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13. January 202113. January 2021

30 records in 30 days from 2 collections from one household, day 2: Genesis Live (1973)

30 records in 30 days. a challenge. Day 2: Genesis

30 records in 30 days goes into the second round, this time with knives, giants and a kick-out.

This time short and sweet. The combination of Peter Gabriel and Genesis is for me one of the musical highlights of all time. I have only one LP, but bought the rest – except Trespass – in digital form over the last years. Musically, I became unfaithful to Genesis after the leave of Peter Gabriel, because I didn’t like the soft and commercialized sound of Phil Collins. But I have been musically loyal to Peter Gabriel (CDs and downloads only).

Stay tuned

11. January 202112. January 2021

30 records in 30 days from 2 collections from one household, day 1: Timewind by Klaus Schulze

30 records in 30 days goes into the first round, with synthesizer chirping, pink noise, arpeggios, and more interesting sounds.

The meditative sounds of Klaus Schulze have accompanied me throughout my teen years. Sometimes these sounds were so meditative that I spontaneously fell asleep. Not because the music is bad, but because it is pleasantly soothing.

In addition, this LP strengthens the musical stamina of an average listener, because both tracks together are 50 minutes long. Therefore a lapse in concentration is possible. I have already praised this LP once in my blog and would have had two others by Klaus Schulze in my record collection, but for me it is still the artists highlight. And it has drawn me to the electronic side of music. Enough for today, now I’m going to listen to Klaus Schulze.

Stay tuned

11. January 202119. January 2021

30 records in 30 days from 2 collections from one household.

Normally I am very sensitive to such challenges, but about this nomination I was really happy. First, it has something to do with music and second, I can rummage through my musical past again. At the beginning I thought that this will be a relatively simple task. Go to the basement, briefly check the collection and present the most interesting pieces in the next 30 days. On Saturday – after the nomination – I disappeared into the basement and was only spotted again last night. Starved and close to dying of thirst. Was not so easy after all. Because some records I now simply find horrible, other records I once liked, but now I classify them under the category of irrelevant, musical blah blah blah.

It was interesting for me what I found again, because my records are since the move from Forchheim to Deggendorf (2000) in the basement. Last year in October I took 2 of my favorite pieces to a friend to digitize them with the help of his equipment. Of course they are also included. It was also interesting that I completely forgot about some artists over the years and when listening to them on iTunes (I don’t have a turntable anymore) I realized that they are still really good. So Apple will make some money again. Enough of the introduction. Tomorrow it starts with one of my oldest records.

Stay tuned.

1. October 202011. January 2021

Tante Techno’s Tea Time September 2020

Are you ready for the weekend? O.k. It’s tuesday, but tomorrow is friday and saturday is the German unity day. The weekend is knocking at door. Loud and clear with a new set. Enjoy it!

More dj sets…

23. September 202011. January 2021

Alien Sex Fiend – linking punk and electronic music.

After Human League there was no electronic milestone for a long time. O.k., there were some Neue Deutsche Welle/New Wave bands that inspired me, but in retrospect I had a musical AHA effect only with the British band Alien Sex Fiend again. A very adventurous combination of punk, synthesizer sounds and drum computer. Especially the dark lyrics appealed to me, here is an excerpt:

*Breakdown is on it’s way*
*Breakdown in a month or a day*
*Breakdown and cry, lay down and die*
* Goodbye, goodbye. *

Somehow it was really cool at that time to learn these destructive lyrics by heart with enthusiasm and to set it as a counterpoint to the whole perfect Popper world. I still remember the lyrics and the song (“Breakdown and Cry”) is still one of my absolute favorites. But the absolute highlight on the LP was “E.S.T. Trip to the Moon”. In 1984 this track was in the British Independent Charts for quite some time and I celebrate it until today. Have fun listening to it.

Errors, Business and other Experiments

error262, what else?

Dear friends and followers,

after weeks of restructuring, planning, trying out and testing I now finally separate my two blogs thematically. On christianzich.com you will find in the future mainly my business topics: Marketing 4.0, Personal Branding and maybe one or the other story about the THD. On error262.com on the other hand, my artistic self may express itself, the main topics are music, art and a few stories around the two topics just mentioned.

In the course of this rebuilding I also separated some social media accounts thematically, on Facebook I revived my old, for years closed down fan page and reserved a new fan page for my artistic me. Also on Instagram there will be 2 accounts in the future. Furthermore I discovered completely new platforms, like Medium, Torial, Bloglovin and Reddit. It only causes effort in setting up and at the end of the summer my blogs might be a bit more known, I have produced audio-visual internet pollution again and have a few more karma points.

With all this tinkering I am pursuing another goal. In the winter term I will offer for the first time a thematic extension of my VHB course “Djing, Skill Management and the Secrets of Personal Branding”. With this offer I would like to kill 2 different birds with one stone. The students should learn to promote themselves better. In addition, however, every future marketer should have a sound knowledge of digital marketing. And how do I best learn this? Not by just stuffing myself with theory, but by applying it. The basic idea of the extension is relatively simple. In small groups, students should run a blog for a certain period of time and then experience for themselves how difficult it is nowadays to get likes, comments and interactions.

It will be an exciting pilot project, I’m sure. Stay tuned, I’ll keep you updated.

15. July 202011. January 2021

Klaus Schulze – the master of time

Pink Floyd (last story) helped me to enter the electronic music world, but the first real milestone was the LP Timewind by Klaus Schulze.

