"What did you want?" "Sounds like a Beatles record with a scratch like that." "Two parts are killing me." ""Blues" and what else?" " "Yogi"." "I sit there every day thinking I'll start afresh and rework "Blues"." "Then I'm in tears, and I think, I'll get out "Yogi"..." "I worked on it for a week, six or eight hours a day." "I'm exhausted, I've had enough." "At wits' end." "If you're in the mood or really bored..." " What do you want me to do?" "Just for the hell of it, you could get out "Blues" again and turn it into a really awesome track." "But I only have the trash vocals and they're being deleted anyway." "I'm deleting them tomorrow." "That trash." " I just wanted to add..." "Don't forget the can or else we won't get the sound right." "Finished?" "Does that take the air out, the "phhh" out or does it stay the same with this mouthpiece?" "This one is much softer." "And much deeper." "This one has far more air." "I prefer it without the trumpet." "It's much mellower." "Too much air." " It's at a frequency that gets on your nerves a bit anyway." "Put it on." "I quite like the idea with the air, when you hear the air, and it mixes in with the flutes." "But it's pretty irritating here." "It's the rhythm..." " That's what I like." "You could make it much calmer, by adding another bass." "I wish you wouldn't keep... keep switching around like that..." "There's the one with the piano and..." "Leave it on, I want you to hear the hissing beat." "The rest doesn't matter anyway." "That was once a piano, wasn't it?" "But it adds a lot of background atmosphere to the piano." "We could try sending it through the room, yeah?" "Not so good, huh?" "A bit too diffused?" "But a really nice passage is the way it comes crashing in and then it's so empty." "Before that it's... and then these Mellotron sounds on top..." "And suddenly it was so..." "That's why it'd be good to have everything, apart from the crackling, separately." "It gets too full now." "Too heavy." "We could do some more inside." "There are certain things I always do, because Markus doesn't know how." "And others I'd never dare do myself, because Markus does them." "That's the way it is." "What would you not have the confidence to do?" " To write lyrics." "I'd never write lyrics." "It'd be a real nightmare for me." "We usually work in a very... non-intellectual way." "Basically, we listen to something and then we either like it or we don't." "Our music is like that." "It's not based" "on pop hype." "We want it to be fragile, vulnerable" "and, in a way, we want it to include the mistakes and weaknesses." "That's what it's all about." "With you, it's different, because we know each other, but I never really play along." "I don't enjoy interviews." "And all those music channels, not my kind of thing." "I don't like it either." " VIVA and all that stuff," "I feel so out of place when I have to give an interview and they're hectically filming with all these fast cuts." "I always feel so awkward." "Not my scene." "I have to move away from music a bit." "Do you have any hobbies, interests that have nothing to do with music?" "Hobbies?" "That's difficult." "Shall I sing it again?" " It's up to you." "It's just to get an impression." " It's good enough for that." "So complicated that you have to listen to it five times to like it?" "Or eight or ten times." "Is that a bass?" " No, a cello." "Sounds great." "Great, isn't it?" " Thank God." "And not complicated at all." " Strange?" "Not the slightest bit awkward." "Simply beautiful." "Just the rhythm is totally chaotic." "Especially where the vocals begin." "The vocals move to the fore and end weirdly." "I love the way the pizzicato stuff starts." "Especially with the breaks." "When you hear it for the first time, or people who don't pick up the rhythm the first time..." "You don't know where the one is." "There are just sounds." "It only becomes accentuated when the plucked pizzicatos, the chords, begin." "The version we've had so far is a bit boring after a while." "I don't enjoy listening to it anymore." "I always fast forward it, too." " Me too." "You can listen to this new version again and again because it's so complex." "You can't play it." "It's a real killer when you see the notes." "When I sit in front of the score and read along..." "I'd have to record it bar by bar." "To get it to sound anything like the demo, you'd have to play it at a very high pitch." "But if he's really so brilliant, he'd probably..." "Let's have a look at it." "Good." "If I did