called me up asking for sound while apologizing for the tight time schedule. I said no problem and created a piece. it is great when things just come to you and everything happens on a professional level. (and I am always surprised when it does!) the technicians placed it perfectly into the car park. it was a great way to meet some people again, and we had a great afternoon hanging around in the basement car park. roger rohrbach made a great job in curating and writing texts again, you can have a look at some impressions of the show over at the exhibitions section.



after numerous strange difficulties I have finally managed to bring up the new video directed by matthias danberg. some sites may still lead to a video that does not exist, however, this is the right link:
vimeo.com/529951200




I was deeply honoured to answer some questions delivered by one of my former students on teaching art for a scientific paper especially concerning heterogeneity in art classes. she is probably becoming an art teacher and I am considered as expert now. another opportunity to feel important is another opportunity to feel old. however, I hope there are some helpful ideas in it next to lame memories and boring art lessons when I was a pupil. I hope to deliver some answers to you soon.

update 2021-04-03: and the answers are here! this is a great interview trying to get to the core on how to teach art, especially how to teach the part that is unteachable. we did this to help ms vitz to reflect her own approach, it actually and additionally helped my to reflect my approach as well. I have taken it very seriously, however, I might be wrong.

heterogeneity in the art class (german version only)


update 2021-04-03: carsten roth has been fired from kunstverein bochumer kulturat. these news are sad, carsten roth has done great work over a remarkably long period of time in quite awkward spaces with limited resources. it's always fascinating what's possible when it's about art instead of profit. our common exhibition was one of the best shows I've ever had the privilege to do. his speech was great, but it always was. what's upsetting is that years of commitment are devalued by an undignified ending. too bad, especially for us.

'show/time' video documentary
'show/time' introduction speech




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

in this strange spring we are now facing new rules trying to get out of lockdown following a certain public demanding even without a plan how to do it properly while watching rising infection numbers. I spend a lot more time on the net and social media while being bored of it while collecting pictures in fan groups that symbolize my simple needs (or anticipated scenarios) perfectly. shawn sampi bullard presented a bar memory to the futurama fan group capturing a moment of discovering an old episode on tv while having a beer at the bar. (I still watch the show but I can literally dub it backwards so even familiar rituals get boring. the other pic by chris nauts captures a kitten naturally sitting on a vinyl copy of boards of canada´s ‘music has the right to children’. I could imagine chasing him or her off the record but would end up admiring the scene with a long ‘awww’.
our needs are simple these days just like us.
pictures used with permission.




the split of daft punk triggered a huge wave of reaction and exploding record sales. however, the robot´s split even left a bad mood in me, the mirco chance of their return for live shows seems even more unlikely and we all realize that another piece of our youth is done. these guys are as old as me, so what does this mean for my career, my life and my future? the picture above was taken during their gig in düsseldorf in 2007 which I visited with my friend flint. (2007-06-30 Götter tragen doch Helme - daft punk alive 2007 | entry by flint)

daft punk and some other french house was our thing at that time, we really had a great time. we did not talk for a decade and I guess we are no friends anymore. daft punk´s split seems to underline our split in a way. there appears to be a great time in the past and the past is over now.
I was wondering why it was even necessary to announce their splitting while a main part of their staging I based upon being absent. it would have been okay to wait 15 years for a new album or wait for it while getting nothing. we do not get any reason for the split, but what makes a 28 year collaboration or friendship necessary to be quitted? I have theory. daft punk always used the genre as a container for a full (rock) star carrier: a debut followed by the perfect pop album (turned into a music film or musical by ‘interstellar 5555’) completed by a dirty (punk) rock album and a soundtrack ending up in the perfect production honouring their archetypes helping to get all careers rise again. what should come up next? the possible follow-ups would be lame tries to do another perfect work or another deconstructive album, however they would be forced to repeat their modus operandi which is not an option (except for their strategies to make the perfect groove) the only possible consequence is the end, a rock star death or the split. both endings are profitable without being productive. (I am honestly sorry for sounding cynical here.)
the split keeps the option for a reunion, so even a single song will make the fan base freak out and buy everything available. the split is not the third act on this staging. trust me, they think in larger dimensions, which will strain our patience.
or maybe this is just the theory of a sad fan boy.


