Interview with Cosmic Vibration

Interview with Jens, Thomas and Tuulia from „Cosmic Vibration“ Thank you very much!


1. Jens, after having been all over the world with the „Star Sounds Orchestra“ for so many years, what is different now?

Well, „Cosmic Vibration“ is far more flexible regarding the possibilities of modern sound production - „Star Sound Orchestra“ (SSO) compares to a rather  ponderous dinosaur in that aspect... still great, but... the drive to do something new and different grew relentless and left me without alternatives. Tom lives up to his maximum and becomes truly inspirational when on stage. We play drums, percussion in general together and it usually gets quite turbulent on stage, creating lots of fun and good vibes.


2. Tell us some history. How did you guys meet?

…cosmic Berlin School, the origins of SSO and psychedelic Krautrock where Tom sees his musical background do have lots of similarities. Actually, Tom's and my path had already crossed when he showed up to a SSO concert many years ago and he immediately got hooked on the cosmic octave energy. (He composed and wrote the sensational piece „Cosmic Fallout“ exclusively for us.)    Tom spent many years living and touring in England and the Netherlands and became thoroughly routined... I was actually able to witness a live performance of him not too long ago as the drummer of the band „Terre“ - a Hilight tribe from Saxony, Germany, and was immediately impressed by his skills. I soon realized that he had published some incredibly awesome records as some sort of “psychedelic picture book Krautrocker” with bands like “Psychedelic Shag” or “Galaxy Transport”. But just as in the “Spinal Tap” movie whenever the glance of success was just in sight the project transcended by magical means… well life brought us together as we both dreamt the same dream and were instructed by SUN RA to continue the Mothership Mission. Then came the New Healing Festival where we met each other in the physical world. I immediately went with him to his studio where we constructed and launched our new spaceship and I am happy that it took off so well.

    
…really SUN RA the Jazz musician?


Yes, exactly him… very early on I was more a Blues and Jazz musician but I left that behind completely because EVERY single Jazz concert felt absolutely weird regarding the audience… *laughs*… well, at least here in the region of Germania…


3. Jens, how did your musical path continue? When did you join the psychedelic Family?

I joined the NEW WAVE faction when I played the guitar in the band “Große Freiheit” together with Johann Bley. Then came a significant break where I changed my instruments – it was the world of dreams by the way which guided my path but I hadn’t realized that at the time as I was still unaware of the cosmic Brotherhood and was always a little puzzled by the oriental looking men in my dreams… ha, ha… anyways, I felt energized and I had a vision of a renewed world when I entered the hardcore New Age Scene and from there on into the psychedelic Family. I must have had some good Karma… actually I received my first trip from Timothy Leary himself. I took an apprenticeship at the hemp author Georg Baer. We played on the birthdays of Albert Hofmann a couple of times. In hindsight I would say that I handled all those situations cautiously as I was more interested in the healing aspects of transcendence and by now all those things have gone through a sort of synthesis and fused together. Everything that happened at those legendary New Age congresses can now be experienced as main stream wellness in healing areas on festivals today. In my other real life I train audio technicians the practical aspects of Audionik, the science of sound, and how to apply it on cruise ships. The first practical steps will be taken by the “Physischen Sternfahrer” in the near future.
We appreciate the global psychedelic family a lot and it is there where Tom and I feel at home the most. So much authentic kindness and welcoming – hey, come on! The hippies never died! With our concerts we would like to show our gratefulness using any means of our art and the demonstration of our influences. By the way our band motto is: “Cosmic shaman power and eternal Flower love…”


4. Tuulia, you are a very interesting personality. We already had a chance to see you at Healing 2014…

Jens, Tuulia is an ultimate personality all by herself. Very young but with endless energy and unstoppable on a mission. An old soul in a young yoga body living by her motto: “be love, give love, receive love, love love.”

5. Since when are you involved in music Tuulia?

"I started music in this lifetime already in the beginning.. As a child I was making songs and singing all the time ans later
on I was educated and trained in terms of a traditional vocal education.


6. What makes music so important for you?

"Because I love it! It is a way to connect with people even if you don't speak the same language. It is a way to express emotions in sound.. a way to tell stories and share feelings."


7. What do you feel singing with cosmic vibration?

On stage it is exciting, a place where I can be totally free. Although it's quite difficult, because we always face lots of technical challenges, singing with sequencers need 100 % perfection on every single note, ... I like to be 100% and I give 100% but the technoid dogma, … of the maximum tight beat is not organic, it's still a machine, so, my job is to make love with this sound machine, and I try my best of course; in general, I feel singing in CV is a gate opener,
for all of us and the performances will develop through experience. Just come all and enjoy our great show!"


8. How long did you work on the CD and how do your composition come into existence?

Jens: About a year. Every track has its own story, a very personal story for every listener to discover and interpret. The epic sound within the tracks and their complexity is comparable to the ones of SSO. COS is definitively complex and elaborate and Tom is an excellent producer but also demanding, strict, precise, thorough and most of all absolutely brilliant. His motto: “The more you rock, the more you roll.”, does a pretty good job getting the junk out of the way.


9. Repeatedly the different tracks manage to create incredible anticipation combined with surprising changes – The energy is astounding and contagious… you mentioned the cosmic octave earlier on… can you tell me more about it?