arrangements as a string player," "I'd never write anything like that, because it's impossible really." "But this is great because you're not thinking about the instrument's limitations." "No, not at all." " Sometimes it's better doing it like that." "You can experiment in a way you normally wouldn't." "I just worked on the piano." "The things I was able to play..." "Though playing that in perfect time on the piano must be pretty hard too." "Luckily there's quantization." "Those are the most difficult ones." "I'd do it bar by bar." " Yes, we'll definitely do that." "We'll arrange it to make it sound homogenous." "It's a question of concentration." "You can do it for three or four bars, but then you can't concentrate anymore and you're no longer fast enough." "Markus likes the fact that there's so little vibrato on it." "That's how it should be." "We'd like a bit more resonance." "Just to make sure..." "With a mike, there's bound to be reverb." "I can't help that." "Sometimes a string resonates." " That's okay." "We'll do each bar until it's right on the click." " And then paste it." "Every take you don't like, you can delete." "Or is that too much hassle?" " We could, but it would be quicker to just keep everything." "Some might be better than others." "The dynamics weren't as good as on the first one." " Yes, it was too quiet." "Once more." "A bit too quiet at the beginning." " It's the repetition." "Let's try again." "Just a matter of luck." "No, too slow." "Whenever I play louder, I get slower." "Once more." "Shit..." "I'll try something else." "Just a minute." "Stop." "The click track was off." " Sorry." "I don't know why that happened." "Yes." "That was good." "Could we listen to what we've got so far, just to see how it works?" "Having these playing sounds on it makes it sound alive." "Want them in?" " I like it." " I like it lots, too." "The overall impression is a bit marred by having these two or three notes on it that are too quiet." " Yes, it's the repetition." "We already worked on this part a few times." "We have three different takes of that." "This is the second one." " Yes." "This simply can't be done." "See?" " But it's okay." " I like it, too." "Yes." "It sounds natural..." " The last one just then." "I'd like to listen to the second one from here and the first one from the other version." "Or was that wrong?" "We're not talking about the twelfth bar yet, but the eleventh." "But it was great!" " Let's listen to it again." "This one or the one before?" "The last one." "That's good." "I really like the twelfth one." "Or am I wrong?" "What did you say?" "I even liked the twelfth one." " Yes, it's great." "Let's leave both of them." "Let's listen again." "May I suggest something else?" " Yes." "I think..." " The eleventh one from the other take." "In that version the twelfth is even better than the eleventh." "It really grooves." " Yes." "Wild, the way it pans." "And if Saam plays something really groovy over the top..." "Could you do that outside, please?" "Or preferably not at all?" "Martin!" "You bastard!" "I just want to tune the bass drum first." "Was that a dog barking?" " No." "That..." "No, I was sitting in the bath and went like this..." " I see." "It's so sophisticated." "Add the last chorus." " Very beautiful." "I'd like to have a label that works in a similar way or has a similar story and approach, and idea as Notwist as a band." "To have a label... that can make ends meet and works as independently as possible." "A label that has a background of thinking laterally." "That doesn't orientate its roster and activities purely on the charts and on success in a certain genre, but releases what it likes and works with that and is willing to take the risk of making a loss." "That's important to me." "But that's just an ideal, because it always revolves around money too." "I could dampen the cymbals." "Then we'd have only the bass." "Hear that sound?" "In Mexico I worked with a mike." "It's a bit faint." "It should be a much harder slap." "Sounds as if he were drumming on a really big drum..." "The sound fits in with the electronics so well." "The bits we liked best are where you can't hear the cymbals." "I could tape them together." " One more idea:" "Due to the re-arranging, and the strings, the whole piece has an upbeat sound and we want to get away from that." "Perhaps you could play something fast and light on the zarb." "Something like that?" "I played that pretty tightly." "The rhythm..." "I think you follow the strings too