whenever someone has to celebrate birthday it has become a notorious routine not to party with friends but to escape into another country or into a museum, if possible both. as the whole benelux thing is not an option in the shadow of the pandemic, we decided to visit a discovery from a cultural tv program: cologne´s schlosspark stammheim is a public park next to the river rhine inhabiting numerous sculptures. it was impossible to match the artists to the sculptures so please apologise.


whenever there is a penrose triangle I have to take a picture, you might remember the one I photographed in darlington park and vanished shortly after as well as the one in my 2014 tableau. this is of course an old gag playing with perspectives and possibilities and the cognition that the works appears perfect only from a certain point of view. nevertheless, even the old-fashioned cognition remains true and the triangle does not loose fascination…


this is a playground made for me. wooden sculptures with detuned piano strings wound on screws. get a stick and start playing. I remember watching a documentary on gotye making his debut album showing him recording strings on sound sculptures outside somewhere in australia for ‘eyes wide open’. we made some video clips and I turned some playing into a loop, escorted by the parrots screaming in the background. yes, no kidding, the park is full of green parrots screaming all the time.


the little video group show at bianca wickinghoff´s clowns und pferde gallery has been a nice spot in this first warm week of the year. a great opportunity to see my ‘spirit with thorn’ as a giant in a street, to watch some art which is actually on display and to stand in front of a gallery with a bottle of beer (which is a perfect state to me). additionally I have also bought art again, but let me report about this later… however, thanks for the show an putting a landmark into uneventful times. have a look at the full documentation over here.


once again I have rediscovered pictures of tobi sitting in the window watching the garden. plus another picture of tobi´s face being annoyed for being photographed. after four and a half years he still remains the last cat I was allowed to live with.
teaming up is so tricky, even if it is hilariously easy.




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

I remember new years eve, it did not look like party like it´s 1999 (although I watched two prince concerts on tv) but it felt like it. 2020 was the name of a scenario, which had been unthinkable until it happened. it felt chic to complain about restriction while enjoying some extra time and a loss of control on subordinates. the big horror appeared to have happened only in other countries while we were happy to be obviously more clever than anybody else. new year, new luck and it was supposed to be even better. around x-mas we were happy for some upcoming vacancies to be available soon, about the same time the threat of mutations became evident. now, at the beginning of the new year, still in winter politicians hear the loud call for freedom and offer concessions without any master plan.

once again we have entered an episode with contradictive news, no-one knows what is going to happen and it has become naïve to talk about returning ‘normality’. I remember meeting dietmar in the office, even if everyone was trapped on the track fulfilling his own duties, we found time and space for a coffee. dietmar said a sentence that echoed in my head since this day: ‘what if this is going to be the new normality?’ wow, what if there won´t be all the things anymore that have been worth living?
I feel pretty disoriented; there is no prize beyond the horizon to run for. I realize a lack of communication among my friends and me as there is nothing happening and nothing to say. everyone is trapped in his own echo chamber re-playing self-given impulses.

no-one can predict the future. plus I have been pretty wrong during the covid era whenever I tried to. I know about my very own limitations. what I miss is scenario dealing with the vaccination and mutation progress in relation while playing for time to get into spring…

I was irritated by all of this lame 2020 bashing, the new year is obviously just a sequel.

above you see me during the artist talk for the ‘ansehbar’ exhibition in public space. an awkward moment of me talking about the piece surrounded by local politicians faking interest, with photographers capturing the scene – let me make this clear, the press di not show up for me. whenever I do an artist talk I consider to not do it again as it usually leads to nothing. in the end, to not communicate is not an option. it is just a playground with older kids playing roles they consider as appropriate. so 2020 had precious moments, unfortunately not many of them and already well-staged to avoid infection. I like spending time on my own and also I am thankful for social media. but let’s be honest: we are entering an point in which we cannot imagine anymore what to do with a returning freedom in the shadow of a monster. I am running out of visions. so what´s yours?



the collection of my 2020 facemasks which I presented newly arranged on instagram. I thought this was funny in the context of hope to get rid of them in the new year. as you see, I am as naïve and lame as everyone else.


