Project: Patchwork

The body & the brain

We didn’t go down the usual road when producing this CD. Usually, someone writes a song and then they lock themselves with a band in a rehearsal room. As soon as all arrangements are made, you book a recording studio and play the parts within as short time as possible, in order to cut down on the costs, unless you have a record contract, thus the label bears all the costs. Once everything is recorded, it will be mixed and mastered – and voilá, the end product!

Well, not with us! The songs were generated over a period of eight years, one after the other, and they were not composed and subsequently recorded, but fit together piece by piece into a whole work. When all was done, it was finally mixed and mastered – by three different producers in three different studios.

This process not only took time and a lot of patience, it also means doing all the recording, editing and mixing by yourself in order to get an idea of the end product. That is classical home recording or home studio work, with more or less restricted technical conditions and experiences. What we would like to say is that we have learned a great deal over the last year, especially about how things don’t work!

body & brain of Project: Patchwork:

Peter Koll

Gerd Albers

⇑“The Body” Peter Koll

Peter Koll

“The body”

Without him, there wouldn’t be “Tales From A Hidden Dream” just that simple! Peter generated the recordings, imported, edited, pre-mixed and -mastered tracks (drum tracks, oh my…) in basically endless hours, days and weeks, which turned into months. In addition, he contributed some parts on electric guitar himself and offered and realised some tonal concepts. His engagement was quite important, so he becomes a co-owner of this CD and Project: Patchwork

groovefabrik.net

⇑“The Brain” Gerd Albers

Gerd Albers

“The brain”

The whole concept, musical contents, texts, organisation and communication with the musicians, graphic artists, website developers, studios, press, label, GEMA, etc, all acoustic guitars and drums, some keyboards, percussions and electronic guitars, as well as mainly backing vocals were developed and brought in by myself. This CD is altogether the realisation of my personal childhood dream. My musical horizon has expanded by working together with the many great musicians and I have made many friends in the course of the project.

groovefabrik.net

I would like to express my thanks to some old and new friends specifically:

Frank Rausch (audioworld), Martin Schnella (Overlodge Recording Studio) and Marek Arnold (B’side-Music): You have created a great end product with partly mediocre tonal raw material. Besides, you were constant counsellors, and we have learned a lot from you.
Many, many thanks!
Janine Roje: You have invested much time and effort to realise even the smallest wishes and details regarding artworks and layout of booklet. Not every CD debutant can claim to deliver a comprehensive booklet with their first CD!
Claudia Groß: You have invested a lot of time in building an official website, leaving no wish unfulfilled regarding functionality and design. Actually, the amount of work was to be kept low, which didn’t really work out.
GrooveFabrik: My complete Band, which I have been on the road for about 10 years now, has participated musically in the project. Thanks to Maggy, Olli, Peter, Micha, Volker and Matthes.
Uli Brandt: Without the permanent loan of the mobile recording device and large-diaphragm microphones by Uli, the vocal and drum recordings would have not been possible.
Patchworker: If you want to find different musicians for each song, many people will come together. I would like to not only thank the many professional musicians from Germany, The Netherlands and Israel, who have supported someone totally unknown to them. But, I would like to thank all my non-professional friends of music who have contributed with their skills and who can now say, that they are part of the project and this CD!