spending some days (and nights) on the houseboat was great but we actually came to dordrecht to spend a day in rotterdam, easily to reach by waterbus. rotterdam has been a place for frequent returns over the years after actually discovering it in 2009. (please appreciate the re-enacting of the photo taken back in 2009!)

one convincing argument to return again and again was and is the museum boijmans van beuningen. michi reported about a temporarily closing of the museum for a big restoration. instead, visitors could got to the newly build depot where all of the collected works were stored and a small part of it (next to a view into storage and restoration rooms) is presented to visitors.


I´ve see photos if it on the net before and I do not know what I have expected but I somehow expected a kind of temporary building. however, approaching it was strange as this large building (it is more a kind of alien spaceship) hides its size and shape by mirroring the rotterdam skyline. this is an architectural understatement and instagram-feeding selfie-point at once. ...and it is obviously not a temporary thing...


the inside appears just enormously big. I try to be a sophisticated art dandy but I guess I am just a sci-fi nerd, so it felt like stepping into a borg cube. so there is more nerd stuff. the first glance into the collection made me wonder: what is mr. meeseeks doing here?


mauritio cattelan´s copy of himself lurking through a hole in the museum floor is presented prominently in a glass cube. I remember it being installed properly, somewhere in the classic collection he put his head through the floor being the only contemporary piece around and making my day.


the depot also features some spaces which can be used for exhibitions, david claurbout´s ‘reflecting sunset’ appeared to be our highlight as we have never seen it before and spend about half an hour watching and discussing it. there is more on claerbout to come up, we hope to see his solo show in esch, cross you fingers, more soon, hopefully…


the top of the depot features a big glass cube containing the café and a terrace delivering a birch forest and a 360 degree view on rotterdam. this is once again hiding what it is, I heard a woman presenting a guided tour that you cannot see the depot from a plane as you only see trees and meadows. as you walk around the mirrored café cube, switching between your own reflection and the skyline you do not feel like being on the roof of a building but being on top of a hill looking down to the city.


I have been to rotterdam before a few times but I have never realized how big it is and how many skyscrapers there are around. even frankfurt did not appear this high, I took some pics hilariously high buildings. nevertheless, in spite of its size, the city appears clam and friendly while copenhagen was stressful and annoying all day. I know I do not know what I am talking about, but running around in rotterdam made me feel like being in new york city. I had to repeat the britta perry lines all the way: ’I have lived in new york!’ want for someone to reply: ’shut up, no you didn’t!’ (how do you pronounce ’bagel’ there!?)



more or less accidentally we stumbled into the kijk cubus houses. they are known from any tourist report about rotterdam, so that triggers a general lack of interest, but as we were at this place I wanted to visit it. the concept of this place being surrounded by the cubes makes you feel like a scene set-up for a star trak episode where the crew is visiting a highly developed civilisation, appearing perfect at fist sight but hiding a horrific secret as basement for their community and progress. however, the inside of the cubes is strange: there is not really a room, just a not-useful fluid space which does not allow anything like furniture or whatever. indeed I am impressed by the strangely angled windows that allow view on the small community space or watching the tram driving under your kitchen while doing the washing-up. it does not feel like a room for living, it is more a space station with design decisions made four decades ago.


the stairs appear quite familiar in the netherlands while reminding of ladders. if you want to live in a cube (it is possible apart from the museum cube) there is no chance to bring in something might have at your home recently. it was wired and I am happy to have experienced the cube house.


by the way, this is our houseboat. a great place to hang out and the waves gently shaking it are tranquilizing. even more strange: you adapt quickly to the wave movement and skip realizing it – but you strangely do if your on the land again!


on our way back we stopped at tilburg, skipped the de pont museum but visited the textile museum which had been on michi´slist for quite some time. the museum is impressing for being the best example on how to linking the past with the future: you can explore the weaving loom array as driven by a big steam machine, the tufting workshop (see above) and the contemporary and currently working looms weaving designs by artists being around and taking care of the process. all crowned by a real art exhibition featuring textile based works shifting the possibilities of what you can do with this medium.




hanging out on holidays, lying on the bed, watching the horizon over your feet while thinking about future music (or other projects) has become a classic. It is amazing that you really can create and idea, direction and finished anticipated outcome by withdrawing from all the computers and guitars, from the tools that enable and distract you. so this is a symbolic motive for inspiration and forecasting a good future and it will return in the future in a special way…


just another visual joke, a so called forces visual echo - who did better, contemporary me on the houseboat or 2015 me in belgium. I cannot resist to stand in furniture I can stand in… flashback humor: 2015-07-20 belgian hotel hopping and room phenomena | entry by sven


I asked a.i. to sharpen the 2009 image if me walking in the sidewalk in rotterdam, the result is not convincing but worth showing nevertheless. it is clearly the scene but this is not me. it feels like a detailed re-enactment like in a biopic. a closer look reveals all the messed up details. a.i. remains a topic and we all do not know how to handle it…


while waiting for my appearance in the radio makro live show during its launching event I was hanging out in the makroscope, badly crayoning the bi-tone copies of the radio makro logo. I was quite surprised to find it quite processed on the radio´s instagram. who said my career as visual artist is over!? but yeah, I am recently quite obsessed with this radio station…

makroscope.eu/radio
instagram.com/radiomakro
zanyhour.zany-music.com


my mother and me returned to the mariendom in neviges once again, and I have reported my fascination for this place a few times. no matter what you believe in, this old-fashioned place and this brutalist building carry a certain magic. we spend some moments being all alone in the church experiencing peace of mind.




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
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facebook event



questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
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recently there is a lot of reflection on my on-going and dismissed projects and my role in connection to it. being an artist (of any kind) means to put much afford in work which is never taken up or is leading anywhere. being older means to step back and look at the bigger picture, to relax and that winning within a single situation means nothing for the future career developments.

I have placed works in all big museums around me (even in the museum folkwang) but it means nothing, the thin rope tying us together just decomposes into something less a memory. the climax of my career might be in my past, even it felt like just climbing the next step back in the day. as no one is waiting for you, you have the opportunity to withdraw and consider what you want to do actually.

I was lucky to spend some days on a houseboat in dordrecht, the pure presence of water slows down all of the abstract world in your head which helps to sort and sort out all the ideas, plans and disappointments. there are no plans for a show recently, but for electronic live performances and radio shows.




I am proud, lucky and excited to have my ‘zany hour’ placed in the program schedule of radio makro. my show is probably the most simple way of putting it together but is simply exploring the range and beauty of the music I id or contributed to over the last 25 years. I am also working on further show concepts but this is just playing around with ideas. also I have no idea how this project will develop, for how long the radio will be on or if I like to dismiss it for something else. for the moment I am on fire. tomorrow, on october 19th, head of radio katharina gerling will do the live kick-off and I´ll be joining it. I am really exited and hope to meet some bunch of nerds and freaks just like me. turn on the radio, noon to 6 pm!

makroscope.eu/radio
instagram.com/radiomakro
zanyhour.zany-music.com




I am recently working on a live date for record of tides in 2026. I was thinking about doing what I do usually but I was asked to an ambience set, something without any beats. I was irritated and disappointed at first but this idea grew in me over time. after a while I thought that this is the thing I have to do, an ambience set without beats but full of rhythm, twist and dramaturgy. too early to spread any dates but this is going to be huge. (there is an amazing album coming anyway in 2026)

recordoftides.com


I was selected to exhibit in the upcoming group exhibition at ludwiggalerie in oberhausen. I cannot remember the works I offered within the call but it might have been two photographs and a video. the jury picked the ‘beachball’ video piece and even if I requested to show this via projection, the jury demanded to show the piece via tablet which I was supposed to bring myself. I did a friendly request to the jury to do this via projection as I really thing that the work needs this and you would not go into a museum to watch a video on a tablet, apart from this I have presented videos over the years again and again at the ludwiggalerie in an appropriate way, so it is not acceptable for me that ‘the jury sees no other way to do it’. in consequence I turned down the election and withdrew from the exhibition. this is quite bad on the one hand as I do not exhibit in a public and serious space once again, but on the other I do not what to make you go to the museum to watch an animated video on a tablet which is probably not be working properly. my feeling of rejecting a gift has turned into the finding that I was never offered what I wanted or what would have been optional. I would have reacted differently a decade ago, but I feel better to do it that way.


I went to the opening of the wüstenroth stiftung awarding young documentary photography. to cut a long sty shot, it was a great evening to hang out with the right one but the show did not convince. as I checked the older catalogues (and I still own one or two) I realised the big change. the award was dealing with real photography, aesthetically and technically skilled people far above my own abilities, the joy of pushing the medium to new height. now everything is conceptual featuring video, artificial intelligence, collage and generative pieces. from an artistic point of view this is totally okay but could not be farer away for documentary. this does not fit it the line of its own history.


in parallel the ‘stimmen der zeit’ show bought back some older footage and media. I did not have to mood to get into it but I was fascinated by the old media exhibited itself. when I teach audio and video production we often had older stuff which actually belonged into a museum. and I thought it would be cool to have a media museum exploring all the historic contains which sometimes return because of their look or usability. a few days ago I watched a guy in a video reel predicting the end of streaming as every leading medium just stayed for about 25 years and spotify has already reached its 20th year while more and more artists abandon this distribution way. what´s beyond it?

as I was spending some time wile waiting for the winter tires to be put on the car I checked the hardware store I discovered the first christmas tree at the beginning of october, right next to the halloween decoration. there you have it. this year, I really want to get into christmas. come follow me.




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
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it is strange: if I look at my official schedule it looks like a joke - there seem to be only a few things to do. but let us be honest: all of the real stuff, the negotiations, the duties, the caring, the reaction, the extra stuff, the new issue coming up by solving the old one, all of this is not in it. I usually like to say that I am thankful for days that I do not have to drive somewhere, thankful for days I do not have to be inside of a car.

the time spend off time off is always a tense time and the feeling of being exhausted is like a sublime standard humming. if you really discover a free slot you are trapped by a dilemma: hanging out at home questioning yourself what you did the whole day or go somewhere to feel you are going somewhere without having to?

we missed ‘bredevoort schittert’ last year, this time it was up to us to go there. I wanted to get a burger at the carp pont a.k.a. ‘karpermeer’ restaurant before diving into the light installations. (we did it a few years ago and whenever something works out I need to turn it into a ritual) unfortunately the restaurant did not let us in for private party so we had the burger outside at their snack bar.
we showed up early in breadevoort and enjoyed the lack of people and the beautiful dawn. I thought ‘play with light’ is a quite lame title, but we quickly understood it was all about gambling and board games. and tv games of course. I´d like to buy an ‘e’…




it was fun to walk through the light installations once again and also see the ‘recycled’ installation being installed in new places, but who cares. this playing with light is way more fun and creative in comparison to all the stuff we try here.



this game was great, roughly screwed together, the kids would not stop playing it: ‘stef stuntpilot’ is plane made out of two buckets and a fake propeller on an arm spinning it round and round. as the stuntpilot flies by the kids have to push a kind of rocker to bang against the plane, pushing it up to protect the wooden coins it would push down otherwise. the plane does some wild manoeuvres as the kids loudly smash against the cheap plane replica. I could watch for hours. recommended!


a pinball machine in the front door of a house, we could not resist. well, there is a queue behind you as you start a trent in the moment of playing it.




the full experience is also parking on the field and the fairy lights in the rural landscape making be feel like I am going to visit a rodeo in america´s southern states. however, these shots will be adapted by the AOUD site to illustrate the upcoming release. it is going to be great, by the way.


the village also features some marked stands selling different stuff, I cannot pass by the one with car models. I have to check out everything knowing that I am a boy too old to play with toy cars. nevertleless I discovered a blue model of a fiat 500. I bought one and gave it to my mother as she often spots news fiats on the streets tells me about her juvenile adventures with her blue fiat 500. she really likes this new little dusk catcher and it triggered some more stories connected to the car bringing up names I have never heard before.


as the year passes by my calendar gets thicker and thicker while my beard gets more grey and even wilder. as I dressed for sunday service and going to the elections (I always feel so important while drawing an x into the circle) I had to take this photo pretending a certain moment of style while actually just rushing through the day.




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



questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
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it is september again, still pretending summer while knowing it is already over. surprisingly, it looks great even if it is getting colder. I remember walking the dog in the fields of the rumbachtal in september back in the days with the family of a former girlfriend and I realized the cinematic light hitting the landcape. everything looks golden, rich, calm and right.

apart from that I am leaving the summer break for going back to work. there is much to do, a bunch of duty to care for plus lots of bullshit wok which only makes sure that you are not ending up being lazy. (output is secondary. who made up this definition for work?)
on top of all of it are some more issues of development that slow down or stopping in the process. my negotiations with a label to put out the album I did this summer, an upcoming radio project and negotiations for software pricing to keep everything going…

a lot of it is settled or about to be settled soon, most of the issues end up well but being within the process puts some dark layered clouds on you mind.
the label put up the conversation to have a plan now, the radio project lost my email add to get me informed and the software issue is about to be settled in the most hilarious way, I guess. still we are stuck in putting up a little electro festival and it is going nowhere while nobody wants to show my art.


september is the yard sale and flea market season, I wanted to visit all of them but in the end I am just thankful for hanging out at home. michi did a girls flea market, I helped to put it up and then went off to isenbergplatz but I am about to sty here next time. it is a great way hanging out and meet and talk to people. and michi made some bucks selling fashion pieces I hoped to grab for free!


I am always surprised, stunned and tankful for living in such a great region. I went to lake baldeney with my mother and we were surprise how beautiful and peaceful it is. there is nothing better than sitting in a restaurant, having a piece of cake and watching the lake. well, of course, nothing beats a beer in the beach pavilion, but nothing here gets closer to it. well maybe a day at the airport, watching the cloudy sky.


we also had to hang out in saarn for good reasons and did a walk around saarn abbey and supped in the beautiful cafe. the rest of saarn always feels like a village on a island for the rich with us being misfit tourists. recommended!