I bought the record in a freaky store in my hometown Füssen. There you found – for small-town conditions – an extremely varied, modern and mostly alternative assortment: a lot of reggae, a lot of electronics, hard rock, etc. The store combined a dusty pharmacy flair with the aura of a drug den, but you could listen to records for hours without being looked at crooked. Here the musical dreams of a music-loving 16-year-old were stored. A complete alternative to the biggest radio shop on the square, there were the Oberkrainer Musicians, Cindy and Bert, James Last, Heino and other monstrosities from the Schlager or folk music corner. In addition you were looked at crooked if you listened to a record for more than 5 minutes. So the shopping was not really fun.

One day in this shop I discovered the Timewind by Klaus Schulze and immediately fell in love with this record. At that time it was very expensive for me (20 DMark with 100 DM pocket money). But the LP was worth it, a window into a new music universe. To appreciate the tracks, I usually looked for a quiet place and enjoyed the spherical sounds to the full. Sometimes I also fell asleep during this process. Either way I have rested after enjoying the record.

Even today – in our hectic, fast-moving times – a wonderful musical resting place and a huge contrast to the Spotify consumption environment (just listen for a minute). Little by little, two other records by the artist were added, the Black Dance and the Body Love. But to the latter there is a nice extra story. But this one will be available soon.

Personal favourites in the work of the artist do not really exist. But because the Timewind was my entrance into the world of Klaus Schulze, I’ll play it briefly. Have fun.

Stay tuned.

Pink Floyd – one of these days in Pompeji

It was Pink Floyd. Thousands of years ago the group ignited my enthusiasm for electronic music. Anyway, I can’t remember having been involved with this style of music before.

What happened musically before is now – even with enough distance – simply embarrassing. When I sat in front of the TV and recorded the hits from Ilia Richter’s show “Disco” with my cassette recorder. With the microphone, in particularly poor quality. Especially annoying were the disturbances by my siblings, who often burst into the recording noisily. Or my parents, who talked to each other. Once again in vain, once again waiting for the next chance. Today hardly more conceivable.

It’s good that these musical excursions into Ilia Richter’s universe have long been a thing of the past. Nevertheless, like zombies, one-hit-wonders from that time appear again and again, stretch out their claws and try to pull me under their spell. No chance. You captured my 14-year-old me, now you can’t do it anymore.

Back to electronic music. I believe that the first conscious contact with the genre was the music film “Pink Floyd in Pompeii”. It inspired me not only for the band, but for the whole music genre. The atmosphere in this film is fascinating, the ruins of Pompeii in the background, the band in front of it. Wow, after this film I knew: this will be my music.

My declared favourite was and is the track “One of these days”. At the beginning the noise, then the bass. In between again and again the synthesizer chords and the hihats. Then in the middle, the guitar, the break with the key phrase “One of these days, I will cut you into little pieces.” And then into the finale with the guitar solo. BAMM. A first and great milestone in the direction of electronic music in general. Have fun listening to it.

Music Stories, a new section in my blog error262.com

my music, my stories, my music milestones – a journey through several decades of enthusiasm for music

A few weeks ago – triggered by a Facebook group – I decided to start a little ramble through almost five decades of my own music history. First and foremost I want to write about songs that have inspired me. Sometimes there’s a story behind them.

As the years go by, one or the other detail might disappear, but the really important milestones usually will be remembered vivid and colorful.

When I think back, my love for electronic music is one of the few constants in my own musical universe over the decades.It began at the age of 13 or 14 – I don’t remember exactly – with a music film and does not end with the release of my first EP in 2019. No, the story continues…

And that’s the end for today. I would be happy if you would like to accompany me on my foray. By the way, what does this foray have to do with our dogin the picture? I’m almost as relaxed as she is.

Stay tuned.

21. February 202023. June 2020

Why it is not so easy to tell a story.

On May 29th last year, I announced pretty full-bodied that it was time to tell a story. At that point I thought that I would just sit down and start writing. However, I quickly realized that, although it was a simple statement, it was quite difficult to implement. Why? From the beginning I had the idea of a synthesis of the arts, the combination of pictures, texts and music. Gasherbrum should be the beginning, then the story and the visualization should follow. On the way there were many different – big and small – stumbling blocks that suddenly appeared:

Visualisation – that’s all well and good, but how are you going to do that? Do you have your own style? Or do you just copy all the others? Copying is boring!
Story – an exciting story is something different than a specialist article. The latter I can do quite well (www.christianzich.com), the former is a challenge.

Let’s make it short, since 29 May last year I have opened the door to a completely new world of art. The first expedition clearly went in the direction of texts. I dug up books about writing again, practiced, cursed, revised and started all over again. Until at some point the first usable 4 pages were on the table. In the meantime some more pages have been added and I am hopeful that there will be many more pages. After these first experiences I had a real desire for another expedition into the depths of modern art. The more I dealt with it, the closer I came to my own style. A year ago, I would never have dreamed how fascinating the study of modern art can be.

The more I dealt with all these topics, the clearer it became to me that you can’t break art over your knee and that it takes time to find your own style and develop something special on your own. And this brings us to a very exciting milestone in my professional life and my personal development: next week, on February 29, 2020, at the mixcon 2020 in Munich, I will be giving a talk on personal branding for DJs. Why milestone? For the first time I combine my artistic side with my marketing know-how and that will be a really cool experience.

From now on there is more footage on both blogs again, stay tuned.