#andreas bonkowski

New track "Mere" taken from the upcoming "Essential NK Drones" compilation on FULL BODY Massage Records. The tape release is celebrated with two shows happening in Berlin this weekend, see you there!? 🕹🔮✨

Before Window Magic returns with his new album “Well Kept Era” on January 8, you can now listen to the new track “Arrows” below.

Have you all arrived well in 2014? I hope so. I wish you health, happiness and all the best things for the new year. Corwood Manual supported one of my most favourite bands Veto last year (2013 ;) ). It's a one man project. I just saw a comment on Bandcamp which says basically everything about why I like his music: "This EP feels like home to me. It's like a warm blanket for the freezing soul - intimate, close, vulnerable, understanding and honest." It's all I wanted to say. I am excited for everything that 2014 will bring, also in all of his other projects (almost too many to remember). 

<a href="http://corwoodmanual.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-another" data-mce-href="http://corwoodmanual.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-another">Year of Another by Corwood Manual</a>

Best of 2013: Andreas Bonkowski/Corwood Manual

Alright. 2013, where do I start? I write this in the middle of the night, so what would be a better time to just let go and write about some things that made an impression over the course of the last 12 months...

Benoît Pioulard - Hymnal

An outstanding album, inspired by gothic architecture and the english countryside... dictaphones and hiss that never swallow a beautiful voice entangled with astonishing melodies.

Here We Go Magic - A Different Ship

Since I did not get to make a list for last year's favorites I include this soley for one damn good reason: I love it to pieces.

Bibio - Silver Wilkinson

A friend once played me Bibio's first record when it came out in 2005, since then I always kept an eye on what he is putting out... Somehow it strikes a nerve with me that I could never really describe, there is something in the melodies that I could always relate to. This is one of his quieter efforts, kind of dreamy in a way, it feels a bit like looking at old photographs during in the morning sun through a kaleidoscope.

James Holden - The Inheritors

Machines go bleep-blob, synths make drip-drop, hihats splashing everywhere and you wonder what's going on. One monolith of sound I will be chewing on a long long time to come. Very inspiring.

Boards of Canada - Tomorrow's Harvest

Oh the codes. The hidden records and messages, video projections, late night forum discussions, code-cracking, backwards listening and tension building. Someone you thought was lost suddenly tips you on the shoulder to say hello. This kept me on my toes for weeks, suddenly I found myself in a big puzzle of codes that were worth cracking. A lot of sleeping hours were lost during that time, but hey I couldn't help it. It all lead to this wonderfully crazy labyrinth of an album that will either reveal itself to you over time or never at all.

Ever Ending Kicks - Weird Priorities

I got this tape during the last winter. I don't recall how I stumbled upon the label's website, but gut-feeling told me to click on the cover of this album and immediately I fell so in love with the first two songs, I ordered before even listening to the rest of it. I was not let down. At all. Later I read these are just demos the guy had lying around, not knowing what to do with them. I wonder what songs this guy finishes! But as of now I never tried finding out.

Buke and Gase - General Dome

Instantly fascinating duo from the States. I don't know what these people have for lunch, but I'd definitely try a spoon or two. Invent and build your own instruments -> take it from there and never look back. Create your own playground, go crazy. This is how you do it!

Fluorescent Heights - Tidal Motions

Another tape I got this year. Ambient drones and bubbly synths that sound like flowing water. Like watching a fascinating thing and suddenly you realize you stared at it for hours without noticing. I get lost in time while listening to this!

Louis C.K. & Eddie Izzard

Probably my favorite comedians right now if I don't count all the greats that already passed into the world of light...

Beck - Gimme

Well this one came out of the blue, just as his other releases this year... I often catch myself singing this in the most unlikely moments. Vibraphone-vocoder-grooves + space-effects - simple and forward thinking. If you are into this already I can really recommend listening to the extended version which clocks in at 25 minutes. You've read that right!

Mac DeMarco - 2

Oh yeah, what a meal. I order whatever this guy's having. With extra cheese. I heard one song on a mixtape and was enchanted within a blink of an eye. So here we are, I am an addict by now.