I went to the william kentridge opening at museum folkwangand I attended it like the premiere screening of star wars episode I in 1999: not really believing I would get it I was surprise to get one of the last parking slots and just sneaked in to the big show. major, minister and further vips are ready to open the blockbuster of the year. whenever I go to openings I meet people I know, openings at folkwang are different, I usually meet anyone, like it is a new world. The few familiar faces do not seem to realize me, I did not talk to anyone and I do not care. I needed two decades to understand that the ‘art scene’ is meaningless and hollow, no profit, no community, no transcendence. I´m in just for the fun of it.


william kentridge is an internetaional superstar. I was surprised to listen to his speech realizing that he is a decent guy having interesting things to say. a little later he stood next to me signing patiently catalogues or anything that people handed to him. the museum put out free issues of the recent monopol magazine with kentridge as cover story and people grabbed it and got it signed. when there were no magazines left they came up with museums flyers and leporellos to get them signed. well, expressed interest in art and superstar worship must be cheap or even free. did I get a signed copy? no, I did not wanted to grab stuff for free and make it worth something by begging for a signature. if my interest would be big enough, I could effort a magazine issue.
and the show? well, it was full of people and you cannot get an exhibition on the opening day, you run though it and try to look intelligent and important. the set-up is amazing and the artworks od different disciplines are impressing as well – even if I haven´t understood what it is all about in depth. I need to return with a bunch of people…


the summer and even the september was coined by sublime infections, a feeling getting a flu without actually breaking out. you feel sick without measurable symptoms but the ability to infect others (especially when they have been to doubtful). I skipped some dates with friends a few times to visit the sauna instead following a doctors device: the symptoms my vanish or the flu breaks out, anyway you get through it. did this for the third time this year and it surprisingly worked out every time. cross your fingers. fast friday I was also rewarded with this beautiful dusk over the gruga park while walking back to the car park.
(when there is no fair go display, you can park next to the sauna centre by attending the ‘deathstar shield generator’. I driving through this place!)




when we attended to the 21x21 exhibition at villa hügel it put this place back on the map (even when I expressed my mixed feeling about it.) when michi discovered the movie screenings at villa hügel we agreed that ‘shining’ would be the perfect match to be shown here. indeed, the large screen makes you dive into the large rooms of the loverlook hotel while the rooms often seem to expand beyond the screen size into the large screening room of the villa hügel. I rediscovered this masterpiece once again, the great pictures, the performance, the perfect camera work, the great soundtrack. I even discovered sounds sampled by oneothrix point never for two tracks (that crappy high synth in ‘mutant standard’ and the heartbeat sound during the room 237 scene).

I could watch danny driving through the hallways for hours.

however, this screening series feels like image campaign work of the krupp foundation while you never really feel welcome as a guest there. an army of penguins takes care that you only move along paths you are supposed to and make sure everyone is vanished 30 minutes after the movie is over. drinking during the screening is prohibited, but hey, you have no chance in getting anything anyway.




I had this epiphany under the shower still thinking about the teenage couple, holding hands while sitting in a cliff, from the hans op de beeck. I still do not know if I have the proper way to interpret the piece but I still think they are not considering suicide but are making decisions for their (common) future. and here is my finding: maybe you should make decisions on a cliff because you can see the horizon and the abyss as well. the presence of opposite consequences in the same moment of deciding for one of them. pretty clever, I know…




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
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facebook event



questions? complaints? ideas? contributions? collaborations?
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going to antwerp for a day was a kind of classic thing for us to do. it somehow got lost on the way of other things to do (leisure and duty), the other aspect is that the city somehow moved away from us. the traffic situation around antwerp has become more and more intense making it impossible to pass by or visit the city without ending up in a large traffic jam erasing your patience and plans. the strict speed limit in the netherlands letting you drive at a maximum of 100 km/h expands the journey about 20 minutes or more. (it makes sense to not drive home before 6 pm as the speed limit in the netherlands jumps up to 120 km/h at 7 pm.)

when we rediscovered the city and discovered the KMSKA museum having hans op de beeck on display, we were aware that a return must be planned precisely as the large parking area in the centre has been turned into a park while booking free car parks appeared to be impossible. we even wanted to visit the museum last week but by waiting too long we could only book tickets for the last day of exhibition. with paid tickets and no idea where to park and planning a timeslot to face a traffic jam we started into the antwerp sunday expecting less traffic than on any other day. to our surprise we did not find any traffic jam, did not even get through the ring and got quickly to the museum and even found a free parking slot in the street next to the museum. to our surprise we did not even have to pay on a sunday for it.

a friend of michi escorted us and as she knows how to travel with kids of every age she packed a box with bread, cookies, water and even coffee for us. above you see me in the street next to the KMSKA equipped with a cup of coffee and some chocolate, can trip to a museum be any better?


hans op de beeck truly offers an immersive show. as you enter the darkness, you feel the excitement and even some fear echoing gregor schneider experiences. but op de beeck offers nothing to fear. his works are beautiful, poeticand seductive, sometimes close to kitsch while never falling into it. the dark theme-based rooms feature unique soundtracks, making you even more dive into the world.


we have actually seen some of his works in other context before but that does not make them less interesting. op de beeck does what I am also always trying to do when making a solo show, combining works to form a new meaning or message, like following a syntax of a language. the single artwork is not even tagged or labelled, it appears a s part of something more complex.



next to playing children and grown-ups doing whatever they have to do to feel their own flow you come across vanitas motifs like oversized skulls/candle/fruit compositions escorted by cakes, books, ashtrays and booze bottles. when I rediscovered the big carousel I have seen last year in amersfoort, I did not take it for a macabre joke anymore. I wondered what these well-dressed skeletons having a good time on a fun-fair might be all about and then I realized it is about us: we are the dead fun-fair people, but before death there is to be a good time: some playing, some discovering, some reading, smoking, drinking, having cake and enjoying nature and art.


some pieces appear to be beautiful but also randomly added for a complex meaning without carrying to much meaning itself. but here is a great power of his work: it is not explaining but exploring something and offers a lot of space for your own projection. and indeed, I see things in it that are connected to myself.


the show is full of frozen moments of beings being all by themselves, in play, rest or thought, it does not appears static at all, as you move all the time. apart from the water under a town at the sea there is only one moving sculpture. placed above a column, a crow is performing its infinite flight movements, an unbelievable piece being so simple and complex at the sae time, so seductive and convincing. this is an effect, of course, but it is not a bout the effect, it is about the beautiful being doing what it is doing.


the last room of the sculptures is a true climax: a large, life-sized model of the rock of a cliff is surrounded by the sound of waves of the sea. a perfect illusion triggered by two elements only. as you walk around the rock you will be massively surprised by striking twist finding two teenagers sitting on the stone holding hands. it is a dramatic situation; in spite of holding hands the situation is not really romantic, maybe a turning point. I do not consider them to prepare common suicide but I read it as a fragile decision for a life-defining relationship. is it solid as a rock or in need to be discussed? are you able to make decisions for your life as a young human being as you know nothing about the well dressed skeletons riding the carousel?


this is our group out art tourists as reflected by a work of anish kapoor. it may look strange but we are reasonable people.


before going back home we entered the cool vintage quarter of antwerp where we visited markets back in the day. I quickly remember everything and we even discovered the less beautiful corners, but still, there is a beauty in it… can we bring back the antwerp sunday as a classic standard?



update 2025-08-19: yesterday we attended to the big screening at rrz´ cinemaxx (close enough to walk over) of ‘the klimperclown’, the documentary retrospective about and by helge schneider himself celebrating his 70th (!) birthday. as a special bonus, helge showed up before the screening to give some background information on the movie, answer some questions and some helge being helge. he is known to be a professional who takes the stage incidentally, he would not have the mood to show up after the screening. the movie is what it is supposed to be, a self-portrait collage featuring some older, newer and staged footage of the artist. the movie tells nothing that you did not know, maybe some details and side anecdotes. it is not made to hand over a message, but it demonstrated two findings: helge is not interested in anything but himself, like a rick-sanchez-superpower the rest of the world has no connection to his universe as far as it is not useful for his business. this leads to another finding of the striving for freedom at maximum reaching it´s peek in jazz. all of this exists far apart from any political agenda, from any idea of or for society. I do not know if I want to expect something or if an artist has to have a certain meta-message within his work, but this is missing completely, there is no second layer beyond the surface. It is, what it is. this is not supposed to be a complaint, I have never seen this clearer. according to sigmar polke: ‘you can see what it is‘, so here we go: you can already watch the movie in the ARD mediathek.


update 2025-08-30: making a new rock album is always exciting, especially because a lot can go wrong and you can actually fail. making the new AOUD album was a challenge – tackling broken amps, group-splitting schedules, and a bunch of other projects, issues, and holidays hitting in. however, after editing, normalizing, and putting all songs into the right order, you finally find out if it would work out. you often bemoan decisions you made within the process, leading to something less good, wondering if you are doing the right thing right now. my mp3 demo sounds great, and I have listened to the album five times in a row. ‘consent’ is a milestone, and I knew it would not get better, so it had to be different. I can't wait to play the riffs live and drop the first single.

architectsofutterdestruction.com




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



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

it is summer – again. as you age, the seasons change as quickly as night and day, before you realize that it is the time to do certain things it is already over. I can feel things becoming a memory while happening. recording and mixing the new architects of utter destruction album, discovering new music (mouse on mars and bran van 3000) and spending some days in ooskapelle, coin my summer break. we somehow ended up here, even if it is crowded, the beach is a great place to be in summer. we had a beach day in our beach tent (see above), the last time we did it must have been 15 years ago but is still very present to me. this is the only way to do nothing. listen to the sea, listen to music, read …whatever. but even on a very long beach people have to put up their tent close to you. even in the beach days I skipped every beer for a non-alcoholic one and I really did not miss anything. it is the same with fried stuff, there is a lot more you can do with fish instead of deep-frying it.

there is not much happening and I am totally busy with my own stuff. in retrospective the summer break was always considered as the greatest time of the year, an endless party in the sun with all your friends around. actually this has never happened. I guess I am enjoying summer solitude and learn to get along with myself.


we have already stayed in ooskapelle during our countless trips to zeeland. of course, here is an update of the sculpture on the way to the beach. having a room over a restaurant appeared to be a worse idea than expected, therefore the breakfast was served in a quiet atmosphere. spending your days here has a lot to do with standards and routines but it is always great.



update 2025-08-13: our days in ooskapelle have been over for a while but there is an echo somehow. we stayed at boshoek (the last rooms at the street to the beach) and I really enjoyed it. when we first entered the room we were amazed to see that everything is pretty new. the next thing we checked was the missing od a tv or radio. I do not need to watch tv on holidays but I love to turn on some music channel in the morning and listen to eighties classics or local heroes.

my way to relaxing routines in afternoons and evening became reading the art magazine (18 euro for an issue is something I only spend once in a year every five years) and discovering mouse on mars’ ‘parastophics’ album. all of this connected, the beach feeling, the weird deconstruction and arty approach. my inner soundtrack became wild positive, like you stuff at the sea, everything is down-and-heel but you do not care as there is a certain beauty in it.

back home I had some ideas in my head for rhythms, modulated sounds and even orchestral arrangements. I did not wanted to start an album, I thought it would be something for autumn. nevertheless, for the first time in a decade I have a label waiting for some new stuff and they keep me updated to make sure I will remember them when I have something new. I collected and created packs of samples just by accident, I stared two new tracks adding some more techno groove to the post hip-hop universe as settled in the IDM multiverse. it was new and interesting but did not convince me at first. I tried the same approach again and got a banger. I even started a collaboration for a track I have been thinking about for years! after five days I had 12 tracks in need to be fine tuned.
when I finished ‘on a spectrum’ it felt like an ambitioned ‘best of’ thing, something so fine and complex that it would be impossible to do a follow-up. well, but here it is, wild, worn and beautiful.



a great thing to do is to take a walk from ooskapelle to domburg along the beach (attend the beer & melk salon, have coffee at café verdi, check the stores maybe have some fish. walking back through the woods behind the dune. the visit of the grey tree a.k.a. tree of cognition is the thing we must do, like visiting an old friend. we are attending it the second time this year. things getting weird a little…


we checked the weather forecast to make sure that we would spend the least sunny day in middleburg. once again, this is also about routines, but after some days hanging out, my brain craves for some cultural input. we checked the zeeuwse museum but did not attend it as we´ve seen the shows back in winter. a fix ritual is the visit of the vleeshal having the first solo show by jae pil eun. it did not get me this time, the exhibited elements and the anticipated purpose did not fit together in my perception. but nevertheless, the vleeshal exhibition space is impressive for itself and it is always great to see, how artists use (and fill) this large space with contemporary art.
part of the routine is also a visit of a music store and a café for some rest. the weather forecast was right by the way, we were told that it was going to rain but we ignored it even knowing the weather at the sea is very dynamic. well, we bought a small umbrella and we did not miss this trend!


when it is rainy and the museums and off-spaces are already checked we finally ended up in the middleheim church and abbey. to our surprise, we discovered more art (the magic of etching) in the abbey and large scale drawings by femke gerestein in the church. she appears to be a local artist and the church seems to be the perfect room for her big panels. what really fascinates me is the realistic portrayal of trees, grass, fields and human bodies by just using a pencil in a technique that looks like scrawling while looking closer. I was impressed to the great work here. as a slow learner I still discover that museums exhibit people for strategic reasons, it is never about ‘quality’ while this empty team is used like shield against criticism.



leaving zeeland has another ritual we almost skipped. a visit to the doghouse we stayed it in 2010. we were surprised to witness the decay, debris and rebuilding of it. well, here it is, obviously still in the making.


on our way back we wanted to visit a museum at our route of course, we wanted to go to the de pont museum in tilburg but the traffic situation made us consider going to antwerp. this city had been quite important to us about 15 years ago, we sometimes spend sunday here, as you could simply attend it after two hours on the highway. we decided to go to the fomu (the antwerp foto museum) and we immediately realized how log we haven’t been here. the large space for parking and drop some basketballs has vanished for a large and impressively beautiful park surrounded by the vivid city. the triumphal arch trigger the illusion to be in paris, but this city is large enough and immediately engaged plans to return.


it must have been 14 years now since we last attended the fomu and the pathetic reason for this is that I could not open their website on my browser (for whatever reason) and we never found our what was on display. above you see me in front of the museum back in 2011 and in 2025. the shows were great, having a look on the history (even technically) of photography, on contemporary usage and on expanding the medium to film, video and text. katja mater merged her works with the collection leading to a show exploring the magic of photography and the magic of all the machines and analogue devices making the pictures come to life by making them move or appear plastic. you immediately understand, that the digital image appears to be a different medium and you want to go back.

the most impressive room was the darkest one, full of ‘owls’ and laternas. the moon appears to be a recurring motive, being the only object in the sky worth taking a picture of by delivering graphic depth and triggering space travel fantasies.
it really brought back inspiration to work on my moon project. of course, I did not take a picture but used a nasa map to create a 3d-model, nevertheless the classic photographs of the moon made me realize it might be worth going for it… it won´t be 14 years until returning to this magic place…


back home we attended the luftshiffhangar for an exhibition of the ‘an der’ art group. what triggered me a lot more was the hangar itself, it´s beautiful, cathedralesque wooden construction and the windows aligning the horizon. you cannot even believe this is just some minutes away from where I live. the café in the airport has also gained my fascination as it is like a beach bar with no sea but a lot of sky. unfortunately everyone else is also there…



another discovery in extension of the darlington park. as I visited the fun fair on the ruhr´s meadows with my mother I realized all of the fountains and water plays. michi and me returned and we went through it and really discovered the ‘tourainer garden’ which is actually a water playground for kids –kids of every age.
it is amazing how much fun you can have by making water flow through different canals and down the stairs, you cannot keep a bad mood here. once again this place feels like being somewhere far way, mülheim is a great place to be.