closely..." "They dictate these heavy, upbeat parts." "I'm going to switch them off." " Good idea." "It even includes a release commitment for Europe, North America and Japan." "So it'll be released everywhere." "If they should split up, Notwist have their own opt-out clause." "Exclusiveness is no problem, all these side projects and so on." "I'll just give them a call and settle things, okay?" "Willi phoned again today, too." "Wow, Japan, wild!" "We'll be quiet." "He's recording and you don't even care, you just keep looking at the contract." "I don't like this simultaneous release." " But it's not." "It's all over Europe..." "I'm skeptical." "But if one party doesn't stick to the contract, it becomes invalid." "Not bad, eh?" "But if they release it without any promotion?" "How do you want to go about it?" "Via City Slang?" "Why not?" "But this initial offer alone provides more than we can get from City Slang." "The contract seems to indicate this record company is raring to go." "Sure, they are." "I didn't get that impression with this guy from City Slang." "Though I must admit, I only spoke to him once." "He went, "Yes, it's a good album, interesting." "Will fit into our roster..."" "But the feeling I get when I walk into the other company's office is" "I don't fit in." "For me that's a problem and something I find most important, if I come in and don't belong." "It's a completely different world." "Even the masses of money they pay doesn't matter that much." "Just like at Zero Hour." "This office with all these golden discs and these guys... it's way out!" "But I felt so superfluous." "At City Slang, you come in and there are lots of people like us." "You know where they're coming from and why they're doing it." "They're real music lovers." "Okay, that's one aspect, but..." " Particularly important for Notwist." "It's so unsophisticated:" "I play a bit and I sing on top of it..." "Well, what shall I say?" "You want to hear a different version?" "Or do you all think it's shit anyway?" "No, everyone says it's funky." "It's only Markus who doesn't like it." "But with the "Acher right of veto" we won't get a move-on." " No, we won't." "That's why it sucks that you keep deleting my midi tracks!" "Those are C78 sounds, aren't they?" " No, 808." "Really?" " With a mutron and mircosync." "Not as primitive as you always think." "Sounds like one of those old video games." "Sounds much more like C78 than what I had, that's for sure." "Really sounds like C78." "That's not what we want though, is it?" " Not really." "But the bass drum is awesome." " You think so?" "I think it's cool." "Switch it off." "It's all crap." "You have anything?" " No, nothing." "I have something but it's out of the question." "We simply reprogrammed the rhythm and now we can add any sounds we want." "Only, I've no idea what type or what it should sound like." "Insect sounds." " Insect sounds." "Let's listen to it once more." "What do you think?" " Awesome." "I generally like it." "I've got the feeling people won't get it." "Somehow it doesn't flow." "The bass drum is the same as the rest of the rhythm." "But it's so full of triplets." "And with the guitar it's... really strange." "Or am I just imagining things?" "I still need one or two lines." "For "Flirt"?" "Let me see..."I love you so"?" "One could..." "let me think..." "Did you already do "Banjo"?" " No, not yet." "Not finished yet?" "No." "I can still sing "Flirt", and I can probably manage "Banjo" too." "But the problem is that I can never do two at once." "One after the other." "I wish I could listen to it without knowing it." "To see what effect it has?" "Whether you think, "That's cool!" or, "A little more here, a bit more there."" "There are tracks that I don't think are good anymore, although they are." "Like what?" " "Off the Rails"." "I can't stand it anymore." "I get that with "Pilot"." " I can't stand "Off The Rails" anymore." "I think "Giganten", "Off The Rails" and "Pilot" are all a bit odd..." "But "Giganten" is great!" " No, I think it's the worst song." "I'm not sure about "Giganten"..." "I think it's the worst one." " Everyone else likes that one best." "Seriously." "They really dig this track." "No doubt it's fine, but I like it the least." "But Mario has his own opinion." " Exactly." "I'm sure everyone will be amazed." "They'll find it unbelievable!" "I already saw it and it's so good!" "Vocals:" "Super!" "Dancing:" "Super!" "Styling:" "Super!" "No doubt about it:" "It's going to be super." "It'll be great." "After