BEAK> - BEAK>>

A record that twists and turns, somehow tip-toes around itself... As if there is a secret to it that has to be kept. I am a little slow on this one, it's from 2012 but it really clicked with around the beginning of this year. Alongside Anika's first LP it kept me going back to old krautrock records, the seemingly playful minimalism is something beautiful no matter how well it is recorded or played. There is something happening in the space between the notes I have no words for.

Various Artists - Personal Space (Electronic Soul 1974 - 1984)

You will be surprised.

Connan Mockasin - Forever Dolphin

Love At first I saw a video from his latest album... I didn't know what to make of it at all but it took 3 seconds and I knew I wanted to know what this was about. So I got his first record to start things off only to discover I had it all along, buried somewhere on my hard drives under it's original title. Doh! This is one of my favorites this year but hold on, it's really from 2010. I am feeling so many different vibes at once while listening to it... Imagine Klaus Nomi singing on the Gainsbourg psychedelic lo-fi hippie 4-track rock record that he forgot to make. Maybe for a reason. Or maybe just to leave some room for spaced-out trips like this one!

Hoefner Violin Bass

I got one as a birthday present, I can hardly put this thing away.

Grouper - The Man Who Died in His Boat

Only Liz Harris can do something like this. Fuzzy and blurred, yet beautiful and clear, an album like a flying saucer. It's a light shimmering in unknown colors underwater at night.

Melody's Echo Chamber - Melody's Echo Chamber

Another 2012 record I discovered this year... I should include it every year coming from now on. Gorgeous.

Breakin' & Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

Two breakdance movies from the early 80s that you will not forget after watching. Almost. Too. Much. Stuff. Going. On. Goofy actors and even funnier dance battles. Take my word for it.

Lone - Airglow Fires

90s rave? Acid house? Laser beam techno? I can't help you here, I am dancing. This probably makes the best use of the word "what?" in a song since the invention of sliced bread.

My Bloody Valentine - MBV

I remember sitting backstage after a show I played... It was Saturday night when I got a message that MBV it just came out minutes ago. I think my heart skipped a few beats. What the #*%$? Is that real? 22 years of silence and it just appears like a rabbit out of the hat!

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

Listen to these melodies, isn't that something?

Finally I leave you with a record that will always pass the test of time: Steve Reich's “Music for 18 Musicians“, the version ECM put out in 1978.

Previous best of 2013 lists:

#1 Quiet Lions

#2 Tristan Brusch

#3 Olympians

#4 Tellavision

#5 PhilthD

We have been busy during the last months... Travelling around, being ill, as well as  writing and rehearsing new ideas and songs for the next record. And we also released new music under different monickers, with other bands or simply under the radar. To make sure you don't miss out, here is a short overview for you where we have been and where we are...

The song above is taken from "Hideouts" by Corwood Manual who really is our own Andreas. It has been recorded here and there while travelling around the country last summer with the help of various devices ranging from tape recorders, mobiles and computers, whatever was at hand. The EP features 4 new songs and is out now on the newly created Bloody Hands Ltd. imprint in physical and digital formats as well as "Sendawoy", a collaboration between the author Christian Ludwig and Andreas as Corwood Manual, reinterpreting the book of the same name with even more tapes and electronic glitches. Aside from the compositions that accompany the storyline, this EP also includes a title track performed by Andreas on vocals and electronics. All this in 16 minutes. What a ride! Get them here.

Sepp has also been quite busy, touring with U*N*S and releasing a two-track 7" single on All rock'n'roll speeds up with "Nee/Uns Vier" which you should totally check out right here. U*N*S is a blistering and synth dicso heavy affair, pairing Sepp with old bandmates and even better friends you may know from Petula and/or/likewise Kate Mosh. This sounds exactly as seductive and loud as you might guess, these guys won't miss a chance to make you ____!

Janek has been touring a lot with OMP all over the place, playing in other projects as well as he is recording various solo efforts right now. He will release a modern classical instrumental EP very soon, again via Bloody Hands Ltd. We let you know when it's ready!