2023-02-22 spinning loose ends into a single strand | entry by sven

I am recently playing around with some loose ends. a lot of professional ideas, art and music projects as well as private relationships need to be spun together. my power and concentration is limited, everything takes weeks or moths to be put into action – or to happen at all. the spark of the first ignition is already done, when it is happening you have tried to keep the fire burning like a torch-bearer. often I try to plan up to an end. I have to learn to live with the open end, ‘the process’ as people call it who never bring something to an end. the first months of the years are always about that…

the art projects have to be managed properly, I am not on fire recently. I am not skipping it, I just do it for the routine the surprise for myself when things turn out great. maybe the thrill is gone, and maybe it needs a break.

as I have discovered my passion for playing live again, I am facing numerous dead ends again which drive me nuts. when you try to form a band, there is so much of discussing and talking, organizing and planning, only some playing and then it does not happen for numerous reasons. I ended up pretty depressed on the last weeks. on the other hand I Iove to play jams. you are just into the music, you do it for yourself and the audience always likes it, they sometimes even spend money or a free drink. this is true fun, why am I still searching for the ambitioned way. as one of my colleagues used to say: ‘we´ve learned what we knew already.’ I end up desperate when organizing a band. so I put my own ultimatum. when the things do not fall into place until march, I will finally concentrate to the second architects of utter destruction album and do some jams for fun. as I writing this, it appears as the best plan recently.


ithree days in zeeland within and to avoid the carnival season is ritual. it helped to calm down, get some distance and find solutions. as we are trapped in rituals of beach walks and certain restaurant visits all the pictures taken end up more or less the same – but hey, this is what we wanted it to be. above you see a magic sunset behind the dune as seen from our hotel.


some weeks ago in the end of january I did the laser biathlon again. I debuted in 2017 and I was pretty good in getting pulse under control while shooting after a 400 m langlauf. this time I was pretty bad, my condition was gone after 150 m and it was hard to finish, even my shooting was bad. I ended up on ranking position #33 (#9 in 2017) so I want to perform better next time! cross your fingers. have a look at the full ranking: biathlon-tour.de


once in a while I am trying to find new media on mourning widows, nuno bettencourt´s band which only released on japan (as far as I know) and which I am totally obsessed with. they made I sound I still want to do today, to me thy sound fresh and contemporary but all of this happened 20 years ago. you might have seen nuno´s unworthy superbowl contribution, with his unlimited abilities in mind it is unbelievable that he was degraded to be an extra. no matter with whom he is sharing the stage, he is always the better singer, guitar player, songwriter and performer, on stage he is even funny, modest and also moderating. I have learned a lot from this guy which is extremely useful during jams. here we go.



back in 2021 I presented some visual echoes featuring prefuse 73 showing performances which looked somehow like mine, see 2021-02-01 self-made game shows and recurring visual echoes | entry by sven. I search for live performance pictures of prefuse once in a while and I was once again surprised to find pictures echoing shots of my very own performances. I admit that I have edited the colours a bit to make it more similar but I did not do any other edits.




I am surprised again and again to see him play smaller venues, this guy has put out numerous albums, even on warp, defining a whole genre. I imagine him applying at the same festivals I do and getting dismissed for being ‘not what we are looking for’. the mainstream is made to commercialize the image and not to celebrate true art and music. I am not complaining, I am just repeating my finding like a mantra.

update 2023-02-25: this picture looks so unreal as I would never expected it to happen, to me it looks like two worlds collide which appeared to have nothing in common. it has been taken after the elektro jam #4 at lokal harmonie in duisburg. it shows (from left to right) myself, dean blues and andreas hilburg. when dean came up with the idea to take a picture at the piano, I sat down and played a random chord. fun fact: while I am the one with the hands on the keys i am the only person in the picture who is not able to play…





update 2023-02-25: playing the jam was great. you would not re-watch the two hour set again on facebook, there has been a lot drone, noise and krautrock but we had some ‘autechre meets brian may moments’. playing live in changing constellations is exciting, the results are differing and surprising in style and quality – just like my records…




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


2023-01-26 orientation in the dark shadow of the echo | entry by sven

here we go again. as I was dreaming about keeping the kinetic energy to get through the winter I feel like having slowed down, maybe frozen already. I find myself in organizing, producing and preparing while I am getting nothing. working in a bubble I cannot get out. I still witness myself as very productive but the question of ‘why’ rises and is getting more and more dominant. why am I doing it anyway? my obsessive production processes feel ridiculous…

above you see me during the opening of ‘zeitenwende’ at forum für kunst und architektur in essen. it was well organized and I met many kind, interesting and interested people, but I did not feel like going there in advance. I did it because it was on schedule, it did not really made me happy although I am happy to be chosen and able to exhibit. a strange feeling of loosing kinetic energy, is this what burn-out feels like? we are considering an artist talk and I have announced to participate, not doing it won´t answer any problem at all. I feel exhausted in many aspects of my duty, profession and creations. the journal helps a lot, not only as therapy writing, also as proof that I go through the same episodes annually at the beginning of the year. I made it through the last year, I now I feel exhausted, I´d need a break and i am starting the new one. it feels like walking in led shoes. will it be better in summer?


