releases/



:: ONE IS A VERY SMALL CROWD ::

... artist: SOFTLAND

One is a very small crowd ... One is a very small crowd (SM011CD007) ...
... released: September, 2003 ...
... format: CD ...
... 700 copies ...
... distribution: baked-goods UK, also available as MP3 at BLEEP.COM ...
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... reviews:

... Neue Luzerner Zeitung NLZ ...
... KRAFTSTROTZENDE FÜLLE ...
... 17 October 2004 ...
... Stil und Eigenheiten zeichnen auch das neue Werk von Softland alias Christof Steinmann aus: Musik von einer kraftstrotzenden Fülle und atmosphärischen Weite, die auch feierliche Cembalos, wild zirkulierende Pianolinien und noisige Beats überlebt. Softland ist futuristische Kirchenmusik, bombastische Minimal-Music, progressive Verwirklichungsmusik, mit einer manchmal fast überpurzelnden Dichte an Ideen. Doch Softland findet immer wieder das Mass, die Haltung, die zündenede Idee. Wer hinhört, wird entdecken, wie kompositorische vielseitig und raffiniert Steinmann die Tracks aufgebaut hat.

Pirmin Bossart ...
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... loop.cl ...
... ONE IS A VERY SMALL CROWD ...
... 17 March 2004 ...
... La reciente visita a Chile del contingente Spezial Material estuvo marcada por su participación en el festival Patagónica realizado en Coyhaique el 6 y 7 de febrero, aunque también se presentaron en Valparaíso y Santiago.
Este fue el caso de Softland, quien acaba de editar un álbum por este sello suizo. Este disco de techno barroco utiliza sampleos de clavecín, xilófono, piano, bombos saturados y el sonido sintetizadores análogos. Una mezcla amorfa y disonante que ya suena a fórmula gastada.
Softland apuesta por el juego de timbres con sonoridades intrincadas y retorcidas donde lo melódico tiene poco espacio. ...
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... SMALLFISH ...
... ONE IS A VERY SMALL CROWD ...
... 15 November 2003 ...
... NEW ARTIST SOFTLAND MAKES A WELCOME ADDITION TO THE SM CREW WITH THIS WONDERFUL FULL LENGTH CD ALBUM. IT'S AN OBSCURE, RHYTHMIC, ENGAGING SOUND THAT GROWS IN STATURE EVERY TIME YOU LISTEN TO IT. MATURE ARRANGMENTS AND SUPREMELY CONFIDENT INSTRUMENTATION GIVE IT A UNIQUE SOUND (CHECK OUT THE MEDIEVAL SOUNDING 'SEKVENS') AND THE RHYTHMS ARE INTRICATELY PROGRAMMED FOR MAXIMUM SHUFFLE, YET WITH A GROOVING SOUND AT TIES THAT WORKS AS A GREAT COUNTERPOINT TO THE MORE AMBIENT WORKS. SUPERB, THEN AND HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.  ...
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... de-bug.de ...
... ONE IS A VERY SMALL CROWD ...
... 17 October 2003 ...
... Softland ist Christof Steinmann aus Zürich und ist grandios, wenn ich das schonmal ganz am anfang sagen darf. Grandios, weil die Mischung aus Laptop und akustischen Instrumenten unkonventionell und ziemlich ungehört klingt. Frisch, mitreißend, vollgestopft mit putzigen Sounds, rumpelnden Klavieren, für die es ganz selbstverständlich ist, im Hintergrund gegen die Zeit einfrierende Flächen zu kämpfen oder sich von den noisigen Beats nichts gefallen zu lassen. Denn eigentlich soll man wippen, aufgeregt mit den Armen rudern, um die Größe dieser Tracks hier zu beschreiben ... und das machen dann auch alle.Gut, mittendrin wird es mal ein bisschen anstrengend, vielleicht ein bisschen zu streng und zu selbst-generierend, aber das gibt sich dann auch wieder. Zurück bleibt eine Faszination für die schrägen Harmonien und warum uns C-Dur Geprägten doch alles so leicht und logisch erscheint. Leicht wie eine Feder.
Thaddi
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... BOOMKAT.COM ...
... ALBUM OF THE WEEK ...
... 15 October 2003 ...
... New on Spezialmaterials! Barely a month ago, Switzerland's excellent Spezial Materials' collective offered up their splendid SM3 collection, and amongst all the gathered luminaries and guest remixers, from Solotempo and Intricate to Person, Bitstream to Skanfrom, Team Doyobi to Made + Ad Vanz, the undoubted highlight was Softland's luscious "Seismo", a sotto voce piano piece, all muted but resplendent, soft chords and incredible atmospheres. Elizabeth Wells has already written perfectly on this record for the estimable, but currently offline www.absorb.org [come back soon Sheikh!], and we'll take the liberty of quoting liberally from her discerning review. "The tone of this album is almost scholarly in its crafted approach to minimal electronics, complex structures and baroque harmonics. 'Sekvens' sounds like a homage to courtly harpsichord: an ornate construction which the following track 'Loipe' inherits, building intense beats and addictive percussion. The resulting mix sounds as though it has borrowed its energy from certain classical compositions that have been torn kicking and screaming through a 21st century digital vortex. Softland creates an uneasy, dreamy landscape, by juxtaposing long chains of melody with dissonant, random bursts of percussion and pulsing, at times ominous, pads (as on 'Majken'). Glitchy beats both increase the pace and embed a sense of menace into the exchange of harmonies: glockenspiels create an illusory promise of calm, but harsh sounds resurface and the threat of decay is never far away (note the intrusion of a fly buzzing in 'Approach'). In terms of discernible influences, there are none that could be called concrete: the album seems to take its inspiration more from the harmonic layering of baroque composers than it does from contemporary techniques. It is still obviously an electronic album, but its self-conscious reinvention of classical composition with a mischievous twist gives it a unique appeal." Definitely not an easy listen (or an instant one for that matter) but well worth further investigation. Recommended. ...
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... Interview by Jamie Jackson ...
... ONE IS A VERY SMALL CROWD ...
... 30 January 2002 ...
... "Probably everyone, if they trace it back, had a strange view of the world when they were a child. But not everyone does look back. A great deal of being an artist is being the kid that we are from the start."