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



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

this year holds a personal anniversary for me: twenty years of live electronica. I came up with projects like sellafield., AESTATE and record of tides over the years. it is strange, I always felt like a misfit, being percept as some arty guy doing weird noise to proof his strangeness. but it was never like that, I always wanted to make good music and play live. I feel sorry for myself as I have never found the right people to form a power trio. and even if – I am a bad singer and a guitar poser anyway, it might have not worked out anyway. but I wanted to do what I could do on my own and what fascinated me, the sound, the rhythm, the surprise and the emotion of that warp gave to me and the world.

I was and still am a copycat of aphex twin, autechre, boards of canada and prefuse 73, but I brought in my rock background I guess after twenty years I have created a unique body of work based upon electronica. this was my way to play live without having a band (that would split up before having a first gig). looking back I still remember the drunk guy who came up to me during the 2005 sellafield. gig in tönisvorst (see picture above) asking I would think that this would make people dance? I just said ‘no’ and turned the volume up again. I remember utku from ghost frames saying that I could be successful by producing some techno house music, but I did not want to as would bore myself.

this was a typical move I also did when it came to visual art, I have always considered myself as an artist doing what was necessary from the point of artistic integrity hoping for an audience to follow. I never thought about pleasing the audience, the consequence might be a lack of profit. nevertheless, there are some rare but true fans all over europe – with no chance to bring them together in a live audience. but there are also great moments when I ended up in places I belong to, playing at fzw, artemis, marienkirche herne, 35blumen and eunioa was magic.

after the great shows of my may 2025 tour I still feel happy and exhausted. the ‘on a spectrum’ album appears like a monolith to me, mashing up all the influence I have while creating an ambitious piece of contemporary music that is still fun. as it is hart to go from here to anywhere, I decided to take a little break (to work on AOUD #4) and see where record of tides is going. however, I’ll back be playing live!


having played some jams in langenberg (or LA as we like to say) I really fell in love with this place and feel a connection to it. friend and jam buddy martin slemeyer invited me to the ‘beach party’ at the smallest beach of LA as invited by kamm & stulle. I was surprised to find out how small it actually was and what can be identified as beach… however, martin said that he was set to perform live and should bring up a guitar if I´d show up. martin was up for a four hour solo show with a program fill half of the time. after some non-alcoholic drinks I plugged in my white strat (called daisy).


and here we are doing an improvised performance to an audience that did not come to see a jam. after about half an hour of (bluesy) riffing and some supportive licks we had our focus on the sky threatening the pa with a thunderstorm. after my guest star appearance I ended up as martin´s roadie and that's the full story.


not to forget matthias danberg and me celebrating ‘the highest holiday of the studienrat’. were both in a strange transition status concerning making and exhibiting art. we both do not do many shows recently as we are obviously not requested, but we still love to produce stuff. apart from this we are entering a kind of post-artist status: matthias is doing the ‘breaking the spell’ podcast, I am recently doing productions for my label. being an artist is obviously more that painting a picture and exhibition it hoping that someone would buy it.
by the way, as we both are complex being with issues we never run out of topics. during our classic routines I am usually the only one having a beer. I guess I am recently changing this and matthias is my guide here, I am recently having good times without drinking or smoking at all. is this a phase or a new way? cross your fingers!


ivo franz invited for another asb wünshewagen charity auction at ruhr gallery. this time based upon the inheritance of painting by gisela lentz. I was in as I like to support the wünschewagen once again and I would like to honour the work of a deceased artist and find a future home for her works. we got two pieces (I do not know if we would have wanted others instead) and brought in friends who also bought three… as michi returned with another old and dismissed oil painting from the street we have a true collection now.

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de


the gallery is full of art and funny stuff, also of a live-sized cardboard cut-out of artist and curator klaus wiesel. that was my chance for a selfie – which looks surprisingly authentic. by checking the other perspective you can tell it is not.


as the entry to the kunstmuseum mülheim is free on a wednesday afternoon I thought we should check the ‘mülheim calling’ show (yes, the one that sorted me out). so I entered the museum with a certain mood of malice, I would have liked matthias to escort us as he usually has a strong dislike for lame art. it was even more strange that the friendly cashier recognized me saying that it would be cool that I attend the show as someone not being chosen, he would have expected more upset among the non-exhibited artists. I tried to be diplomatic and said that it is the unreproducible choice of the jury and you have to accept it, but there are three dismissed ones for every chosen artist – so there might be upset as well. I am familiar with the feeling of being dismissed in many context and being not part of a show you have applied for is something I can easily handle (sometimes I am thankful to not have to care or workfor a certain show) this time it is different, there are a bunch of things noticeable giving a long lasting bad aftertaste. and I am not the only one seeing it. as I entered the show, it was looking good at first glance.
laas abendroth is always a hit, quickly to recognize, funny and always on point.


johannes gramm is known for his photographic (processing) adventures and must have expanded his range of disciplines including objects. (like me, like all photographers?) his printed towel on a plastic chair comes as ‘shroud of the beach, a funny pun linking history to meaninglessness of leisure.


a great discovery of the last years is jan kromarek. he is also known for producing the ‘mülheimer künstler für kinder’ calendar and it has always been great to work with him. next to that he creating these paintings (?) of dark scenes on old deal boards. rough, dark and seductive.
to be honest, the show looks good at first glance but is pretty lame, it simply has half-dozen great positions among staff contributions and hip meaninglessness. even the video pieces (apart from being awarded) are disappointing. are good curating decisions just coincidence?


the museum is happy to present the ziegler collection in a new way, I was irritated while michi appeared totally stunned. celebrating floral motives of the collection, the museum windows have been covered with large pictures of the garden while retro furniture has been installed to bring back the illusion of a home with artworks. this concept appears to be failing, why would you mimic a living room interior in a museum and mount big photographs next to small-sized impressionist paintings? the result is a screaming installation the leads all the attention away from what is actually the reason for entering.
I fell in love with the old tiled stove instead. it reminded me of my own ‘jeffries kettle’. I am not a big ‘twin peaks’ fan (sorry to say so) but I am fascinated of agent jeffries as portrait by david bowie. he returns in a dreamlike sequence when jeffries is a talking kettle. I thought of the oven as kettle holding the soul, spirit or ghost of someone who is a little bit intractable but still holds some answers for you. wait, isn´t this what an artwork is all about?


yesterday I went to venlo with my mother again. it is a kind of routine and the easiest, mostly only way, to spend a holiday in another country. It was not too crowded even if we are in the middle of the summer break. I always feel I should come back for vinyl, fish and fashion!


it´s summer and I have attended some jams, artist meetings or met friends and it works pretty good to stay away from nicotine and alcohol. I do not know if this is just a phase or a true change and I do not want be too missionary about this. the funny thing is that you just quit and it is no issue after a few days anymore. but all these drug based escape methods are liked to stress factors in your life. if you change one variable, the others must (or will) change to get the same outcome. I feel like my body has decided to not take up all the conflicts carried to me. change may happen if a continuation of the past appears not as an option anymore.


as you know, I am back in studio with architects of utter destruction to record songs I have been writing and arranging for months (sometimes even years). it is always strange, within the process you cannot tell if it is a genius masterpiece or pure shit – time will tell as usually. however, this is the studio report as posted on the AOUD fb site:

2025-07-15
we are glad to tell you that the group has returned to the studio. jan, chris, and sven have recorded the songs ‘rags’ and ‘crux’ today. further sessions are supposed to follow in the next days. it’s pretty wild – cross your fingers!

2025-07-16
studio report – day two: the boys recorded the songs ‘rodeo’ and ‘honey’ (which is actually an adaptation of a record of tides track). this appears to be the most ambitious album to date – a truly extended rock sound – but there is still no single. the tube amps are noisy and bitchy; there’s a lot layered upon one another. sessions are supposed to be taken up on friday or monday.

2025-07-18
studio report – day three: the boys recorded the song ‘on’. this hip-hop/post-hip-hop/rock mash-up is supposed to be the opener of the new album. as the group considers the recent album ‘consent’ their best work so far, the follow-up cannot be an attempt to copy it, but rather a search for new directions. so far, there is a lot of bombast to it – samples, synths, beats, guest drummers, strings, and horns. will it be too much?
plus: sven piayda has taken up work on the artwork. the first version for an album cover was dismissed while creating a cgi version. now, piayda has also created single covers fitting the corporate design, even though there is no decision for a single yet. sessions for the last two songs are supposed to begin on monday.

2025-07-21
studio report – day four: the boys returned to the studio to record the final songs: ‘bombshell’ (which appears to be the heaviest track on the album) and ‘total inversion’ (which features lush string arrangements and is nearly impossible to mix properly). over the next few days, the group will focus on finding the right mix. still, no decision has been made regarding the first single…
plus: the group has already begun tossing around ideas for a future album. something is already on the list.

2025-07-22
studio report – day five: sven returned to the studio to record vocal overdubs for the track ‘on’ and has been fine-tuning the mix, editing out unwanted noise. we’re currently also working on the album credits and researching which guest musicians contributed to which parts. there may soon be a decision on the singles – ‘bombshell’ and ‘crux’ are currently favored by the band. in addition, a first draft of the album microsite has been programmed. the coming days will be dedicated to refining the mix.

architectsofutterdestruction.com




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



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

I remember going int the spring break feeling exhausted and hoping to get through the last month easily until summer break. well, there is so much to do, to teach, visit, correct and discuss. everything feels like it is too much. this may was coined by organizing the live dates of my record of tides may 2025 tour. I figured it pretty cool, back in winter when I drafted and booked the dates with the venues. but you can never guess, what else will be around. all of the dates were fun, sometimes just friends being around, sometimes the local scene, sometimes people who really want to see me play. it leaves me quite happy, there is no frustration and strangely I realize that it is frustration that keeps me going trying to make it better. now I feel like I should lean back.

once again, alex kupsch of eunoia did a great job in preparing and advertising the show, you are quite irritated if everything is perfect and presented so easily. we are planning future collaborations. on the other hand I had to handle an infection of my mother which made me pretty nervous (and I am not sure if this issue is past already). you have these performance dates (15 minutes fame) you are preparing for months and then you do it while your thoughts are somewhere else. being a professional musician on tour is way more tough than you can imaging and it is something I could not do.

also I pitched an idea to the museum mülheim. surprisingly, matthias danberg appeared to be very convinced by the project and work to be exhibited, but that did not help at all. after forgetting the appointment with me for the first time and making me show up for nothing, they asked me to come again just to announce that the director does not have any time for me. well, I pitched my idea to the second director, we created a demo version at the space but she was not fully convinced. then it is talked about a hundred variations and alternatives to make me realize it is going nowhere. as it was assured that my work is great but not perfect for the chosen space, I said: ‘but there is no other space in here to present the work.’ she agreed and I said: ‘so were going to skip it, it´s okay, thank you for your time.’ and I left. I feel my time wasted, you would they agree to a meeting without having any option to handle it. I am not pissed off, I just learned what I knew before, plus: the museum is dead. after being openminded and hopeful I started to become pretty critic concerning the new director. there is no real interest in art or in local culture, it is just about placing works from a certain gallery in düsseldorf. it is obvious, and I am out.


one of my dear colleagues organized a guided tour for our students and us at sculpture park waltfrieden in wuppertal. next to the typical tony cragg sculptures they also had peter buggenhout on display. he does assemblages/installations from trash and my feelings toward wander from dislike to fascination. however, it does not work for me in the first place, but his upright and merged trailers impressed me a lot. the size and physical presence alone serve as statement. that day was drafted like a bonus to following long weekend but it did not turn out. visiting the park we faced thunderstorms, I visited my mother afterwards taking care of the infection and leaving me in sorrow for the long weekend and weeks after. it is tricky to draft future these days.


you might remember me reporting about discovering the f-1 trillion monument last autumn in mülheim, a crashed car on a pedestal mimicking the retired truck from post malone´s album cover. now I have finally got my own monument. whenever I am off to krefeld I sometimes take the street heading to our tiny airport and I discovered something I have rushed by a few times before: an electrical panel painted with mountains in a quite naïve style. I thought that this looks quite familiar… it somehow looks like my ‘purchases’ cover – even if it was not meant to be… however, this will now be referred to as the ‘purchases monument’ and it is another funny episode of the ‘visual echos’, that appear from time to time and suggest meaningful connection.


the eunoia hosted the first cultural regulars' table, alex kupsch invited me long before an I already attended a month to early just to be late on the actual date. the idea of connecting in the scene feels good and I appreciate this enterprise and will return next time. but it also delivers some findings: the city appreciates our actions and wishes for a ‘culture day’ (!?) without offering any budged, some participators use the format of the regular´s table only as a stage to express their own meaningfulness a.k.a. ego and often people do not know how to handle pitched ideas emerging from new connections leaving me wondering why they have showed up in the first place.
but I do not want to sound critic, the event was a great one, we had fun, meeting familiar and new people and it is great to have friends everywhere. apart from that, I can only support the eunoia space and all of their actions as we are all fighting from the same angle. usually I am the one taking a picture, alex took out outside for a group shot, and yes, we felt like making history.

eunoia-space.com


I did not find the time to visit the opening of ‘salon des refusés’ at ruhr gallery but I stepped by after the big opening was over. it is a wild show, truly entertaining and far apart from what the museum would do. gallery head ivo told my that my work was taken as effrontery at first sight but triggered some deeper thoughts afterwards, I could not ask for anything more. the ruhr gallery is a beautiful building located perfectly between downtown, the church hill and the ruhr river, with a tight schedule of beautiful, connecting and strange things to happen. coming up next: another charity auction bringing up the heritage of works by deceased artists on july 6. I hope to see you there!?

