Ghost Kitchen by Two Words in Japanese & Bianca Stücker
“This album is full of depth, catchy melodies and surprises the listener with its epic - electronic timbres! You cannot escape it, you can only love it!” - Radio Rainbow City, Berlin
“Stirring and thoughtful soul food.” - Orkus! Magazine
Moments of timeless beauty." "If Freud had had 'Ghost Kitchen' at hand, perhaps he would have gotten on the couch and danced.” - Sonic Seducer
GHOST KITCHEN is the first full-time studio album by electronic music project TWO WORDS IN JAPANESE on which ELANE producer Nico Steckelberg collaborates with German Gothic icon Bianca Stuecker who lends her expressive voice.
The musical basis of GHOST KITCHEN are electronic sounds in different styles ranging from Dark Electro to Dark Wave with LoFi elements to Post-Rock. Violin and cello comple-ment this genre mix with their very own organic sound.
A GHOST KITCHEN originally describes a restaurant without a guest room, service staff or chairs and tables for guests. They are cooking facilities set up for the preparation of dishes for delivery.
"The album has nothing in common with the original meaning of the word," explains Nico Steckelberg. “I like the sound of the word and the associations it creates. In the context of the album concept, the 'ghost' here represents fears. The GHOST KITCHEN is therefore the 'kitchen of fear', or to put it another way: the origin of the trauma or the traumatizing situation. It is the cause of symptoms and suffering that we all experience over the years and that have a lasting effect on our actions. This is how we pass them on to others. Any form of human connection can be a GHOST KITCHEN, including family. Sometimes we are not the guests, but the chefs.”
GHOST KITCHEN is about trauma, compensation and addictive behavior. Each song deals with a specific topic. Prof. Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis and the behavioral and psychotherapy derived from it represent an important counterpoint to the top-ics dealt with in the lyrics.
"It's two sides of the same coin," explains Nico Steckelberg. "I can't just write about problems without offering analysis and solution approaches. That's why Freud can also be heard in two places on this album with his own voice.”
In addition to Bianca Stuecker and Nico Steckelberg, other musician friends can also be heard on the new album.
The GHOST KITCHEN ensemble also includes the Norwegian musician Dreaming Cloud (known from his band project Oberon), whose unmistakable voice refines the chorus of the song "Emotional R.O.M.".
“Dreaming Cloud’s work influenced my first musical endeavors in the mid-1990s. He is a very inspiring artist and I am more than grateful that he agreed to this wonderful guest appearance.”
Simon Spillner has been playing the violin since he was five. He has international experience as a soloist in various orchestras and is now technical director of the studio for electronic mu-sic at the Cologne University of Music and Dance. Steckelberg and Spillner have known each other for 20 years through their work in their fantasy folk band ELANE.
Anna Stuart recorded the soulful cello passages for GHOST KITCHEN. The British cellist attended the youth department of the Royal Academy of Music in London at an early age. She later studied cello at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester and at the Rob-ert Schumann Hochschule in Düsseldorf in the master's program 'Orchestral Playing'. Today Anna Stuart is a member of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London. For several years she has also been a guest musician on ELANE.
Tracklist
| 1. | Ghost Kitchen | 1:53 |
| 2. | Mindset Gap | 3:38 |
| 3. | Day in, Day out | 3:24 |
| 4. | Emotional R.O.M. (feat. Dreaming Cloud) | 5:22 |
| 5. | Insomnia Central | 1:44 |
| 6. | By the Sycamore Trees | 4:35 |
| 7. | An Mignon | 2:42 |
| 8. | The Truth (Norma Jeane) | 5:36 |
| 9. | Pattern’s End (Here Comes the Winter) | 4:03 |
Credits
Music, lyrics, arrangements, mixing & production by Nico Steckelberg
except “An Mignon”: Original music by Franz Schubert, re-arranged by Nico Steckelberg, Lyrics by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Mastered by Markus Skroch at Kalthallen Studios / www.kalthallen.de
Cello and violin arrangements recorded by Nico Steckelberg at Kalthallen Studios
This production uses sound samples from Freesound, a collaborative database of Creative Commons Licensed sounds.
Voice of Prof. Sigmund Freud taken from a BBC Broadcast Recording, 1938, Public Domain
Lyrics consultancy by Mirjam Staudacher
Band photography by Chelsea B.
Art concept & album layout by Alina Jensch & Two Words in Japanese
Musicians
Bianca Stücker: Vocals
Nico Steckelberg: Vocals, instruments and production
Simon Spillner: Violin
Anna Stuart: Violoncello
Dreaming Cloud: Vocals on “Emotional R.O.M.”
License
All rights reserved.Tags
Imagine a future they imagined in 1984: Her bright pink neon mouth pulverized before his inner eye into a molecular pixel cloud and gave way to the seemingly endless metropolis panorama of the skyline of Chiba City. Need something to dream, buddy? This is your soundtrack: Two Words in Japanese. Written and produced by Nico Steckelberg (ELANE)