So states Christof Steinmann, a 29 year-old Swiss artist and musician currently living in Paris. A year ago he and 14 friends started their own music label, SpezialMaterial (SM), with the help of a 16,000 franc (£6000) grant from the council of Christof’s home town, the lakeside city of Luzern. This spring will see the release of his debut solo effort under the moniker, Softland.

But more of that later. He is over in London for a holiday. When I meet him at Smallfish record store opposite the 333 club in Old Street, he complains about visiting Portobello market yesterday in the rain.

"It wasn’t the wet so much, but the market itself. I really don’t like these kinds of places where everything is so commercialised. I was bored to be honest." He smiles and takes a long pause and I have to remind myself that his mellow tone and soft pronunciation is not speaking his native language, so smooth is his English. "Still," he says, pointing to a promotional poster for SM on the wall, "that’s pretty cool. Seeing some of my work here."

Smallfish stock SM’s records. The poster with its minimalist geometric shapes and designs suggests an artist who is some way towards maturity. I ask him when it first started with creation. He smiles his warm smile and considers.

"I dunno really. I was in the Boy Scouts in Luzern and from around 15 I started designing posters for them. It was like a corporate identity, I suppose. How to manage a group, how to create its image. And music, it was always something I was around from my parents."

He says although he had no talent to learn an instrument formally, he still tried his hand at piano, flute, and soprano saxophone, before settling on the double bass he found lying around the family home. At age 17 he began jamming with friends and took his art foundation year at school in Luzern.

He played in several bands there before getting restless. Although Luzern is one of Switzerland’s major cities, a tourist destination famous for its wooden bridges and surrounding mountains, its population is only around 50,000, the size of a small town in England.

He moved to Holland and it was while studying art in Amsterdam between 1994 and 1998 that he decided where his musical direction lay. "I made some very clear decisions that I wanted to work electrically and on my own, because it’s hard to do electronic music with someone else. Though I don’t exclude to work with other people in the future."

With an Atari and sampler, he wrote songs and developed his working methods. "What’s good with electronic music is the new software and equipment that comes out. You do mistakes, do strange things, maybe press the wrong button, and you find things out."

Now though he uses a Macintosh PowerBook, citing Autechre and Aphex Twin as influences. "Most of the stuff I do is quite playful, seldom just straight beats, rather complicated rhythmical structures, but still understandable. I’m not satisfied with the usual drum and synth sounds".

Another strong influence was Bjork. "I had been listening to minimalist music from the ‘70s. I had a concept in my head of what I thought electronic music could be..." As he pauses, eyes lighting round the rows of records, I understand how important it is to him that he chooses exactly the right words. "I had a scientific concept about electronic music. I always thought Techno was stupid and then I heard Bjork and here was what I imagined."

Since Amsterdam he has won a variety of awards for his art and music, including the stay in the Paris studio, awarded to him by Luzern council for his art installation, Informationvorsprung (Informationadvantage), a series of digitally enhanced photographs. "I have the studio for three months, until mid-April. I’m mostly interested in sound, writing new pieces for the album, and also developing some ideas for installations."

For him, the art and music will always be intertwined. "I don’t like fixed concepts. I want to combine visual art with music. It’s easier to do music in an art context because the audience is more open but it’s hard to find cafes to do this. I would like to have my own set-up, my own space."

We walk to a row of records and he pulls out the opening releases from SM, six track EPs from stablemates, Intricate and Person. It is clear from the sleeves that design is very important to the SM concept. "There are seven or eight different projects on the label, and we work close together with the visual designers at SM on flyers, slide projection and animation. We try to create a four dimensional experience."

What do the next few months hold? "I’m preparing for a concert in Zurich in mid-February, learning a programming language for sound, and writing new pieces for the album, which will be out by April or May. I’m also interested in releasing two singles to be played at the same time. Or a CD-ROM that sounds different each time the computer plays it."

I have a think about that as I say goodbye and head for the rain. And I remember how he described SpezialMaterial’s ethos: electronic music somewhere between the dance floor and the brain.

Christof Steinmann’s album, under the name of Softland, will be out in late April, early May. Working title, ONE IS A SMALL CROWD

More information on SM can be found at www.spezialmaterial.ch and the label’s current releases can be found at Smallfish Records, 360 Old Street, N1, or www.smallfish.co.uk ...
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