I really feel like having a pensioner´s lifestyle. this is usually no problem for me as long as it has some differing episodes. going out for a walk had been the new thing to do for all of us: so here is an impression from winter at fulerum peak.


michael schreiber had a lot of fun while recording his album ‘entertain’ together. as the infection number rose we decided to pause recordings as this means sitting together and discussing a lot. to not completely go nuts in solitude, social media and media based working we kept our ‘band meetings’ well distanced and outside on his ‘ranch’ to talk about our on-going projects and all the other stuff around. sometimes we even have fire.
in this context michael wants you to know that we have finished a track together called ‘farewell fires’ which is hopefully out on a release in summer. and there is a lot more collaborative work!


the carnival season is usually the time of the year when we like to escape to the netherlands. a café in domburg has become a place for me I want to be, finding perfect relaxation while people are rushing by. above you see a picture from last years. well, this is also impossible now and one on the things on my growing bucket list I want to do when the pandemic restrictions are over. my wishes are quite average, cheap and lame, however not less precious as you see.


like everyone else who is spending too much time online, I am into memes and I like to create one from time to time (remember da vinci!?) next to make endless loops from futurama scenes. however, taking the issues of digitalism and media criticism very seriously I thought it would be nice to have something funny in the end. doing everything on distance, I uploaded material to discuss via phone with one of my trainees. to make it fair, I told her to only look at the meme after finishing our class, so she would not have to pretend to think it was funny while feeling completely awkward. I forgot to ask and she forgot to mention, so I don´t know if this meme maid a point clear…

I thought it is hilariously funny, a guy would dress up as bibo just to create a new issue to talk about but his colleagues remain lethargic and are still into laptops. or maybe it is bibo himself who is totally lost in this modern world, you can tell his feelings of captitulation by looking in his eyes.
I put my handwriting into it to make it look less skilled, it would have been easier to do it all in photoshop…
however, digitalism is still discussed by people who have no idea by merging parts of publications, the believe that this is the future and jokes about its uselessness and pool for new problems without solving the old ones. our focus is now shifting one developing digital skills while loosing the focus on the original intention. it would be good for all of us to step back and take a look at the full picture. just sayin’. my digital skills are quite okay, nevertheless, I feel like bibo…


this is me in from of the laptop giving online classes. if this is the future, the future is flat. indeed, it works and this is better than nothing but nothing is better than the real thing. there is so much missing, small talk, movement, jokes, talking about personal issues, smiling at someone, letting the interaction evolve or just looking out of the window to admire a cloud together (or the colleagues’ limousine)… everyone misses the real thing but no-one misses getting up early, could this lead to a consequence? however and once again: digital culture, interaction and production is great and useful – unless you have a better way to do it.


I am the archetype of a fan boy but I would never join the mob to surround someone known from the mass media. I like the idea of having icons that are completely unknown or off interest for the wide public (of course, brian may is the big exception here) and sometimes I like to interact with these people if possible. (they do not want to collaborate on tracks with me anyway.) mira calix posted this picture and asked for caption. I wrote: ‘why did you build me into this world!?’, she did not post it but sent back a tear laughing smiley. this is probably the maximum I can achieve. :D :D :D :/




we do not know what is going to happen in or until summer and it is tricky to make plans. however, I have started working on the live set for szeniale 2021. it is full of decisions and the question how to get from one track to the other, especially when the sound has become even more diverse: classic idm, alternative hip hop, generative electronica and bombast post rock have to be merged into one another. cross your fingers, you do not want to miss this one!

keep an eye on the live section




'never is a long time': the prdiction of this 2015 tableau apperas so fitting into this situation. where do we go? is 'never' the answer to 'when'?




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

so there is nothing to do outside your house, no open pub and not party (except for illegal corona parties, but I have never been invited and I would not have gone to any of these…) making music and art as well as watching netflix and tv is nice for some time but you end up redundant and passive. during our outside and distanced set ‘band meetings’ featuring only michael schreiber and myself the idea came up to do a music quiz playing extremely stretched versions of well known pop songs. however, michael – technically skilled and creatively unchallenged – made actions speak louder than words by setting a time for the first episode of ‘paul´s quiz’.

