Hidden Name by Stephan Mathieu & Janek Schaefer

Stephan and Janek met each other for the first time at MUTEK in 2002, where they performed on the same night, and shared bills at several festivals around the world in the following years. They discovered a mutual respect for each others work, being interested in the opposite ways they both approach the manipulation of sound, while sharing similar ambitions. Their first joint performance took place at the Musica Genera Festival in Szczecin, Poland in Spring 2005 which led to them wanting to produce a project together.

A little later that year, midsummer had arrived. They spent a week in the beautifully calm, pastoral setting of Manor Farm House, the home of a classical composer in a small village in the South of England. Stephan and Janek made recordings using the large collection of classical and exotic instruments, a box of records found in the attic, and made location recordings in and around the house.

Finally, they took this material to the York Music Research Center, a building specifically constructed for the presentation of loudspeaker music. It is considered one of the best electronic music auditoriums in the UK. They spent a week working there during the winter of 2005, composing and editing their favourite moments which then became the album Hidden Name.

Crónica is a label based in Porto, Portugal.

cronicaelectronica.org