i wanted to visit the museum folkwang on new year´s day, as a colleague dismissed our date after an extra day of work on a saturday I decided to face the museum alone. it did not get me this time, art is usually the answer to dark days, if you enter a show with a bad mood you will only find dark and flat pieces. however, I was surprised to discover an assembly of works by michel majerus. I have a strong fascination for his work, to me he is a kind of luxembourgish basquiat, even if this label is completely wrong. majerus is driven and samples motifs and styles to adapt into his own body of work. I often take gerhard richter as an archetype for my changings of genre and style as a musician, majerus might be the archetype to record of tides’ ‘purchases’ series. you simply take pieces, sometimes not larger than the atom itself and compose it into a wider and weirder composition (isn’t this what the universe does all the time since a billion years?). it can be intellectual and funny, isn´t this the perfect piece?


also I wanted to join the opening of the ‘stopover’ show of photography students in the museums basement. as I was installing my screen myself (the big flat screen decided to not function anymore) I missed the opening, so my bad mood saturday afternoon offered the opportunity to finally have a look at the show. I was surprised to see that only half of the basement was used for the show. the work of volker crone made an impression and made me think: at first the large panels appear as night sky photographs, a second look the stars appear as tiny holes while the cut-out material is stored in match boxes in the middle of the room. I was wondering, when we erase something, where does it go?


two weeks ago the electric café and eurorack ruhr created an event at makroscope featuring a lot of cables and machines to make noise with. it was great to see all the mates from electric café again, to chat and make plans an enjoy the music, which was all great. my highlight was o.s.cilliator a.k.a. oliver schupp who owned the stage with an all live house and song driven performance. it is great to see the scene emerge and I am proud to be a humble part of it.
you might like to find out more about this night in the report by alfred arnold over at empulsiv.de.



I wanted to do a glitch hop set for a while now and offered the concept to some venues harvesting a lot of frustration, so I am more than surprised to present two shows now. I even feel scared of my own idea, I drafted it and it was put on the schedule by others and now it is happening with me not knowing exactly what may happen. it is exciting anyway, it may turn out great or lame, two chances, we´ll see…
these dates are standalone events for fun, somehow they are also promotional dates for the ‘post internet’ album (which is lying around finised since two years…). it is hilarious, I am already finishing the album after the album after ‘post internet’ and it will be great material. in this context I am also working with artists and directors to have the right video for it. so I will come up with another but final video by matthias danberg for ‘post internet’ and I am recently working with christopher terhart, robin moedder and chris huff on upcoming material. there is great stuff ahead…
I am taking the visual site very serious here, but I do not want to do it all on my own as I found people willing to work with me and contribute to the project and as I am thankful for their fantastic input. I have realized to start working on the album covers when I feel an album in production, I guess the cover is as important as the music, maybe the cover is everything most people know about an album, maybe it is a door opener to some… keep an eye on the internet, great stuff is coming, for the meantime let´s have some fun:

glitch hop hdj sets microsite
all info in the live section


I just found this picture I have to share with you: autechre, aphex twin, squarepusher and nightmares on wax are posing as warp records super group, taken around 2000. This is pretty much nailing where I want to go with my projects: being part of a group, still being completely individual and autonomous, superstars in an exquisite scene that is meaningless to the flat mainstream. this picture illustrates a fantasy which might never been real. prefuse 73 is missing in the picture, he had been dismissed from the label for unknown reasons after numerous releases. it happened years later, this is also part of the truth and the broken fantasy.




sven piayda | the impossibility to take pictures of the present
Z E I T E N W E N D E

forum kunst und architektur, essen
2023-01-22 – 2023-02-12, opening 2023-01-22, 3 pm

forumkunstarchitektur.de

forum kunst und architektur
kopstadtplatz 12
45127 essen





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


2023-01-14 supreme routine and kinetic interia | entry by sven

starting a new year is always a strange ritual, you have closed projects and look for new ones, you set up dates like you would be actually in control. there is a something like a felt gap ‘between the years’, everyone is somewhere, nothing seems to happen. I need the projects to keep me going and I am setting up new ones. there are also set up collaborative projects where the partner is the pacemaker. as I look back on a good year I wonder how I can take the euphoria over to the new one, like using the kinetic energy of my rolling train waiting to ignite again. also I believe in routine to keep (the illusion of) control. we discussed to spend new year´s eve on kirchberg again but dismissed the idea as it appeared a little too expensive to us. we surrounded out nye with museum visits (we skipped museum folkwang on new year´s day…) and did our own little party with pizza and alcohol-free sparkling wine. however, as I believe in routines I would have loved to do my classic wall-sitting-picture in front of the panorama you would be able to see from kirchberg, instead I did the classic posture in the siepen for the second time again. same posture, same place, different spot. well, I guess even if you are keen on visual echoes you need some variation…