extensive casting in eight cities and singing auditions with more than 4300 girls, after a workshop with tears and joy from the 32 most talented contestants, after long nights at the studios, after arduous choreographies, they will soon be before your very eyes." "The drums are too slow in the middle." "Nothing we can do about that." " Yes, there is." "But I think it has charm." "That part of the record sounds really warped." ""Shrink" sounded warped for 45 minutes whereas here it's just four seconds." "It's too much." "The problem is not the warped sound, but the fact that the part is so empty just when it begins to drag." "The bass drum doesn't come in." "I think it's like a break." "It's great!" "If you listen out for it, it can drive you nuts." "It's pretty jerky all the way through, isn't it?" "We'd have to loop one bar." " No, then we'll have to rerecord it." "But that's what it sounds like." "Warped!" "Once more!" "I'd prefer to leave it as it is for now." " For now?" "For the album." "And in 40 years from now we can remix it for the "Best of..."." "Perhaps we should listen again in half an hour." "Or shall we listen to it another ten times?" "Then Mecki and everyone will nag again." "We'll do that for half an hour..." " And then listen again." "We could paste an alternative version into it that doesn't sound warped." "And then we'll listen to it again and think," ""Great, it doesn't sound warped now!"" "Yes, why not?" "Okay, damn it." "Go away!" " I'd simply paste a different track into it." "If only it were that simple!" " Simply re-edit the whole thing." "It's not just about this one take." "The snare always comes in too late." "Yes, sure it's too late." "But that's great!" "It's mellow." "I don't get it." "Micha is so midi-corrupted." "All his jazz friends can mess it up and come in too late, and he just says, "That's groovy."" "But if you play cool and out of time, he starts nagging." "What did you say?" "Oh, hello Micha..." " Talking about me?" "When I was in the kitchen I heard you mention my jazz friends." "Every time they sound warped you say, "It's so cool, so great..."" "That's what makes it charming..." "I'll turn the bass drum up by one db." " The snare is really good like that." "Does it sound too warped?" " No, not at all." "I think it's cool." "Or are you just pulling my leg and this is the previous version?" " No, it's not." "It's obvious:" "Now the snare is keeping time." "The drums made more sense before, together with the banjo." "You can feel him thinking," ""The banjo is getting slower..." "but I'm back on the beat again"." "This is two people playing together." "But now it falls apart here." "I think the previous version is a bit cooler." "No, come on." "Leave it like that." "If you're so convinced, it won't be conducive to a harmonious production." " It's okay now." "Perfectly normal." "It sounds warped and afterwards you won't even remember that the snare was a bit slow." "That it sounds even more warped in that part." "It doesn't get on people's nerves, so this is a good compromise, isn't it?" "Let's go out for a cigarette." "I just want to say that was my first impression of Christof Ellinghaus." "I thought you go there and you're on this really super cool label." "But they have only really super cool bands." "Don't forget that they also sell." " It's just that I don't know..." "It's just that I don't know what happens if they don't sell." "What's your standing with the company if things don't work out so well?" "There's not much for us to sign." "Can't we put a sign on each page?" " Sure." "But there is just one." "The record is absolutely brilliant, so the rest needs to be, too." "This goes for the video, the artwork," "the photos and so on." "What we still need is some group photos, in color, and b/w..." "But then we'll have:" ""Let's stand in front of a wall and someone take a picture."" "He has a few ideas for band photos he hasn't been able to do so far." "He never had the time or opportunity and he'd like to try them out." "That can backfire badly..." "My problem is this:" "We need lots of different photos." "Want to stand there and look the same as always, or would you like to pose?" "We could also take photos and rework the backdrop on the computer." "There are boundless options." "But that would take some doing." "That's not really us." " Not really your style..." "Stop being so boring and let your hair down!" "You are contradicting yourself:" "If it's meant to be more like "Shrink", which I think is pretty