Browse by Artist: MAPSTATION

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	Distance Told Me Things To Be Said
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.50
Catalog #:	SCAPE 038CD

Behind Mapstation is Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot, Music A.M.) from Düsseldorf, and this is his fourth recording and debut for the ~scape label. Distance Told Me Things To Be Said brings us to unknown topographies and familiar surroundings alike. Produced between 2003 and 2005 at various studio and living places in London, Berlin and Düsseldorf, it was mixed by Bernd Jestram of Tarwater. On songs like "Horns Version" and "Warm Distance" we hear wonderful guest appearances by London- based trombonist Annie Whitehead, and Martin Brandlmayr of Vienna trio Radian is once again the percussionist of choice. After his stunning performance on Mapstation's previous album Version Train, Brandlmayr offers polyrhythms that elegantly and effortlessly match with the sequencers. The songs "Valencia Was Asleep" and "Listening to Stockholm" are based on real live recordings from these cities and project a sense of narration -- pockets of silence within amplified streets. On "Loin D'Afrique" we find the other Africa, imbued with a mild ecstatic feeling, the scenery slowly changing from dark green to ochre where circling rhythms and melodic fragments produce afternoon atmospheres and twilight music. Also found here are plenty of electronic sounds, 303 basslines, drum machines, percussion and trombone phrases. By combining low-key melodies with field recordings, a submerged reality seeps into the material: a child is playing somewhere nearby, the window is open, a car is passing by. Then you return to the room to scrutinize the atlas. This is an album of quiet music and secret melodies.

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	The Africa Chamber
Label:	SCAPE (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	SCAPE 059CD

This is the third album by Mapstation. Since 2001, Stefan Schneider has been working under this moniker. Nevertheless, this new release marks a premiere for the Dusseldorf-based artist: it is the first album produced by Schneider himself. Delving deeper into the sounds and subjects already explored on his previous outings, Map Of Africa (2002) and Loin D'Afrique (2006), this record expands on Mapstation's tentative love and study of the African continent. Like his earlier aural collages, The Africa Chamber treats this region not only as a geographic location, but also as a symbol of unknown terrain, of distant shores awaiting our exploration. Unfettered by the fetish of authenticity, but rather bolstered by various encounters on neutral, diasporic grounds like European Internet cafes ("Unitel"), African beauty parlors ("The Protector") or folkloristic kitsch figurines ("Return Of The Hunter"), Schneider prefers an associative approach to music. His Africa Chamber becomes a fanciful wunderkammer of would-be African sounds. In this spirit, the album retraces the subconscious cultural amalgamations that shape our contemporary mainstream culture and reciprocal influences, from the digital replication and recreation of jungle ambience for the Antwerp Zoo ("Nocturama") to the illustrated Swedish porcelain gracing the cover, heavily influenced by African art. In a fitting twist, Schneider's inimitable Mapstation sound, conjuring up broad and expansive soundscapes from a bare minimum of synthesizer arpeggiator, has started to incorporate more and more analog percussion for a coarser, less predictably-textured sound. Amplifiers are miked up. Distortion, overamplification and feedback claim their rightful space. Besides a plethora of percussive hollow-ware like vases or pitchers and prepared piano passages -- recorded in the studio of Dusseldorf-based pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann aka Hauschka -- the album relies mainly on digital synths, reawakened and injected with new warmth. Continuing his tradition of collaboration, Schneider also invited an eclectic range of master musicians to join him on this sonic journey. Annie Whitehead, on-stage staple of Robert Wyatt, Afrika Express/Damon Albarn or James Blood Ulmer and a welcome addition to Schneider's previous album, fleshed out two tracks with her spellbinding trombone. Nicholas Addo-Nettey also contributes percussion (he played alongside Tony Allen for the seminal Fela Kuti Band in the 1970s). Drummer Thomas Klein (Kreidler) completes Mapstation's trio of collaborators.

