World of Apes 1

World of Apes 1 (2010)

2010 | cd-mb1001 | 69:40

Music produced, composed, arranged and mastered by Bernd Scholl between
December 2008 and February 2010 at Skyflight Studio II, Olef, Germany

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DE: LESEN SIE DIE VOLLSTÄNDIGE DOKUMENTATION ZU DIESEM ALBUM (PDF)

TRACKLIST:

1 - living in Apeland 6:46
2 - inside nukes 6:23
3 - M.A.D. (Mutual assured destruction) 5:04
4 - Cowboy und Indianer 5:59
5 - Losing innocence 4:30
6 - Atomic Train 4:50
7 - gently terminated 5:47
8 - A new hope 5:22
9 - You will be OK 4:37
10 - the war begins 7:23
11 - the melancholy within 5:54
12 - Brahma Astra 7:05

a few words: "World of Apes" is my 7th album. I asked myself, if I was able to realise this very serious theme of the concept album with the inevitable respect musically. As a start I first closed in on the theme and collected musical sketches for more than one year, read a lot, watched films and documentations and scrutinised my own attitude. What theme it is? "World of Apes" describes the civilisation of our world in the year 2010 and the aligned unconciousness of determining the worldwide nuclear arms race finally. With this very personal album I only reflect a few selected aspects of the historical development from the ignition of the first nuclear bomb on July 16th, 1945 to the Cold War from the 40th to the 80th. The more facts I learned about this period during my research, the more interesting but also frightening this theme became to me. I learned that the technical developments of NASA had been used to develop even stronger and more efficient nuclear weapons. Or, that until today more than 1900 tests with nuclear weapons took place on our planet earth. Or, that every newtime nuclear weapon is 1000 times stronger than Little Boy, the first atomic bomb that was dropped on the city of Hiroshima in August 1945.
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The last 18 months taught me a healthy dosage of cynicism. Because without this cynicism a serious examination of this theme would have been impossible for me at closer inspection. This cynicism is also reflected in the artwork.

Artwork:
You see the last of three equal test-houses built for the 1955 Apple II atomic bomb test at the Nevada Test Site. The others were completely destroyed. You know the historical video-sequence on the left side.
The colored pictures in this cover were made by Danny Pederson-Bradbury in 2005 and look so peaceful and somehow unreal. Today about 65 years after Trinity, one of these houses is still standing as a memorial for upcoming generations.
Nuclear threat is still present, also today. At every single moment...

For the production of “World of Apes” I collected many interesting, historical sound recordings and put them into a musical correlation. The experiences from many of my productions from the last 25 years helped me realising my idea. Moreover, I sampled tonal material from these historical recordings and played them as alienated instruments. This created a very special authenticity of the sounds.

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Additionally, the remaining nuclear radiation of a true Trinitite of the first nuclear explosion on July 16th 1945 had been measured with a contamination meter and the amplitude had been transcribed to musical-data. Based on random timings of the radioactive degeneration I established quantification patterns after hours of test-measurements and transferred them on sequencer-patterns, rhythms etc. Sound-technically “World of Apes” is at highest level. Various modern synthesizers but also vintage-devices from the past 30 years have been used. These have been recorded with the most modern technologies and completed with gently used natural instruments and affectionately finished. As usual for all moonbooter productions, I put much emphasis on mixing of the music. Those who enjoy this album with adequate equipment will realise the multiple small sound details which are best audible with ear-phones. This album is, as already mentioned, a very personal album that should be thought-provoking. To be continued...

the following equipment was used to realize this album:
Korg M3, access Virus TI, Waldorf Blofeld, Yamaha Motif 7, Yamaha SY77, NI Massive, Absynth, Reaktor, Cakewalk Rapture - Dimension Pro, Rob Papen Albino3 - Blue - Predator, Soniccharge Synplant, Waldorf Largo, Vir2 Syntax, reFX Nexus, Spectrasonics Stylus RMX - Atmosphere - Omnisphere - Trilogy, Samplelogic - AIR - Synergy - The Elements - Phaedra, Titan, Real Guitar 2LE, CamelAudio Alchemy | Sequenzing: Cakewalk Sonar 8.5 Producer | Mastering: Steinberg Wavelab 6

This album is dedicated to the hundreds of thousands of dead,
died from nuclear weapons and their dreadful consequences.