wishy-washy..." "Wait a minute." "It's over there, would you pass it to me?" "It's not tangible." " I mean in terms of color and overall impression..." "Without thousands of details..." "That's pretty unspectacular and not really piquant either." "Avery nice blue." " Avery nice blue." "What about doing a debut single that isn't so..." "It's always a bit risky having a track on the album that's clearly a single, like "Pilot" in this case." "It's an experiment that can go badly wrong, if you turn up with a warm-up track, then do the album, and only then present the best track." "That can backfire and has done so in many cases." "We should make a spectacular entrance." "That's what singles are for." "What are you trying to achieve with a single?" ""Pilot" comes tumbling in..." "You're right, but unfortunately, nowadays you have to come tumbling in." "But if you look at the German market, you have to reactivate the current Notwist fans first." "And they wouldn't be overtaxed by a single with "Banjo"." "Too long." " When does the chorus start?" "It lacks swing." "This needs editing." "What else do you want to do with them?" "Apart from a story in "Spex"." "Nothing special." "Radio, television, the press." "Martin is sitting in there." "He's on the phone." "Great." "He's always on the phone." "Martin, you can sit there." "Just sit here and speak on the phone." "Mecki, you can be phoning someone too." " Who?" "You can be typing or just sit still." "Abit more to the left." "Mecki, you stand here." "Markus, you stand here next to Mecki." "Just talk." "I might still move you." "Closer together." " Can I talk to Markus too?" " Sure." "You stay here." " Is Markus allowed to be looking at me?" " Sure." "Over to the left some more." "Hi Anja!" " Can't believe it." "Could you move over a bit more?" " Ask him..." "Now you can talk." " Ask him..." "The bastard!" "Ask him if he has time for rehearsals on the 29th." "We want to listen to just you and the backline." "The way it really sounds." " Exactly." "Really crap." " You tricksters!" "You do think this is your best record?" "Or is that nonsense?" " The best record so far." " Perhaps." "The best we could've made at the time." "If we recorded it now we'd have to do something else." "We said we'd be finished in December." "But then, on..." "I told Markus on November 28th," ""Hey, I have a great new track."" ""Shouldn't we be mixing by now?" "Who cares, we're still recording!"" "Why City Slang?" "In City Slang we may not have found a completely independent label, because that sort of thing doesn't seem to exist anymore, but a label that guarantees the most independence." "Listening to the charts used to be really uncool, but now..." "Everyone should do what they feel is best for the record." "With this album we had said, "It should be a bit harder..."" "More raucous..." " Yes, more raucous and so on." "But it turned out completely different." "And then there's a one-minute-long electronic passage..." "That was his idea." "Each song has 72-tracks, for example, but you can only play back half of them." "You create the songs in sections and you slowly work your way through." "And in the end, one track isn't muted out and a track remains that you've never heard before that goes..." "And you say, "Fantastic!" And you can't part with it." "Then it continues for a minute at the end, and you want to add it." ""What is it anyway?" "Must be Saam." "No, Sebastian."" "Nobody is allowed to make mistakes anymore." "Nobody wants these strange freaks anymore." "I think it's important to have guys like that where you don't always immediately understand everything they do." "Sure, that's strange, because the record is..." "I'm not saying it's overambitious but it's highly sophisticated." "As far as the mistakes are concerned." "Don't trip by the stone, but in front of it." "So that you're already leaning forward when you reach the stone." "You can trip slowly." "Then it won't blur quite as much." "One, two, three." "Gotcha!" "You didn't take the photo." "Admit it." "You slowcoach!" " I'm sorry." "I can't work like this." "Just pose with your bloody coffee." "Not into the camera." "Look at the mug." "Not into the camera?" " Just look at the mug." "Trip if you like." "Yes, fantastic!" "Shall I do it in slow motion?" " Yes, that's great." "Yuck!" "That's awesome." "I don't find it funny at all." "I'm scared." "One, two, three." "It doesn't hurt, does it?" "Not, if you close your eyes." "Okay, again." "Go ahead!" "Shoot!" "That's great..." "This