Throughout the album we hid some secret frequencies from the cosmic octave… just a few, but they should bring it on. Cosmical magic tunes. […] The reference to the cosmic octave has been preserved by CV just as in the planetarily tuned gongs from SSO. […] This is why Cosmic Vibration is the legitimate successor of the Star Sound Orchestra and with those gongs opening the first Ozora festival in 1999 and countless times at BOOM, VUUV ANTARIS, MOROCCO and many more high end festivals as the Solipse in Zambia, Mexico, it feels like the whole history of Psy Trance just vibrates within those gongs. You will have a hard time finding a DJ from the Olymp of top DJs who hasn’t performed in front of those gongs.


10. Your professional musical background is undeniable. Your diversity is wonderful.

Yes… thank you, we like to hear that and appreciate it a lot. We are passionate musicians through and through and before each session we watch the movie “Das Plektrum des Teufels” three times. Our musical performances are complex. Besides the gongs I play percussions, guitar, bass, keyboards throughout the set just being limited by the size of the stage. We are definitively multi-instrumental.
In order to keep all this creative energy within manageable paths we are also involved in a Chillout Down Tempo Band the FAIRY SPACE DUB SYSTEM. A nice, lean easy to listen music of lyrical downbeat tracks for late night clubs, red light party zones and chillout areas. This is our ambient side.

Thomas has a wonderful connection to heartly, emotional and loving songs and it would be a shame not to hear or experience this. – Yes and then we have our unplugged shaman version of Cosmic Vibration, no electricity just for the after party camp fire – This is actually our currently trending mega tip! Remember our band motto: “Cosmic shaman power and eternal Flower love…”


11. Thomas, what was your first contact to psytrance?

During my career as a musician I already started early with psychedelic music, mainly played in psychedelic Rock bands with a high improvisational approach and mind bending messages and sound experiments. I was on tour with those bands almost for 10 years through Europe... it had this psy pirate thing, crazy guys with loud music living and touring in a big old van... it was a very funny and interesting time... slowly i converted my musical ideas more into an electronic context, cause i love to move people with my music on the dance floor and this p.l.u.r.... thing that’s most of the time still there in the psychedelic trance tribe

I always liked to check out the roots of any cultural and musical movement..so my first 2 records i had as a kid, were Sgt. Peppers Hearts Club Band by the Beatles and Computerwelt by Kraftwerk..i heard both tapes so many times i think i still can remember every note...

So yes, in my time in Holland I started the first time a fusion between guitar pop and trance electronics, which was very new at that time.. I was lucky that I could work with 2 good producers like Sander Kleinenberg(Madonna) and Steve Dub(Chemical Brothers) which gave me a lot of experience in the studio... and really crazy alien times...

Back from Holland I started recording new music in Germany and had immediately a record deal with the famous think progressive label, who was very known for groups like amon düül, ashra temple, guru guru and so on... played a couple festivals together with those legend and pioneers of psychedelic music... and slowly my focus came to psychedelic trance... so somehow it was a logical progression...


12. How did you meet Jens?

During my work with psychedelic sounds I was more and more interested in the spiritual side of music and the effects of sounds and beats to the human body and soul.. so yeah universe brought me to one of the gurus in this science... At that time Jens project star sounds orchestra was about to split and he was searching for new musical partners... I've started cosmic vibration 3 years before as my solo project, but i always had in mind to let it grow with other good artists and generating a kind of psychedelic circus on stage...

Jens had a great input to the new album, and gave his experience in healing sounds and cosmic tunings to the sound of cosmic vibration, plus he is one of the best gong players in the world and a great percussionist and show man.

In lots of ways its an exciting collaboration with him..and lets see which kind of magic is coming out of this...


13. Which kind of instruments you are using live and in the studio?

In the studio, I'm working with analog mixing desk, analog synths and keys, sometimes even a 60s farfisa organ, combined with tube compressors and of course a virus...

I love to use the old and the new soundscapes wherever it fits... just today I activated an old simmons analog drum synth... I have already a plan what to do with it... haha

And of course I'm collecting any kind of percussion and drumsets... I'm lucky that I have a great partner in musical instruments. Terrè is supporting Cosmic Vibration with lots of great percussion from around the globe... and i always bring some drums from touring worldwide...

I love all percussion and love also to play with them..sometimes its hard to decide to play drums or to produce... but lots of track we do, are with live recorded percussions... using samples would be  much easier, but if you use live recorded material you have a much better and more individual vibe inside your music... also I try to play the instruments in a specific shamanic vibe, so that its also able to move some energies in the terms of the evolution... if you know what I mean...
 
Live we are using a laptop, drumset, percussion like djembe, darabuka, shakers udu, oglungs and a lots more, it always changes a little bit, depending on the venue, space and our mood... and of course as many big planetary tuned gongs as possible, which a very very loud... after a show you feel like a rocket  took you through half of the cosmos...

It's great fun to jump from one drum to the other, having contact to the dance floor and the universe...
I'm really happy that I can do this, with so great people on stage... hare ohm... boom shiva!

14. Where can we see you live?

For example on the 15 of April at Mystic Friday in Berlin… as Intro FAIRY SPACE DUB SYSTEM and alter on as COSMIC VIBRATION, which as stated before are two completely different performances. We will definitely be at ANTARIS this year and most likely at New Healing Festival as well. As usual you can obtain any information directly from our website and in the History section.

Anspieltips:
new track fairy dub system: https://soundcloud.com/spacetraxproductions/8-wihte-lions-gate-m