Transpluto

About Transpluto

I was born in the heart of Europe and grew up in the left heart chamber. (OK, let´s call it West-Berlin)

I started making music at the age of 13, I am an autodidact. I can´t read notes, but I know where the C is, even when its not black.


Where do I have to start?

"A minimoog is all I need!" ("Gazebo" was totally right)

1977: My brother hears this strange music, extraordinary sounds, I am frightened, got a gooseskin, this is an astonishing moment, it was like music from another star, I fell instantly in love with electronic music, it was Jean-Michel Jarre "Oxygene Part II", wow³

1981: I came from school, my brother jumped nearly to me and said:"I bought me a record, just because of the cover ... a swan in plastic, you must listen to this song", it was - of course - "Photographic". I fell instantly in love with Depeche Mode (DM)...

1982: Winter, I was in a record shop - always looking & searching & hearing, a typical behavior in my teenage days - and there I saw a strange, but cool cover: "A broken Frame", DM has done a new album? An immediate purchase! At home I hear side A, I am totaly disappointed, this is not DM, something has changed! My brother came (I don´t know why, but in both cases: one is at home, has a new record and the other one arrives) and I told him about my "frustration". We listened to Side B and "click" I liked it ... strange. Over the years it arrived the olymp. This is my favourite album of DM, especially the mood and "The Sun and the Rainfall" is still my favourite song. Sometimes I suppose: Martin tried to imitate Vince and he´s done a great job. Martin Lee Gore, Sir Vincent Clarke and Midge Ure, the 80´s without them? No, what a terrible vision! (Dear Queen, please make them to "Sires")

1983: My mother has a new friend. He moved to our flat, his daughter was only at the weekend with us, she played piano and therefore he bought her an instrument. Her room wasn´t locked, so I began to discover a new world. I knew nothing and was simply "thumming" (herumklimpern) on this cheap piano. It was a long way to Transpluto, but I improved from year to year.

September 1983: I was in my favourite record shop (ZIP in der Wilmersdorfer Straße) and I decided: Listen to every record where you can read: Synthesizer, Keyboards and so on, simply: ELECTRONIC ... from "ABBA to Zappa". It took me 5 months to finish. (OK, I allready knew a lot of "Names") My greatest discoveries: John Foxx - Metamatic (in those days I thought: He is an alien, but this is interesting music! My opinion today: He has done one of the ugliest, strangest albums of the eighties, but always unique! Rational Youth - cold war night life (love on first sight - wrong sense) and Yellow Magic Orchestra - solid state survivor.

1988: I got to my 18th birthday 1500,- DM (the typical "driving license"-money), but I never wanted to drive. I just wanted this incredible synthesizer I have discovered in a music shop ("sound & drumland", danke Ronny & Sven) some months before: Roland D-50! Wow! Love on first sight!
But my problem was: I have saved 300,- DM plus this 1500,- DM and the D-50 costs 3700,- DM! So what to do? I prayed to my father ... we went to "sound & drumland". No! This is to expensive! Choose another one! No! This one or no one! Where do we can get it cheaper? My first thought: Maybe at "Tony Hifi Shop am ZOO". It was a hifi shop, where you can pay duty free. I was totally desperated, but then - we were allready in this chaotic shop - I saw a carton leaning on a wall, behind an open door: Roland! It was this great synthesizer: ROLAND D-50 and the price was 2800,- DM, my father said ok! A dream came true, this day I will not forget, there I got my "CAROLAND"!

1988 or 89: I saw Tommi Stumpff in a TV-Show, maybe WDR / ZDF, he was talking about making music with a computer and MIDI. ("Können sie mal den Krach ausmachen?" fragte die ModeratorIn. Dazu sage ich jetzt erst mal nichts.)

1989: It was great to experience this: "Dancing on the Berlin wall". Reality imitates art. I was so happy...

1990: I decided to go MIDI, so I bought me "C-LAB Notator SL"("Midi Geerdes" in der Bismarckstraße) and the Atari 1040 ST (a computer with an "UNDO-Key" - damn we haven´t this option in real life!). It took me a long time to understand how this program functions and real life was there too...

1996: After several years of going "the normative way" and earning money I decided to make a break. There where 40 Tapes of my music, enough ideas ... now lets start! What do I have? 3 Roland: D-50, S-50, TR 626 and a cheap mixing console, but there was one Problem:
I can hear only 3 Sounds plus a drum live, but for example "I could smile circles" has got 9 Midi-Tracks. So I finished 12 tunes without knowing how the endresult really sounds. It was like diving in the darkness...

What to do? The answer: Roland VS 880! 8 Tracks. Often I used a track for 2 sounds. It was incredible to hear a tune for the first time. But there was still one wish: I wish I could hear all created midi-tracks at the same time ... how the sounds interact ...

1997 or 1998: Cubase VST 3.6 and Terratec EWS 64 XL (64 MB). A dream came true. This was exactly what I wanted. I think this was the first time I called myself

Transpluto

(as ever: please excuse my "german-english")

to be finished...