Brueckner, Michael

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2009
This album is dedicated to Asmus Tietchens. 
Like a couple of other albums, the music on Oddwind wasn’t intended to result in one at first - rather, it started as a combination of an exercise (in playing stuff by hand; something I am admittedly not very good in…) and as an exploration - of my little Waldorf Blofeld synthesizer, which I had acquired in 2009 (mainly to have some better equipment for a live performance I was to play later that same year).
In fact, Oddwind ended up being almost exclusively being performed on that instrument.
Actually, being able to record a whole album of (decent) music all played by hand was something I always had hoped to accomplish, but never really felt up to. I’m just not a very well trained keyboarder…
So, when I started recording tracks in that way (mostly improvising the needed elements - bass lines, chords, sequences, melodies, also some percussion - in traditional multi-track recording fashion, and - as I like to point out very clearly - without editing those recordings later, except for some basic level adjustments) I had little hope that anything worth listening to might come out of it, but much to my surprise, it did (in most cases). After the first few nice results, confidence grew, and at some point I realized that this whole thing might well result in what - at first - I had not even thought of: an album…
Another thing I soon realized was, that my hand played music turned out to be somewhat different from the more programmed - and therefore composed - music I usually did; of course - due to my lack of proper skills - it was considerably less rhythmically accurate, but on the more positive side, it also seemed a lot more lively and, I think, „soulful“ (not in the sense of the musical style „soul“, of course).
Also, I seemed to have other kinds of musical ideas that way - and I found these new aspects quite rewarding…

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2002
Inspired by several encounters with different Jewish people in 2000 and 2001, this short album reflects my feelings about and relationship with Jewish culture, religion, mysticism and history, and Klezmer music, actually...
It's a kind of serious, but beautiful exercise which navigates between light and mystical soundscapes and - maybe - modern classical music (some listeners were partly reminded of Penderecki, for example).

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2012
R Is For "Rocket" and S Is For "Space" is Michael Brückners 97. Album and it offers seqeuncer orientated, melodic EM. The tracks are in the spirit of 50 and 60s classical Sci-Fi stories. Very versatile and absulutly catchy. Tracks sounds like Jarre and many more, but with Brückners own touch.

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2005
An album of atmospheric electronicals, in places with a Berlin school (and sometimes even Pink Floyd) touch, that were inspired by a mystical sufi tale, making use of oriental scales here and there, and also of dance beats occasionally. In fact I always thought this album was one of my stronger efforts at the time.

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2022
In early 2012 I got a brand new toy - the laptop that even now is my main music production tool. Along with it came a heap of music software and virtual synthesizers, which gave me a lot more options than I ever had before. Right away, I took a dive into this pool of possibilities, and riding the wave of fresh inspiration created an album's worth of new tracks - mostly sequencer based and propelled forward by driving beats, which I considered some of my strongest works so far at that point.
When I had the chance to release my first album on SynGate though, I believed these tracks were no suitable material and hold them back for later. I did however share them privately with some close friends and listeners, and when I had a chat about my music with one of them, he remarked that these tracks actually were those that he played most often over the years.

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2024
After Michael's new annual SynGate release had been recorded, mixed, mastered and sent to Kilian Schloemp (the owner of SynGate), Kilian wrote back:
“I have now listened to the album twice, with great pleasure. (...) I think this album is one of the best I've heard from you so far. Very consistent, musically varied and highly dynamic. Both musically and in terms of recording. Really good sound! Congratulations!”
The music on this release is mostly based on three pieces Michael has released on his YouTube channel earlier in 2024
However, it's NOT simply the same music on the album.
Instead, Michael used those three pieces as starting points only, condensed, refined and rearranged them, and added also completely new parts, resulting in compositions who's origin is still recognizable, but which are new and different all the same (plus there's another track on the album that's previously unreleased).
It also is a concept album, inspired by the current discussion about Artificial Intelligence (an old sci-fi trope anyway...) and by Andreas Schwietzke's magnificient artwork, that also serves as the album cover.

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2021
"The Crossing of Zone 3" started as a single track which Michael Brückner had recorded for a compilation project some years earlier.
When he stumbled upon it again at some point in 2021, he had almost forgotten about it and was quite pleased with how the sequences unfolded throughout.
Also, the title stirred his imagination: What is Zone 3...? What is waiting in there, and why cross it..? A vague storyline seemed to present itself.
Intrigued by this lucky archive found, Michael scanned his backup discs for more treasures that might turn out being suitable to weave the tale further.
And indeed he did find some - in the shape of material from several abandoned collaboration projects, and also some older improvisations.
Only a little remixing here, some additions there and a new final mastering were required to bring the sonic journey into life.
The result is a new suite of always evolving, sometimes dramatic and sometimes hypnotic sequencer driven epics with some islands of ambient calm in between...

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2016
This album, which I designed as an introduction to my work, basically it is a compilation of older tracks - most of them ambient, and most of them released before on different albums between 2004 and 2015, except for two previously unreleased titles, which I however had used as giveaways and bonus items for listeners on several occasions (so some of my listeners might be familiar with them already).
Perhaps these two tracks will be a part of some "proper" album in the future.
This compilation is mixed in an uninterrupted flow, which means that starts and ends of some tracks are slightly different than on the original albums. Also, two or three tracks were slightly remastered.
 

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2019
MB about his album: The music of "The Undercurrent" (mostly recorded in 2016 and partly included in some compilations released back then) reflects my feelings about a lot of things going on in the world on the social, political and ecological level right now and tells a tale of contrasts between sinister tendencies and bright hopes, between decay and growths and between stagnation and evolution. 

Artist: Michael Brückner
P: 2013
"Thirteen Rites of Passage" is a journey through the year 2013 as Michael Brueckner performed live either solo or with other musicians at different events and gigs. The album offers new but familiar sounds for Michael Brueckner hardcore fans and (besides some airplayed tracks) mainly unpublished material. Visitors of the gigs in 2013 may find a nice souvenir, for all others this album simply is a new release by Michael Brueckner containing tracks, that have not been released anywhere before.