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de


back in 2017 (before I broke my leg) we build a little terrace in our garden to place the bee hives on it. after the bees vanished, we used it for the hammock sometimes but the timber floor has rotten away. we decided to keep it and replace it with dark wpc (a wood and plastic mixture) which is believed to be a little bit more lasting. we managed to build up the new terrace after discharging the old wood and hunting for clips to mount the new ones.


and here it is: the jardin fulerum plateau for picknicks, meditation and hanging out. we don´t say ‘bee terrace’ anymore as it triggers discussions leading nowhere. just keep in mind.



we also discharged the birdhouse as it was quite rotten. we kept the column in order to place a new one on it one day. surprisingly our funny swantje did a circus trick jumping on the column. she is still an annoying teenager, looking for trouble, randomly fighting and cuddling, sometimes sweet, sometimes pain in the ass. I often wonder why we are taking it and I do not have an answer.


we are looking back on a park sounds week, I attended the events tree times, sometimes alone meeting the usual people, sometimes with friends hanging out in the park. indeed I had some (re)discoveries of lou reed & metallica, a.g.cook and chuck person but I have to say that all sets appear quite random, no dramatization, much of similar noise and suddenly a few songs that did not fit in.
will I return? definitely.



and here is a collection of pic taken over the years at park sounds. I love to watch the rwe tower in the dusk and I like to remember the dates when aphex twin and oneothrix point never droned all over the place. yeah, once I offered a track of mine (‘exxa’) as it would have been a great thing for me to have my track droning through the park. an attempt I took over months just to learn it is an impenetrable system.


these pictures fascinate me a lot: an old shot of daniel lopatin a.k.a. oneothrix point never performing on a beer table. this could be me in the same non-impressing set-up. on the other hand, I know pictures and videos of him plying great venues and festivals, having a band or a live puppeteer performing with him. if I were younger I could use this as an indicator that I can make it as well, I know just take it as a prove for passion and doing the right thing, no matter how successful things can become or how ridiculous they might look. quality is not indicated by profit of democratic processed, the true quality lies in itself: reference and innovation, skill and truth.


within the great number of projects there is still an architects of utter destruction album left to. I feel that this project needs a pause but there is material written and pre-produced, michael schreiber and me finished a song last year which is supposed to be on the fourth album. we are all into numerous non-musically projects and real-life duties so there is nothing on the schedule beyond that. we might all need some time to consider where we want to go and which idea is great enough to bring it to an end. some weeks of live jams ahead and then we´re setting up the guitars and recording machines to lay down the songs in just a couple of days.

architectsofutterdestruction.com


I really wanted to do the jam under the arches of the viaduct, but it did not really work for me. an idea that looks perfect on the draft sometimes turns out as something really pale. the guys did nothing wrong but it did not feel as good for me as it looked. next time, maybe, hopefully!




update 2025-06-22: after having the longest day we wake up to reflect over the shortest night. as I usually wait for summer to begin (knowing days get shorter heading straight to christmas), reaching a goal has always something melancholic in it. following a french tradition (unknown to me so far) , the quarter around the museum folkwang came up with the feté de la musique, but it did not work out for me. on the one hand I was not that convinced of most musical performances as I often felt watching student´s garage bands. on the other hand I have developed a habit of showing up on my own over the last decade and meeting people might have worked better if keeping it that way. returning home at 9 pm felt wrong for numerous reasons.

I haven’t been much in museum shows recently, I haven’t even joined show openings with my contribution, the scene feels pale to me, it is going nowhere. the jam scene is way more fun, but I need time and mood to do it. nevertheless making and releasing music recently is the most important thing. so in this longest night am quite proud and relaxed watching the website of my label, something that started as a pretentious joke but became real over the years. not as profitable as warp records but at least as cool as that. we just keep going and I am happy to have some guys involved in the stuff that is coming up. zany music appears to be the only thing that has something beyond the horizon.

zany-music.com


update 2025-06-26: sad news again. last monday, june 23, about 10 pm, we surprisingly found our beloved swantje´s dead body under a hedge in our garden, leaving us in shock and grief. we have no idea what might have happened as she appeared physically intact, she appeared to be happy and active that day. it is like a nightmare déjà vu coming true. when our tomcat tobi was hit by a car after spending about a year by us in 2016, we decided that we would not have a cat again to avoid getting into the same situation ever again. when swantje appeared in november 2024 in our house and decided to stay, we tried to accept the dangers of the street nearby. over the months as her walks became longer and even over night we became a little bit more relaxed as she seemed to manage the situation quite well. the cause of her death remains an enigma for us, was she poisoned or chased, fell off the house or hit by a car? or did she have a heart attack caused by an undiagnosed weakness? none of our theories make sense and there are no indications, we won´t get our questions answered.

it is a gift taken away from us. we loved all this beeping, cuddling, hanging and freaking out, all the moments with a cute beauty being self-confident, demanding, lovely and ignorant. we would have wished for more years for and with her. our hearts are broken, once again.
we put her in a paper box and let her rest in the basement, the next day we decided to cremate her and take the ashes back as we haven´t agreed on an urn so far.

we accepted the situation as she signalized that she would like to live with us (it was her decision all the way) and we took good care of her and she had the time of her life being our little princess. she brought more fun into our lives but also more sorrow. in retrospective we feel guilty as we were sometimes annoyed by her ignorance of our schedules.

however, we are sorry for her and sad for ourselves as we are playing the lead in a bad cosmic joke told twice.
even days later, we cannot believe it, shock hands over to mourning. we still see her sit or sleep in every corner or on every seat.


sven piayda | eternal silence
SALON DES REFUSÈS
galerie an der ruhr/ruhr gallery, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-06-15 – 2025-07-08, opening 2025-06-15 4 pm
charity auction 2025-07-06, 3 pm

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de

galerie an der ruhr
ruhrstraße 3
45468 mülheim an der ruhr


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
2025-06-07 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-06-07, 6 pm

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg


sven piayda | mff40
WIDERBORSTIGES PUBLIZIEREN - 40 JAHRE MFF
museum für fotokopie, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-05-15 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-05-15, 6 pm

museum-fotokopie.de

friedrich-ebert-straße 48
45468 mülheim an der ruhr




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



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

there is no better title for a blog post than a song line, and I´ve picked my favourite population 1 song ‘nothing but trouble’. but that rock song with these typical lyrics on females in your life might sound like a funny sing-along but can turn into something dramatic.

michi had the strong ambition to return to south england as her feeling for relaxation is connected to being on an island witch is unfortunately the opposite of what would be relaxing for me. I do not feel good when my way appears too long or I am cut off and I cannot take care of serious issues of beloved ones. this is an issue I already discussed last year in 2024-07-10 ego tripping at the gates of hell | entry by sven.

however, michi experienced a glimpse of the hell that is my greatest fear. after bringing her to the airport I returned home and let our white tiger out into the garden (and her territory that is as big as no-one knows…). she usually comes back after an hour or two meows to say that she´s okay and is out for another round. she did not return that saturday with me alone at home deciding when what to do to bring her back safely. I posted into the local facebook group, informed tasso to put her on the lookout and walked in circles around the house to find her – or at least what might be left of her. (losing tobi in front of our house and our eyes traumatized us deeply, and longer absences of swantje make us worry.
michi could not enjoy her time on the island, she kept informing the neighbours via messengers and told me where to look for her while considering to come home earlier. I could not help to feel guilty while I did nothing wrong and swantje would not listen to me anyway.

after 48 hours of stress and sorrow and my acceptance that she is gone with a rest hope that she might show up after days, she appeared on monday morning at the window, complaining to not have let in already. michi and me were happy, and a little bit more traumatized.
you must feed your fears, they might disappears otherwise…
she´s nothing but trouble.


I had this photograph of me equipped with suzie and a pretty bad haircut in the garden of our apartment in essen-holsterhausen – around 2003, when I was a student. in my last post I had this idea to make a ghibli anime on the biography of eddie van halen, but I also had the idea to tell my rock star career in this manga style. (the artificial intelligence does obviously realizes a strat but does not share the fascination for a reversed headstock, so I had to fix this in photoshop.)
as I had some succès d'estime you could take these events as key point to tell a phantastic and mainly fictional story. this would be something many musicians could relate to, the ambition, the disappointment, the passion and the redemption of making music. I´m the perfect protagonist: a nerd that has some abilities but not the one to realize that he misses what it would take to be a rock star.




I could do the same thing with me as the electronic guy: producing deconstructed tunes based upon multiple production methods without any label signing or commercial success – just to be rediscovered 200 years after death. well, that is not a story you can tell. maybe a flashback montage contrasting the joy of music (future) and the depressing industry (past) as an allegory for the hopeless to never lose hope. hm, still it is not a story.


I went back to LA a.k.a. langenberg to the jam martin slemeyer has put up. it was great, and funny and had moments, I really fell in love with this place. I would never have imagined me with an acoustic guitar jamming some country style but this is what happened…
thank you martin! you can listen to our recent track ‘no means no’ over here.




the day before yesterday we had the little tour kick-off for the upcoming record of tides a/v live dates. we stated with a glitch hop set and this is usually tricky, most people do not know what it means while everyone loves the deconstructed or straight hip hop beats, the complexity and the generative noise. I came up with visuals this time adding some mute music videos or art pieces to the set. we did not reach many people but I was happy to welcome many of my friends and collaborators as well as guys from the electric café and local music scene turning this event into a zany music label night. a huge thank you goes out to all friends for joining, michael, grischo, kent granyion, frank, jörg, peter and christian (yeah, that christian who did ‘frühling in frohnhausen’), hanging out and chatting as well to martin and lovis from makroscope for making the record of tides glitch hop hdj set a great tour kick-off for may 2025!

this set might have been the grand finale of my glitch hop hdj sets, I will finish the live gigs and will think about with what to go on.


and this is our beauty after her heroic and enigmatic return. no comment, no hunger, just a nap in my, well, her bed.


and this is our beauty in out garden, perfectly posing under the cherry tree. I should spend more time up there...


update 2025-05-25: it was a kind of strange to meet stefan jürke a.k.a yürke at the endlos elektrosounds festival after years again and I was quite surprised that he remembered me. above you see us knob twiddling during a short sound check. back in 2007 we played a show together at fft düsseldorf, both with duos, he came up with graph, I did with AESTATE – both projects are sleeping with rare signs of life. more or less exactly 18 years later we are the leftovers doing the same thing (more or less) as yürke and record of tides. time just passes by.


update 2025-05-25: here is another rediscovered video still snapshot from my first performance in LA, it looks pretty glitched by artifacts but nevertheless worth sharing. our next jam is scheduled for may 30 in mülheim, open air under the arches of the viaduct. I hope for great weather and mood, for some riffs and licks and a merciful audience. see you there!


