New album release: “Just Few Things”

Life and stuff as usual happend, again – we’ll get back to the “redwinds” shortly. But for now, I can finally say: A new album is out!

Cooking this up for over a year now, I started producing the first bits and pieces roughly early last year – and thought I “might come up with a fresh album soon!” That wasn’t exactly the case, but for various reasons. Mainly, I really wanted to grow as a musician. And that in return meant: Sitting down and learning.

So I did! I listened, and listened, and listened, to a whole bunch of other musicians, producers, from Indie to the big ones, and really tried to figure out what makes “good sound” actual “good sound”. What directions do I want to take? What directions can you take? Where’s the limits – and how far can I come, doing everything myself, from the very start up to the final mastering?

Mind you: I still consider myself a rookie, and I’m far from what any professional could do, obviously. But I think it’s fair to say that, compared to my first released EP, I’ve come a long way and did indeed learn a few tricks on this wildly interesting journey called “music production”.

“Just Few Things” is out now, as a Bandcamp exclusive (for the time being at least), and I am really happy with what I achieved here.

I might drop a bit more about it soon, cause there’s certainly some specific aspects I might want to talk about a bit more in detail. There’s a reason I called this my “blood, sweat and tears” release, after all, since there were times where I doubted I could achieve what I had envisioned. But I can confidently say: This is pretty much what I wanted it to be and I’m super happy to have it finally released after all this time!

I obviously did enjoy making this album and I really hope you get to enjoy it as well!

Redwind week 10/2024

For some reason spring doesn’t seem to be in the mood to start just yet, which means way to low temperatures still for me, which then again means more blankets and cozy gaming. Well, “cozy”. But we’ll get to that.

Cineast

As mentioned in the last Redwind, I got to watch Napoleon on Apple TV+ with good friend of mine. And what to say about this, really – it’s Joaquin Phoenix meets Ridley Scott, and if you know only one of them a bit, you also know what to expect here: Beautiful scenery paired with excellent acting it is. Scott knows how to put scenes on a big screen and sure does deliver here again, as well as Phoenix sure knows how to squeeze an impressive performance out of a role. Still, as much as we had a good time watching, we still felt like that movie could’ve also worked if it’d be a bit shorter. With somewhat 2,5 hours, it just felt a tiny bit long at times, but I guess that’s somewhat to expect from a movie about a historical figure? Not that I wasn’t impressed quite often, but I’m pretty sure I would’ve been *just* as impressed with just 1,5 hours of all that history.

Games

The sightseeing enjoyed last week in San Andreas might just come to an end soon, as I’ve simply be limited by the game at this point. The usual GTA formula kicks in: “Wanna see more of the map? Do missions!” Which is pretty much what I’m *not* interested in at all, at least not in those older entries. Don’t get me wrong, the story can be fun and wild, but with it’s somewhat dated controls and all that, I honestly rather not do that. But there’s alternatives to that, gladly.

Instead, I took it a bit to “True Crime – Streets of New York”. Another one of those games on my shelf which I somehow never really played much, and in hindsight now I wonder why that is. Because the game, while having quite more than just a few technical hickups, is quite impressive considering it’s running on the PS2. A fully modelled and detailed New York, with trash flying around, super detailed interiors (especially to the… well, blank indoor variants of the older GTAs), a fun fighting system on top? That sure is some fun! Maybe it should’ve been released on the PS360, because those machines would’ve been the better choice in regards to what they tried to (technically) achieve here, but just from the looks of all of that I’m honestly quite impressed here. We’ll see how long this one will keep my interest though, so far I’ve been doing pretty much the same like I did in San Andreas last week: Taking a lot of virtual walks and just enjoying my time being.

Beside that, I felt like I needed a real fix of big online gaming nostalgia for myself – so I took it to Phantasy Star Online again. Threw in the “Episode 1&2” port for the GameCube, and even though the lack of servers these days makes it more of an “Phantasy Star Offline”, visiting Ragol again just feels so right to me. After all, this was the first online rpg on a console, and it marked my very first steps in online gaming at all, so this one sure has a special place in my heart. And really, I felt right at home in an instant. Sure, graphics and animations are not on par with what the Cube could deliver otherwise, this being port from the Dreamcast, but still, the mechanics are still surprisingly fun, even after all these years. I think I might at least go for a full run of Eps.1. Time to feed my trusty Mag some Dimates and Antidotes, I guess. Now if only I ever find someone nearby for the split screen mode. One can hope and dream.

Redwind week 9/2024

Missed a few, thanks to either migraines or a relationship that needed a bit of a quality time. Let’s get back to it, shall we?

Cineast

Movies? What are movies? Somehow the only thing I keep watching recently is still LOST, and since it’s my 7th’ish rewatch of that series – go figure. Purely “comfy food” for the soul, being halfway in the second season I still have to admit that this is pretty much my favourite show and probably will still be top tier for a long time being.

Aside that, at least one interesting thing should pop up next week then: Napoleon is out on Apple TV+, so expect maybe a word or two about that then.

