more lockdown tunes for you:
November 2020, second Corona lockdown.
Pay as you wish, thanks.
Be well,
Boris
Music: Boris Hauf
Artwork: Julian Gosper
Bed is Boris Hauf and Michael Hartman – Do Less More Often is the music they made. This music is about finding a path through the mundaneness of the day-to-day to create purpose and meaning. It is about finding a meaningful way to pass the time, making music with your friends. There are mostly synthesizers, there are subtle pulses and pounding beats, there are gentle drones and harsh noises, there is light and dark, and there is a way to stay connected across distance, time, and clutter. There is the optimism of family and friendship pushing against the cynicism of the oligarchy.
Original release was accompanied by a T-shirt release here.
T-shirt design by Julian Lars Gosper, printed on Next Level Apparel shirts which are produced environmentally friendly, and sweat-shop and child labor free.
Go to shamelessrecords.rocks for the 8 remaining TsâŚ
Thanks and enjoy.
VIDEO BY Andrew Jarvis
“The imaginative space between a piece of language and an intersection of commonly overlooked details in the environment is treated like a strange object that opens a distinct process of observation. Acting as both host and instigator, LitĂł Walkey continues to deal with the generative space among memory, presence and collective thinking. The audience is made complicit in a site of attention qualified by more than a
single identifiable subject. Multiple intervals of return in alternating presentational modes foreground the co- inhabitation of temporal, acoustic, spacial, physical and associative debris.”
– LitĂł Walkey
Created and Performed by LitĂł Walkey
Sound by Boris Hauf
Lighting by Dinis Machado
Friends,
I hope youâre well.
My recent solo CLARK2 was released on April 24, smack in the middle of the (first?) lockdown. Iâm very proud of this release and think it would fit really well on your shelf and turntable.  Itâs been getting good reviews and airplay but concerts and tour were cancelled.
Details:
Itâs a double LP on white vinyl in an eye popping reverse printed gatefold designed by Julian Lars Gosper. Produced it at an ECO friendly factory with green, sustainable bio-mass driven technology and green power I do carbon-neutral shipping only or (if youâre in Berlin) delivered in person by bike.
Shipping to the US is bonkers right now. USPS charges $36 for a single LP, but I have a stash in Chicago. If youâre interested please get in touch.
You can listen to or buy the whole thing here.
http://clark2.shamelessrecords.rocks/
Hereâs what some listeners say about CLARK2.
“an extra-terrestrial minimalist synth excursion.”Â
–Â xlr8r.com
“a celestial, addictive journey concluded with the elegiac […] urban, monotonous noises.”
– Eyal Hareuveni, Salt Peanuts
âan album of celestial electronics, alternately minimalist and maximalist and thoroughly engrossing for its entire 80 minutesâ
– Philip Montoro, Music editor Chicago Reader
âAdmirable excursion that contemplates half a century of electronics of terrestrial and sidereal environments in eighty minutesâ
– BlowUpMagazine
“If time looked like music, it could be close to Boris Hauf’s new album, CLARK2. The 12 titles are an immersion in a space suspended from the celestial arches of a universe larger than our imagination.
– Roland Torres
“All this scratchinâ is making me glitch.”
-Kevin Press
“Brace yourself for a beautiful musical deep space science fiction adventure on this one.”
– Stuart Bruce
“I don’t know, it makes my eyes hurt.”
– Naima
Thanks for your support.
Stay safe,
Boris
Newsletter
You can subscribe to my personal newsletter here. This is where I announce Boris related stuff.http://eepurl.com/dx8hKX
I also run a label Shameless that has a bunch of super exciting releases coming up. You can subscribe to that newsletter here.http://newsletter.shamelessrecords.rocks
Also been filling up borishauf.bandcamp.com with new and old stuff.Â
2 days before the garage that housed my studio from 2010-13 was blown up I recorded 5 solo organ tracks in the driveway/stairwell.