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
2025-06-07 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-06-07, 6 pm

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg



sven piayda | beachball (still)
100 images. mq. mm.
spazio magma / nuova accademia di belle arti, rome, italy
2025-05-28 – 2025-05-29

naba.it

via ostiense, 92
00154 rome


sven piayda | mff40
WIDERBORSTIGES PUBLIZIEREN - 40 JAHRE MFF
museum für fotokopie, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-05-15 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-05-15, 6 pm

museum-fotokopie.de

friedrich-ebert-straße 48
45468 mülheim an der ruhr




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



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

it is a common standard for me to start off with a futurama quote, its dr. zoidberg this time. it is so common, I must have used it few times. but there is a good reason for it as our visit at villa hügel really made me think and us discuss. I was irritated by this extreme wealth (see 2025-04-16 a bunch of random actions off the grid | entry by sven). I am one of these guys who say that it is okay to have a little bit more as long as you have gained it legally and fair. but u have learned that this narration does not work as you cannot invest what you do not have. conservative politics protect the rich and the super rich by politicians elected by a majority which is the opposite of rich. however, if there is so much money in one hand I get a little bit more skeptical about it what is done with it.

the langen foundation has been on our list for years but we never made it. as the place has the ringier collection on display. there were a number of familiar names to attract us. but to be fair: the show´s title was supposed to be subversive but is actually the most non-creative way of doing it that I can think of: ‘zeichnung, malerei, skulptur, fotografie, film, video, sound’. (I am not just randomly pissed off because we started the day in mülheim´s worst café you can go).


the collection has some big names and discoveries but the presentation od the collection indicates its value: quality seems to be more important than quality, weak pieces by great artists, all brought together like a flea market sell out. you might ask yourself what you look at, a passionate collector or just a wide spread portfolio of collection of multi-coloured shares? apart from that, we need to question (without any feeling of envy) why certain artists are hyped up to meaningful art while you cannot tell it from the piece itself. mary boone sold paintings that basquiat had not started.


it was great to see the christopher williams piece on the wall. It has a certain fascination for me, I adapted it and made my own version, biographically coined version out of it. so this piece is some kind of vocabulary, reference and inspiration. I have no idea why you need eight copies of it.


a classic isa genzken 'nofretete' next a jordan wolfson wall piece. wolfson is always interesting. I say it again and again, I do not know if this is good art or art at all, but you cannot ignore it, it has a certain gravity. you need to explore it, confronted with numerous open questions. classic interpretation tools won´t help, all symbols work differently – so is this a bad or an innovative use of elements?


a big screening wall was mounted on the outside of the langen foundation (great fun to discover it on the year´s most raining day). it was great to see a jordan wolfson piece here once again, and again, I find aspects in his work that appear brave, teasing and seductive while other just drive me nuts.


the ghibli a.i. hype on social media is already over and I did not move and posted a transformed portrait photo of myself in the way everybody else did. now that the hype is over and I stumbled over an image generator I did my own version as I have to play around with pictures. (it is impressing but it misses the point, right!?) I feel like being surrounded by a.i.-positive people experiencing the machine to think for them which makes life more pleasant (really?) while I like to use aspects and tools as well but keep the amount of artificial intelligence limited.
I am not against anything, I am sceptical and there is no reason to be not. hayao miyazaki told farout magazine I can't watch this stuff and find [it] interesting. whoever creates this stuff has no idea what pain is whatsoever. I am utterly disgusted. if you really want to make creepy stuff, you can go ahead and do it. I would never wish to incorporate this technology into my work at all. [...] I strongly feel that this is an insult to life itself.

this is a quite radical statement but you have to keep in mind who puts it into the world: you may be a studio ghibli fan or not but you cannot deny that hayao miyazaki has created a unique visual style next to a unique way of narration and a strong messages concerning people and nature. apart from your (dis)agreement with him or (lack of) fascination for his work, you must accept that this is on of the people on this planet who has worked hard and emerged into a position that you cannot deny.


in the flood of ghibli-ized pictures there was also this one of eddie van halen (and I had to do my own, quite lame guitar version). this random merging of ghibli and van halen made me think: wouldn’t it be cool to have a studio ghibli movie telling the story of eddie van halen!? not because he is my personal hero (he is influential to me but not my hero) but as his character could function as hero of a movie: the idea of experimenting and innovation, rocking and struggling, engineer and test pilot in one person could be great. if you can make a movie about a plane engineer (‘the wind rises’) it would be possible to make a movie on a rock guitarist building his own guitars.
and a guitar is more or less very similar to a plane…


easter was great to me, we took time for our families. one day we returned to a pizzeria having a big mülheim mural on the wall. I do not know if it looks good, as all building look weird and ad are arranged in a strange way, but I have realized that mülheim is the only city that has different murals illustrating the ‘points of interest’, tanking itself serious, what I like every much. It is like checking in to a dutch hotel and realizing the endless number of beach photographs on the wall. you look at them and say: ‘right, that´s what I came for…’
the pizzeria mural also features the stinnes skyscraper next to the rrz mall, a place close to me and obviously motive-worthy. it feels appreciated.


I still struggle a lot with jams these days, I am annoyed by certain egos but I also love the great people showing up and hang out with them. the jam in langenberg brought me back, it was a kind of a turning point where things turned out pretty well. obviously this night appeared to create an aftermath so here are some hang-out places taken by a true fan. we will return to LA, that´s for shure (and to many other loud and cuddly places!)


update 2025-04-27: yesterday cuba comet imperial returned to café mudgerecht in essen frohnhausen because I was stunned back in the day (also because of scenes like these) and I left a family birthday party a little earlier to join again. dj kent granyon joined me but as we haven´t met for months we decided to spend the night outside, listening to the sounds of the band as a kind of ambience. when chris clavinova started into the solo encore with ‘frühling in frohnhausen’ (2024-04-22 further down the spiral, lifting up & going down | entry by sven) we rushed in and joined the audience. we were surprised to get another, new electronic song on frohnausen, which I haven´t found on the net yet.

café mudgerecht is venue where I wanted to come up with my third glitch hop hdj set and cancelled it because oft he venues unprofessional management. (see 2024-05-14 meeting a swan to overcome shape and time | entry by sven) the third record of tides glitch hop hdj set will now come up at makroscope mülheim, more or less a year later on may 16, 2025.


update 2025-04-27: the pleasures of having a cat and a record player: you can spin oneohtrix point never´s soundtrack for ‘goodtime’ while the cat is taking care that it spins properly. if possible, she even takes care that it is not spinning properly. when you are a cat, everything is a couch.



sven piayda | beachball (still)
100 images. mq. mm.
spazio magma / nuova accademia di belle arti, rome, italy
2025-05-28 – 2025-05-29

naba.it

via ostiense, 92
00154 rome


sven piayda | mff40
WIDERBORSTIGES PUBLIZIEREN - 40 JAHRE MFF
museum für fotokopie, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-05-15 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-05-15, 6 pm

museum-fotokopie.de

friedrich-ebert-straße 48
45468 mülheim an der ruhr


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
2025-06-07 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-06-07, 6 pm

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg




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



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

I remember the moment and the connected feeling quite clear, I was walking to an art show opening (nothing special, somewhat at südviertel) and I was stuck by the finding that I was there on my own, free, unexpected, without schedule. these moment are rare, when you are all by yourself, doing what you want without anyone knowing or telling about it. a pure sense of being, going with the flow open to offered gifts of the world, being tankful for hanging out in this city. do something without heading for a result without keeping an eye on the watch (as your schedule is tight), just some random actions off the grid. usually, the südviertel (and frohnhausen) is a great place to step off the daily ride and reconnect with yourself.

last friday matthias danberg and me managed to come back to our classic at isenbergplatz. a date we have been waiting for over weeks because we have something to celebrate: I finally put out ‘hyperalterations’ and matthias added a music video for ‘reginals disclosure’. a soundtrack for spring, calling for summer. maybe it is once again a attempt to take control or add something beautiful to the world to make it a better place.

however, our collaboration (once again) is an attempt to make out artistic work happen apart from the art scene. it is quite stupid that artists can only be seen (or taken seriously) when museums, galleries or labels decide it. there must be something more, I like the idea of taking control and to act parallel to the classic system without copying it. so this time I take the label seriously, bring in collaborators (also hoping for x-promo), do a piece of music which could be read a s art as well and create a great video for it. it might be quite old-fashioned to do so, but recent platforms do not really present content…

matthias has started a podcast on art with tim cierpiszewski in which they will mansplain you into nirvana. (listen to the first episode over at youtube) we have also considered doing a podcast but I once again turned it down as it is a serious production I do not want to do as I still prefer to produce music when I am producing. a podcast is just another way to do something in parallel to create and exhibit. just another podcast (keep an ear on it), you read about it in another blog. wait, who is still reading blogs these days!?


as there is always schedule and duty I do not like to spend the holiday somewhere else, I like to hang out at home and get my world structured. nevertheless, we did a quick return to van bommel van dam in venlo, to enjoy the recent shows and have a nice day in the city. the museum had s group show called ‘it´s not a joke’ on display featuring a lot of funny art. indeed, we were not happy with the title, because it was funny and it did not really work out something beyond that.
I am recently sending contributions for future show but I have to admit that a lot of these things are badly drafted and curated. you cannot come up with the best work, you have to come up with a fitting work to a main topic which is actually lame or meaningless. I am considering to do a solo show again…

however, lets have a look at the joke show, which held some discoveries for us.


agata siwek installs the inside of a tiny chapel into the smaller rooms presenting the leftovers of ‘the merciful beaver’. what if a beaver would have cut down jesus christ´s cross to deliver him? is this a flat joke or blasphemy? is this a true act of mercy preventing resurrection (short before easter)? I think it is funny as it is not making fun of jesus. and it also illustrates the this lame alternate story ending not worthy to start a religion on it.




jesus left his cloth, the nails and the crown of thorns behind. the stations of the cross appear inverted, jesus is rescure by the beaver, rethinks his options, uses the beaver´s smartphone to order some new cloths. well, the story drifts info some childish narration. and yes, it was not made to be taken seriously. maybe it is an attempt to think about what would have been without christ´s prominent death, and the remarkable change in historic development set up by tiny actions.


a piece you could easily miss by rushing through the show: ryan gander presents a life-sized mouse sleeping close to the wall. the text says that the little artificial mouse is also breathing gently, it did not do when I observed it. the title ‘take confidence in your abilities’ helps a bit more to get the great idea of this small and cute sculpture: the mouse must fear to be hunted and killed by humans or their cat, this mouse is confident. It presents itself sleeping in the absence of fear. we know that fear is a mechanism that saves your live, too much fear keeps you from living it. maybe the mouse is hyperbolising it (even if we do not know it what kind of ability makes it so confident) but it has point to think about and maybe learn from it.


we had the mouse, and here is the cat: the retrospective of giselle kuster shows her work as a painter. he actually mastered a wide range of influences and styles, I was wondering if I like the stylistic range, but I cannot answer it by now (I can see my own portfolio mirrored in the transformal approaches). the cat, by the way, looks like swantje, the white fur has turned a little grey by frequent prowls through the gardens and her eyes are still striking yellow.


kuster´s banal motive of cloks, impressed my, it is a so familiar motif. I could imagine of a jeff wall adaptation, but, wait – I could do it. lets see, if I can create something.


the last time we went to van bommel van dam back in the last days of 2024, we discovered a little later that the former building of the vbvd was now used as place for drinks and food. our plan was to return after the art show visit, to our surprise the MOUD was closed with a paper telling that they went out of business. we were pretty disappointed and I was wondering who would turn off a money-printing machine… nevertheless, this beautiful place was not profitable enough.


my last post on my disappointment of bad live jams and low streaming/selling of the recent album and therefore questioning the future of architects of utter destruction lest some irritation among readers. when I returned to stage in langenberg (or ‘LA’ as we like to say) some people asked my what is going on. it might have been a little bit too dramatic, this is what happens if you put out something in a bad mood. you have to accept that things go wrong when they are out of your control. nevertheless, the night in LA brought me back, even when my sound was bad and my performance just okay, it was great to be surrounded by all of these lovely people and getting some applause. we will return!

architectsofutterdestruction.com


some refound images of my improvised hdj set at bkg in summer 2024. I was just asked to put up the sound system to make the spotify list drone over the people, all of this crap did not work and we had to improvise a set which turned out to be working surprisingly well. I planned to return as I realized this annual celebration was cancelled. well, nothing really matters these days. however, I am looking forward to the upcoming shows in may. I just hope that it will be half as good as I want it to be… cross your fingers, come around, it is going to be great.


michi told me to check this in the garden, a great snail appeared on our runway, a lot larger and more beautiful than the snails that usually come up here. I guess I have seen these big ones with a house in luxembourg before… however, we decided to rescue it before the cat would discover (and eat) it. the snails are alright.


update 2025-04-19: my mother and me did an annual and obligatory trip to xanten, a place we both enjoy very much. I cannot even tell what it is, just a restaurant with view over the lake, the beautiful cathedral with the pre-easter wrapped in purple crucifix and the candy shop, of course. maybe the ice-cream bar. It is a great place somewhere on the flat land with a long history. everything feels familiar by know. only the long road home is a real pain in the ass, why does everyone else also have to travel!?


update 2025-04-19: I did not really realize the 21x21 exhibition until a museum director told about it in phone call. after talking about it with her, I realized the postcards and posters advertising the show. 21 ruhr area based museums have teamed up to present parts of their collections in the rooms (halls) of villa hügel. we decided to have a look at the show on good Friday instead of driving to a museum in the netherlands which means more struggle. this teaming up of titans is an instant happy end for the super rich. to be fair: the show works out perfectly, the rooms are perfect for the exhibited pieces, why did they not do it earlier or keep going?


update 2025-04-19: the work of björn dahlem does not mean much to me but it is easily recognizable and holds two meta stories: I discovered dahlem back in 1999 while I was learning ‘art at the turn of the millennium’ by heart. his name and birth year appeared in the book making me realize that he is just some years older than me and already having a proper career. (I would have to push it a little bit more, how naïve was that?). the other story is finding laurent montaron credited as photographer of one of his installations. montaron´s work shook my world, and here is just the supporting guy.
I do not want to say something bad about dahlem´s work, I like the improvised and rough appearance, he is instantly recognizable. the exhibited piece was called ‘moon’, michi stated that a moon does not shine by itself, the idea of reflection or orbiting a planet is not represented in this piece. it remains pretty unconvincing to us.


update 2025-04-19: from the same 1999 ‘aattotm’ days I know about jessica stockholder. back in the day I considered myself as a painter slowly becoming a photographer or ‘image producer’, her discipline of large installations and assemblages were pretty much out of my spectrum. nevertheless, I had a strong fascination for her work for being so powerful and happy, there is also something funny and inviting in it. this is probably the first time that I saw a stockholder installation in real live. a smaller and older one giving a glimpse of whet she can do.
now in 2025 I have also added multiples to my portfolio, her work might have been a door opener but I trace my inspiration back to laurent montaron.


update 2025-04-19: michael sailstorfer was not on my list. his car wheel chopping of tire particle while it hangs spinning on the wall makes the room smell like rubber. I have a strong fascination for animatronic sculptures, moving plastics, new and magic stuff. on the other hand I am also sceptical about it as these works are so surprising and ‘different’ that make you wonder while forgetting to ask yourself if this is art actually. this question peaks in the work of jordan wolfson, and I do not have an answer to this question. art? fun fair? special effects? decoy flares? no idea. the fascination remains.