I was exited in advance, it felt like going to a party, well-dressed while holding a beer but without going anywhere. Instead ending up in front of the laptop, where you work and waste most of your time. michael did a great job in hosting this funny experiment and was a tankful but nerdy candidate among ten others among michi and grischo schlüsi. also there was no copyright violation as the music played was not recognizable for most listeners and the algorithm watching over live streams. nothing was to win except a good time and it was completely worth it. michael scheduled to do the quiz for an hour and we ended up doing two. even better he confirmed to do another episode!


this is me on a friday night, home and lame as often but not completely: doing a pub quiz is on my bucket list for the post-lockdown era, doing the ‘paul´s quiz’ was a perfect motivation test. usually I am not interested in games or if I win them, but here I needed to succeed. michael must have played something between thirty or forty songs, I realized twenty in time. wanna check? here you can watch the recording of the game show including the chat delivering the answers. this might be your warm-up for your participation for the next episode!?

my personal hack: whenever you have no idea you can guess 'yellow submarine'. this strategy has not been successful a single time but I will keep it! it must come up one day...



about ten years ago I went to an annual and strange birthday party by a girl I knew from the university and pub and realized the visual similarity of events. after watching david lynch´s ‘mulholland drive’ I convinced myself to have learned all about directing (how naïve) and started to think, collect and blog about ‘visual echoes’.
recurring things appeared to be similar so they were supposed to have a connection and the connection seems do contain a deeper meaning.



however, michi even did a visual echo on her blog back in the days posing with her red ford fiesta and our porsche panamera. it was just a joke but you can get the point. also this is another quiz opportunity: which car was our property and which one was only given to us for a weekend for public relations? tricky.



as I am recently into prefuse 73 I was gooling for live pictures, videos and audio files. I was surprised to realize that there was not as much as expected, also I was surprised to see him perform in quite small venues, not bigger than the one I would do. one of the pictures appeared strikingly familiar. above you can see prefuse 73 performing in front of a projection at union nightclub in 2018, below you can see record of tides performing at szeniale 2019. you might say this is not a unique set up, I say many things appear very similar form fashion to electronics to stage and projection. I promise I did not try to copy him (I was copying someone else).



there is even another picture, once again prefuse 73 on top, my version below. maybe all laptop artists look the same but who cares. however, I was part of an image I wanted to be part in. also similarities gain sympathy. I read an interview with scott herren in which he reported about of his surprise and disappointment after being dismissed from warp records. he even does not really know why the collaboration had ended. this scenario felt familiar to me, I am the prototype of the artist working hard on results, networks and relationships just to see it all go down the river unable to realize why. while worshipping the warp-signed artists full of respect and envy we tent to forget that they have the same problems like all of us and that the ending of big deals might be as depressing as never been taken up as well. however, the world might still be more open-minded to an ex-warp-artist than to me, so prefuse 73 is still releasing stuff on other labels and platforms, and patreon proves that he is chaffering like all of us. and here is another similarity: herren loves to make and release music and he needs to make money but the one is not necessarily connected to the other…
when I negotiate with labels it is always about who pays what in production and who gets which part of the minimal profits. I prefer to put it out for free as I am not doing it for the tip. netlables also seem to have had their time, they do not make profit so there often is no need to push the release via advertising, so what´s the point anyway? if you want to make money from it you have to invest it first, if you are not willing to do it quit talking about profit.
did I mention that I am not looking for gallery representation anymore?




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

music has always been important for me. when I realized growing up and loosing interest in toys playing guitar was still an option to play around. and it is still. making art is fun and keeps my mind going, making a digital production is always a routine on a known path but also moving into unknown areas. it is amazing what you discover, something to be found in yourself to become an entity a group can benefit from…

on the other hand my view on music appears limited in comparison to kent granyon, his view is way more open, while I´m focussed on a bunch of warp artists pretending that this is the tip of the iceberg that reaches into the future. I was able to be appalled during party conversation when someone did not know the cool stuff or talked about his lame taste in music. I am much more open-minded today realizing that I have been a fan of stupid stuff. and let us be honest: the choice in music is very personal and is often linked to biography. maybe a girl, a friend or a situation made you familiar with a certain track or a band and then the fascination takes off.

