2010 Europe Tour

MAY
20 Budapest, Hungary

23 Wien, Austria

25 Kraków, Poland

26 Warsawa, Poland

27-30 Berlin, Germany (Space Program Workshop)

30 Berlin, Germany (Space Collective Berlin)
 

JUNE:
1 Hannover, Germany

3 Købehavn, Danmark

4 Århus, Danmark

5 Göteborg, Sweden

Tour Photo Album (on Facebook)

20 Budapest, Hungary
Woke up at 4:30 to get a very early flight, where i could still sleep a bit on the way to the connection in Munich. This airport is terribly long and the connection time was tight, so you have to walk really fast (if not run) for a long time before you get anywhere… so from gate 17 to 42 it's a really long way. Anyway i got it just in time. I was picked up in Budapest by this guy who works in a police emergency call center. Left me at Pali's place, in a pleasant villa-type old building, and we went out to buy beer (many litres of it). His girlfriend Marti made an absolutely delicious gulyás (goulasch). Off to the venue, where in the backstage friends were drinking rivers of beer – and looked at me very concerned that i wasn't drinking. "After the show", i said, trying to hold on to whatever was left of my stamina. The sound was great. Digep and MIR played first, then me – an interesting contrast because they were both full-sounding bands and i was solo and playing sparsely. Surprisingly, the audience asked for an encore, and i just had the idea to unplug an instrument and play it "acoustic", just with its own little speaker, while walking among the people. In the end i went backstage. "Now i need a beer!", but all the beer was gone…
At 1 am it was raining heavily and we went back to Pali's – more beer and gulyás. Finally off to bed, only to find one of Pali's friends snored so loud that i couldn't sleep…
 

21
After an attempt to sleep in the kitchen, got up in the morning and went to the train station to buy the ticket to Vienna, on the way to a long walk through Budapest downtown and across the river up the hill on the other side, enjoying the view. I stayed at a university hostel, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but i was finally able to sleeep, some 11 hours in a row…
 

22
Late and slow morning, shaved and showered, brand-new to the train station – hopped on the train to Vienna. I was relieved to be back in the "West" (which would be where most people's second language is English and not Russian), it was sometimes hard to get by in Hungary. I took some time to visit Vienna's staggeringly beautiful inner city.
 
23 Vienna, Austria
Based in the beautiful Fürstenhof Hotel, with its stylish old furniture, i went out in the unstable weather to visit the Modern Art center (MUMOK), where they held a massive video art exhibition. Then off to ORF studios, for a radio interview by Susanna Niedermayer. Came back to the hotel just to leave again to Rhiz for soundcheck. There was a very good Vietnamese restaurant where i had a really good Phô soup (of which i'm a fan). Not so many people at the Rhiz, which had quite a different feel from last time i was there in 1998, when it was home to Vienna's vibrant electronic scene of the time. But it still sounds great!
 

24
On the bus to the airport, i found the hotel room key in my pocket. I found a post office at Kraków airport and sent it back in the first place. After some phone call complications, Konrad came and pick me up to ride on those beautiful 1970's trams into Kazimierz area where Eszeweria is located, close to the hostel.
 

25 Kraków, Poland
Walked in the center, visited the impressive Basilika Mariacka, which has a tower you can visit. My legs were still hurting from having walked so much all over Budapest and Vienna, i didn't venture going up all the stairways, although the view was probably worth it…
Eszeweria is a warm and welcoming bar, i played in a small room full of people in an intimate setting. We chatted afterwards at a table for a while.
 

26 Warsaw, Poland
The train to Warsawa had an old, Eastern feel, the trip was cool. Michal was at the station. More 70's trams and a very good coffee in a sunny esplanade, just by the Instityut Awangardy, which is a glass-covered room in an 11th floor with a staggering view of Warsaw downtown skyline. The room was full and the performance was focused (my back turned to the luxury view of the cityscape behind me). After dropping the stuff at Michal's place we went to this bar with friends to have a few beers and relax. The bed was very comfortable, but only for 2 hours – i had to get up at 4:00.
 

27-30 Berlin, Germany (Space Program Workshop)
This is the day i'm most afraid of. The flight to Berlin is awfully early, and it turned out it had to be this way. The original plan was going to Berlin on a day off, rest, and calmly prepare the first Space Program Workshop for next day. But no – the workshop would start today at 15:00. I had it all structured and figured out, but it was still a challenge for me and i needed to be sharp.
So i got there half braindead at around 10 am, but i could still get in the room to sleep a bit.
Somehow i managed to go through the workshop's opening day, which was the most difficult. Mauro invited us for a risotto at this restaurant he works it (delicious) and i was surprised by a live performance of Mat Pogo, a brilliant vocalist. Then finally, crash in bed.
 

