About jo
BIography
Born 1984 in Wangen im Allgäu and grown up in a hamlet called Unterhaid with 16 inhabitans as the son of farmers.
1994 first guitar lessons
Studies
2006-2012 Jazz/Rock/Pop electric and Acoustic guitar at the Hochschule für Musik “Carl Maria von Weber” in Dresden with Stephan Bormann, Thomas Fellow, Finn Wiesner and Matthias Bätzel, among others
2012-2014 Postgraduate studies (Meisterklassenexamen) with Eric Schäfer (rhythm) and Thomas Zoller (composition) at the HfM Dresden
Worked, Played, Cooperated, Did stuff with
myka9, Jim Black, Käptn Peng, soweto kinch, Elias stemeseder, Felix Henkelhausen, Kid be kid, Matthias Schriefl, liz kosack, Lukas König, jeremy viner, Oli Steidle, sera kalo, Philipp Gropper, Amith Nadig, Max Santner, Philip Dornbusch, olga Reznichenko, Vinod Shyam Anoor, Moritz baumgärtner, Evi Filippou, Christian weber, Jelena Kuljic, eric schäfer, laura robles, oddateee, Paul Berberich, Florian Lauer, Julia Kadel, Devin Grey, zooey agro, keisuke matsuno, lukas akintaya, subtitle, simon jermyn, thomas zoller, Heidi Heidelberg, Dan peter sundland, Bernhard hollinger, mark pringle, Alfred vogel, Phil Donkin, Almut Schlichting, Povel Widestrand, Mauricio Velasierra, Ivars Arutyunyan, céline rudolph, Joa Luna, sebastian merk, tom götze, ina West, ixa, Marc Mühlbauer, philipp scholz, mark weschenfelder, vincent bababoutilabo, adrian kleinlosen, svetlana marinchenko, junghansz, cuthead, Jarii van gohl...
Concerts
several hundred concerts in various European countries in clubs, festivals, underground spaces, Theatres, Radios, living rooms, among others:
Fusion Festival Lärz, XJAZZ Berlin, Lakhuti Theater Dushanbe (TAd), Tashkent Conservatory (Usb), ÜberJazz Hamburg, Leipziger Jazztage, Südtirol Jazzfestival (IT), What is Music Festival Burgos (E), Jazz and the City Festival Salzburg (AT), Jazzwerkstatt Bern Festival (CH), Jazz Jantar Festival Danzig (PL), Red Light Radio Amsterdam (NL), Akut Festival Mainz, Jazz Festival Freiburg, Schmiede Festival Salzburg, Hospiz Festival bozen (IT), SeaNaps Festival Leipzig, Lo-Fi Playground Occii Amsterdam (NL), Gandula Label Night Berlin/Barcelona (E), Rudolstadt Festival, Krokus Jazz Festival Jelenia Gora (PL), SampleMusicFestial Berlin, Jazzexzess Series Berlin, Tunnel Vision Festival München, KIM Festival Berlin, SURfF Festival Berlin, Bandstand Festival Hellerau (European Centre of the Arts), Subwater Beats Festivals, Kulturrabazzz Festival Dresden, Tgtrmr Festival Dittersbach
Awards, Organizing and Specials
2008 Composition prize winner of the HfM Dresden
2014-2020 Organized about 150 concerts mainly in kukulida dresden
2016 Golden Jazz Rabbit
2016-2020 Main organizer of the week-long interdisciplinary festivals: Kulturrabazzz (2016,17,18,19,20) Dresden and SURfF 2019 Berlin
2021 Initiator and member of FUTURE BLOOM - completely new and Germany-wide meta-festival community format
2022 two-week tour with L.A. rap legend Myka 9 (Freestyle fellowship) as a guest of Zur Schönen Aussicht
2022 Soundtrack and sound design for the film “grill&shrill” by Blas Lamazares nominated at the International Short Film Festivals Oberhausen and Kassel
2024 2 week tour Through Tadchikistan and Usbekistan with Amithias
since 2016 various scholarships and project funding, including Arvore, Musikfonds e.V., Dresden Cultural Office, Ostsäschsische Sparkasse, Berlin Senate, gema
Composition and concepts
since 1997 over 200 Compositions
2015 New Music Beats I - Substructures for Improvisable Complexistic Rhythms
2016 Extended Rhythm Pyramid - More Polyrhyhms (1-8*1-8)
2018 Speculative Multiple Dimension Concept - Postcontemporary Music System
2020 x over y no boarders - Polyrhythms with Prime Numbers
2022 New Music Beats II - Unprecedented Beat Adventures for Real Utopian Improvisers
Teaching
2013 Tutor at Hfm dresden
2019-2020 & 2024 Recursive rhythm get-Together - a real utopian socialist project towards an open and participatory community of highly professional and international musicians in Berlin
workshops at What is music Festival (E), Jib Berlin, Hfm Weimar, Hfm Dresden...