is pretty standard..." "This is nice, but we can't use it." "Sure you can." " No one will take it." "Why not?" "The photos I see in magazines these days..." "Maybe "Wallpaper" would." "Don't tell me something like that won't work." "We need some more traditional photos." "Not four guys in ripped pants in front of a wall with "Rocket To Russia" on it, but a more traditional format." "We should do something in the week of the release date, maybe two release events in Munich and Berlin." "And why?" "Why?" "To celebrate that this nice record has hit the market." "Yes, but..." " To announce it..." " And to whom?" "I'd have to celebrate with all these Virgin idiots who I don't want to celebrate with." "Sure, they're promotional events that you capitalize on and that are used in the press..." "It'd be the same songs arranged differently." "The band plays in this room and Martin plays in a different room." "There are two separate rooms." "Or he plays at "Zündfunk"." "They'd transmit it." "He plays his electro stuff with, perhaps, another percussionist." "And in the room where we're playing they'd install lots of radios tuned to Martin's frequency." "These radios would bring what we're playing..." "What Martin is playing." "The public could either walk from room to room or sit and listen." "But couldn't Martin do that in situ?" "They can mix it in." "But with two different locations people can walk around." "You could listen to it separately or together." "This transistor-radio idea is exciting." "Why not cell phone radios?" "People could put a plug in one ear and listen to Martin while listening to you on stage." "We'll exploit that to the full..." "I don't know where the mike is." "I only have this very old machine." "One, one, one..." "Okay, let's start." "Great record." " Thanks." "I remember you as being younger." "Younger?" " I remember you as being younger." "But I guess that's quite normal..." "It was the first live concert I ever saw." "If you compare your beginnings in 1989 or the first or second album and now, how big was your musical world back then and how big is it now?" "You were louder..." "and you were, I guess, more punk." "But you were definitely louder." "Don't you agree?" "The jazz elements seem to have disappeared." "I keep singing "Trashing Days" into the Pet Shop Boys." "That works." ""Off the rails, now we're trains ourselves."" "Does that mean, in the past, although you had your own style, your music fitted in?" "And now you want to be pioneers?" "Had you come to a dead end?" "You spent 15 months in the studio." "That's quite a long time." "You still play in that Dixieland band?" "Yes." " Still?" " All summer." "That's how we financed the studio." "How important is Weilheim to you and the rural area you come from?" "I'm from Bavaria, too." "Professional musician?" "Pop musician?" "What strikes me in a positive way is that you don't have an image." "As a band." "How do you see it?" "Well..." "You don't want to answer, right?" " Sorry, I wasn't listening." "By the way, is that my coffee?" " If you ordered one." "You want it?" " No, you can have it." "Thanks." " You're welcome." "Okay, thank you." "Two more questions:" "I'm collecting quotes about the World Cup." "Want to say anything?" "Do you enjoy giving interviews?" " Yes, very much." "47 in total." "I counted them yesterday." " My goodness." "By Friday." "I'm sure you'll manage." "Well, at least the last sentence was a bit more vague." "Perhaps it'll pass the board." "Thanks." " Thank you." "As I just started explaining, the interview was meant to be with Charlotte." "But since her cheek is swollen at the moment, we had to come up with something else." "This is what we'll do:" "I'll take over Charlotte's role behind the camera." "We'll edit it later as if she were asking you questions." "She passes on to you, "Hello, Notwist, you're at the Intro night... blah, blah..."" "That's where it starts." "You can do whatever you like, but watch out for one thing:" "Say "Hello Charlotte" at the beginning, before you start." "And try to look into the camera." "I'll let you do that." " Okay." "I'll grill you a bit." "I feel real dizzy." "Terrible panning." "Ready?" " Yes." "Ladies and gentlemen, we continue here at "Fast Forward"" "with Intro's 10-year-anniversary celebrations and I am now, if the line works, connected to The Notwist at the Live Music Hall." "Hello Notwist, what's the atmosphere like where you are?" "Hello Charlotte." "The atmosphere is good." "I'll switch back to The