Music for a performance duet by Karen Christopher & Sophie Grodin, 2013
Control Signal explores invisible influences and inexplicable connections. It explores our irresistible urge to impose our will upon our immediate surroundings; upon nature. Through sound textures, spoken text, and actions that build visual statements, two people amble, dance, and tremble through a series of ideas and introduce an uncontrollable vibration.
Sound: Boris Hauf
performance by: Karen Christopher & Sophie Grodin
Light: Marty Langthorne
Dramaturgy: LitĂł Walkey
trailer soundtrack for WHAT MOVES MOVES
what moves moves is the second collaboration of musician/composer boris hauf and dancer/choreographer christina ciupke. the piece was premiered at the heizhaus of uferstudios berlin in december 2013.
âour dialogue for this piece started as a conversation about differences and similarities in the perception of aesthetics in dance and in music. using a space within a space we examine dynamics of sound and movement and attempt to balance the two media and their reception.â
a concrete physical object â a wooden hut (2m x 1,20m x 2m) with no windows â is located on a slight diagonal axis in the middle of the space. the audience enters into a relatively dark space. to perceive the hut from different perspectives, distances and on various sensual levels spectators are welcome to move freely in the space outside the hut. after they have settled the hut gradually develops a life of its own. visually impenetrable, the hutâs limited permeability allows only minimal perception of what is originating from inside it. barely perceptible noise, cracks and vibrations reveal the hutâs inner life.
after a while the outside space darkens increasingly and light penetrates the cracks of the wooden structure. nearing the hut eludes the overview of what is going on inside it, the gaze is drawn to the detail. observing from a distance complements the visual cutouts and allows insights as a whole. sound fragments and light movements inside the hut are perceived as physical dynamics and melody fragments can be heard in interstices of building and construction noise.
as performers, christina ciupke and boris hauf are alternately inside the hut and outside of the enclosed structure, in midst of the audience. the perception of interior and exterior space oscillates with the movement of sound, light and the dynamics between audience and performers. encounters, when they occur, are indirect and delicate. by repeatedly becoming permeable for the senses the apparently distinct demarcation of the hut conveys proximity and connectedness.
performance: christina ciupke and boris hauf
light: mehdi toutain-lopez
stage construction: bodo herrmann
costumes: nina kramer
production manager: barbara greiner
assistant: anne schuh
a production by christina ciupke supported by the berlin senate cultural affairs department
excerpts of the sound for LIFE AND DEATH OF A MELODY
In their third collaboration Christina Ciupke and Boris Hauf continue researching the link between sound and movement. Supported with lighting design by Emma Juliard the piece unfolds from microscopic sound and movement language to complex sculptures. The performance space is a vibrating three-dimensional body of sound, allowing the audience the experience proximity and distance on different levels of perception. In her movement research Christina Ciupkeâs interest is drawn to details â such as a small shift of a joint resulting in an involuntary chain reaction and adjustment of other parts of the body. As it is taken by gravity, the swing of an arm is trapped and decelerates. Two-dimensional images, movement sketches and repetition develop into more spacious and dynamic structures. Boris Hauf sets the sound complementary to the movement interacting microscopic loops with elongated, nested phrases. Together they investigate the deconstruction of repetitions and loops after they have been visually and aurally established.
performance und musik: christina ciupke und boris hauf
licht und bĂźhne: emma julliard
produktionsdramaturgie: barbara greiner
kĂźnstlerische mitarbeit: frank mĂźller
produktionsdramaturgie: barbara greiner
produktion: christina ciupke, gefĂśrdert durch den regierenden bĂźrgermeister von berlin, senatskanzlei â kulturelle angelegenheiten, mit freundlicher unterstĂźtzung der uferstudios
CLARK is the electronica alter ego of Berlin-based experimental sound artist and multi-instrumentalist Boris Hauf since 2005 when he released his debut Clark album (originally on Sijis, re-released by Haufâs label Shameless Rocks in 2016). ÂŤCLARK2Âť is more ambitious in its concept, scope, and instrumentation, lasting about 80 minutes. This album is released on Haufâs label as a deluxe double LP on white vinyl (with download option). It is produced at an ECO-friendly factory with green, sustainable biomass driven technology and green power. Hauf promises only carbon-neutral shipping or delivering personally the LPs by bike or tram.