update 2025-04-19: I have been to villa hügel one or two times but I do not remember much. I guess I have never connected with this place. I feel that the villa is hilariously oversized, it feels like it is four times as big as is should be and made for being of six meters height. The region is coined by the krupp dynasty, taking care of their people. on the other hand there is also WWII, armaments production and further profits. it feels contradictive on so many levels, the economic power to sustain society and to keep a war running, social ideas while living in a large house in a large park up on the hills above the baldeny lake. summing it up, I guess it is okay to work for your money and earn it and it is good to have a little bit more than you need. but walking through the (horror vacui) ornamented halls of the villa made me feel like being in a stably kubrik movie. if you lick the monolith you may wake up in here. at a certain point I had to laugh out laud, this size, these ornaments and material, this vulgar display of wealth appears ridiculous at a certain point. it is too much of everything. just too much.
am I going to return? probably. I have to question my findings in a future visit and this gardening perfection and globally relevant local history is also part my own history.
summing up, we cannot deny the influence or the coining or the making of the ruhr area and our settlement, it is history that cannot be divided into black and white. it is a phenomenon apart from simple good and bad. the godfather´s steal was the material of the upcoming industrial age, as basement for a while century and beyond. with all the black stains and innovations.




update 2025-04-21: I´ve almost forgot. before entering the van bommel van dam in venlo it was obligatory or impossible not to check the electronic labelled records at sounds venlo. the prices are high but I found a gem in sale box: ‘secret garden’ by µ-ziq & mrs jynx was on my list after discovering mike paradinas with ‘expert knob twiddlers’ (which was unfortunately quite disappointing to me) and ‘bantha trax vol.3’ by tusken raiders (with this beautiful cover and these boc and afx vibes). unfortunately the record did not include a download vocher but the planet mu website says: we no longer include a download code inside each record, but if you email us with proof of purchase we will send you one.
I dropped a friendly line to tom and received a bandcamp download code no twelve hours later. the photos above are just the pictures I made to proof my purchase, must have been convincing, nevertheless it was the truth. ‘secret garden’ is a s beautiful as its cover, unagitated and great in composition and sound.
I never experienced a label responding on my email, maybe I should send them a demo!?


sven piayda | mff40
WIDERBORSTIGES PUBLIZIEREN - 40 JAHRE MFF
museum für fotokopie, mülheim an der ruhr
2025-05-15 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-05-15, 6 pm

museum-fotokopie.de

friedrich-ebert-straße 48
45468 mülheim an der ruhr


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
2025-06-07 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-06-07, 6 pm

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg




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



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

it has been quite a funny moment when dietmar sent some scans of analogue photographs, I had too look twice until I realized that it was me captured in a moment that must have passed by quickly on a day worth to remember. during summer break 2024 dietmar and me visited the sanaa building and the folkwang campus on zollverein to check the students work during rundgang a.k.a. their public exhibition, see 2024-07-20 summer of ’24: renovation, recording and rundgang | entry by sven.

the photo brings back the moment when I watched a locally-bound photographic tableau bringing an idea to life that all of us actually had already: as the large squared windows look like pictures themselves, why not freeze this impression and double it on the wall!? a common idea must not be bad.

however, as I was staring at my own back as I was puzzling the captured moment back into the memory of the day I realized how long ago it was taken. it´s been nine months already and might be a full year until we would manage to do it again, to spend time together which is authentically labelled as time off. dietmar adds that it is not about the frequency but the depth of common time and activities, but nevertherless, from a certain age on ‘frequently’ means once in a year.


the sanaa building is a landmark masterpiece, even after all these years, you cannot see the need for restoration as it appears that futuristic. from the first day on – and still – it appears mis-fitting in the depressing periphery between north essen and south gelsenkirchen but that does not mean that it does not fit. my own aesthetic preferences have shifted over the years, the contrasting may be better fitting than the similar – in multiple contexts.
(photographs by dietmar)


I do not find much time to go out or meet friends or hang out in museums or something, but last saturday I attended the finissage of klaus wiesel´s ‘error’ show at museum für fotokopie in mülheim. wiesel should be well-known for his multiple approaches based upon a graphic designer´s training and experience, from rust to traffic plates to capitalist criticism (and his great curating contributions) he brings back pre-digital glitches from the days of back-in-the-day-contemporary printing devices. all of this placed into the museum für fotokopie (by the great klaus urbons) which turned 40 years old that day. the big celebration is scheduled for may 15 (a day before the glitch hop set at makroscope), seeya´ll!


the makroscope´s showroom (next to the museum für fotokopie) recently shows works by nils weiligmann and grisha kaczmarek who’s work is definitely in my focus. when I discovered ‘tötal fantasy’ the other day after a freispiel jam session I was stuck by the punk and feminist approach. I expected the artist(s) to be female, but my interpretation turned out to be wrong. barbies and kens mashed up in the waffle iron appears like a housewife´s answer to barbies proclaimed lifestyle.


something similar happened to barbie´s villa, an oven must have melted down her luxury home while cutting one of three dimension and turning it into a beautiful wall object. the assemblage combining an old organ pipe, a fence, plastic ducks and blond hair braids seem to form a fighter jet.


some more planes: when I did a sunday afternoon walk with my mother near the e/mh airport, we attended the airport café afterwards. I was there about ten years ago and the café appeared like a dead relict from the early eighties, to my surprise it was styled up to some cosy cabin on the inside, a terrace near the runway and a beach-baresque open air space for summer nights with cocktails. as I love sitting in the pavilions at the zeeland beaches, this was somehow the closest substitute I could think of. I need to return and spend some summer nights here. of course there is no sea but a lot of sky instead, same same but different.

the (new) blimp hangar is somewhat iconic for this region, visible from far away like the water tower. these buildings function like indicators for feeling home to me. well, this is the hangar photographed from the terrace´ point of view with the historic reconnaissance plane parking in front of it.


swantje developed from the needy child to a witty teenager, instead of cuddling she sometimes ignores me for days and demands to spend most of her time in the garden or elsewhere. I can imagine her screaming: ‘you don´t know what´s going on anyway!’. spending time outside means to attract numerous other cats she gets into conflict and serious fighting. these fights sometimes end up with serious injuries like hits, scratches and bites which makes us spend more time and money at the vet. Interim happy end: swantje returned to a random decision of liking me again and demands cuddly twice a day and she has her own health insurance now.


this is something I found on facebook and I really needed to share this strat idea. my deep love for strats is still hot and I love the idea of taking the perfect construct of a 50´s strat and modify it to something hard rocking. So above you see two modifications, the lower one illustrates what I would usually do because it pushed by buttons. the one above triggers me as it brings up ideas I did not come up with: a telecaster neck on a stratocaster body looks sharp, the full humbucker in the bridge might turn the aggressive twang into a punchy wroom! altering ricky gervais´ statement on dogs I would go: ‘cats and strats are for everyone!’ (yeah, both appear standardized and individual at the same time, like a customized standard. I`m into this concept a lot.)
the devil on my shoulder advises me to build another strat as I do not have every colour and pickup set-up by know, the angel on the other one shouts at me to f*cking play the axes laying around in the house. AOUD #4 and ROT CRW3 are in the making.




it came up by surprise that all of the upcoming live and hdj dates of record of tides are scheduled for may, but it makes it feel like a little tour. the dates and all of the info is spread on all pages. next to this we are releasing a great album with ’hyperalterations’ featuring great performers, produces and visual artists. In the shadow of this production and to have more unreleased material we have (and are still) creating tracks for the album beyond. this time it is wilder than ever, bringing up all the influences by the archetypes I love: aphex twin, oneohtrix point never, prefuse 73 but also queen and all the other guitarists and produces I am into. from jazzy idm over deconstructed rock music to symphonic post hip-hop all glued together by the humming and multi-layered drone samples. this little extra projects turns out to be an uncut gem and it is coming this summer. michael schreiber is playing a big part in it, and even chris huff has come up for a feature. by the way, we want to do the AESTATE ‘greatest hits’ reissue, we have picked bonus material and now we even have created and appropriate reissue cover. coming 2025.




update 2025-04-06: playing guitar live on stage is great. I love the interaction and the show-off, sometimes you even create music for the moment that is actually great and the audience loves it. nevertheless I like the people around me, well, let´s say the right ones. I have noticed places in which egoists come together making the whole thing a pain in the ass. we´re all jut wannabe rock stars, no problem with this, but when you never get what you want while others do there are only two options left: to act in the same egoistic way or just leave. some places become burned slowly, but I guess after three times they´re out.
the recent AOUD album does not perform well. I did not expect it to do but things turn out to be even worse than expected. I came into the circle of doing an album after another just to proof myself that I can still do it. there is a lot of preproduction and song writing done for album #4, but I really think I need a break and orientation before I simple start working on the next one.
I guess I am not good at ending things, even when I am totally dissatisfied. I do not really believe in talking about problems anymore because no one can actually change and everyone just hears what he wants to hear. I am questioning myself, am I acting the same and do I simply have the illusion of acting different? it´s the same with politics, society and all relationships, so what are you supposed to do? to act egoistic as everyone else is doing it or leave?


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
2025-06-07 – 2025-06-29
opening 2025-06-07, 6 pm

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg




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



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

it is a ritual, actually a scrutinized ritual, a recurring question what might be a better way to calm down: a frequently visited place or something new? we visited zeeland back in february 2024 and wanted to return in autumn which we could not because of private reasons. now in the end of february 2025 we did it again, jut to realize that a year passes by just like that.
even more strange, we thought to go back into the same cabin we have stayed in 2023 but ended up in the neighbour cabin – which looks the same but is actually mirrored to the known rooms. pretty strange, like a lifelike dream with some misfit details.

michi usually claims that she needs more time at a place to actually calm down (what I do not believe) I can usually switch quickly into leisure mode. not this time, buddy.
surrounded with many things to do, an upset stomach and news of toxic world politics made me stumble around at my favourite places without really being there.
we did some of our rituals, not all of them.

on our last day, right after checking out, we went over the dune witnessing the frozen rime on the sand. as we arrived at the beach, the scenario changed quickly, the frosty night changed into a warm and sunny set-up, while the fog covered the horizon delivering a surreal view. standing at the shore and watching the wide view, there is only colour, and no distinguishing between sea and sky.
this was actually the moment, when my mind arrived and there was an indicating moment for this: suddenly in your mind appears a solution to an issue you haven’t been thinking about…
as we have fixed live dates for record of tides in may I have taken up older productions and some new ideas to complete the live sets. the result was a collection of interesting tracks, I did not think about it but suddenly there was this finding that I would have to change the order of the track list which I did the other day with stunning result. and it led to another retake of a track that is now supposed to be a killer instead of a filler plus a symphonic piece in glitch hop electronica. the technical collection might become an album adding a new layer to my productions and become an outstanding album. it is this moment at the sea which leads to ignition. a true idea emerges emancipated from the issues of a human body and the continuous fire of media reports. everything is in yourself.


another view of this beautiful and surreal scene, it still looks strange on photos but is even more strange in reality. and yes, I see the visual metaphor it delivers: as there is no horizon there is no thinking about which aim to run for next, no tomorrow´s task or holy grail behind the horizon. I am pretty obsessed with having a clear idea of identity and future and training my abilities to shape these things and make things happen but the absence of a horizon – of a border made to pass – delivers a moment uncoupled from identity and future, a true presence in a present tense.



of course, this is another ritual which feels great every time. the old tree which we had discovered back in 2011, nicknamed ‘tree of cognition’ and visited again and again afterwards was in need to be checked once again. the running gag of looking for it and not finding it is over, we´re pretty good at going straight to it. it turned out to be quite a celebrity tree as it has been model for mondrian back in the day and it has also made it into my portfolio. there is nothing new tell about it, this tree is like a old friend you have to visit every time you are around. and visiting an old friend means also to say that he looks good for his age!


talking of friends, dietmar (who should be known for annual contributions to the ‘heavy rotation’ lists and numerous photos and thoughts delivered to this blog) surprisingly spend his days off at the same time at the same region as we did. we thought about meeting for dinner as we did more than a decade ago but unfortunately we did not manage to do it. it was even more fun to meet coincidentally in domburg. watching him take pictures of all around made me realize that I act in the exact same way – guy with a camera in need to document every seascape, building and grain of sand, again and again. we are just driven but it keeps us going. the next shot is just around the corner. here we go!


visiting the vleeshal in middelburg has become another ritual which never disappoints. the former historic market place delivers hip positions by young artists. hannah back builds an interior reminding of hotel halls into the market hall. the given rooms feel authentic but then trip down to their naked framework. I can say that I have developed a preference for things that appear unfinished but have already indicated everything to finish it properly by yourself. she mixes video, painting, graphics, photos and sculptures into a conceptual reflection on the events of october 7, 2023 in Israel by merging astronomy, installation and multiple disciplines. I cannot say that I understand but it feels great to walk through the interior watching it vanish and return while displaying vleeshal in a new way.

vleeshal.nl


as we wanted to buy the dutch museum card (which offers free entry to dutch museums for a year), we had to visit the zeeuwse museum to get it. as we at least got only one card (which was left from the stock) we also decided to have a quick visit as there was a show on textile work on display. we moved through it and I had to check the presence of the egypt child mummy again as it fascinates and scares me while evoking numerous questions on multiple levels. michi was a little bit disappointed from the ‘darn’ show, even as it presented a great way to present objects and links the historic and contemporary pieces with the dutch region and culture. the big photography from 1910 (?) shows a woman presenting a knitted man. well, not scary at all…

zeeuwsmuseum.nl


before driving back home, we returned to middelburg, so I had the chance to visit the muziekcentrum selling vinyl records and electric guitars. we went back but I was a little bit disappointed not finding what I usually like or at least make a bargain buy. however, we were surprised to finally calm down and relax in the big city´s centrum in a café on the shopping street. there is still a surprise in the ritual.


and the last ritual: back in 2010 we spend our summer in the tiny and uncomfortable ‘doghouse’ in biggekerke. it became a ritual to check it before leaving the country again, especially when we realize it turned into a building site which was actually making it disappear. now we returned not on our last day but as we were around and were surprised to see a new house standing in the old place. is this an invitation to return and have a sty in the new ‘doghouse’?



just to get the picture in context. this is just the collection of annual visits exploring the transformation/demolition of teh doghouse.
you´ve come a long way, baby!


