Follow for free on my Patreon.
I post updates and new music every few days.
The Ghost Is The Only One That Beats My Drum - review at African Paper
“…sein abgründiger, schwarzhumoriger Sarkasmus, sein Hadern mit sich und allem anderen und sein Händchen, all dies in treffende Sprachbilder zu packen, zu einer veritablen Kunst herangewachsen ist…”
Which, for all my non-German speaking friends translates into something as dramatic as:
“…his abysmal, black-humoured sarcasm, his quarrel with himself and everything else and his knack for packing all this into appropriate language images has grown into a veritable art…”
Read the full review here and please browse the site for a deep collection of dense text about a wide range of stuff. Writing about music indeed.
New album 'The Ghost Is The Only One That Beats My Drum' out now.
Good morning.
My latest collection of songs is now available as a limited CD-r and digital download through Bandcamp and here on my site.
This album was recorded at the end of summer in a big empty room in Stuttgart and is a far thicker and noisier set of songs than the previous ‘bottle the grief’ from earlier in the year. I got my hands a bit dirty with it - was a lot of fun to make and not so easy to finish.
It’s available to buy on Bandcamp today and at most other online places in a week or so . I urge everyone to please stick with the Bandcamp option as it helps all musicians enormously.
If you subscribe to me there (please consider doing so) then you get this album automatically and I sent the CDs out to you a week ago.
The physical version has a unique self portrait on the cover - each one different - and is a numbered edition of 100. An A3 size lyric and chord sheet is inside and all Bandcamp orders come with an immediate download.
TRACK LIST
1. We Make Our Own Fun (06:37)
2. How Your Chest Became A Treasure (05:28)
3. Pottery Below (05:08)
4. Down Down Down (02:58)
5. One Bite At A Time (08:11)
6. Get Clear Of Me (06:01)
7. A Place For The Running To Stop (03:34)
8. The Ghost Is The Only One That Beats My Drum (15:54)
BUY THROUGH MY SITE
• Eight new songs recorded at the end of summer in Stuttgart.
• Each cover unique - 100 different self portraits.
• A3 lyric sheet.
• First edition of 100 numbered copies.
Tracklist
we make our own fun
how your chest became a treasure
pottery below
down down down
one bite at a time
get clear of me
a place for the running to stop
the ghost is the only one that beats my drum
• zip file of the full album with 320 kbps mp3 files
Tracklist
we make our own fun
how your chest became a treasure
pottery below
down down down
one bite at a time
get clear of me
a place for the running to stop
the ghost is the only one that beats my drum
BUY ON BANDCAMP
Also, from today, my label Woodland Recordings is offering a free 20 track compilation with every order. A couple of my earlier things are on there as well as brilliant songs from many good friends. See and listen to that here.
I’ll perhaps write more about this album in the next days but I’m always happy if anyone lets me know their thoughts on it too. Sometimes it goes somewhere else and recently of course living and working has been as if in a bubble. I have no idea.
So, made this. Stay well and speak soon.
Stephen
Schangnau
A recording I made in a tiny chapel in Switzerland with Binoculers way back in 2010 is now available to listen and grab over on the Woodland Recordings Bandcamp page. It’s free / pay what you like.
Nadja and I were on tour a lot back then and on this day we were driving from Bern to Luzern and passed this beautiful little place along the fairly scenic way. I sat a mic on a pew and we played for about an hour before hopping back in the car and carrying on. Was a nice little pause.
Pre-order now live and a very limited vinyl available
My new album, ‘The Ghost Is The Only One That Beats My Drum’ is finished and now available to pre-order on my Bandcamp site to be released 04.12.20.
I’ve just finished making 100 copies of the physical edition - a CD-r with an A3 lyric sheet and a unique photo on each cover. 100 copies, 100 different self portraits. The full quality digital edition includes a pdf booklet of the lyrics and a handful of gifs.
Please note - all Bandcamp subscribers will automatically receive this album in a week. if you are a subscriber - thank you but please do not pre-order!
