Aukai - Aukai - [Vinyl]

About Aukai's self-titled debut album Aukai is a Hawaiian word meaning seafarer or traveler. Its also used as a proper name, and people who are called Aukai tend to have a mystical, philosophical, introspective nature. All of which makes Aukai the perfect name for the new album and project by multi-instrumentalist and composer Markus Sieber. Its a collection of ambient acoustic soundscapes that take the listener on an inward journey to a place of peaceful stillness and tranquil beauty. This album has a lot to do with memories from travel, says Sieber, but also memories from childhood and nature. How did the river smell in summer? I wanted to create a sonic space where music guides the listener into some imaginative inner world. Siebers own journey has been an eventful one. Born in Germany, he played in alternative rock bands as a part of East Germanys vibrant 90s rock scene before shifting his focus to work as a theater, film and tv actor in Berlin and St. Petersburg. A life-changing move to Mexico put him in touch with world and indigenous music, awakening a new musical mission. As one half of the world-devotional duo Mirabai Ceiba, he circled the globe many times. Aukai was born of his desire to create a new kind of music that could work in tandem with film, video, theater and the visual arts. The compositions on the album also grew out of Siebers love affair with the ronrocco, a plucked string instrument from Argentina that Sieber first discovered through the music of film composer Gustavo Santaolalla (Babel, Brokeback Mountain). He began sketching out compositions while traveling the world as a touring musician. But Aukai really came together in the quiet solitude of a winter spent in an isolated mountain cabin in La Plata Canyon, Colorado. From there, the project shifted to Berlin, where Sieber recorded the basic tracks for Aukai at Martyn Heynes recording studio with a variety of analog gear, pairing the ronroccos sonorous tone with his evocative acoustic guitar, piano and harmonium playing. The vintage equipment gives the music a real physical quality, Sieber explains. You feel like you could almost touch it. He then called upon an international cadre of musicians to add their own tonal colors. Berliner Anne Muller, a veteran of Danish singer-songwriter Agnes Obels band, played cello. Bogdan Djukic from Belgrade played violin. Siebers wife, Angelika Baumbach added piano to several tracks, and his brother Alexander Nickmann contributed electronic keyboards and sound design. Another key player was Siebers longtime musical collaborator Jamshied Sharifi, the New York musician and composer noted for his work with Sting, Dream Theater and the Montreal Symphony, among others. Aukai was mixed in Berlin by Martyn Heyne and mastered in London by award-winning engineer Mandy Parnell who has also mastered discs by Brian Eno, Bjork, Max Richter and many others. Aukai may draw initial comparisons to the work of ambien

Aukai - Aukai - [Vinyl]

0600525551928