Four Ever Blank #1 w/ The Chap, Masha Qrella, Will Samson, Fenster @ About Blank Berlin

London based experimental pop band The Chap purvey a stunning blend of indietronics and electro-pop. In early 2006 they toured Europe to support their second album Ham which gained much critical acclaim including an album of the month in The Wire. On 19 April 2008 (26 April in the UK) they released a third album, Mega Breakfast.

They are named after a wonderful little magazine on how to be the perfect modern gentleman.Past and present occupations of the band members include teaching modern composition, market research interviewing, tour managing, music therapy, music journalism, java script programming, jingle writing, teaching piano and making cocktails.

The Chap | Fun & Interesting

The Chap record and produce their own records at home. Their music is influenced by film structure, Dadaism, computer magazines, free improv and the entire pop canon. They make pop-improv-disco-rock.

They’re actually pretty OK musicians. Some of them have had real training. Starting out with very limited equipment (one single mic, for example), they came up with first album “The Horse”, a surreal lo-fi classic with deliberately pompous compositional ambitions. “Ham”, the follow–up, was recorded with four microphones instead of one and (partially) journeys into more melancholy territory, earning considerable acclaim and legendary cult status.

Masha Qrella | Talk To The Trees

Born to a Russian physicist and a German mother who worked as a somnologist, Masha Qrella’s childhood was naturally both laid-back and exciting. It was around the time when Jim O’Rourke started out in Chicago, when Stereolab were busy taking over London, while Mouse on Mars were re-inventing the sound of Düsseldorf that Masha and her trusted companions (among them bass player/engineer Norman Nitzsche) set out to create Berlin’s own version of post rock in a small basement somewhere in mellow Berlin-Pankow.

The unique sound of Masha’s band projects, Mina and Contriva, was among the first signals coming from Villa Qrella, as the little studio space was dubbed eventually; and soon enough people started to pick und and fall in love with these signals – even in the UK, soon followed by other parts of the world such as the US and Japan. In 2002, Masha released her first solo album entitled “Luck” and thus stepped out as a singer/songwriter in her own right.

Masha Qrella | Saturday Night

After two more albums, among them “Speak Low”, a collection of beautifully rendered Kurt Weill and Frederick Loewe cover songs released in 2009, she’s about to drop a new album entitled “Analogies” – the latest high point in her career.

“Analogies” is essentially her take on pop music, sitting perfectly between folk, indie rock, and all the huge radio anthems from decades past. Once again it is an album that was recorded in that tiny studio in Berlin-Pankow, but it’s clearly designed to blow minds all over the world.

Fenster | 2.7XO17

FENSTER is the de-constructed pop manifestation of New Yorker-turned-Berliner JJ Weihl and Berlin-born Jonathan Jarzyna, a right-time-right-place product of the winter of 2010-2011.

Layering subtle distortions, melodic chords and city soundscapes under dream narratives, the band’s name springs from an ominous incident during the recording of their first album: a window shattered on JJ’s head, bestowing her with a bump and the name FENSTER.

Will Samson | Rusting Giants
http://vimeo.com/77769863

Since the release of Balance (‘an unusually intimate collection’ 8/10 – UNCUT Magazine) in October 2012, Will Samson has travelled across the UK and Europe, touring and sharing stages with Kurt Vile, Ólafur Arnalds, Valgeir Sigurðsson, Marissa Nadler, Shearwater, Pinback, Do Make Say Think & more – as well as performing his own headline shows.

On top of this, Will managed to find time to venture into ‘dance’ music and create It Grows Again – a collaborative EP with London based producer, Tom Demac (Aus Music), which garnered mainstream radio play within the UK.

Will Samson | Eat, Sleep, Travel, Repeat

However, it was personal experiences of a radically different nature that shaped the outcome of “Light Shadows”, his most recent work. During the summer months between the completion & release of Balance, Will unexpectedly found himself facing an extremely close & profound experience of death.

Following the aftermath of such a loss, he briefly retreated to India, seeking some time & space to gently reflect on the recent life-changing events. Travelling alone from the Southern tip, all the way up to the mountains in the North, this is where the first ideas of new songs slowly began to seed.

Will Samson | Find Me In The Ocean
https://youtube.com/watch?v=UKNYhiM44ck

A few months after landing back in England, Will then travelled onto Berlin to begin refining and recording these ideas with close friend, Florian Frenzel (who had also helped to produce ‘Balance’). Using their familiar selection of tape machines (many of which had now broken since the previous year’s recording sessions) and home-made outboard gear, the pair crafted away on Samson’s scrapbook of sounds until they eventually emerged with this deeply cathartic collection of music.