ITOBLOG

I Started A Joke

2012-05-23T00:00:00.000+02:00

So sad to hear that Robin Gibb died on Monday. I remember that one of my first albums I bought as a kid was "Idea" by The Bee Gees and I really loved that one - playing it over and over till my mother went crazy. Beautiful songs and as I just listened to "I Started A Joke" it directly beamed me back to these days. I guess, that´s mostly what it´s all about old songs we love - they´re bringing back memories and feelings we had a long time ago and allow us to feel the same way once again.

RIP Robin Gibb.

Song Of The Day II

2012-01-12T01:49:00.000+01:00

My "Song Of The Day II" comes from the belgian-australian musician and singer Gotye - although I guess with more than 37 million views on You Tube you need no recommendation ;-) - but anyway.....

My friend Louis in L.A. posted the clip of the coverversion of "Somebody That I Used To Know" by Walking Off The Earth on Facebook and my friend and ex-partner Sabine mailed that link to me. I liked this version very much, but then I got curious about the song and went on the YouTube cruise - ending up with a lot of Gotye´s videos and music.

What a beautiful and in the best sense beautifully old fashioned video-clip to the original song - and a very emotional performance, too. I love it! And I enjoyed that "Making Of" video of his album "Making Mirrors" - his approach to use self-sampled original instruments and old material and sounds, recording everything in an old barn. That reminded me on the times I spent with Heiko of Camouflage, doing basic recordings for the Spice Crackers sessions. And, of course, the Rain On Bamboo albums had a similar spirit.

But that´s long past and luckily today we have interesting musicians like Gotye with the help of New Zealand´s soul-lady Kimbra and beautiful songs like "Somebody That I Used To Know". Enjoy!

Mein zweiter "Song Of The Day" stammt vom belgisch-australischen Musiker und Sänger Gotye - obwohl man bei mehr als 37 Millionen Views auf YouTube wohl keine Empfehlung braucht ;-) - aber was soll´s.....

Mein Freund Louis in Los Angeles hatte das Video der Coverversion von "Somebody That I Used To Know" von Walking Off The Earth bei Facebook gepostet und meine Freundin und Ex-Partnerin Sabine hatte mir den Link geschickt. Obwohl ich diese Version auch sehr mochte und gut gemacht finde, war ich neugierig geworden und ging, mal wieder, auf YouTube-Tour. Zum Schluß hatte ich einen ganzen Stiefel voll von Gotye Videos gesehen und Musik gehört.

Was für ein wunderschönes und im besten Sinne schön altmodisches Video zum Originaltitel - und eine sehr emotionale Performance. Ich liebe es! Und ich fand auch das "Making Of" Video zu seinem Album "Making Mirrors" sehr interessant - sein Ansatz mit selbstgesampelten Originalinstrumenten und alten Sounds zu arbeiten und dann sein Studio in einer alten Scheune. Das erinnerte mich an die Zeit mit Heiko von Camouflage, als wir die ersten Sessions für das Spice Crackers Album aufnahmen. Und auch meine Rain On Bamboo Aufnahmen hatten eine ähnliche Rangehensweise.

Aber das ist lange her und vorbei und heute gibt es glücklicherweise im allgemeinen Musikbrei der Popmusik interessante Musiker wie Gotye zusammen mit Neuseelands Soul-Lady Kimbra und schöne Songs, wie "Somebody That I Used To Know".

Song of the Day

2011-12-10T23:03:00.001+01:00

I´m gonna try to start some posting again - usually it´s too much to do and too little time for things like this, but here´s my "Song of the Day":

Tom Waits - Tell Me (taken from the great album "Bad As Me").

Waits is definetely writing the most beautiful sad songs. When you listen to them at the right time, they´re really becoming your best friend for the moment, when you´re just on your own. And they always make you cry..... thanks Tom!

Ich schau mal ob ich es schaffe wieder etwas mehr zu schreiben - zu viel zu tun und zu wenig Zeit für solche Dinge, aber dies ist mein "Song des Tages":

Tom Waits - Tell Me (vom großartigen Album "Bad As Me").

Waits schreibt mit Abstand die besten traurigen Lieder. Wenn man sie im richtigen Moment hört, werden sie dein bester Freund für den Augenblick - wenn du gerade allein bist. Und sie rühren einen dann immer zu Tränen..... Danke Tom!