I remember a girl playing nuno bettencourt´s guitar solo in extremes´ ’hip today, saying ‘if you can do that, you´re good’ (I could not). the fascination for his phrasing, technique, speed, polyrhythm, wit and sound was immediately there and never vanished again. I remember frequenting a fan website on chris cunningham and michel gondry having a link to the boards of canada website on their homepage. when I clicked it (after ignoring it for months), the magic happened, I spend hours listening to their animation-escorted loops.

back in the days of being a trainee teacher I went to a party of my trainee girlfriend with lots of further trainees. I met a guy with mid-long hair, tall and gawky with a unique way of talking to you making you wonder if he is making fun of you or if he is supposed to be your best friend. we talked about our fascination for autechre, explaining which album is the best and which one would be a must have. he recommended four tet and prefuse 73 to me. actually I got the four tet debut which is still one of my favourites and a great revenant album. I turned down looking for prefuse 73 as I was not into hip hop and it was a kind of a no-go for me at that time. how naïve to ignore where autechre came from…

however, my fascination for nuno was deep and his playing and drafting guitars made a deep impact on me. I had to get all the extreme albums, but even more interesting was ‘schizophonic’, the solo debut and the funk rock power trio mourning widows. I still love these albums, unfortunately they have never been released in europe (or united states) so I had to import them from japan for 60 dm each. I am just writing this to show that I was okay with spending much money on music, not only to get it but also to appreciate the work. there have been further releases I could not order in any way. however, I had a guy in my orbit who was downloading a lot in these newer days of the internet. I was never into napster or sharing, or trading bad sounding mp3s that you would not listen to again anyway. so as I was offered I asked him to look for stuff to find on nuno. he came up with ‘population 1’, an album I could not buy in any case (post hmv, pre ebay, amazon, bleep, etc) and another track with nuno in it, saying that is was some kind of stupid hip hop.
a quick listen proved it, it was stupid hip hop, five seconds of the middle of the track must have been enough to render a judgement.
back in 2020 (so about 20 years later) my fascination for prefuse 73 exploded after rediscovering an album I had bought and mislaid in 2009. while developing a greed for more and more abstract post-hip-hop tracks I discovered the 2001 warp sampler ‘routine’ featuring the fantastic prefuse 73 track ‘nuno’. I cannot be sure but it must have been this track I dismissed back in 2001.
in retrospective I feel like an idiot, only seeking for what is already known. it is like spitting out juice when you expect milk.

it is hard to find birthday gifts for people of my age, but it is easy when they have a vinyl addiction. well, it is hard to find the right record for people of my special interest, but it is easy if you listen sometimes. however michi went to onkel stereo to get the album by the only artist she had heard before apart from the warp icons. so I got tycho´s ‘weather’ which is brilliant. but here is another idiot story: I put on the record on 33 rpm even when the label and sleeve tell to play it on 45 rpm. I read it and did not realize… the album sounded good anyway, we enjoyed the downbeat sound agreeing that the down-pitched vocals are enough after a while. when I listened to the mp3 version I realized that it was supposed to sound differently. while typing these lines I am listening to the album on 45 rpm, realizing that the voice I now a great female voice while all the tracks appear a little bit to fast. however, this is a boards of canada sound turned into pop music. still great anyway.


in december I ordered kelly lee owens and kelly moran vinyls (the names are just coincidence but it was a good opportunity to make my collection a bit more diverse concerning gender) but my parcel has not arrived yet, forzunately the mp3s have. so I thought about how to play music via the sound system without putting my smartphone on it. so I just took an old smartphone (my old fairphone 1) and attached it to the mixer. now I have kelly lee owens’ technoid sound in my living room, even when I miss the white vinyl… I never thought I could spend music on digital formats, but here it is. and it works pretty good. you can even play spotify on it, but who wants that?




during the first lockdown in march 2020 I sat down and rendered tracks for a collection having the working title ‘yellowcake’. in the time afterwards I have produced so much more music that this album will probably not be released very soon as I hope to have better stuff now. I have finished CRW2 and I am collecting and writing for CRW3, I did a sample based album in the winter break and have another album waiting for release. so I really hope that I can put out a concept album, a post hip hop album and a post rock album this year, sometimes even escorted by vinyl eps… cross your fingers, this might be huge!

recordoftides.com


‘revernant euclids’ still sounds perfect in the car, it is so cold, huge and powerful in a sound I never expected me to be able to do with a friend who is as nerdy as me. we have even got our first (poetic) review which appeared as facebook comment and is coped with permission:

‘finally,’ the machines would have said, using such limited, deficient communication as speech, ‘finally this broken species is gone, these irrational morons with their hallucinated interpretive sovereignty, their obsessive search for meaning and the grubby-banal projection of muses is pure mathematics! who needs creatures whose limited horizon of shallow needs is always accompanied by need and excrement, by suffering and decay!’ this time i didn't wake up. i merged with the god's graveyard and decomposed. god is dead.
markus verhülsdonk a.k.a. on ‘revenant euclids’

recordoftides.bandcamp.com/album/revenant-euclids

recordoftides.bandcamp.com
recordoftides.com
primal-scapes.de


update 2021-01-16: like every artist or musician I believe to not get enough attention. everyone knows that success is not liked to quality but it never feels good when the public simply doe not notice you. however, when the recent autechre remix of a sophie track was shared the feedback was pretty divided. I am usually among the sceptical ones these days and I took the obvious chance to post a link to ‘revenant euclids’. I feel bad for using every opportunity and the discussion on a different topic to advertise my issue. the bad thing about it is its efficiency. above you see the graph that bandcamp delivers: you can tell the interest on the day of release (january 1) and the second increase after my post among the comments. it is true, there is not bad publicity but I do not want to play the game this way. I just needed a proof that I can.


update 2021-01-16: yet another story from the past: in january 2016 I used to listen to wdr cosmo playing a lot of world music which is actually not my type of thing. however, I remember driving through the grey day in mülheim while this track came up on the radio. I had no idea what mura masa was but I was immediately struck by this track. fortunately my car radio delivers the artist and title in screen so I could take a picture (see above) to do some research at home. unfortunately the tracks have only been available digitally or on vinyl which were no options for me these days. however, mura masa was supposed to be hauled up to the mainstream, his debut album was supposed to feature damon albarn and a$ap rocky who did a makeover of ‘lovesick’ (which is originally called ‘lovesick fuck’). the advanced praise must have been too big, every track got a feature, it was supposed to be huge. When the album finally came out my interest was gone, and I guess it was a flop. I even think it is suspicious to put all feature guest onto the cover, was mura masa not enough? now, being into vinyl, I got the ‘someday somewhere’ vinyl ep featuring the original ‘lovesick fuck’ track. what can I say: this piece is perfect as it is supposed to be, offing different styles even on the shot run, great sound, writing and production on point. who came up with the idea to pimp it with big names? maybe it is not suppose to belong to mainstream. from the artists point of view, this is the best that can happen to you!


update 2021-01-28: when this picture popped up on social media I was shocked and I could not immediately understand the dutch caption. did sounds venlo, my favourite record store in the netherlands – the one I visited frequently with every one I know, close because of being bankrupt as we cannot buy stuff here anymore because of the pandemic? fortunately, this is not the case but the reason for this picture is nevertheless scary: the pandemic based lockdown restrictions by the dutch government has triggered riots by hooligans and fellowship morons to ‘protest’ against the restrictions. you see pictures of burning cars and smashed sopping windows on tv but you only start to understand when it comes closer and interferes your personal world and space. however, the record store (which is simply a place for culture and trading a good time) is now preparing for violence. I am embarrassed. who would think that destroying private property would make a government act less reasonable? wait, and if they would, what do you think is going to happen (to you)?




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here

the time around christmas and new years eve as well as the first days of the new year are usually quite calm, they are usually used for orientation and inspiration. where do you want to go this year? many of us have learned that making plans does not mean to control the future, all tough not everything was not bad which differed from the expectation. when there is no big party in town with me invited I like to escape to luxembourg, new year´s eve on kirchberg has become a modern classic and a perfect way for me to see the numbers flip. spending the first day of the year in a museum instead of admiring the hangover has also been a satisfying routine.
without spoiling anything you might guess that I simply stayed home in the smallest constellation that you might call party. (distanced and mostly sober). while working on stuff for money, playing around with digital options and losing any feeling for time in grey and short days we have all become quite lethargic, somewhere beyond boredom. you may ask yourself why to do something anyway as you do not know if your actions or products are taken up one day. why make another tableau as you cannot imagine an open gallery anymore?

the only thing that keeps me going is an obsession taking over… I have always been critical against sample packs (sound snippets producers offer for your own productions) but after using scott rockenfield´s drums for years I have bought and adapted scott herren´s ‘the failing Institute of tapes upon tapes (sample pack)’ and turned it into my own record. it is strange, I do not even thing this is mirroring my own genius, it is a post-modern way of making music, like wearing someone else’s clothes while making your own significant dance moves. (imagine michael jackson dancing dreassed up like a beatle…) the result is going to be wild and weird, but most important: it is differing from the rest while keeping my typical stuff within. michael schreiber wants me to start with generative stuff, but I have to finish this one first. making albums seems to be the only thing making sense in a pandemic… more to come.


