While concerts and rehearsals were cancelled during the first lockdown, I spent my days reading, writing and practising. Looking back, I had a very positive experience during the lockdown, although at one point I was also quite seriously ill with Covid. I had been toying […]
Category Archives: News
Listen to the city and the gods above
Theresa Michel, a curator and artist from Hamburg asked me to provide the soundtrack for a four-part podcast series about the coherence between religion, sacred spaces and it’s acoustic texture. I really loved the concept. Unfortunately the podcast is only available in German language.
Negore
Olith and I played a few concerts together during the pandemic. We performed in Addis and Warsaw, for example. However, working together on a new album remained difficult due to the lockdown in Kenya. It was simply not possible to travel to Ugunja, where Olith […]
Hoya
I met Fhun during a dance piece production for the opera in Cologne. I was hired to provide the soundtrack. Fhun was hired as a dancer. Her background is ballet and contemporary dance, but she had recently started playing Theremin and Buchla Easel. After the […]
Weird And Wonderful Vibes
During the pandemic, Warner Chappell approached me and asked me if I wanted to release a „production music album“. Rehearsals and concerts had been cancelled. I had time and agreed. I recorded one track a week to be used in commercials, documentaries and feature films. […]
Auma
Tabu Osusa, producer and Ketebul music legend from Nairobi, called me one day and told me that he had recorded new vocal tracks with Olith Ratego, who can also be heard on the Kenya Sessions. He said he didn’t really know what to do with […]
Economic Partnership Agreement
I enjoyed the recordings of ‘The Nutcracker Sessions’. It was great to take the time to meticulously go through a classical score again. I learnt a lot from this album project. However, it felt wrong to spend so much time in my studio bubble while […]
Radius Walk
The second album by ‘Schneider Kacirek’. Stefan and I had already played a few gigs together before we recorded this album. I think you can hear on the record that we have become a solid band, albeit a very small one. On ‘Radius Walk’ we […]
Rhythmus I – IV
After the release of ‘Shadows Documents’, Gunther Buskies, the managing director of ‘Bureau B’ Records, asked me if I would be interested in working on an EP together with Thomas Klein, the drummer of Kreidler’. Of course I was. We played a few gigs together […]
Shadows Documents
Stefan Schneider and I played together for the first time at the Goethe-Institut Nairobi after the ‘Mukunguni’ recordings. ‘Shadows Documents’ was the first of two albums we released together. This collaboration brought me back to the drumset. I hadn’t played drums for several years. Stefan […]
Songs From Okinawa
After the release of ‘The Palmin Sessions’, Rüdiger Oppermann – a harp player and field recording legend – asked me to record a few pieces with him for a dance performance. After the recording sessions, we always sat down together and listened to the recordings […]
Rangala
I feel very honoured to have played with such great musicians as Nils Frahm, Shabaka Hutchings, John McEntire, Marc Ribot and Sofia Jernberg. But no one has ever blown me away like Ogoya Nengo. She is definitely my ‘Queen Of Dodo’. After the release of […]
The Nutcracker Sessions
I have been working on soundtracks for contemporary dance pieces for many years. In 2012, the German choreographer Antje Pfundtner asked me to provide the soundtrack for her contemporary version of the classic ‘Nutcracker’ ballet. I always found it a bit problematic to put several […]
Mukunguni
When I was still working on ‘The Kenya Sessions’, I met Stefan Schneider, who was playing with ‘To Roccoco Rot’ at the time. Stefan has always been interested in the different musical styles of the African continent. We travelled to a village near Malindi (Kenya) […]
Scarlet Pitch Dreams Remixes
Wonderful Remixes by Opiate, RSS Disco, Robert Lippok, Stefan Schneider and others. My favourite track: Scarlet Pitch Dreams (Robert Lippok Remix) https://svenkacirek.bandcamp.com/album/scarlet-remix-ep
Scarlet Pitch Dreams
The album that followed ‘The Kenya Sessions’. It was a time when I was a bit undecided about where to put my focus. The album contains tracks that I would categorise more as ‘avant-garde classical music’. Other tracks have a minimal ‘neo-classical’ vibe, while other […]
The Kenya Reworks
After the success of ‘The Kenya Sessions’, the record company Pingipung decided to release a 10’ with remixes. I also contributed an additional track (‘Takaye Village’). My favourite track: Kayambriä (Taprikk Sweezee Remix) https://svenkacirek.bandcamp.com/album/the-kenya-reworks
The Kenya Sessions
The album that definitely changed my life. I travelled to East Africa for the first time in 2008 to create the soundtrack for the choreographer Angela Guerreiro. The project took me to Addis and Nairobi. In Nairobi, I met Johannes Hossfeld – the former director […]
The Palmin Sessions
The first solo album will always be a special one. After working with musicians and producers from Hamburg in the early 2000s, I decided to make an album all by myself. I was still very much inspired by electronic music. Jan Jelinek was a strong […]
Secret Drum Grooves
After the book was published, I continued to be strongly inspired by electronic music. I was fascinated by electronic producers like LTJ Bukem, who realised the ‘art of the brush’ in his very own way. After hearing these programmed ‘brush beats’ based on brush samples, […]
Drum n bass – Creative Concepts For Drummers
My first solo release was a book publication. As a teenager, I was really into jazz, funk and Latin music – until I heard Goldie’s album ‘Timeless’ and Roni Size’s album ‘New Forms’ in my early 20s. That changed everything for me. I started transcribing […]
Palagoma
ODD OKODDO & OGOYA NENGO PALAGOMA “This is one of the most original and effective releases this year” Derek Rath (KPFK, US) “Fabulous and monumental music” Debbie Golt (Resonance FM, UK) Palagoma is a strikingly original work: intimate, adventurous, and deeply human, proving that innovation […]