ÂŤCLARK2Âť began as a single LP with Haufâs ÂŤnotions of the terrestrial present an extraterrestrial future. Itâs about digital natives born into climate collapse and automation, the degree to which we relinquish control to avoid work, and the future that lies ahead of us and our childrenÂť. Hauf wanted that ÂŤCLARK2Âť pieces would radiate metaphysical, transitional, and phenomenological interactive dimensions. During Hauf correspondence with his graphic designer, Vancouver-based Julian Lars Gosper, this single LP kept growing, referred to the Covid-19 pandemic reality, and shaped in an epic and symphonic form and structure.
The opening piece ÂŤIsland DestinyÂť emphasizes the epic, symphonic atmosphere of this album, referencing the extended, layered works of seminal seventies space-rock and early electronics artists like Tangerine Dream, Vangelis, and Peter Michael Hamel, but with an updated, minimalist touch and newer effects that color this piece with sparse, distant mechanical noises. The following pieces are shorter and employ the vintage, analog synthesizer qualities for creating the familiar repetitive, cyclical patterns, then mutating and shaping these basic celestial patterns, enhancing them by extensive usage of effects, often disturbed by subtle scratching, glitches that alter their moods (check the melancholic and pandemic-related ÂŤCanât Get JobsÂť and ÂŤMurmurÂť, for example). The brief ÂŤHumansÂť (check the accompanying video-clips below created by Thomas Binder-Reisinger) and ÂŤKastriÂť sound as informed by minimalist techno patterns while the song-like ÂŤA Place Not InfiniteÂť corresponds with the eighties kind of heavy and grandiose synth school of Jean Michel Jarre (and Hauf already performed it before with different drummers). This celestial, addictive journey is concluded with the elegiac ÂŤChaos ChildrenÂť, disturbed by urban, monotonous noises.
– Eyal Hareuveni
OWL & MACK – STEVE HEATHER, DEREK SHIRLEY, BORIS HAUF, DEAN ROBERTS
Yesterday afternoon on the Alte Donau: Naked Lunch songs on a boat, fothermuckers!
#OliverWelter @BorisHauf #nakedlunch
Shine on shine on shine onâŚ
Dear friend
I hope you are well. Here’s a quick update on things.
It’s Bandcamp day again. The online platform I sell my music on is waving all it’s shares in favor of us musicians, hit by concert and touring cancellations due to you know what. So, in case you haven’t yet, but would like to, please go here check out my latest release CLARK2 . Double white LP release in beautiful gatefolded artwork by Julian Lars Gosper. Download comes with the crazy psychedelic and mind-altering videos by Thomas Binder-Reisinger. And this time I’m donating all proceeds to myself.
http://shamelessrocks.bandcamp.com/album/clark2
In case you’d like more background info on CLARK2:
I recently did a Q&A for the Italian zine Chain D.L.K: about how the album came to be, the track names, production techniques, the eco friendly promotion and production of the album, sequencing and of course the art work.
I really appreciated the thoughtful questions. Q&A in it’s full glory is here or https://www.chaindlk.com/interviews/boris-hauf/
One last thing – shipping from EU to the USA at regular rates is impossible in the near future. It has something to do with Trump being president, USPS going nuts and something called covid-19. There is a stash of CLARK2s sitting in Chicago though. Soooo….
hope you are all well, safe and healthy.
yours,
Boris
Recently released on his own label Shameless Productions, CLARK2 is the âlongest, deeper and more epicâ sequel of CLARK (released in 2005). Besides the hypotheses and the precise analysis by our collaborator Stuart Bruce, we decided to have a talk with this brilliant Berlin-based forger of thought-provoking and imagination-boosting electronic music.
Chain D.L.K.: Good morning, Boris! How are you? How are you spending these weird days?
