mentz wouldn't be mentz without: Jean-Marie Goupil (trumpet), Kees Kamphuis (trumpet) Roosje Raab (violin), Wouter Suren (clarinet), Myrthe van de Weetering (violin), Simon Johanning (trumpet) and the old Technics SLQ3.
Influences
To name only a few:
alice coltrane... amon tobin... black gold 360... bill evans... cinematic orchestra...charles mcpherson... don rendell... el mitchels affair... flanger... gabor szabo... jan jelinek... jaakko autio... johan johanssen... kammerflimmer kollektief... kronos quartet... kenny werner trio... murcof... matthew herbert & dani siciliano... matthew bourne... h. pascoal... tied & tickled trio... tkde... triosk... steve reich... wayne shorter...
Sounds Like
Poems made from words and letters cut out of old magazines.
mentz is stephan raab making music between work, coherent conversations and daydreams. After getting a 1.44 floppy disk from a good friend with the MSdos based fasttracker2 music software packed on it, his new addiction was born. Now, some 12 years later, his love for this stuctured and at the same time somehow limited way of samplebased music making still remains. Using different software and tools, but still building loops, skits and sketches out of sampled old records, documentaries and several instrumentalists.
After a few years of online netlabel releases (tokyodawn & scientific) and being featured on a few limited copy compilations, it's been quiet for some time now. But don't be fooled, the silence was only to work on new material of which you can hear a few examples on this space.
About the music:
"Maybe you've seen the movie? Broken Flowers, when Bill Murray puts it up so profoundly, “The past is gone, the future has not arrived yet, so.. I guess all we have is this”.
I get a similar feeling when listening to Stephans music.. It's like entering a room, an extremely large room, where strange things start to builds up slowly and all I need to do is watch things happen. Like Bill Murray says “all we have is this”.
Right now i am sitting in a room, like you are propably, and “all we have is this”?! Shit! ..Sometimes it's hard to face, the four white walls, pain in the back and the chronic lack of money. But when listening to Stephans music, life doesn’t seem to be a bad deal after all.. Living, breathing and listening to this beauty-full music that seem to have magical nature to paint the walls around me with all the colours of the rainbow." - Jaakko Autio 2007
Thanks for the add!
Check out the new album Skyhooks, a hip hop record of epic proportions. Heavy beats and dense soulful soundscapes provide the backdrop for some truly talented UK and US MCs including Move.meant, Goodword, ATOM and Logan.
Hey, Just stopping by to listen to your superb tuneage, Great listening as always, Also discovered some other great artists through your contacts so thanx, Trev
Hi Mentz, Hoe gaat het? Thanks for your comments. We will post some new songs soon. Anyway, I wanted to tell you we really liked your stuff (seriously). You deserve to be in our top friends man! Keep in touch! Doei!
beetje late reactie terug, maar het klopt wat je zegt.. ik heb toen in dat theater een liveset gedaan. We willen dit feest binnenkort nog een keer gaan doen daar, ben jij dan geinteresseerd om daar iets live te doen?