I remember having a good time in the winter of 20219/2020 in luxembourg, we were attending museums even on new year´s eve, and it was a great opportunity to spend your time while you can actually do nothing. as we wanted to go back to museum helmond after discovering it in autumn 2021 we decided to spend the day watching the shows on display. the museum featured a show on walker evans. it is always great to have a look on this american icon, this show transfers it into the contemporary and conceptual context by placing it next to positions based upon the approach or even single works by walker evens. we also had a look at the helmond castle, it was fun to do the round tour in reversed direction, stumbling from one room into another. living on a castle means to be surrounded by objects mirroring the own relevance, even 900 (?) years ago. Impressive and well decorated, augmented augmented and perfectly staged… we prefer the regular museum.


in the time beween the years I scheduled a day to visit some musician friends in velbert. as I expected everyone to live further apart, I did not know that it would be so funny and easy. jan-dirk platek and me haven´t really met back in 2019 when I played at the tiny electric café open air festival in werden, but jan liked what I did and we had a digital connection. in 2021 we started collaborating on his request and we did two tracks together. one of them is the unmatched ‘expotential’. in winter 2021 jan send some more tracks and we did some more collaborative tracks which ended up on the ‘boxes’ ep. however, I thought it would be time for us to meet and chat and so we did. two guys in our age are both experienced in music and know here we want to go and where not. we chatted about music and life and ended up recording some guitar tracks for fun. surprisingly, jan send a fully produced post rock piece the next day, even if it was drafted as technical demo, I guess I need to put it on CRW3. it is once again amazing how easy it is to collaborate, actually it is always easy with the gifted ones. we have scheduled nothing for the future but I guess a future episode is possible.


later that day I drove down to langenberg. martin is a guy I know from the anyway jam sessions. he usually comes up with a blues harp but he is also a gifted guitar player. as there is the idea of forming a band again, martin turned out to very interested and ambitioned to join as bass player. next to his abilities as a musician I have asked myself who I would like to share a stage and spend my time with, and martin is a guy ticking all the boxes. however, it was like visiting a friend and check his toys, martins house is full of guitars, we had espresso and jammed on some ideas. unfortunately, his abilities of an electronic engineer made him modify some instruments in a way that trigger physical pain by watching it… experiencing us on stage is fun, cross your fingers so we can do it in a more organized way…


I felt so pioneering when I released ‘random darknet shopper’ after my little nye party. I was not the first of the year but I felt like it. however, jan dirk-platek started the year with purchasing and listening to my track. his comment on bandcamp made my day start good as well: awesome songwriting and production. if you‘re into trippy IDM hit the buy button.


and here is a picture of me on my private little new year´s eve party. well, when we are at home, things usually do not get wild. we have to stage these dancing moves. however, the picture has been taken with a polaroid adding some nostalgia by its unique colour scheme. when I set my calendar for 2023 I rediscovered the sketch of picking tracks I have made for my hdj set at consol in summer 2022. (it is still great and available from the /CAMP) I still remember this day with mixed feelings but in retrospective it was great to play these great tracks to people in the beach club – and even more important – under the red ruin of the consol shaft tower.
for 2023 I have fixed two dates where I will be hdjing weird and unique tracks I have collected over a decade now in conceptional sets in events I have been working on for months now. I am not telling more recently, but there will be posters as collectable items. however, two sets in two places in gelsenkirchen. do not miss it.


when phil barnett posted a picture of sunrise intervals, I immediately had an idea for a video piece. as we started collaborating again, we listened to the remixes we made for each other more than a decade ago. we agreed that we would do things different today but also that the stuff is still good. as I want to make sure that our music remains reliable available, I will do digital reissues of ‘greatest hits’ and the remix releases of the original mp3s with corrected meta data and as reliable zip file. maybe we´ll do a bandcamp reissue one day, but for now there are reasons to keep it on zany music.




sven piayda | the impossibility to take pictures of the present
Z E I T E N W E N D E

forum kunst und architektur, essen
2023-01-22 – 2023-02-12, opening 2023-01-22, 3 pm

forumkunstarchitektur.de

forum kunst und architektur
kopstadtplatz 12
45127 essen





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