Alex Behning – blues&folk is the genre this particular poet & musician feels at home in. But in the ufer records studio, at the Cubase Controls, he also knows how to coax the best out of a musician with creativity, sensitivity and a great sense of humour.
Annette Flowe – her preferred tune is Swedish and twists its sturdy way through about twelve different key changes & time zones. Thankfully she postponed walking the dog to record Joe’s tune: a simple one-key, one-time-zone piece.
Bill Flowe – not only can he hold a tune on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and cigar box. But I don’t know anyone who throws himself so entirely into a project, contributing his whole musical and lyrical self.
Claudia Widmann – give her a drum, a few bones strung on a piece of twine and she’ll rattle, brush or patter the beat to give your tune the edge it needs to bounce it out of its rut and spring.
Gaby Wunderlich – trotted down to the Paradies branch of the ufer records studios tethered Lemon Puff up to a tree and got out her bass to groove. Like no other.
Janina Walter – in an accordion emergency, Janina smartly zipped over to Konstanz. After a brief 4/4 vs 6/8 discussion she recorded her own beautiful take on Turn the Land. Janina is a multi-instrumentalist but confesses the accordion is her favourite instrument. It might weigh a ton but live….it’s the hit!
Julian Fyson – he loves playing around with sound so I obviously wanted to ask him to add a new modern shift to the end of Shift in Time. I love it. Julian also produces music for TV through Thuump – a collaboration writing music for ears and eyes.
Oliver Grünwoldt – was hijacked in September to play accordion to Joe’s Tune. After a brilliant evening in Bill & Annette’s garden I got addicted to a chord he was playing and didn’t want to him to go back to Berlin until Scented Ground was recorded too.
Philip Schloesser – a very rare species these bassoon players! But thankfully when Philip’s not studying Physics at the University of Konstanz, he’s either singing or playing…the bassoon. Lucky for me, he added this wonderful instrument to Winding Down of the Day.
Silke Hilbrecht – also trotted to Paradies leaving a small herd of ponies grazing on Gottlieberstrasse while she recorded warm clarinet lilts of tune: scratchy, papery, with the special Bagpuss sound I love. To find out more about the pony reference – check out the link behind her name.
Stephan ‘Langustl‘ Lange – contributed not only rushing, water-skater sound in Rosemary to Remember on his dobro guitar, but also double bass and electric bass too! You can find out more about Stephan if you click on his artist name, Langustl.
Thea Tanneberger – plays Hang Drum and the ukulele which I have totally fallen in love with. She also pops round regularly with lettuces, zucchinis, beans, tomatoes, turquoise-, blue- and brown-shelled eggs. And paintings.
Volker Prinz – the man behind the truly Princely Posaune Playing. You’ll find him in transit between Baroque and Jazz and he added the extra brass Hollow & Hill was crying out for. In a last minute recording session I was very happy that he also played his Baroque trombone on Winding Down too.
Wulf Schnaase – created a whole audio book for the start of Lake Swimming complete with alarm clock, snoring, rushing down the stairs and pedalling off on a bicycle. Which we ended up shortening slightly. Aside from also being a great friend on a difficult weekend, he wrote a beautiful arrangement for bassoon, clarinet and flute for Winding Down of the Day.
Rosebay Willow Herb Cafe 