‘The Ghost Is The Only One That Beats My Drum’ was recorded in Stuttgart in September and October this year. Loops and percussion for the title track began to suggest structure right after ‘bottle the grief’ was released - I wanted to get stuck into something that I could get my teeth into. Something with meat on the bones.
Julia Laura kindly took some time and sent me backing vocals when the title song was in a skeletal state but otherwise I recorded everything alone in an empty room here. Max Braun helped with sound advice in his studio and finally Spatial Mastering in London communicated wonderfully and worked hard on it last week.
Here’s a simple video for the first song I made a few days ago:
And here’s many more moving images for the title track:
I’ll write and post more about this in a week or so.
Something else - in collaboration with Cosirecords in Oberhausen we’ve made a very limited, super expensive vinyl edition of my 2014 album ‘Kitchen’ available. These are 12 numbered test pressings with simple new artwork and insert.
These are the very last copies we have of this and, right now, the only way to listen to my stuff on vinyl. Nuts.
Making new album, pre-orders coming this weekend
Putting the physical edition of my new album together these days to be ready for the end of the month. New video and pre-orders here and on my Bandcamp this weekend.
'pennabilli'
The 9th in my series of Bandcamp subscription releases is a set of songs recorded in the tiny Teatro Vittoria in the village of Pennabilli, Italy way back in 2011. I was there to play at the XXVII Verucchio Festival and Franco was kind enough to make a session in the little theatre near where we were staying. He recorded everything through a 4-track tape machine and then I took the files away on my hard drive and sat on them for 9 years.
jake
limmat
dig a hole for everyone
suit of stones
all the way down
here
As ever with these Bandcamp releases a physical edition is available to everyone signed up. I sent these out yesterday but if you sign up now I’ll send one out to you after the weekend and you also get all 8 previous releases, 6 albums from my back catalogue and everything new I make going forward. Phew.
THE GHOST IS THE ONLY ONE THAT BEATS MY DRUM
The 16 minute title track from my new album is available as a digital download on Bandcamp and a video on the Woodland Recordings Youtube channel below:
I wrote and recorded this the last few weeks and Julia Laura sent her backing vocals across to me without hearing the whole thing. She’s the voice of reason in this thing.
The video (and album artwork) is constructed from over 500 self portraits I made last week in a forest in the south of Germany, with help from @mart.schneider. I’m putting the album artwork together now and I plan to put it out by the end of November. More soon then.
Thanks all,
Stephen
Free 'September 2020' compilation now available
A new 10 song compilation of songs from last month’s concerts is now available as a free download to everyone signed up for my newsletter here.
when i was away (rostock)
i was in the north before the fall (rendsburg)
down down down (rostock)
pure black coal (rostock)
polly vaughan (berlin)
fold culinary (hannover)
make each other anew (copenhagen)
it don’t stop the bleeding (rostock)
barbara allen (rendsburg)
so long song (berlin)
From a crowded, smoky bar in Hannover through a rainy garden in Rostock and finishing up in a backyard in West Berlin, this was a strange but hugely enjoyable set of concerts at a time when the chance to play in front of people is a rare thing indeed.
Thanks to everyone who made it possible despite everything.
To all on my old fashioned mailing list - I hope you enjoy it and big thanks for sticking with me.
Stephen
Bandcamp Subscription #8 now available
My concert in Copenhagen at the start of September is next month’s Bandcamp subscription release available as a full quality digital download and limited, hand typed physical edition.
My train from Rostock took the long way there and arrived half an hour late. I took the most expensive taxi in the world to arrive in time for a quick soundcheck and a round of hellos before Illemann started the evening and I listened from backstage, quarantined and instructed not to venture out front.
I felt that I played a somewhat stiff set, perhaps due to the sensation of flying in and playing to a dark space under such conditions but I enjoyed myself just the same, took my time and listening back later I’m ok with sharing the recording now. Many thanks to Rasmus for the invitation and continued support for my thing and for everyone that came out this evening. I hope to be back in the new year with a little more time and perhaps feel a bit closer to the action.