70's , Texas & Jethro Tull

2010-02-05T22:55:00.008+01:00

As I like listening to some of my 70´s favourite bands and albums for quite a while now, I was pleasantly surprised to read about a musician named Tim Smith, saying: "I could write 10 Radiohead songs before I could write one Jethro Tull song. I want to sound more like Jethro Tull, but I just can't. That's a big struggle."

Wow – even mentioning Jethro Tull was considered a deadly sin for many years in any reasonable music-scene.

Well, I for one still enjoy "Thick As A Brick" from time to time – great piece of music!

Okay, back to Tim Smith. He is in a band called Midlake and they´re doing great 70´s influenced music, mainly darkish athmospheric songs - you would never guess they´re from Denton, Northern Texas, USA, for they sound very continental.

While their 2004 album "Bamnan And Slivercork" does in fact sound a bit like Radiohead (or my very much appreciated Sparklehorse), they have developed a more folk-inspired style on their latest album "The Courage Of Others", which was released a few days ago.

Brilliant songwriting, lots of fuzz guitars and great harmony singing – absolutely recommendable!

They are touring Europe right now, so please support your non-local but dedicated band!

Midlake tour dates and infos on their website.

In letzter Zeit höre ich sehr gerne wieder meine Lieblingsbands und Alben aus den Siebzigern. Daher war ich angenehm überrascht, als ich über einen Musiker namens Tim Smith las, der da meinte: "Ich könnte 10 Radiohead Songs schreiben bevor ich einen Jethro Tull Song schreiben könnte. Ich möchte mehr nach Jethro Tull klingen, aber ich schaffe es einfach nicht. Das ist ein hartes Stück Arbeit!"

Wow – überhaupt die Erwähnung von Jethro Tull wurde in den meisten vernünftigen Musikszenen als Todsünde gewertet.

Nun, ich für meinen Teil liebe es ab und zu "Thick As A Brick" zu hören – ein großartiges Stück Musik!

Okay, zurück zu Tim Smith. Er und seine Band Midlake machen sehr schöne 70´s inspirierte Musik, hauptsächlich dunkel angehauchte atmosphärische Songs - man würde nicht darauf kommen, daß sie aus Denton, Nord Texas, USA, kommen, denn sie klingen eher europäisch.

Ihr Album "Bamnan and Slivercork" (2004) klingt noch etwas nach Radiohead oder den auch von mir sehr geschätzten Sparklehorse. Aber auf dem aktuellen Album "The Courage Of Others", das vor ein paar Tagen veröffentlicht wurde, klingt alles eher Folk-inspiriert.

Sehr schöne Songs, viele Fuzz-Gitarren und vor allem schöne Gesangsharmonien machen dies Album absolut empfehlenswert.

Die Band tourt gerade durch Deutschland und Europa, also nichts wie hin ;-) !

Midlake Tour Daten und Infos auf ihrer Website.

Back in 2010 / Zurück in 2010

2010-01-06T15:26:00.003+01:00

OK - has been a while since my last post. Well, I´ll try to keep this space a bit more alive in this year.
As I´ve been ill for a while I had time to listen to a lot of music, old and new, so I decided to frequently write some thoughts about music in the upcoming months.
Though Christmas is a bit away now, I can still recommend to listen to the beautiful album "The Dawn Of Grace" by the US-band Sixpence None The Richer - it gives you a very warm feeling in these cold days and the final track "Some Children See Him" is even driving a snowman to tears.

Listening Samples of "The Dawn Of Grace" on Amie Street

So welcome everybody to a hopefully happy new year 2010!

So, jetzt schreib' ich hier ab jetzt auch in deutsch und hoffe, daß dies einige Leute freut ;-) - mein letzter Post liegt ja schon etwas zurück aber ich werde sehen, daß ich den Blog hier ein bißchen mehr nutze.
Da ich in den letzten Wochen leider immer wieder krank war hatte ich Zeit viel Musik zu hören, alte und neue, und werde in den nächsten Monaten immer mal wieder etwas über Musik schreiben.
Obwohl Weichnachten schon etwas zurück liegt, ist mein Hörtip das Album "The Dawn Of Grace" der US-Band Sixpence None The Richer. Wunderschöne Stücke zum Herz erwärmen und das letzte Stück "Some Children See Him" treibt selbst einem Schneemann eine Träne ins Auge.