when everything moved into digital during the first pandemic I was also planning to it but abandoned the idea for a good reason: it does not work. you do not get what you come for. digital disappointment by generation loss. when you take a bottle of water from the ocean and take the bottle home as a gift for someone, do you really think that you can pass on the idea of infinity, power and freedom?
the mudam also presents a digital show, it is still not as good as the real thing, but it was the opportunity to spend january 1 with it. if you want to try a digital show, I would recommend this one.
also I might bring back a digital show myself, back in 2015 we did #howdeepisyourlove for an online gallery. I was sceptical doing it, in retrospective I thing it was an appropriate show – and ahead of it´s time, as we know today. (you can´t beat the real thing.)

mefamily.mudam.com


michael and me have created the ‘revenant euclids’ album and this was actually an album I would have hoped for from autechre. we released it without any mentioning in advance on january 1 (a good release friday), I even tried to get a track featured in a podcast but this ended pretty confusing and disappointing. the album is brilliant anyway, mixing up generative randomness with real composition. I love that sound and I`m am happy to have been able to create a minimal artwork. however, I thought about making a vinyl version, maybe just a vinyl ep, but this is no commercial hit anyway. however, we are not doing it for the money, just to prove that we can for ourselves.

recordoftides.bandcamp.com/album/revenant-euclids

recordoftides.bandcamp.com
recordoftides.com
primal-scapes.de


and this is my recent bleep portfolio. I never thought I could become obsessed with spending money on digital music but here we are. and they know how to trigger me. however, it is cool to have the record collection in your pocket (in your car, in your garden...) but how do you get your digital collection into the living room sound station? more soon.


going out for a walk is tricky these days, you know every tree around. we made some therapeutic walks through bottrop starting at the new build part at quadrat museum. later we made a walk through angertal, a place that is not to far away from my home delivering a so called sculpture path. we have been here years ago in summer, only seeing a single sculpture and finding out that the local museum of ratingen has no idea what the sculpture path is. when we retuned this week, at least we found stefan balkenhol´s prominent piece – and that was it… the unknown is pretty close to you.


we have started to watch ‘community’ once again and it is still perfect third time. I have also started to re-watch the fourth season of ‘rick and morty’ which does not persuade me perfectly as I dislike too much self-reference and loose adapting of contemporary issues. however, I know I have to watch it over and over again to get an idea. however, the ‘vat of acid episode’ nails it! without spoiling, rick buids a reset remote control for life on morty´s request. (like in the futurama episode? yeah, but no.) before returning to a larger context we see morty exploring the power of actions (seemingly) free of consequence. the dramatic use of the clapton song is brilliant. while it illustrates the good time when it first appears it brought me close to tears when it returns (stupid jerry strikes again…) I did not know or realize it was clapton, however I´m obsessed the the song now…


you know I can stand exquisite boredom, hanging around all the time, I can really forget about things I usually miss, what I really miss is the isenbergplatz. I am really looking forward to summer and nights like these, probably a bit more crowded...


have a good start in 2021. we´re in this together. as usually. old paths and new ways.


sven piayda
# H O W D E E P I S Y O U R L O V E
galerie tellerrand, gelsenkirchen
2015-11-01 — 2016-01-31

sven piayda @ galerie tellerand
#howdeepisyourlove (archive of complete online show)
galerie tellerand




sven piayda | aftermath
KURZstummfilmfestival
zeche carl, essen / youtube, worldwide
2020-09-26, 3pm at zeche carl
2020-09-25 on youtube

kurz-stumm-filmfestival.de
'aftermath' on youtube
youtube.com
facebook.de/kurzstummfilmfestival
facebook event




sven piayda
NEEDLE IN THE MULTIVERSE
kunstwerden e.v., essen
2020-11-08 – 2020-12-11
opening 2020-11-08, 4 pm
postponed

opening hours sun 3 – 6 pm
fri 8 – 11 pm

ruhrtalstr. 19 in den werdener toren – tor 2
45239 essen

kunstwerden.de






questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
click here