28
The workshop continues and goes well. There was a kind of noise festival tonight, but i had planned to have dinner with Markus from Staubgold and go see Michael Zerang live. It was pure joy, a quartet with Michael Thieke, Clayton Thomas and Magda Mayas. In the end i introduced myself to Michael Zerang and was surprised he knew who i was, as if he was expecting me.
 

29
The workshop goes on according to the plan. We usually have lunch at this Turkish place that has a delicious pumpkin soup. This evening Zerang plays at Ausland (where we'll play tomorrow) with a different group (that included Johannes Bauer), but it was not as good as yesterday, while still great.
 

30 Berlin, Germany
Final rehearsals in the workshop – it was done in a way that the results can be presented as a live performance. I still couldn't believe my very first local group, the Space Collective Berlin, was going to play in a few hours. We had this incredibly tasty soup at Soupanova. They had this japanese-style dashi soup – happiness! The performance was surprisingly good – the goals had been met but the participants clicked somehow into a kind of phrasing and focus that's hard to get to in just 3 days of work. We did the work of 3 years in 3 days (well, at least tried). Everybody was happy, there was a very friendly mood and a general feeling of accomplishment. I was relieved and in fact a bit astounded by the risk i took…
 

31
Day off in Berlin, walking around in this magic city…
 

JUNE
1 Hannover, Germany
Mauro drove me to the Ostbahnhof to get on the ICE train to Hannover, my old friend Marc Schulz expected me, always cool and generous. The concert was at this small bar with intimate atmosphere, friendly, a bit like in Kraków. Pit got some really nice food for dinner, among interesting discussions with people attending.
Then off to Marc's place where i'd stay.
 

2
Day off in Hannover, riding bicycles to the city's museum where not only they had an impressive collection of Kurt Schitters (who was originnaly from Hannover), also a section with James Turrell pieces, among many others, like fine Klee's, etc.
 

3 Copenhagen, Danmark
Marc's place is conveniently next to a train station where i could get the train to the airport. A small jet took me to Købehavn, where Tobias was expecting me. The day was bright and we had a coffe by Nørreport station, before heading to the room i was staying in. I was a bit sleepy, for this flight had also been a bit early.
The concert was at a former train station, the kind of space where the ticket offices would be in an old station. It was great to see Jørgen Teller again, and also Robert Piotrowicz and Anna Zaradny, they were all playing. Another fantastic Phô soup at a local Vietnamese, sometimes good food is a highlight of an otherwise exhausting day…
 

4 Århus, Danmark
I found my way to the main train station with an unmemorizable name, "Hovedbanegård", among impenetrable Danish direction signs. The train ride was nice and scenic, very comfortable. It was a short walk from the train station to the hotel, a small but neat room. Time for a nap and recover some energy. Nice walk by the seaside on the way to the Musiccaféen venue. At the docks i spotted and immediately recognized the MS Stubnitz, a former fishing vessel converted into a floating concert venue, in which i played when docked in Rostock back in 1998.
At the venue i met Norberto Lobo – although we knew each other very well, somehow we had never met. He played beautifully. Also playing are Fossils, a hi-energy bass and drums duo, and Zu. Everything is well organized – the LJUD team is great – but another early flight awaits me next morning and i leave in the middle of Zu's set. It was a great evening.
 

5 Göteborg, Sweden
I had to take the 6:40 but to the airport, but somehow i missed it! Fortunately there was a taxi driver at the stand, and he suggested he might be able to chase the bus (the airport was really far and the alternative was a very expensive taxi ride all the way there). Eventually he reached the bus and signalled for it to stop on the last stop before exiting the city, already on the freeway… nice dosis of adrenaline early in the morning. The connection flight to Copenhagen was a small propeller plane. Christian was expecting me near the Central station in Göteborg, to where i got on a bus. The venue was a strange but special place, like a two-story apartment with a balcony where you could see the stage downstairs, and an outdoor terrace with a vew to the river and bridge. Both small but large enough, always offered somewhere to go. The mood was very relaxed and friendly, it felt like a party at someone's place. Christian, part of the Koloni organization, which was great, they got everything done really well and cool. Another really great evening. I was getting pretty homesick by now, also missing Lisbon's food.
 

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