Boris Hauf: Hi, thanks for the call. Iâm honored. Personally, I love being home and with the family. The slowing down of life, in general, is very welcome. Overall though, itâs pretty scary. It would be ideal if humans could learn from this experience: re-evaluating current healthcare and education systems, developing alternatives to capitalism and finally taking climate change more seriously, for instance.
Chain D.L.K.: Youâre displaying some words and reviews on Clark that often quote dystopia. Do you think that your sound could stay with dystopia if you think weâre experiencing a dystopian world?
Boris Hauf: The concept of CLARK2 was about notions of the terrestrial present and extraterrestrial future. Itâs about digital natives born into climate collapse and automation, the degree to which we relinquish control to avoid work, and the future that lies ahead of us and our children. The included layer of the pandemic reality is a timely addition. Titles and concept are all ante-corona. I come up with CLARK titles together with my Shameless companion, Julian Gosper, who lives and works in Vancouver and does all the Shameless artwork. Our claim is that a subtle nod in naming may create deep resonance with audiences.
Chain D.L.K.: Can you talk about the project Clark and how its second act related to the first act? Would you say itâs an enhancement, a sort of implementation, or what?
Boris Hauf: CLARK has been my electronica alter ego since 2005. So hopefully both enhancement and implementation. CLARK1 (Shameless, 2016) was a re-issue of a solo I made in 2005 for the UK label Sijis. My studio skills were different back then and so was the compositional focus. The 2016 remix, remaster, and re-titling were informed by fantasies of extraterrestrial pasts. Super weird fun fact: track #6 is called Corona. CLARK2 (2020) was recorded over a much longer time period, with different instruments in a different studio in different times.
Chain D.L.K.: âIsland DestinityââŚwhat a great opener! It looks like the rendering of some cosmic reverie. What did you have in mind while composing it? Any word about the equipment and settings you used to forge such an awesome suite?
Boris Hauf: Thanks! âIsland Destinityâ was the last track I composed for CLARK2. The album originally started off as a single LP. After spending some time with the finished tracks it felt like it was missing a counterweightâŚthe first part. I was drawn to the idea of the opener being something epic and symphonic in form and structure. What makes the piece special in my ears is the breath and pacing.
Mentally and emotionally, I redefined the already finished work as an LP2 of a double album and sent Julian an idea for an LP1. He started working away on the artwork. There was a lot of going back and forth between us. The music informed the artwork and vice versa. Itâs always like that in our collaborations.
Regarding equipment: Synths, samplers, and heaps of outboard effect boxes.
In terms of production, I learned a lot from these past years as keyboarder and multi-instrumentalist for the legendary Austrian indie rock band Naked Lunch. Recording with and peeking over the shoulders of artists producing on that level has been very inspiring also for my own production techniques.
Chain D.L.K.: We canât help but agree with the eco-friendly choices for the promotion of the albumâŚare they somehow related to the concept of the album?
Boris Hauf: Yes, itâs a substantial part of the album concept. And, also the direction I am taking the label. If possible I deliver the LPs in person, by bike or tram. If not Iâll ship it eco-friendly, carbon neutral. I am very happy to have found a pressing plant that also works to these standards.
Chain D.L.K.: We know, and we appreciate you as a very polyhedral sound artist and musician! Which role would you assign to Clark and its sequel in your artistic growth?
Boris Hauf: Polyhedral, I like it. Thanks. As I mentioned before â CLARK is my electronica solo âpersonaâ. Itâs an essential part of my work and evolution as musician.
Chain D.L.K.: Both in Clark and Clark2, thereâs a strong stylistic connection to evergreen glories of 70s electronic music knights as well as a strong conceptual hook to sci-fi sonoritiesâŚhow do you relate to 70s electronics and sci-fi?
Boris Hauf: I love that stuff, in all its complexities as much as in its simplicities. Clark2 sounds even more like 70s electronica when you listen to it on vinyl. I was really pleasantly surprised by the similarities when I first heard the test pressings.
Chain D.L.K.: Besides âIsland Destinityâ, whose length justifies it covering the whole A-side, are there any grouping criteria of tracks for their placement on particular sides?