my upset stomach made me act a little bit more reasonable during my stay skipping all the usual escorts like coffee, alcoholic beer and fried fish. it was not as bad as it sounds, so I finally took the fish salad and kept it fresh. also I tried the non-alcoholic versions of trappist beer, which usually appears in blond, dubel, tripel and even quadruple versions. well, to cut a long story short, it was quite disappointing, great non-alcoholic beer is hard to find. nevertheless, my absolute favourite is non-alcoholic leffe blond. give it a try!


the ‘sammlung der ruhrpreisträger*innen’ has been on display at galerie an der ruhr for about three months and ended when I was in zoutelande. some pieces will stay in the gallery´s collection, some will be sold into a friend´s private collection. as I am working on a few multiples to be added to my portfolio which will also be part of an upcoming pitch or the museum, I also took some installation views shots at the gallery. gallery head ivo franz has been interested, helpful and collaborative once again. thank you ivo, I hope I can come up with something new soon.


sven piayda | plato was sad
AURA
kunstverein duisburg, duisburg
2025 tba.

kunstvereinduisburg.de

kunstverein duisburg
weidenweg 10
47059 duisburg




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



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

these are strange times, facing elections hoping to form a better future. I was struggling to get over my flu infection and it slowly gets better so I could return to work and duty. also I feel euphoric as spring comes up and I found some time slots where I could do what I want (which is life, actually).
over the last weeks I have been playing around with magnet letters I found in the classroom making my students wonder what these strange words might mean. you might remember ‘quo vadis?’, ‘vici’ and ‘q.e.d.’. now in 2025 the same room features no blackboard anymore but a whiteboard (is this making things better?). once again I played around with the letter forming the term ‘syntax’. as many are familiar with the term as their calculators write ‘syntax error’.

however, syntax might be a term from linguistics but can be found in everything. the is a set of rules, given by nature or logic in need to be respected. it does not matter if you take language, chemistry, mathematics, music, physics or an interaction. if you do not respect the rules, the thing which is defined by rules will fall apart or vanish. if we see rules as limitations to our freedom we are obviously not able to understand that syntax defines the world and that its elements are useless without.

our understanding of democracy has often shifted into a legitimation for egoism and the inability to realize that your existence is set into a setting with others. before claiming respect for the own opinion we should claim respect for the syntax given by nature and society (which is actually also a natural and no artificially constructed phenomenon). syntax is not able to lie as it is truth itself. when you work against it, you must fail. I told a lot of people to go voting within the elections, we took our mothers to the ballot boxes. the result appears as expected – but just a little bit more depressing than accepted.
context, studies and syntax seem so old-fashioned these days, it is obviously enough to claim something – even if you have no idea. apart from what you would elect, no matter how left or right, liberal or economic you might be positioned, you should demand leaders having an attitude and true arguments instead of claims and false numbers. maybe you would accidentally vote for competence…



back in 2019 I wrote about the dead end pivot, my graphic illustration of the feeling that every decision leads into a dead end and you end up taking the next dead end again and again, I also reported that the solution might be to act completely differently (yellow vector) to escape but I realized that I cannot leave the pivot anyway. somehow I had change my mind again, the dead end pivot got an update: an unlimited number of dead ends create a limited universe (which looks like radish). so accenting that there is no way out and you are trapped within conditions of your world and yourself does not limit your actions. maybe it is not about finding a solution, it is about how to handle it.


we finally had to cut down our willow tree. we have been discussing it for years as it was old and sick and lost arms in storms, also if we would take the help of friends or could do it on our own, but as we know that objects appear smaller in our garden than they are and there would be much wood to discharge we decided for a professional tree cutter (and were lucky to finally get one). above you see my perfect before-and-after picture. we miss the willow tree, but we hope for new found power to emerge from the stump!


I had a great saturday night starting with visiting the opening of the new exhibition at kunstmuseum mülheim an der ruhr and stepped over to the electric café at makroscope afterwards. it was great to see o.s.cillator perform again, it is always great that this format exists makes whatever electronic music happen in our city. after the performers finished, everyone was setting up for the post-show jam, I took the chance and played ‘snow white feat. o.s.cillator’ from the ‘love mural’ album which led into the jam. I am really into all of these strange and diverse performances delivered by very different and unique artists, but the jam is sometimes hard to take… nevertheless, I am planning to retrun playing live for the next electric café in spring or summer – so does primal scapes. and yes, we still want to do something together shredding some guitar licks upon the pads and beats…
also, the museum has mentioned interest in my pitch for a contribution. the studio will concentrate on this project within the next three months. let´s see…


my strange fascination for oneohtrix point never started back in 2016 with ‘garden of delete’ while I had no idea if I actually like what daniel lopatin is doing. nevertheless I was waiting for the follow-up album and ended up being quite disappointed when I listened to ‘age of’. it took years until I got into this album which I like very much by now, I even bought all the b-sides and bonus tracks and have understood that he masters the artistic quality to undermine expectations. ‘again’ came out in 2023 and was an instant classic, and colds some strange beauty.
now I even own ‘garden of delete’ on vinyl and play it for the neighbours, swantje approves. as I am preparing my own live shows in may, I produced and reassembled tracks to come up live which are heavily opn-inspired but still in my strange stylistic mash up of idm, post hip-hop, avant-garde and even rock music. as my sets will be somewhat between 35 and 50 minutes it always feels like creating a superbowl half-time show: you merge all of your cool stuff together, 20 tracks in 30 minutes, extinction boredom and forcing concentration. I have cool stuff coming up and I still feel that I got better over the last years, it is still growing. do not miss record of tides live in 2025!

on sunday afternoon swantje stayed longer outside than usually, it did not feel good after three hours without any glimpse of her. quite late, michi called her and she answered, returning with a threw on her nose, traumatized and week in her hind extremities. after a little considering we took her to the emergency and things turned out as expected. the bones are okay, she just might got punched by a rival. we will have an eye on her for the next days and hope for the best.


I had to visit a town near the dutch border for professional reasons, so I made a quick visit to sounds venlo checking the vinyl. as I finally ended up in the arsenal car park I could take a picture of the evert thielen inspired mural. let me quote 257ers: ‘holland ist die geilste stadt der welt’.


yet another re-found picture from an eunoia jam last summer. me playing drums (as no-one else wanted to) I remember playing quite well that night, even if I sucked in other venues. martin slemeyer playing the baritone six-string. don´t forget, he will be on the upcoming record of tides album. and I hope we will do a jam again.


after being on display for about three months the ‘sammlung der ruhrpreisträger*innen’ show at galerie an der ruhr will end on sunday, march 2, 2025. visits of the show at ruhr gallery are possible only by appointment or during opening times for parallel art shows on display. we are working on new stuff… you can book your free visit via this link:

kunststaette-muelheim.jimdofree.com/buchen-eintritt-frei

more pictures over at the exhibitions section.

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de


sven piayda | detail/golden cow (end of an era)
SAMMLUNG DER RUHRPREISTRÄGER*INNEN
ruhr gallery/galerie an der ruhr, mülheim an der ruhr
2024-11-22 – 2025-03-02

you can book your free visit via this link:
kunststaette-muelheim.jimdofree.com/buchen-eintritt-frei

lokalkompass.de

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de

galerie an der ruhr
ruhrstraße 3
45468 mülheim an der ruhr




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



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

I am dealing with a lot of frustration again. and I am not the only one. it has become a ritual to complain about the next stupid thing handed down top down. also I am trapped in collaboration with massively unprofessional behaviour. even worse I am bored of my own frustration. where to go from here? I must stop complaining and I will. it is not an option.
I have learned to communicate clearly and to claim what was agreed on, and to quit collaboration with people promising their part while doing nothing. In other context I have realized that leading is understood as not solving problems but telling people what to do even if this is completely insolent. in is only about covering incompetence and a lack of interest in everything. I cannot waste time with this.

I like to withdraw from everything. I do not even want discuss the issues of politics, society and leadership. sense and inspiration can only be found on the inside. I still feel like doing the right thing in spending time with the right people, listening to music or watching art, to dive into a sacred inner world in which I can create and form inspirational thoughts and works which do not necessarily have to end up in the real world. an idea can incubate on the inside, it needs a fundament of knowledge and time. this might generate a path into a future – an idea of future that holds a solution in it. back in the day it was called an ‘elite´s vision’ but both words have a bad reputation nowadays, so you cannot use the term anymore… ‘success’ is so secondary. you need to earn some money, of course, but it should not destroy you, especially if you have taken things seriously for decades and you have finally learned that there is no need to care.

so there is a new record of tides album in the making which is based upon music or mash-ups of older tracks that would be working in a post-genre opn-like live show context. I am recently doing this and I need to write a now song for AOUD. here is a lot stuff to do that nobody will care for, bit I do!


the #egal thing started as a joke among matthias danberg an me. while watching art, especially on instagram, people try to add depth by using numerous hash tags in order to hype up average shit to extraordinary shit. I brought the term to my colleagues and they adapted it into their context. (they even had ideas fora merch shop…) being trapped in a working context managing a cascade of projects while being confronted with numerous conditions, laws and announcements, a true process becomes more and more unlikely or even impossible. as it is impossible to actually have consequences to not following numerous stupid and contradictive conditions, the flow transforms into a certain state of whatever. when everything is important, nothing is actually. if you loose real importance and quality, everything is whatever. we can say: after optimizing everything, everything is equally bad.
there you have it. #egal


news from the writer´s room: the track working-titled as ‘crux’ originally started as record of tides track was written as calm guitar riff on straight machine beats turning onto a more and more abstract composition. the track also features material contributed by HYRN. even if I have announced the writing process finished we decided for a more guitar driven version for the written lyrics. the track is supposed to return to a future record of tides release. recording sessions for AOUD album #4 will not start before spring or summer, writing and preproduction is back on.

architectsofutterdestruction.com
recordoftides.com


when the freispiel announced jazz-based ensemble l.a.b.r. as opener, I was curious about it. I wanted to be on time but messed it up. however, I must have missed the first ten minutes but is realized myself being frozen in movement when I came in and got lost in this performance. originally set up as a trio, the guys had to perform without their drummer that day which did not appear as a big problem. the sax sound was amazing giving me some prefuse-73-vibes, pianist marc-rainer kamp switched to synth and back, his tight playing proved that there are no drums needed to create rhythm. later he told me about his writing approach to keep the harmonies simple (more or less) and do the tricky stuff with the rhythm. this group is an instant recovery, apart from this, these guys are very kind people. recommended, find out yourself:

labrtrio.bandcamp.com/album/lili-luck-revontulet




in retrospective I have to say that the ‘post internet’ album did not work all. it is full of great tracks but all of them look better in different context. there are tracks leading to ‘revenant euclids’, are adapted from sound art productions or work better in the ‘songbook’ or ‘collected riffing works’ context. also the album is placed between releases from the ‘purchases’ series and is not mastered at all. I guess everything around it is false while containing great stuff and this is what makes it appear quite bad. I try to learn from that but sometimes you can only see these constellations in retrospective while being unable to realize because of your own euphoria. (you can take it as a metaphor for things in life.) however, tracks that were extracted from the album and appeared in different context performed very well, so I will bring back selected stuff – mastered and in a better context. (once again, a metaphor!)

recordoftides.bandcamp.com/album/post-internet


on a saturday night I stayed at home, watching tv, having some beer and old cheese. as the cheese knife is very sharp and the cheese is quite massive, I slipped and cut my left thumb. it was quite deep, blood came out I wondered if I would have to go to the hospital. fortunately, we fixed it with some pressure and adhesive tape. however, it takes time to heal and you have to leave the thumb alone. when the anyway jam came up, I decided to go there but not to play as I did not want to put more pressure on the wound fearing It might open again. it was quite funny that nearly everybody asked me to play (and sometime questioning the seriousness of my injury), it is a great feeling that my performance is missed, even if the music was great that night, (maybe because of my absence?) when I was about to leave after the jam, I paid the barkeeper and then he suddenly asked me to wait for a second. he disappeared and left me wondering what he was up to do. after a minute he returned and put something in my hand while covering it so I could not see it. it was strange, I was confused and asking myself what was happening. we he removed his hands I could see the wooden single use cutlery. he said: ‘you these so you won´t cut yourself again and you can play next time!’ I was laughing out loud, it was a great and totally unexpected funny moment. even more, this is the ‘award’ telling my that my performances are appreciated.

architectsofutterdestruction.com


last sunday michi wanted to meet a friend and attend the yoko ono show at k20 in düsseldorf. I could have joined but I decided for some time on my own (and duty) as I feel exhausted and having too many appointments anyway. michi reported not going to the ono show as at appeared not that appealing, went to the kunstpalast and the blockbuster gerhard richter show having people waiting in line along the building. so they assembled the nrw forum and surprisingly discovered the textile based work of sheila hicks. michi was pretty impressed and enthusiastic about it and the show seems to be worth attending. as hicks was a student of josef albers the museum quadrat in bottrop presents the second part of the hicks retrospective. I did not feel too good that day bit hicks works are immersive. reminding (and coming from) painting, she turns the yarn into paintingesque wall pieces and plastics.




while calling it immersive it was just obligatory to fid a piece matching the own pullover to make picture in front of it. a funny thing seen numerous times on instagram, and it was just too easy to do it as well. i promise that this was spontaneous as you cannot dress in a way to expect a piece in a new show you´re attending. next to the matching fun you really have to admit that sheila hicks is pretty outstanding and successful by using a pretty unique material. textile art is often is surprisingly good, I remember discovering sonia delaunay und das atelier simultané back in 2022 in krefeld. it also left me impressed as the textile based artists move back and forth from free art to crafts and design. once again: recommended!


