The folks who have hosted me here are a cool little group of artists. They have great taste in music, and create really good work too. One thing I’m really struck by is a studio space that a number of them pitch in for for rent. It’s a workspace for graphic designers upstairs, and a small, white-walled music studio downstairs. It winds up feeling a bit like a clubhouse. I want a clubhouse!

Last night’s gig was at, of all places, an internet cafe. Though the setting was perhaps a bit weird, it worked well. There was a solid handful of people listening and really enjoying the music, and I sold more cd’s than at any other show yet (2!). I like what I’ve seen so far.

About to play a gig put together by the folks who do this radio show:

http://basso.fi/ohjelma.php?ohjelma_id=18 (seems to be on sundays at 11:00 AM, USA eastern time)

Listening to it right now Perfect Sunday morning music for those of you in the US.

A beer costs $10 here. A McDonalds value meal, $18. The sun starts rising almost as soon as it sets. I played on one of the best sounds systems I’ve ever controlled. Oslo is built on a hill, sloping down to the harbor. A small but swift river flows down the hill, often in spectacular waterfalls. It’s a neat little city.

More on oslo — definitely some cool stuff going on here. My gig was nice, met some very friendly/interesting/enthusiastic people. Played on just about the best sound system I’ve ever touched (at a club called The Villa)

me last night — 3AM, at the apartment of a cool Cologne band called Patterns, party packed full of people, little room with the lights out, my laptop plugged in to an overtaxed home stereo, everybody dancing, clapping out beats, the Patterns guys and friends shaking tamborines and bells, everyone yelling for more when I drop the beats out, big washes of chaos sound, beats and bass back in, everyone dancing again, whistling, sweaty, cozy friendly, boozy fun!!!

I’m having a great time in Cologne. I’ve landed in the midst of a bunch of very nice, fun, very intellectual german student types. The only problem is that with their philosophical powers, they keep trying to confuse me about the meaning of the word “meaning”. Coglogne is much smaller than Berlin, and a city where you can generally walk from one place to another.

This monday I’m presenting my Ripple software to the Berlin Supercollider users group. I’ll be doing so with an attitude of complete humility and openness about the fact that it flawed, and work in progress, but also with the confidence that, for my specific purposes, it is a somewhat refined and very useful tool. If you’re interested in getting nerdy, email let me know by email or blog comment and I’ll let you know about the details.

Yesterday, my host and show-booker, Marco Schröder, took me to the flat of a friend of his, who has decided to turn it in to a multi-week art project, inviting a new group of artists every week to transform it in a manner of their own choosing. It has a very nice, cozy DIY, but also clever and high quality vibe about it. There are cool people here! Here’s the url for the flat/gallery: http://www.raum25c.de/index.php. If you click on “01100101″ it’s supposed to take you to the webcam, but it doesn’t seem to be running at the moment.

Seems nice here. Going to try to lay low and do some work, but I suppose I should also get out and explore what’s rumored to be one of the awesomest cities on the planet.

Cologne gig –

Thursday in Berlin —

I have a track on what looks like a really cool compilation put together by the folks at Dalaki. It’s ultra-fancy packaged, super limited edition has some really nice music on it, and is sure to be worth millions in ten years or so.

Last night’s gig went well. Met some cool people. Enjoyed hearing and meeting equipo. Nice guy, good, clever music. His visuals guy was great too.

Things sucked at first because I got in at 9:15AM and couldn’t check in until 2PM. Then I got to my guesthouse and got in to bed and fell asleep, and things were great. Then, an hour later, someone here started blasted some of the vilest robo-cheez euro-dance-pop radio imaginable. So now I’m a little grumpy again.

I’m going to check out a gig by André Goncalves, which happens to be two blocks from this pit of degenerate disco hell I’m currently trying to sleep in.

Here’s my gig in barcelona tomorrow. Watch out Barcelona. It’s revenge time!

I’m thrilled to be able to say that Joshue and I have been invited to perform at this year’s Mutek festival in Montreal. We’ll be opening for one of our heroes, Murcof, on Wednesday, May 28.