interests and lifestyle
music, Community, Friendship, philosophy, politics, global democratic planned socialism, body perception, plural economics, strength training, Psychology and how society can overcome racism, nationalism, capitalism, patriarchy, mega-authorities, anthropocentrism and climate change plus celebrating humour and appreciating life. and all these are exactly the things or thoughts I'm including in my music and interdisciplinary festivals. Because I believe in doing things together, pluralism, multiperspectivity, holism, process, independency, multicollectivity, experiments, consistency, sustainability, peace, thinking from the future, Change, correlation, connectivity and exchange (as a fundament of sympathy and respect)
Hey jo, what are you doing all the time, haha?
Hey Beatdenker, what are you doing all the time, haha?
I'm dealing with the following question: Which concepts and methods can be used to stimulate and sublimate rhythmic imagination, precision and performance? And: How to change things to the better through real utopian projects? and last but not least of course how do i handle, value and celebrate life itself.
What research?
After many years of research and practise (Extended Rhythm Pyramid, Speculative Multiple Dimensions Concept, X Over Y No Borders System), around 50 compositions, years of live performances and international masterclasses with complexistic (xeno-)rhythms, I developed and am developing a postcontemporary logic of practise for innovative musicians of the 21st century. This brings together the quintessence of my research to date. My "recursive rhythm get-together" - open to all - from 2020-2021 and 2024 in Berlin and interim online, is – beside my own music making – the practical and additive substrate of this work.
What Speculative concept?
From 2014-2018 I worked on my “Speculative Multiple Dimensions Concept”, which I have now been practicing on my instrument for many years. In concrete terms, this means, for example, combining various intervallic structures, especially improvisationally into polyrhythmic states, which in turn means e.g. a 5-note pattern with three notes, two rests, with predominantly e.g. fifth intervals and to play it in polyrhythm, e.g. 13 over 5 and spontaneously transpose it into other complex polyrhythmic ratios at will. Among other things, this is also a compositional element that I use for my bands. Complexistic rhythms from new music (e.g. Ferneyhough) can also be found improvisationally in a similar but more clearly structured way in modern South Indian Carnatic music (e.g. BJ Manjunath).
I try to combine these ideas and elements with a more open jazz approach and IDM sound aesthetics to create as yet unknown, new xenobeats.
What X over y?
to be able to imagine complex rhythms (e.g. double or triple nested rhythms) as a band, then to feel them and subsequently to be able to perform them precisely in a live context is the foundation. In the next step, to elevate the skills with these rhythms (initially as an individual, but especially as a band) more and more to the level of improvisation.
2020 I designed the “x over y no boarder” system, which makes it easier to imagine polyrhythms of odd or prime numbers up to 63. I am currently practicing double or triple nested tuplets within these complex polyrhythms. This has the effect that you can change the speed of notes extremely quickly and consciously in the band context.
Which harmonic hegemony?
I would like to counter the harmonic hegemony of Western music, or help rhythmic ingenuity and rhythmically precise execution to a similar level as "we here" have attained in melody and harmony. From a purely intellectual point of view, Western music is of course far advanced in terms of rhythm, but not so in its embodiment and thus in its execution or playful handling of it. There is such an imbalance, which totally restricts the open development of music.
