Cologne.
The city I was born in, I grew up in. Like a spouse to whom I had been promised before I was born and ended up being married to for over twenty years. My love to her has never been questioned. And only lately I begin to realize it had never been my choice.
This is my home. I couldn't be more tired of it. Couldn't be more tired of sounding calm and sweet. A roughness needs to be released. And chewed and put into perspectives. Construction sites cover the city's face like open wounds, and it's time to rub salt in them.
Yet home is not just the place, it is also the people, my friends that I found in recent years and began to love dearly.. Now these songs attempt to unite both, merge recordings of my actual, physical surroundings, my city, my house, my heartbeat, with the subtle presence of my friends whose instruments I borrow and play, one for each track.

Home's impossibe to deal with. You're wrapped tightly in its embrace, can't shrug it off easily. And yet at times there's nothing more desirable than to cut loose from it for good.
You can't, you won't. You'll always bear a trace of your connection like a scar, like a second belly button. Deal with it. And disassemble, deconstruct and analyze your paths and where they'll lead you, remember where you are.

Cologne, Summer & Fall 2009

Thanks to Fabian for the violin. to Nicole for the trumpet. to Judith who doesn‘t know I used her drums. to Milan for the ipad. to Ian for the mandolin. to Christiane for my tenor recorder.