Games

Going full retro with some emulators at the moment. With a mix of RetroArch and Aethersx2, my MacBook has been turned into a decent gaming machine. Still not going the full pirate mode, because why would I – there’s plenty of games on my shelfs here which I never really played. That’s a collectors thing: Buy game, throw it in, watch intro, decide “it works” – then put it on the shelf and never touch it again. So, the last few weeks I’m mostly going back to some real classics, where a few stood out especially.

After years of owning it, it was time to start some Persona 4 and holy, I think I really missed out on that one. So far I’m about 4 hours in, and I did get to actually play like… 15 minutes? Whoever tells me next time that Kojima is “just doing movies”, oh boi, you gotta sit down and play *this* one. Kojima is tame compared to that, trust me. Still, the characters are fun, the dialogues are well written, the story is engaging and that bit of a combat system I got to see is also super decent, which makes me actually enjoy this a lot. I got to admit though, I see why they turned this game into an animated series. It simply makes sense – it’s really a *lot* of story and little gameplay, at least at the beginning. We’ll see where this will go.

Besides hanging with anime school kids I also spend a decent chunk of my time with Virtua Tennis for the Dreamcast again. The simple, yet addictive gameplay is what keeps me coming back to this one, and the World Tour mode with it’s various challenges is exactly that kind of Arcade gaming which I really miss a lot these days, where most games seem to end up being less game, but more “as a service” instead. I’d rather stick it to the “insert coin to continue” formula honestly, so there goes modern gaming for me, I guess.

Last one noteworthy is GTA San Andreas, which clearly shows its age to be honest, running the original PS2 version. Still, with the color filters (these sun rises!) it’s still my favourite version of this game. Some of the gameplay mechanics seem rather basic today (switching between a thousand weapons with the shoulder buttons?), but it’s still quite impressive considering the original hardware to see such an massive open world come to life. Sure, a lot of areas are what you’d consider “empty” nowadays, but for that time? I’m really impressed they pulled that off at all, and it packs a ton of content on top of all. So, while mostly just roaming around and doing more sightseeing instead of actual missions, I’m having quite a good time here.

Redwind week 6/2024

This week somehow contained a bit much drama for my taste. Sadly not as a netflix show, but instead irl, so I kept the entertaining part more on the chill side.

Cineast

Instead of watching movies something about movies stood out this week: ““No CGI” is really just invisible CGI“. A lovely 4 part series, which only downside right now is that the last part isn’t uploaded yet. Some good insight and it points out a few interesting perspectives, not to long overall and very well produced – that’s the kind of content I like. Shoutout to my fellow german friend Basti for finding this little gem.

Games

Last week I got myself “Red Fraction Guerilla Remarstered”, only to put it down just after a day already again. I think nostalgia played some tricks on me here – has that open world of this game always been this… boring? Sure the destructions are kinda fun, and still look kinda cool today, but beside “blow this up blow that up” Mars sure feels pretty empty. Put on top an AI where all enemies just run into me like mindless puppets, no matter what I throw at them, and an very unresponsive feel to all the weapons in the first place, and the fun rather imploded than exploded for me. Ah well.

So instead I took some time to mess around a bit with OpenEmu, which runs just nicely on my M1 MacBook Air. I like that it is open source, I like how modular it is and I like that it lacks a lot of features. Yep, you read correct! Faster loading times? HD textures? Z-buffering!?

Nah, here the PSone games look just as wonky as on the original hardware – authenticity! I’m very much down for that. So now a bunch of games which are on my shelfs anyway can now be played on just one machine, for convenience reasons, while I’m still able to throw them on my Tv. Neat. Simply neat.

Redwind week5/2024

A slow week? A slow week. A very slow, slow week.

Games

Still mostly just trying to finish the Shogun variant of “Kingdom: Two Crowns”, and I get the feeling it doesn’t help much that I mostly play it on my iPhone while laying in bed and falling asleep – since I do exactly that: Fall asleep. Only to wake up next morning to a fresh character, back on island 1, since I died again. Well, at least that’s certainly one way to expand on the play time, and additionally this may also confirm that this game is sure a very chill one.

Also just saw a bit earlier that currently “Red Faction Guerrilla: Remarstered” was on sale for about 3 bucks on the eShop and just couldn’t resists. Played it back on the 360, so I’ll be looking forward to some fine destruction soon again. Expect crushing updates maybe next week.

Cineast

A lot of people say “bonding is important”, so I did just that – sat down with a friend and watched some Bond. “Casino Royal” it was this time, since she hadn’t seen it yet and I was totally in the mood to give it a rewatch. And what can I say: Still as entertaining as ever and possible my personal favourite Bond movie. Not that I haven’t seen it about 30-40 times by now, but it seems like I’m very much in a comfy mood lately anyway, so that fit perfectly. I still have to watch that latest entry with Craig, though, so hopefully we’ll see about that soon.

Music

Mostly just back to the desk with my own stuff – and making some very, very good progress. If it continues like that, I’ll probably release that album soon’ish. After all, I’ve been working on that beast for almost a year now. But I can admit: Sent around a few previews for a couple of songs and so far only getting back positive feedback – and I certainly really like what I’m hearing here, so there’s that!