07/09/20 alice
it don’t stop the bleeding
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
deserter
when i was away
make each other anew
super good advice
polly vaughan
so long song
we swam a little song
September 2020 - songs and set lists from the concerts
A quick note about this entry - I spent an hour or two and wrote a long post here but somehow closed the browser without saving so lost it all. Right now I’m posting the set lists for those that asked and some choice recordings from each night that I have and will follow with more words about each night and more photos, videos, etc when I get the energy to write it all out again. Bah.
Anyway, I just came back from some shows and they went like this:
Lindwurm, Hannover 03/09/20
i was in the north before the fall
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
barbara allen (traditional)
super good advice
fold culinary
song for a coalman
carrion call
so long song
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
we swam a little song
Prinz Willy, Kiel 04/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
a carrion call
fold culinary
i do wrong
barbara allen (traditional)
song for a coalman
song for fee
super good advice
from the willows by the weir
so long song
we swam a little song
Kulturschlachterei, Rendsburg 05/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i was in the north before the fall
lover o lover
pure black coal
fold culinary
song for a coalman
make each other anew
super good advice
barbara allen (traditional)
polly vaughan (traditional)
so long song
Garden Concert, Rostock 06/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
make each other anew
it don’t stop the bleeding
super good advice
so long song
when i was single (traditional)
we swam a little song
Rostock, photo by https://www.instagram.com/alex_ottoxo
Alice, Copenhagen 07/09/20
it don’t stop the bleeding
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
deserter
when i was away
make each other anew
super good advice
polly vaughan (traditional)
so long song
we swam a little song
Copenhagen, photo by https://www.instagram.com/__leilu___
Tonfink, Lübeck 08/09/20
song for fee
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
deserter
delia (song by blind willie mctell)
when i was away
i do wrong
winter (song by the diamond family archive)
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
super good advice
so long song
fold culinary
we swam a little song
Wohlerspark, Hamburg 11/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
lover o lover
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
winter (song by the diamond family archive)
super good advice
paper birds
so long song
song for fee
Hamburg, photo by https://www.instagram.com/janina.rrr
Fotostudio Gezett, Berlin 12/09/20
when i was away
the royal canal
down down down
i do wrong
pure black coal
fold culinary
lover o lover
deserter
polly vaughan (traditional)
we could have, we should have, we didn’t
super good advice
pretty peggy-o (traditional)
so long song
Berlin, photo by https://www.instagram.com/gerald.zoerner
September concerts
My plans for September:
03/09/20 Nachbarschaftsgarten Baulücke, Hannover, DE
04/09/20 Prinz Willy, Kiel, DE
05/09/20 Kulturschlachterei, Rendsburg, DE
06/09/20 Private Garden Concert, Rostock, DE
07/09/20 Alice, Copenhagen, DK
08/09/20 Tonfink, Lübeck, DE
09/09/20 FREE
10/09/20 FREE
11/09/20 Wohlerspark, Hamburg, DE
12/09/20 Fotostudio Gezett, Berlin, DE
13/09/20 FREE
Any ideas for the free days or questions about any of the fixed dates please simply drop me a message.
As ever, I'll update this site first if anything changes and will also be uploading music and words on my blog here too. I’ll also be posting more to my Instagram as I go along. Has been a while since I did anything like this, let's see if I can remember how to do it.
Thanks everyone, hope to see some of you along the way. x
'cable' ep now available
‘cable’, a new ep of six songs (three new, one traditional and two from my last album) on electric guitar is now available as a digital download or limited physical edition to all subscribers over at my Bandcamp page here.
the ghost is the only one that beats my drum
polly vaughan
miller
fold culinary
the options here are limited
one bite at a time
Here’s a simple film I made for the new version of ‘fold culinary’:
Concert in Nürnberg this evening
Photo by hurniclaude
I’m booked to play a concert in Nürnberg this evening at Luise, Scharrerstraße 15 from 19.30 at something called ‘Lazy Hazy Crazy Days Of Summer’ which is a bit, you know. I’m happy to be playing in front of people after so long but, of course, if it rains all is off.
Entry is free and it’s limited to 50 people so please come along in time if you’d like to hear some music. Julia Laura is playing as well and will have copies of her new album, so there’s that too.