on december 18, 2024 I was contacted by a ‘curator’ asking me to deliver video material for an upcoming video project putting different video artists on display every month. even if I have some bad experience with this venue concerning issues of bad schedule management I agreed as I always hope things might get better if we actually do something together. I was asked to create a show for january, I said time-wise this would be a bit tight so I was set to debut on the video show series in february. as we have nothing written down (no email or contract) and I have learned that there is no need to do a show that is not communicated I asked for an announcement on their official site, also to mirror the information and pass it on via my channels and sites. I was told that this would be up with the new year but it was not. after asking a few times for something reliable and telling that I will not deliver material for an unannounced show I was always promised that things will be done. actually nothing happened and everything promised did not happen. I delivered promotional material anyway and put up an ultimatum, I would withdraw from the show if no info will be up on their site. as my last message was not even answered and nothing happened (again and again) I decided to withdraw from the project. it was also announced to be sold with a small financial compensation which I am not getting now, even if I have worked on my part. my work did not pay off in two ways. I am pretty pissed off by now and the curator is burned now. this was nonprofessional, but even worse it was mean among colleagues by promising one thing and doing the other. wasting my time is the last thing you should do.

nevertheless, here is the announcement text for the show, that is not happening:
for the first video exhibition […] sven piayda combines three video works from the last ten years, in which he mixes CGI with newly arranged found footage. a signal-seeking radio telescope, the thorn extractor stranded on mars and a provocative straw doll reflect future-oriented technologies and their failures. the exhibition is rounded off with a 45-minute sound mash-up of sound works from the last 15 years.


the passing of david lynch was quite surprising for me, sometimes the surprise of shock does not make you feel anting about as you simply do not understand. I am not the number one lynch fan, and I do not have any access to many parts of his work. but he was impressive to me, the style, the unleashed creativity in multiple disciplines (even as an older man), the ability to place projects on Hollywood which are unfitting and non-commercial in the first place. what really gets me is ‘mulholland drive’ (as delivered by a great friend on dvd and never given back after our friendship had ended). I was triggered by the idea to tell a story like semi-fitting puzzle pieces, an open world that makes you wonder and investigate. I wanted to present this meme for months, and I do now. the ‘directed by david lynch’ sticker on you window appears like the perfect ironic comment to a reality that appears absurd enough to serve as perfect plot for a lynch movie but is true horror as you´re in it. it´s brilliant joke you cannot laugh about. nevertheless, I found this ‘visual echo’ (a concept I have adapted from lynch movies) back in luxembourg 2022 while visiting an art show featuring black-and-white photographs/graphics at ratskeller. It was reminding me of the sticker on window, and I was inside of the movie…


update 2024-01-27: yesterday I returned to the museum quadrat in bottrop with my mother. I thought it could be great opportunity to spend a sunday afternoon in a well heated museum. as my mother worked in a button factory and optimized textile cutting in industrial processes I assumed the sheila hicks show could be interesting for her. After I persuaded her to visit the collection of the folkwang museum weeks ago she was way more open-minded to visit this yarn-oriented show. nobody is an art nerd like me spending hours in a show but I can say that she could relate to the works which impress and invite to dive into them.here is a new picture I have take while sitting in the exhibition to check the catalogues: the works displaying a circle by making the yarn layer upon itself has something magic and triggers a lot of association of world clocks ans the future as drafted in the sixties. my mother felt reminded of star yarn -material that does not come on a spool but on a star with so many points that it appears like a circle. However, this is a show worth to visited twice.


update 2024-01-27: the museum quadrat also had an exhibition of works executed by kids during education workshops as offered by the museum. some pieces appear hilariously funny as the ‘super cat’, some works are inspired by sheila hick`s yarn wrapping. I really appreciate the kids work even as I do not really consider it as art because the work misses background of art history and personal experience and the pure need to pass on something relevant. Nevertheless, even in this lack of basement may sleep an advantage: a young female artist delivered this plastic of fireworks. The result may look like a kid´s work but the underlying idea is pretty ground-breaking: how can I capture fireworks? (like a variation of my attempts to capture the sea or the ‘present’). I guess this attempt is pretty difficult, maybe even impossible, nevertheless I am impressed of picking this discipline for this motif. as things do not really fit together, what would fit better? As there is no good answer to it, the sculptural attempt for showing a firework is questionable but clever and brave as well. I can adapt to it.


update 2025-02-09: whenever I have to visit a certain place for professional reasons and if there is some time left I usually see what else I could do there. so I visit friends, record stores or museums. as I had to return to monchengladbach (‘mg action town’) I thought I should go back to museum abteiberg, a place we discovered back in 2009 discovering gregeor schneider´s end and the horror it delivered.
this week was supposed to be easy with a lot of time off but it did not turn out this way. having a bad cold and facing numerous professional and personal as well as political issues really grind me and make me crave some time off. my bad cold could not be ignored, it literally forced my to stay in bed and to pause writing for days.
I really need a break from a lot of things, not just a weekend or holydays. maybe I should even look for a new place. as everything (off my control) turns into the false direction, I guess I need to change my attitude and behaviour first.
nevertheless, even with a hurting throat I decided (after a long odyssey caused by a newly structured city and an older navigation system) to visit the museum abteiberg. (originally I was hoping björn walde a.k.a. HYRN could join me but we did not manage it due schedule difficulties.) most of the works do not really get me (apart from schneider´s mind bending installations) but I like the architecture which feels like a playground for adults. apart from that, there are always discoveries: in search of the culture, the rest is fear!


update 2025-02-09: ari benjamin meyers 'hymnus (fankurve)' sounded like a great concept: meyer´s takes fans of fc borussia mönchengladbach, puts them in known local places in monchengladbach and lets them sing (or growl) their stadium songs. a great dive into a culture which must be seen as culture and therefore needs to fin the way into the museum. music is also well-placed in a museum and the tribal singing generates an atmosphere that fills exhibition spaces perfectly. unfortunately the actually show was not that convincing. the tiny cinema screened a documentary on the instruction and recording of the fans, adding some fan interviews but not really hitting documentary standards or actually exploring the situations very fragmentary. the recordings were presented via headphones attached to illuminated double-photos of the singers giving a quite low experience. nevertheless, the fans stadium performance was played via loudspeakers into the exhibition room giving you powerful vibes. …and here I understand the music.


update 2025-02-09: these masks are rough but instantly recognizable: thomas housago made an impression, because in all this brutalism you can find a fine line.


update 2025-02-09: I was already about to leave but wanted to make shure I have entered every room of the pyramiding spaces. so ran into this piece by danh vo: ‘dirty dancing’ features a black and broken jesus from a crucifix and gothic lettering in fine outlines on the wall. there might be blasphemy in it or just a remix of pieces/symbols of a foreign/random culture? however, the classic statuary is teasing and the deconstructing of context is fascinating. we discovered danh vo back in 2019 at mudam, check out these pieces as well.


update 2025-02-09: when I arrived on the abteiberg (abbey hill) I was surprised to still find gregor schneider´s garage (2010), through which you could enter his basement installation after the black 14 x 14 m END entry tunnel (2009) disappeared. I was shocked back in the day but I was always fascinated. when I returned to the museum I wanted to visit the coffee room (in which I have been numerous times already), as I did not find the dark entry I even asked where to find it. the plate announced four rooms inside, I was wondering if a new room might have been added? however, even if I have been in ‘END’ two times and in numerous other schneider experiences I could not enter the dark on my own. I know you have to make some steps into the dark before you can see the light shining under the door of the coffee room but I could not do it. facing it all alone, I could not do it. summing it up, it made me afraid of the dark – again. so apart from his horror of bad interior and cheap horror of darkness and isolation I have to admit that it works. and it mirrors me my own weakness that I am not familiar with. I guess I would have been able to enter with someone else. so today schneider taught me two things: I am weaker than I thought I was (probably based upon all of the issues I came up with at the beginning of the post) which becomes evident in the moment of applied pressure. and it is easier to master a challenge with someone else. maybe we can scale up this finding to a political level.


update 2025-02-09: a rare peaceful moment with princess swantje. the baby girl slowly develop into a wild teenager – or as parents call it: a real pain in the ass. I thought about renting an apartment for her. we still have some cuddly moments, especially in the morning or while I´m on the couch listening to jazz (could be worse). she avoids cuddling with michi but is totally keen on playing with her. so we entertain her all the time until she looses interest. she is always hungry and a slow learner. the cute and crazy moments come slightly out of balance. honeymoon is over for all of us, everyone is tremendously kind on the first days in the new job, especially if you move into your new house with two servants of another species.


sven piayda | detail/golden cow (end of an era)
SAMMLUNG DER RUHRPREISTRÄGER*INNEN
ruhr gallery/galerie an der ruhr, mülheim an der ruhr
2024-11-22 – 2025

you can book your free visit via this link:
kunststaette-muelheim.jimdofree.com/buchen-eintritt-frei

lokalkompass.de

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de

galerie an der ruhr
ruhrstraße 3
45468 mülheim an der ruhr




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



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

entering a new year always feels passive. you feel that you have finished something, looking back you go into debriefing with yourself. what has to get better, what was good and can be sustained? but it is not the end of the story – thank God – you just go on. so you are not going home bringing the solution to the big problem because it is not a movie. life appears more than a tv (streaming) show in episodes, maybe clustered into seasons. and maybe dan harmon's ‘story circle’ is an answer to the things going on:

a character is in a zone of comfort or familiarity. they desire something. they enter an unfamiliar situation. they adapt to that situation. they get that which they wanted. they pay a heavy price for it. they return to their familiar situation. they have changed as a result of the journey. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Harmon)
you may get what you want but you´ll pay a heavy price for it (which may cause a lack leading to a new desire.)

we had a great christmas season, a good time for all of us with the cat jumping around doing nonsense. it was great but also took a lot of effort. we were happy for every moment we could hang out at home knowing that real relaxation would look differently. we had plans to go to the museum on new year´s day (like we did years before) but even without a party our first day of the year started pretty lame only featuring a little walk. nevertheless we managed to return to van bommel van dam museum in venlo (after decade!?) back in 2024.
the museum has moved down the street into a larger building. the old building has become a dining temple which we also attended and which is a true recommendation.
after realizing everyone else was also in venlo that day (and we did not really know how to approach the museum by car) we finally made it into the show by evert thielen.


I was not sure if I was into it, I was just happy to be in a museum again, to walk through he halls, look at paintings and leave the world outside for some hours. we entered the ground floor exhibition for so called polyptychs: paintings on multiple panels which could be folded two times to show more and more pictures. this was impressive, next to his painting skills, but I often fear these funfair moments, when the sensation covers the phenomenon.


the upper rooms featured up to 70 smaller works being even more impressive. being painted masterly, the motives appear fresh like a snapshot but are well arranged indeed. this picture of a woman sitting and reading (drawing?) in front of tree shadows triggered my fantasy: in my mind I could see this one turning into a video piece by david claerbout by fading into back and white with the shadows gently moving behind the sheets.


the paintings were all great but my favourite one is probably one of the smallest pieces. ‘brief’ shows a woman writing a letter obviously using a laptop. the scene is a classic one reminding me of rembrandt, even if the woman is wearing contemporary clothes, the computer is the irritating element for me. maybe because technology develops so quickly and an oil painting is made to last, a specific up-to-date device appears ridiculously. (you might compare it to opn´s ‘age of’ cover). however, I do not know if this tension was intended, but it is in there and I like the idea of having these different and contradictive layers in a work setting motive and technique into contrast.



the museums roof is a playground for a nerd like me. hanging out in the big window looking down on the street with sounds-nl record store (see head picture). and there is more fun pictures to do, a museum is always a playground for me (I behave differently in a church of course).



I would like to bring back the episode of us trying to find the museum (located in its original building) back in 2012 (see 2012-01-05 the system will keep you stupid | entry by sven) and mistaken the gas station for it (how stupid). and I need to add the episode of realizing the former vhs building in ratingen (where I have taught art back in 2003) looks like the gas station which looks like the museum (see 2022-01-08 slowcoach of the year (once again) | entry by sven). it is getting weird…


just around the corner in frohnhausen I realized a 24/7 store featuring vendor machines only has opened. as michi and me have some funny experience with these machines back in begium 2015, I thought I we should check it out for the fun of it. so as I made a new year´s walk with my mother we attended the store: it features a cigarette machine, vendor machines, postal storage and some machines I cannot describe as I do not know hat they are made for. however, next to getting some engilsh wine gums I discovered rick sanchez´ familiar face among the products: ‘pickle rick’ was also availably for sale via vendor machine. the additional lines say: ‘contains one pickle’. so good marketing does also sell single pickles. well, it all started with the idea to transform into a pickle to avoid family therapy…


as we´re all not these party animals and spend the new year´s eve at hope taking care of our pets, matthias came up with the idea of a ‘new years classic’. well, here we go, it is always a great opportunity to hang out and we both cannot wait for summer to come up here. we missed to make a bromance picture together but matthias delivers a second goldbar portrait: 2024 vs. 2025 – who wore better?




I do not want to arrogant talking about my future plans. there is a lot of duty to do and I start heading for the next tome off. but apart from that have great ideas and projects to work on: rock music, avant-garde music, music videos, video works, tableaus, multiples, a little solo show and a museum pitch. let´s just celebrate the good time we have and collaborate of whatever is possible. I never have enough time to do everything I want to, to meet everyone I want to. I do not promise that things get better but I promise to keep on trying. have a good start for 2025!


update 2025-01-06: an here is our first little update. as there is a first live gig for record of tides scheduled I started to do tracks fitting into the the concept. so this time it is the other way around, insted of doing albums ad considering wich tracks might be fitting into a live show I have an idea for a vibe and try to create some short pieces fitting into it. so there might be an album which might be inspired by live stuff. I did some classic IDM sets around 2019 and post hip-hop stuff in 2022 and now it is about to transform into something more arty and abstract, glichy ambient and reworked stems. it is just time for something new. I do not know if this will work, but it is not about dancing, it is about diving into it. so it is just processing some ideas whenever possible in short slots of time off. I just have something like an ep now, but it may end up as an album again. let´s see...

recordoftides.com


sven piayda | detail/golden cow (end of an era)
SAMMLUNG DER RUHRPREISTRÄGER*INNEN
ruhr gallery/galerie an der ruhr, mülheim an der ruhr
2024-11-22 – 2024-12-15

you can book your free visit via this link:
kunststaette-muelheim.jimdofree.com/buchen-eintritt-frei

lokalkompass.de

galerie-an-der-ruhr.de

galerie an der ruhr
ruhrstraße 3
45468 mülheim an der ruhr




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



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