Thomas L. Raukamp :: Ologie Project :: 20.11.10
October 26, 2010 at 13:00 "Ologie is a journey into sound and an exploration of the possibilities of today's music technology", says Thomas L. Raukamp, explaining the ambition behind his album. "Growing up with the music of electronic music heroes such as Jean Michel Jarre, Howard Jones, and Kraftwerk, some of the pieces for this release were composed in my head long before I learned to play an instrument or could afford to buy a synthesizer," he adds, laughing.
When he started to produce his own music at the end of the eighties, all Thomas owned was an Atari STe and a cheap Roland synth. "This set up taught me to create a good sound without too much equipment; I usually used just two or three tracks for the actual melody - or a lush pad - and another one for the drums. It was a time of limited possibilities but I definitely learned a lot about composing and how to create a good mix back then."
Working as a music journalist for several years, Thomas was able to get his hands on the next generation of music software as it was released. "I did many software reviews for companies like Native Instruments, Spectrasonics and Ableton and they frequently let me keep the products. Suddenly there were endless possibilities which kept me in my studio for days and nights. I knew what I wanted to achieve and that helped me not to overload my new tracks and keep them simple, but at the same time, I wanted to create a very dense and detailed sound environment."
The results came quickly. "Creating tracks for Ologie Project was like a fever but they were developed over a couple of years. Listening today, I sometimes ask myself how I wrote them and where the sounds came from. It almost feels like these songs have been composed by someone else - a higher energy or mind - crazy as this may sound! It's a tribute to my musical heroes, as you'll hear," he adds, alluding to clever Jarre-like melodies, the depth and bass-play on tracks like Ologie Part IV and the catchy, cutting synth-lines of Computercamp inspired by Howard Jones.
But what's behind the term Ologie? "It's more or less a statement about the systematic, almost scientific approach to music I express here. I consider myself a deeply spiritual person but in a very scientific way. To me, spirituality and music are actually closely related sciences. Both are based on firm principles and both hold unlimited creative potential."
Thomas has also been a pioneer in releasing music freely on his website. "I started to release my music long before Creative Commons licenses became popular," he says "and I'm still a free-music-evangelist, running my own digital music magazine audiovoltaics.cc dedicated to it." So for the very first time, Ologie has been put together as a complete album by Clear Notice Recordings to be available worlwide.
We hope you enjoy.
;)
Album Artwork by Jonny DerSon Jonfred
Artwork:
Jonny DerSon Jonfred
Release Dates:
Bandcamp: 20.11.2010
iTunes, Amazon, etc.: 13.12.2010
jonny derson jonfred, ologie project, thomas l raukamp in Design, Music, Recordings