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	Millenium Come EP
Label:	SERIES 500 (UK)
Format:	12"
Price:	$9.00
Catalog #:	SER 515

"Mapstation is the solo project of Stefan Schneider, the melodic component in the modernist landscapes of Germany's To Rococo Rot. Mapstation's music is closer to minimalist techno, but even then Schneider can't help but bring a graceful glaze to the music. Another dimension to Mapstation comes from the influence of recent Jamaican dancehall, with Schneider citing it's incorporation of electronic sounds, and his own practice of mixing reggae a cappellas into his DJ sets. On this release, Schneider takes this idea further with a stunning collaboration with reggae singer/DJ Ras Donovan. Schneider and Donovan have evolved a different style, with the voice seeming to mirror the psychotic drift of the music, while at the same time referring to the poetry and ragga tradition in reggae music."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:
Label:	SOUL STATIC SOUND (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$6.00
Catalog #:	SOUL 025CD

"Soul Static Sound starts the new year with a concise and direct release, which exemplifies a minimalist approach to both making and listening to music. Mapstation is Stefan Schneider's first solo recording, a mini album which draws on his experience as a member of To Rococo Rot combined with the melodic and moody sensibilities inherent in the musical heritage of his native Dusseldorf. Working on the shapes of sound whilst avoiding the limitations of formalism allows the rhythms and textures to express themselves to the listener as a process of subtly changing relationships. Evocative electronics through clarity and constraint. File next to good German minimal techno/electronica labels such as Din, Chain Reaction, Basic Channel, Kompakt, etc." Classic 2000 release on this now defunct label; last copies, reduced price.

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	Sleep, Engine Sleep
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 011CD

"Second release (with 26+ minutes running time) by To Roccoco Rot member Stefan Schneider after his highly acclaimed solo debut on London's Soul Static Sound label in 1999. With Sleep, Engine Sleep, his second solo release, Stefan Schneider provides a beautiful collection of minimal pulsing rhythms, fragile melodies, and delicate sounds. The seven tracks on this mini album show a very intimate musical language simultaneously recalling Chain Reaction, Cluster, and the new school of 'clicks and cuts'."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	New Direction
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	12"
Price:	$8.00
Catalog #:	STAUB 024EP

"New vinyl-only EP by Stefan Schneider (To Rococo Rot). The title track of this new Mapstation release is a soulful dub meets electronica anthem featuring Ras Donovan from Tikiman's Berlin posse on vocals. Still being a 'new direction' for Schneider who before has only worked with vocals on his 12" in Domino's Model 500 series, the combination with Donovan's rich narrative voice appears like the logical extension of his intimate electronics which simultaneously recall Chain Reaction, Cluster and the school of clicks and cuts. The instrumental version of 'New Direction' and 'Stop', another new track on this EP, reveal the full beauty of Schneider's minimal pulsing rhythms, fragile melodies and delicate sounds. The fourth track finally is an a cappella version of 'New Direction' with Donovan's pure vocals being a perfect DJ tool."

Artist:	MAPSTATION
Title:	A Way To Find The Day
Label:	STAUBGOLD (GERMANY)
Format:	CD
Price:	$14.50
Catalog #:	STAUB 029CD

"Names on maps are often more than mere geographical terms. They are sound and color, dream and memory, mystery and magic, and it is a moment of wonderful gracefulness when one day you look at them with your own eyes and they are taking shape. A way to find the day is the first album of Mapstation at full-length and it comes along as a flamboyant soulful piece of music. While the pre-released 12" 'New direction' managed to raise high expectations, A Way to Find the Day picks up the tension and gives way to 43 minutes of attentive and curious dynamics, rhythmic irrealities and gently warm disorder. Since a bit more than two years Mapstation has been the imprint of Stefan Schneider who is also playing bass and electronics with the Düsseldorf/Berlin trio To Rococo Rot. Mapstation's music is closer to minimalist techno but brings the euphoria of the genre together with charming slow-downs of pace and bpm. Did the tracks on the preceding mini-album Sleep, Engine Sleep predominantly explore the shifts from daylight to dream, A Way to Find the Day is effortlessly able to impress with even more subtle shapes of resonance plus slightly unexpected and chliché-free branchings to reggae music. This dimension to Mapstation comes from the influence of recent Jamaican dancehall reggae, with Schneider citing its corporation of electronic sounds, and his own practice of mixing reggae a cappellas into his DJ sets. On A Way to Find the Day Schneider takes the idea further into a stunning collaboration with reggae singer Ras Donovan."

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