Reinhören ins Album auf Amie Street

Also willkommen zu einem hoffentlich schönen und guten Jahr 2010!

Itofarm Online Shop in deutsch!

2009-02-23T00:44:00.002+01:00

Der Itofarm Online Store ist jetzt neben englisch auch in deutsch vorhanden. Alle weiteren Infos zum Online Store gibt es hier.

All that Jazz

2008-06-05T19:42:00.007+02:00

I really like Jazz but I never had played Jazz before. Though it seems rather unlikely to find a decent Jazz club in the spanish mountains, about 25km away from the seaside in a tiny village called Llosa de Camacho, well, that´s what actually happened.
Emilio´s Bar is a small bar in this village and every Friday night there´s Jazz played by Emilio´s Piano Trio (Dave, Peter & Dave) and it´s an unbelievably relaxed and entertaining athmosphere. A lot of guest musicians and singers join in and the audience is enjoying every performance, which is most of the times on a surprisingly high level.

Last Friday I joined as a guest-guitarist for the first time and we did some Jazz improvisations - a rather new world to me, which I liked very much. For our next evenings I will prepare some jazzy tunes. Here´s a little snapshot of last Friday´s jam:

Ingo Ito at Indiependence Music

2007-04-07T14:45:00.000+02:00

Indiependence Music.net is a great platform for any independent musician or band to present songs and selling them to the audience. It´s free to join and you just pay some fees when you sell sth. (read more about this here).

It´s also nice to join just as a fan. You can listen to all types of music, rate it thus influencing the charts on IndiependenceMusic, mark your favourite songs/artists and so on....

Being a devoted listener to all kind of new music this is a great place for me to randomly stroll along, as all songs are played in full length and not just as 30 sec samples like in the i-tunes shop.

So anybody who is supporting independent music should go there and join (free membership) and rate some music.

Here are the direct links to my artist areas on IndiependenceMusic.net:

Would be great to give my music some good ratings as this would put me onto the IndiependenceMusic charts and would draw more listeners and so on and so one.... ;-)

A short note on Tapas

2007-03-17T13:53:00.000+01:00

As I´m offering regularly alternating free MP3 downloads on my website under the name "Tones as Tapas", I thought it a good idea to explain the meaning of Tapas to those of you, who don´t know what they are.

Tapas are little appetizers served at bars or restaurants. Here in Spain, Tapas are very popular either as something to accompany a drink at a bar (for example olives, nuts, cheese etc.) or for a complete meal with a great variety of combinations of meat (sausages, meat balls, ham, different skewers etc.), seafood (fish, squid (a speciality is "Pulpo Gallego" – squid from a special area at the Galician Atlantic coast, served warm in olive oil with garlic and red pepper – mmh... yummy!), clams (one of my favourites is "Mejillones Rellenos" – filled clams...delicious!) etc.), vegetables, salads, potatoes (patatas bravas – "hot" potatoes) and so on.

If you are really interested in Tapas there is more information here in english and here in german.

So, there you are. Music as an appetizer for (hopefully) coming back for more ;-) !

An interesting second meaning has the word tapas in Sanskrit. In the yogic tradition, tapas may be translated as "essential energy", referring to a focused effort leading towards bodily purification and spiritual enlightenment.

Ingo Ito at MySpace

2007-03-13T19:54:00.000+01:00

Just a quick note, that I could now be found at MySpace as well. I implied a permanent link in the sidebar and here´s a direct link:
www.myspace.com/ingoito

First Light

2007-03-09T19:10:00.000+01:00

So eventually my website is online and now it´s back to making music again!

Just finished Zen Hanami - Volume 1, which is ready for download in the new Shop at Itofarm.

I really like this album very much and it was a pleasure recording it. For the first time I worked with the Mobius looping software instead of my trusty Paradis Loop Delay and I was astonished about the speed of recording the basic loop tracks.

One major aim of the Zen Hanami series is to find a suitable framework, that makes it a good companion for people who search special music for their meditation, Yoga or Tai Chi. So I decided to level the length of all tracks to exactly 15 minutes, which is often a good time period for any practicing lessons.

I´m working now on a different release: "The Sombre Poet" – that´s the pure music version of the audio book Kokain. Re-arrangement is on its way and everything looks quite promising.