Notwist." "Hello, can you hear me?" " Hello Charlotte." " Hello." "Just a moment, hair in my eye, sorry." "You were in the studio for a long time." "Is the songwriting completely finished when you go into the studio?" "No, often it hasn't even started yet..." "Okay, thank you." "A short interruption..." "I'll just put this away..." "Let's look at some live material of the festival." "We'll get back to these great guys later." "See you." "I just have to change the battery." " Sure." "How quaint." "So you sat down at the bar?" "The wind section and you will play it all the way through once more." "The sound will be interesting, because it's freezing cold." "The wind section will drop dramatically." "Tomorrow will be warmer." "Where are we playing tomorrow?" " Upstairs." "On stage." "And it'll probably be really hot, because there'll be people there too." "Hope so." "What do you expect?" " Completely sold out." "Wind section here, strings here." "They could stand here like this." "I'm right next to them." "And Micha is right behind me." "I come in four bars later." "Okay, my mistake." "Thank you." "The next song is even older." "Is that "Bayern 2"?" "Yes, it is." " Isn't it "Bayern 1"?" "No, "Bayern 2" play classical music." " It's "Bayern 4"." ""Bayern 4" is somewhere else." " It is "Bayern 2"." "We're in a dead spot." ""Here's comes the announcement:" "You too can be there." "Either tonight at the 'Zündfunk Nachtmix' show on 'Bayern 2' Radio or at the venue, Münchner Pathos." "The last tickets are lying here, you just have to pick them up." "And answer the following questions:" "When was the first Notwist album released?" "Three answers to choose from:" "1986, 1990 or 1993?" "And what was the name of the first Notwist album?" "Call us on..."" "The Method of Intellectual Inspiration" ""A band who 'carries out' work for international stars such as Björk."" "Unbelievable, isn't it?" "Would you "carry out" work for me?" "How does that work?" "Or this one:" ""The Notwist cross guitars."" "But I'm not going to read all this aloud now." ""When two tectonic plates meet, when they sink into the magma and are melted down, geologists speak of subduction." "The Achers, Martin Gretschmann and drummer Mecki Messerschmidt have subducted sound masses for almost one and a half years in a place near Weilheim, Bavaria, just in front of the Alps." "Vocals by Markus Acher are laid down over his brother's string arrangements under which lies a barren Gretschmann sound plateau."" ""Everything is reshuffled, disappears below each other and is melted down into the wind instruments." "A piano line is electronically pitted and the sound is transmitted around an empty room." "At first everyone is irritated, and Gretschmann entices strange buzzing sounds from the depths of his main memory." "This must be what neuronal circuits in our brainstem sound like."" "Wait a minute, sorry." ""On the predecessor, 'Shrink'," "The Notwist sounded like a rock band who had recorded a jazz record." "On 'Neon Golden' they sound like a well-traveled rock band that have applied their worldly wisdom to record a pop record."" ""From a distant room, Markus Acher's sad vocals drift across, in the next room there's slow pulsation:" "Console, the sound wizard, is standing there smiling like a sphinx."" "What?" ""The sign on the door says 'Beauty'." Where?" ""And on the next door: 'Clarity'." Oh, I see." "Now I understand." ""Markus Acher is still standing outside in the cold." "'Just one question:" "Number 15 or the top ten?" "'" "Acher thinks about it and says, 'Who knows.'" "Before he goes back in, he adds," "'Being in the charts is a very abstract state." "The charts aren't a room filled with lots of cool people shaking hands.'" "We'll congratulate them anyway." Awesome!" "The longer-term forecast including Friday:" "Some snow or sleet from the west..." "You were listening to a summary of the day's headlines." ""Nachtmix"." "Today:" "Transistor Notwist." "Time: 23:05 till midnight." "Event:" "Release of the Notwist CD "Neon Golden"." "Cast:" "Notwist, Console, the audience, technicians, a presenter." "Martin Gretschmann alias Console, is sitting in the basement of the Pathos Transport Theater and will soon be pressing various keys on his laptop." "These beats and sounds are the basis for Notwist's concert." "One floor up:" "The acoustic-romantic opposite pole to Console, accompanied by a wind and string section." "Clear the transistor for Console and Notwist!" "Now silent on the microphone is Karl Bruckmeier."