Next week it goes on and up to Hannover, Kiel, Rendsburg, Rostock, Copenhagen, Hamburg and Berlin - dates are always here.
Be well and say hello
Stephen
'cable'
Six songs on electric guitar, including three new and unreleased tracks. Recorded a few weeks ago one rainy afternoon, headphones, lots of echo.
the ghost is the only one that beats my drum
polly vaughan
miller
fold culinary
the options here are limited
one bite at a time
The three new songs have also been recorded for my next album which I am mixing now and will be out in November. Not these versions, more instruments, more cables.
This EP available 01.09.20 exclusively to all Bandcamp subscribers. More behind the red button:
Julia Laura 'I Lock The Door Upon Myself'
This is my buddy Julia’s second album, which I recorded and put together over the last year or so. I recorded her first album too, a simple acoustic collection that we put down in a few afternoons, but this time Julia had written songs with space and parts for more instrumentation. We set up in three or four houses last summer in between travels and when we were able to meet. Her friend Mark Timmins had some great electric guitar parts so I started with recording the two of them playing the songs together at his place in Nürnberg in the few hours before his girlfriend finished her shift. Later, in Bayreuth, Josua Bauer (Vincent von Flieger / Nick & June) played some horn parts and accordion and later still, at Julia’s parents house in Fürth, Elena Steri sang some backing vocals whilst her folks quietly prepared dinner in the kitchen. I think there’s also a couple of songs that Julia played in my little bedroom in Fürth on there too. I like to record this way, in rooms where there’s a chance for coffee and books, things placed carefully on the wall. Also a window of opportunity whilst the house is quiet, some gentle pressure on things.
Early one morning Julia went out with Mina Reischer and they shot a roll of medium format film by the river in Nürnberg. Mina works on a lot of the artwork for the label and is something of the house portrait maker.
I mixed it in a couple of different places and then a few weeks ago we got together in Stuttgart and cut paper, stamped pictures and made some copies of the physical edition. Julia sang a couple of songs and I filmed them, like this:
It feels a bit like the album started at a gallop and then lost a little wind towards the end as the different elements and people involved were kept apart by distance and the virus. But recently it’s been brilliant to meet and wrap it up and finally make it available for everyone. I know Julia has new songs and new sounds she is hearing and perhaps there’ll be something else coming from her soon.
Anyway, we made this fine thing together and it’s out now.
Stephen
ps - Julia and I are playing in Nürnberg next weekend - 29.08.20 at Luise.
'bottle the grief and exile songs' physical edition now available
Over three evenings at the start of the lockdown in the back room of the L.A.Signorina pizzeria in Stuttgart, 'bottle the grief' was recorded and then quickly released as a digital download and subscription only physical edition in very limited numbers. At the time print shops were closed and it felt difficult to put together a full CD release. Now, a couple of months later and as some restrictions have been lifted, I’m making it available (with a companion set 'exile songs') as a double disc edition.
'bottle the grief' consists of nine new songs written in march, whilst 'exile songs' are older songs played during the same three evening sessions. It was an uncertain time and in the quiet, dark room (whilst the pizzeria was still closed) the songs came out slow and sparse. Chairs on tables, reservation phone set to silent and a deserted square outside.
The digital edition (on my site here and on Bandcamp here) includes a pdf of the lyrics and chords to all songs, whilst the physical edition consists of
• Two hand stamped CD-r's
• Full lyric sheet
• A playing card from the pizzeria
• Clipping from a book of photographs of busy Italian cafés by Walter Vogel, recalling a different time of social and working life.
• First edition of 100 numbered copies.
• €15 including full quality digital download and postage anywhere.
Full tracklist:
from the willows by the weir
slow go the dark days
the mistake was to make a character of the wild
miller
a carrion call
the week between the years
fold culinary
the rope
boys, i am worried
the leaving, or what’s left of it
make a dead one of it
trouble
440
super good advice
it don’t stop the bleeding
the royal canal
the hills are alive
'boys, i am worried' from 'exile songs'.
From ‘bottle the grief and exile songs’ available as a physical two disc edition here.
More words and thoughts about this release in the next days.