Erobique explores electrorganic soul in much-awaited album ‘No. 2’
Grooves that roll like an intercity train into the horizon, Rhodes chords as soft as sand on the beach and synthesizers that sparkle like the reflections on the ocean. Music as colourful as a Hawaiian shirt and as warm as the morning sun. Welcome to Erobique’s second album No. 2. where even the song titles are in a holiday mood.
“Ahoj!” greets the young “Springinsfeld”. The “Mantas” glide elegantly around the “Acquamarina”. “Salut Les Copines!” we shout to the yacht next to us. “Come on the ‘Ravedave!” they echo cheerfully. “Riding Low” is the motto while “The Arpeggiator” beautifully condenses the “Synaesthesia” of our dazed senses. The “Italotape” in the cassette deck plays the “Hitsong Von uns Beiden”. It’s all so beautiful “Verkackt”, it sounds like “Zukunftsmusik”!
Carsten Meyer released his debut album Erosound in 1998 under the name Erobique. Exactly 25 years later, the now 50-year-old releases his second Erobique. Thirteen diverse tracks ranging from holiday disco to rhythm box rave, recorded and produced with many of his friends and companions. Twenty-five years, that’s pretty much the time it took disco to evolve from the legendary loft parties of pioneer David Mancuso to the impressive mass spectacles of Daft Punk‘s performances, or from Meyer‘s birth to his first full-length record.
Meyer has been improvising performances for years in front of dancing audiences. Even his hits “Easy Mobeasy” and “Urlaub In Italien” are not pop songs in the proper sense, but were created from spontaneous inspirations, in the adrenaline rush, in the party flow, in the middle of the moment! Drummer Lucas Kochbeck (The KBCs / Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band), who now also supports Carsten in his live gigs, as well as neighbor and buddy Christoph M. Kaiser, (former bass player with The Jeremy Days, now film music and pop strategist) laid the groove foundation with shining tiles. Sophia Kennedy came by to sing from the neighboring studio and Lieven Brunckhorst dragged the whole brass set of Jan Delay’s big band Disco No1 in front of the microphone.
Meyer recorded harps, xylophones and violins in his music room at the Hamburg Fish Market or with Tobias Levin in his Electric-Avenue Studio with Fleet View. In Berlin Carsten finally met up with his hero Siriusmo to spin some ideas through the electronic shredder. Nicola Rost stopped by and delivered some unbelievably dense choirs and wonderful songs. Finally, all tracks were sent to Ludwigsburg in Swabia, where Freundeskreis-DJ and disco expert Martin Welzer alias DJ Friction added an incredibly warm and dancefloor-friendly overall sound to the whole madness.
‘No. 2’ out on 2LP / CD / Digital on June 16th via Mr. Mellow’s Music