Boris Hauf: The sequencing is something I worked on in close collaboration with my amigo Max McCormick (also mentioned on the album cover). The idea was to create some type of unity with what we perceived as the three different layers going on in the tracks: 1. metaphysical 2. transitional 3. phenomenological interactive. Max wove the layers together in a pattern and we were both quite blown away by the sequence that emerged.
Chain D.L.K.: Is there any track that you reforged many times before the final editing? If so, why?
Boris Hauf: Almost 33% of the tracks were played as are and just needed some tweaking. 33% experienced some detailed production work and 33% were literally âreforgedâ (great word) â because they needed it.
Chain D.L.K.: The track entitled âHumansâ is the one richest in glitches⌠I guess itâs not a random choice! :)
Boris Hauf: :)
Chain D.L.K.: With regard to the match between sometimes weird titles and sonic content, what can you say of âCanât Get Jobsâ or âA Palace Not Infiniteâ?
Boris Hauf: The path to matching titles and sonic content had various trajectories (construing titles with Julian and bouncing off his artwork, sequencing strategies together with Max, âŚ) so itâs hard for me to say exactly how those two combinations came up.
Chain D.L.K.: Did you perform or are you going to perform Clark2 on live stages? If yes, are you thinking of some visual content as well?
Boris Hauf: Iâve performed âA Palace Not Infiniteâ many times on stage. Usually with guest musicians, always drummers. Steve Heather, Morton Olsen, Didi Kern, ⌠to name a few.
I was invited to perform CLARK2 in its entirety at the 2020 Vienna Popfest. It would have been bombastic. Such a shame it canât happen. The marvellous Katharina Ernst would have been my duo partner for that gig.
The other plan that fell through in summer 2020 was to tour Europe eco-friendly by train and only play house concerts at friendâs places.
Thomas Binder-Reisinger has made some wonderful videos for both CLARK releases, so I am planning to use them in live performances.
Chain D.L.K.: Any work in progress?
Boris Hauf: There are ideas for CLARK3, particularly in enhancing the collaborative aspects. But honestly, I find the whole Corona pandemic thing less inspiring than the tons of emails I get telling me that ânowâs the time to be creativeâ. Iâm really happy I had so many projects and releases lined up to help me stay focused and busy throughout this time of immobility, âcause right now â Iâm not feeling crazy creativeâŚ
Visit artistsâ webspace here: hauf.klingt.org
https://shamelessrocks.bandcamp.com/album/clark2
https://www.chaindlk.com/interviews/boris-hauf/
https://www.chaindlk.com/author/vitocamarretta/
Released mid (first) lockdown my latest full length double LP solo release has been getting a lot of love. thanks for all the support.
âAdmirable excursion that contemplates half a century of electronics of terrestrial and sidereal environments in eighty minutesâ
– BlowUpMagazine
“If time looked like music, it could be close to Boris Hauf’s new album, CLARK2. The 12 titles are an immersion in a space suspended from the celestial arches of a universe larger than our imagination.
– Roland Torres
“All this scratchinâ is making me glitch.”
-Kevin Press
“Itâs rare that a single album in one style can justify and maintain an 80-minute duration, especially one with such a minimalist approach as this has at times- but itâs a testament to the balance and control thatâs been put into this that it really is worthy of it. Itâs filmic and grandiose, yet never over the top. Brace yourself for a beautiful musical deep space science fiction adventure on this one.”
– Stuart Bruce
“I don’t know, it makes my eyes hurt.”
– Naima
The recent killings of and the ongoing state-sanctioned violence against people of colour in the US and around the world are horrific tragedies. This Juneteenth (June 19) Bandcamp will donate 100% of their share of sales to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, a national organization that has a long history of effectively enacting racial justice and change through litigation, advocacy, and public education. Juneteenth is an American holiday commemorating the emancipation of the last remaining enslaved African Americans in 1865. Brent Gutzeit is releasing a compilation I’m very proud to be a part of. All proceeds go to BLM, NAACP and the Greater Chicago Food Depository.
