Very happy to share with you that our audiobook-track "Feminismus im Dunkeln" won the special award of the "Track5"-competition, initiated by austrian radio Ö1 and "Schule für Dichtung".

It is a collaboration between Fräulein Hahnkamper (spoken words) from Vienna, Martin Hagen (spoken words) from Berlin and me (sound).

Yesterday at the Gala-event, we realized, that Fräulein and me have been working together already for 8 years. We have met in Amsterdam in 2008 and a couple of years later we managed to try "something".
"Something" must have been good, because ever since we have been keeping in touch and arranging concerts and performances for each other.
The Highlight was a tour in 2017, that brought us also to Berlin, Jena, Bavaria, the Netherlands, and also Vienna.

I am full of good energy, after receiving so many great responses for our track. Thanks a lot for this and I am looking forward to doing more exploration.

I am happy to present to you my second single "Good Evening", which is going to be the only non-original track of the album "1987".
The original is by Jeff Bridges aka. "The Dude" and Keefus Ciancia. It is also the introduction of their infamous audiobook "Sleeping Tapes", which I have been listening to for a while, before going to sleep.
Jeff Bridges' voice is familiar and pleasant. The stories are so deep on many levels, and obviously the connection to dreams and the world beyond eventually made me decide to include a track of it for my album.

It was an amazing experience to arrange it for my band and adding all the small details like glockenspiel, percussion and voice.

Especially exciting was when I contacted the composer and he forwarded my track to Jeff himself. He also came back to me with this:
"Your work is emotive, and real…looking forward to the full length album"
Feeling more then happy to receive this feedback!!!

I hope you all enjoy the song and I hope it inspires you to do some good dreaming!!!

https://bernhardhollinger.bandcamp.com/track/good-evening-single

I have no words to describe how intense and beautiful these last weeks were. Not only because of the crowdfunding-project, but also because of this event.

To see the aftermovie brings a lots of nice memories back! Thank you Lyuba Matyunina and Konstantin Guz for capturing some magic of that night. It's incredible what we can do, if we do it together!!!! I am thankful to be finally working with my friends, who I highly respect as artists and humans alike.

In particular Lyuba!!! I have known her for a long time, and ever since, she has been constantly pushing me forward.
She is one of the very few that is going all the way to do what she wants, dedicating her life to create something original and real.

This crowdfund symbolizes that same journey for me.
And I am happy to have received so many kind messages and supporting mails.
This really makes me wanna make a crazy EP!!!!!

So, let's get these last 26%!!!!!!!

in case you were wondering!!!
This is how an analog-Video-portrait could look like!!!
I am offering exclusive edits of your picture for a donation of 100€.

Looks funky, right?

Here is a short snippet of my collaboration-track, for which I sampled Androula Kafa's voice and face.

I reworked her vocal chants to a composition that I performed with my sampler! In addition I reworked some video-images of her and included them into my analoge-video-installation.

I programmed my sampler to also trigger the lights.
In addition I sampled my bass guitar playing live.

This track is part of a more quiet and ambient program I have composed through the last months. Its name is "Sacral Symphonies" and features some very progressive working methods on my sampler as well.

BTW: First time I am showing my homebuilt osciloscope!!!
Hope you like it!!!!

A lot of things happened in the last weeks!

One of the things was my collaboration with Cyprus based singer Androula Kafa. I featured her voice and her face in a performance I did for the 3-year anniversary party of HIS DARK ELEMENTS at OT301 in Amsterdam.
Additionally I showcased for the first time my homebuilt oscilloscope, which I made out of an old television.

Lights and Oscilloscope are connect to my sampler, with which I am controlling the lightbulbs.

Later that night, I'd play the lights via my sampler and provided the light-installation "hecate's torches" for the main-room and the performance of "Le Chocolate Noir" from Croatia and "Pablo Diskko" from Greece.

The night before I had the honor to curate a night at "De Ruimte" in Amsterdam. We decided to call the event "Abstract Dancer" as we were aiming for a dance-night with some more edgy and non-conventional music.
Together with "Lowkolos", electro-acoustic sound designer and composer from Istanbul and "dj_being" from Russia, we filled the night with grooves and sounds, obviously my television and light-installation was there too.

Thanks to "de ruimte" and "His Dark Elements", who also contributed to my crowdfund-project!

History of "Lo-Fi Playground Sessions"

This event started as a concert I arranged to play my synthesizers live for once. I have never seen something similar in Amsterdam before and thought it would be nice to make a difference. For that first try I invited Denis Androic on synthesizers and trumpet and we performed and jammed as our duo "ADHB_sync".

The second time was the first attempt to curate a line-up. Before we had the jam with Denis Androic, Matthías Ingiberg Sigurðsson on clarinet and Ableton) and myself, we gave the openings slot to dj_being aka. Konstantin Guz, who I have known for a long time. The trained photographer started to experiment with field-recordings from his travels and making compositions out of them.

The idea is create a platform where musicians and producers can come out of their caves and just jam together, connect with each other.
Thus the 3rd time was focusing on more elaborate jam.
We had a jam-team that consisted of 5 people. The jam was accompanied by one opening act.

