Jochen Gutsch - Still CS

Still is an invitation into a warm and welcoming sound world suited for reflection and introspection. As the music flows along in its calm and quiet way, one’s thoughts and emotions may wander off into distant places, and they may come back whenever they will. Instruments and textures slowly merge into each other, maintaining a consistent, organic ambience over the course of the work. There’s not much happening here. The world is, for a short moment, Still.

Conceived as an immersive audio-visual project, German-Australian artist Jochen Gutsch created Still as a series of photographs coupled with an original soundtrack, both corresponding to each other: he took 100 photos on as many consecutive mornings, capturing the same patch of sky at 8am each day, and recorded music to complement the meditative style of the visual work. The resulting photo collage was shown at Sydney’s Head On Photo Festival, and now Oxtail Recordings releases the soundtrack.

Still is decidedly the simplest piece the busy musician and composer has released so far. Usually known for progressive music ranging from chamber to math-rock, Still stands out as a rather minimalist project in comparison to Jochen’s bands Hinterlandt, Recalibrate and Snob Club. “It was clear very early on that this recording would call for a natural, bare-bones approach. In fact, it was easy: the sky unfolded its beauty to me for one hundred mornings, and all I had to do is look and respond.” says Jochen.. - Oxtail Recordings