I mean, check out the bonkers line up already.
Building A Better Reality: A Benefit Compilation
A benefit for BLM, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and The Greater Chicago Food Depository
Release date: June 19, 2020
Label: JMY – https://jmymusic.bandcamp.com/album/building-a-better-reality-a-benefit-compilation
line up: CASEY RICE, MICHAEL ZERANG, FRANCISCO MEIRINO, THEO KATSAOUNIS, BORIS HAUF (exspiro), DREKKA, PaVda (HAL RAMMEL/LINDA BINDER), MARC RIORDAN, OUR WRONGS (Kenny Sanderson/Adam Jennings), LEIF ELGGREN, AL MARGOLIS, KAREN CONSTANCE AND BLUE SPECTRUM, FIRE-TOOLZ, JESSE GOIN, EMIL BEAULIEAU, TV POW, DAVE REMPIS/TOMEKA REID/JOSH ABRAMS TRIO, DOLINE KARST, BEN VIDA, PBK, TV POW (Featuring Sharkula, Precise & Ben Carter), RAGLANI, NICK MAZZARELLA and TOMEKA REID, PAVLOS VAKALOS & NICOLAS MALEVITSIS, DARIN GRAY, PHARMAKUSTIK, K2 (Kimihide Kusafuka), TIJUANA HERCULES, CHRIS HERBERT, MATT LUX’S COMMUNICATION ARTS QUARTET, RAINBOW NOTHING (Plastic Crimewave/Andrew Paine), KEN VANDERMARK, JESSE KUDLER, GABIE STRONG, KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN, WEASEL WALTER, JIM DORLING, IAN FRASER, SARAH HENNIES, BEN CARTER, , EMMETT KELLY (Cairo Gang), SIGTRYGGUR BERG SIGMARSSON, FRED LONBERG-HOLM, ZOOTS HOUSTON, CHRIS BROKAW, KATHERINE YOUNG, JASON ROEBKE, THE SINGLEMAN AFFAIR, BEN BILLINGTON (Quicksails), JIM BECKER, ANDREW SCOTT YOUNG, RYAN WEINSTEIN, GX JUPITER LARSEN, DAN FANDINO, RUNAR MAGNUSSON, TIM KINSELLA, PRECISE, J. SOLIDAY, JULIAN KIRSHNER, SIMON JOYNER, TIMOTHY RENNER (Stone Breath), DJ DOUGGPOUND, MYKEL BOYD, DREAS, CINCHEL, CHRIS POTTINGER, MICHAEL GENDREAU, VADIM SPRIKUT (Drowned), BENJAMIN, JEB BISHOP, FRED WELLS (I Kong Kult), NICK HOFFMAN, HEIKKI RUOKANGAS, MIKE BULLOCK, MATT SCHNEIDER (Moon Bros), SAM WAGSTER, BRIAN LABYCZ, KAZUYA ISHIGAMI, LASSE MARHAUG, JOSH ABRAMS, TODD MATTEI, BRENDAN MURRAY, CRANK STURGEON, AITIS BAND, KENDRA AMALIE, WILLIAM TYLER, JIM BAKER
For the third time the Bandcamp is generously waiving its revenue shares today Friday June 5. 100% of sales go directly to the artists.
Please take advantage of this and check this (still growing) list of Black artists, producers, and labels on Bandcamp:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1OIUBp4kFxmpWJihhq6WLwJQR1Am4DsD59bEYlJZxeGY/edit#gid=0
Further more, the Chicago Reader compiled a list of musicians and labels that will donate their cuts to support the fight for Black lives.
https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/bandcamp-waive-revenue-friday-protests-blm-naacp/Content?oid=80402068
Lastly, Shameless Records will donate all revenue of this week’s sales to Sea-Watch. Cuz this shit also still needs fixing…
http://shamelessrecords.rocks
Thank you,Â
Boris
Extinction Rebellion Berlin and the Red Rebels asked me to make the music for their new trailer. Thanks for the opportunity to contribute.
Music: Boris Hauf