To include even more people and a more diverse set up, I decided it would be nice to offer more short sets to people with very strong and progressive / new ideas. Again, I have not encountered these night in Amsterdam yet, though they are essential for inspiration and exchange of ideas.
The 4th time became a REAL PLAYGROUND in every sense.
We started engaging with the space (de Peper) and turned it upside down! The stage was in the people rather than on a podium. We had 13 international and national artists (special guest from STEIM) that night, performing live, show-casing produced music, improvised electronics, visual projections, and a TV-installation.

From this moment on, it was clear! The future is bright, the concept of having a event that is blurring the lines of performances, interactive environment, inclusiveness, collaboration, experimentation, diversity and love WORKS!!!
For the 5th Edition we decided to experiment and move to a different space. With OCCII we found not only a proper performance place, but also a cultural centre that really supported our idea.
Again we turned around the location, blocked the stage with a AV-installation by KAAPO, TatianaRosa provided a light installation with broken mirrors, LukeDean screened a loop of famous shooting scenes of the movie HEAT with overdubbed composition. FurTheBurds provided some projections, which played with the space, and also with some live-video, they took from Iphones of the visitors. 4 Short performances by SPELLWEG, Zeyn Mroueh, Beatdenker and Bernhard Hollinger, and an additional Synthesizer-Jam-Session that concluded the night.

The future is bright!!!
Looking forward to making the difference again at edition no. 6!!!!!

Growing up is about learning, changing, adapting. It is a constant growth and process.
I approach music the same way, try to be as open as possible and try to surround myself with an environment that stimulates me and inspires me, relaxes me and makes me flow in the moment. It is more difficult than said, because most of the times we are holding ourselves back from this "zone".

As I practiced meditation a while back, I was very attracted to David Lynch's thoughts on transcendental meditation, after I have seen "Twin Peeks", because I could feel, that he was reaching for something deeper. Lynch says, that everyone has a creative core. It is just a matter of how to reach it and set it free!!! Once you reach that core, you are unstoppable. I couldn't agree more!

Having said that, I found myself in the south of germany a couple of years back, at a festival, close to the place where I grew up.
I was invited to perform there with the duo ADHB_sync.
It was me on electric bass and synths, and Denis Androic on trumpet and synths. We also synced a huge amount of televisions to the music.
The environment was so relaxed, that we dared to just experiment and create some kind of "out of control"-zone, where we felt comfortable to explore.
The tension was so strong, that everybody felt it. This tension made everybody even more listening!!!
So grateful for these kind of moments, that fill us up with this happy feeling!!!!

Luckily we could capture one of those moments!!!

I wanted to compose something bluesy, minimalistic and edgy,... so I came up with this motive.
Playing it on the fretless bass also gives it a unique sound and edge. In addition I added some FM-Radio-Noise, that adds to the sound image.
The most interesting part of this song is, that I recorded it onto a VHS-cassette and back into the laptop.
The final result is a unique mix of how analog and digital can be combined!

More of those ideas for the EP!!! :-)

Creation is like a drug to me!!! I can't stop to explore more and find new inspiration!!!
After seeing David Lynch's "Twin Peeks" for the first time, I was so inspired to explore the playfulness and impulsiveness of dreams and the subconscious in a musical way.
I wanted to use sound in order to paint a dream, with twists , turning-points and expected surprises and colors.
Who is the dreamer!?!?
Not sure if I am still dreaming, because this is like a dream come true!!!! *rubbing my eyes*

MY FIRST SINGLE "FLY" IS OUT!!!!!!!!!

It has been a lot of work and I am very proud to finally start sharing some music. I am feeling blessed to have had so many talented and great people involved in this.
Thanks to everybody who contributed to this process.

https://bernhardhollinger.bandcamp.com/track/fly-single

Feeling more than grateful to have had so many helping hands and supporters to organize "Lo-Fi Playground Sessions - Vol. 5" at Occii. Here is a little clip of my performance - my set for Sampler and light-bulbs!!!!

Please feel free to share my crowdfund, we still have a long way to reach our final goal!!! we are at 6% now!!!!

A bit more than a year ago I started organizing an event.
Within a year it took off and now I am more than happy to find myself with a crew of almost 30 helpers, that joined me to plan the upcoming event, which will take place tomorrow evening at OCCII in Amsterdam.

in the link you can find more information:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2191637737743224/

This event has been a crucial factor in exploring and experimenting with my electronics and different settings.

Looking forward to tomorrow!!!!

Thanks again to all the new donators!!!!
This coming week I'll have the pleasure to perform a couple of times!

Today we were playing live on Stranded FM - Internet-radio, based in Utrecht.
On Friday we will be performing live on Redlight Radio from 10-11 am and then later on we are going to have our big event "Lo-Fi Playground Sessions - Vol. 5" at OCCII in Amsterdam.

I will be sharing some more music with you, that will be part of the EP, so feel free to tune in or come by.

THANKS again for all the new donations!!!!

I want to invite you all to come by the next events to see what I am up to live!!!!!

The next dates, when you can hear and see me are:
- 8th February on Redlight-Radio - 10.00-11.00am
- 8th February at "Lo-Fi Playground Sessions - Vol. 5"
at OCCII, Amsterdam - 22.00
- 15th February at de Ruimte, Amsterdam - 23.00
- 16th February at OT301, Amsterdam - 21.00

Looking forward to seeing you in person!!!!

Thanks a lot for the first contributions!
Still we got a long way to go!

If you were curious what I have been making already so far then this post is for you!!! :-)

https://soundcloud.com/bernhardhollinger/500-for-god