Redwind 3/4-2024

Double rewind, cause missed out on last week, and I want to mention at least that one damn long movie I finally saw. So, let’s get right to it!

Cineast

Took only two sittings and I somehow watched through the whole of “Killings of the flower moon”, and oh my, what a ride that one is. Impressive performances all over the place, and surprisingly it never felt “to long”. Which is an achievement on it’s own, considering the 3+ hours runtime. Still, every minute worth it, this story simply takes a bit to get told and Scorsese clearly knows how to pull it off.

Also finished the first season of “Blue Eye Samurai”, and just as I expected from the start, it did indeed hold up until the end. Some fine plot twists, and overall really interesting cast and the only downside now will be the waiting time until the next season hits. I need to know how this continues!

Continue reading →

Redwind week2/2024

Not that much went down this week, but at least two things stood out worth mentioning.

Music

Felt a bit like digging around Bandcamp earlier this week, turns out that was a good idea: “The Alley” by Alley Dash was a lovely surprise!
What appears to be a ‘Best Of’ album hit a few spots for me. Some fine sampling and some fine beats, that’s all I really need to give a record more than just one spin. In this case, it came with some instant head-bopping and feet-tapping, so that certainly worked more than well. That it’s available at the lovely low price of “pay what you want” makes it a no-brainer if you’re into these kinda things.
Now I only need to find some time to dig through the rest of the releases from this one, I get the feeling there might be one or two more tunes in it for me.

Cineast

Less of a surprise, since that recommendation came from Donswelt and we’re mostly on the same wavelength when it comes to the things we enjoy: “Blue Eye Samurai” on Netflix.
I got to admit: I can be quite picky when it comes to Anime. It’s often the art style, but especially the animation itself which often just doesn’t nail it for me. In this case, I can absolutely say: Stunning work!
Revenge stories are just my kinda thing and it’s no wonder that I’m now halfway through just within two days. But the animation is what really makes this one stand out. Such fluid fights are just a pure pleasure to watch, and trust me when I say: When it hits, you feel the impact of it. Few flying body parts and fluids on top of that (never too much), and this ends up being *just* the right mix for me. Also: For a side character Ringo is unlawful charming and I don’t think it’s possible to *not* like that guy.
I really can’t wait to dive back into it and finish the rest of this first season – and probably won’t mind in the end if there will be more of that show.

Redwind week1/2024

So what’s “redwind” now for a fancy new thing here? Well, simple: My good old blog buddy Donswelt does this “rewind” thing for a good while now over on his place, and since I do enjoy reading it regularly, I thought: Why not give it a shot myself? Not only a neat idea to kinda keep an journal in terms of what I’m enjoying, but also maybe an effective way to motivate myself to blog a bit more often. Will that work out? We’ll see!

But it wouldn’t be me if I wouldn’t give it some proper name, so of course I named it Redwind. Listen, everything is named something something “Red” on my end, alright? Anyway, let’s get started with the recap of this first week into 2024!

Continue reading →

The Non-binary click

So, let’s start off straight (ha!): Hi, I’m non-binary. Didn’t know? Me neither, just figured as of lately. Wanna know how that little revelation happened? Let me take you on a quick journey through languages and gender expression, shall we?

It all started with a more or less simple observation of myself here. As I put it over on Mastodon just recently, I wondered: How is it that in my native language, which is German, I feel fine with being referred to as “he/him” (“er/ihn”) – but at the same time, as soon as I talk English, it’s “he/him”, but also “they/them”? How could my own identity, the way I see myself, and even the way I express myself become more… well, “complex”, to say the least, or maybe simply more “diverse”, only just by using a different language than my native one? To be fair, the answer to that is a bit more complex itself – let’s get to it.

Continue reading →

“Privately” Re-Release

As some may know, january of 2022 I released “Privately” on Bandcamp. Beside messing around with sounds and experimenting a bit here and there prior to this EP, this marked not only my very first public steps in making music, but it also changed something for me.

The amount of support and feedback (mostly positive!) was quite a bit overwhelming, but I got it – looked like this wasn’t “just another thing on the internet” I just do and then move on. Looked like music was there to stay, hu?

Followed up by an full Album then (Music Is Everything Is Music) summer the same year, and another EP (ASPHALT) shortly after, I then took it a bit more to streaming – only to take a major break and basically go full “radio silence” mode for quite a bit now. The reason? Working on a new album.

By now, I’ve been into “music production” for roughly about two years (minus the… let’s call it “20 years of bit practicing before”, shall we?) – and I took notes. I kept at it, I jammed, I composed, I arranged, I looped. I (actively!) listened to a whole lot of other great music, I exchanged with other fantastic, talented and likeminded souls. I tried to figure what makes “good songs” actually “good” – and how I could actually destill this “good” from of my own creations.

Continue reading →

Hello.

Symbol pic to start this off.

Picture shows a wodden house in minecraft, in form of an acorn, laying on the side in a valley surrounded by trees.

Now if you excuse me – after redesigning this site for 3 days straight, I’ll now spend the rest of this lovely sunday in my “acorn lounge” with the boyfriend.
More about everything else soon.