Why creolisation?
Therefore, in my opinion, it is time to change this, to learn from other - rhythmically versed - musical cultures with respect and to dive into unknown, speculative musical spheres in the sense of creolisation through knowledge exchange. I.e. to decolonise Western music theory and it’s supremacy and the simultaneous deep acknowledgment of more musical traditions In concrete terms, this means for me to be able to imagine European complexistic rhythms more precisely by including the South Indian Konnakol and Carnatic logic and to advance the embodiment of these. Then, in the spirit of Black American Music, to improvise with these rhythms.
Which time complex?
I'm also observing the so called „time complex“, which in short means that time itself is not linear
anymore and the present is much more influenced by the future, in particular by algorithms. To get
out of this kind of deterministic state, one should create its own future present with thinking from
the future to the present. At least for me that's a necessary attitude, which belongs to the
postcontemporary.
Why postcontemporary?
The focus is on creating new forms and (sub-)structures in which it is possible - especially as a band - to improvise consciously and together with these complexistic rhythms. As long as the Western academic music world continues to mostly limit itself to the endless re-interlacing of the self-created and pseudo-universal 12 tones, Thinking from the future to the present is my thing. I will continue to work to change the status quo and have one more reason to call my music postcontemporary, haha.
Why future dance steps?
Music is movement and vibration! The mind is embedded in and made of matter, but goes beyond it. Music is social! Mixing that knowledge about rhythm with Dance and Electronic Beats Music, to create Future Dance Steps, means checking out how people need to move differently within my live sets. It's the coolest pleasure if people come after a concert and tell me that they moved their bodies in a way they never did before. Bämmy, haha.
Why XenoBeats?
Why should we be afraid of the unknown, the xeno. The refugee is the subject of the 21st century. European states see the foreign, the unknown in this subject and fill it with fear. Instead, we need to develop a whole new culture of welcome and appreciation. Especially in view of our historical responsibility, be it colonisation, the ongoing destruction of our planet or the exploitation and discrimination of people (especially women+, BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, migrated, marginalised groups, kids and further minorities) by oligopolies and governments. My music is a call to welcome the foreign and the unknown, to see more intersections in a multicollective way and to finally create more equality for all! Empathy through exchange, openness and respect.
Why complexistic?
One of the major tasks is to understand complexity. That is, to learn to understand the interweavings and relationships of all apparent circumstances. to tolerate ambiguities and resolve paradoxes at the same time. This offers the possibility to intervene in what is often overwhelming and opaque. There would be a chance to form new societies based on positive values, which could create a reality worth living for all living beings.
Why just intellectual?
Despite all my mental work, I focus on total energy, physical energy, physicality, immersion, interdisciplinarity and instantaneity. At the same time, I am increasingly trying to change the overall sound aesthetic with effects, granular synthesizing processes and post-production in order to create futuristic electronic music with acoustic instruments or human musical artisanry.
What festivals?
I organized about 150 concerts, mostly for others. 6 one week long interdisciplinary festivals (the most fun ever) with my bandmates, flatmates and friends. Means doing emails, lights, arranging beds, cleaning toilets and event rooms, mixing sound, selling drinks, organizing teams, running from A to B, being exhausted and fulfilled. I have been organising events since i was 13 because i feel the need to do it myself and because it is one of the most beautiful things in the world for me to bring people together or to see people doing things together and having fun.
What audience?
Another thing I've been trying to do for years is to find or create a new audience who have a desire for fresh, rich, inspiring music, no matter what genre. After six successful week-long interdisciplinary underground festivals, I am also against certain music being dismissed as niche.
The festivals are proof that so-called niche music also has an impact in the middle of society. This transcending power of music is also the focus of Future Bloom.
Why Future Bloom?
Too many great artists for too little places, events and festivals. Whether we like it or not, in the end we are competitors, system-dependent. We need alternative structures, new ones. 52 communities across Germany are networking. Each one organises a week-long interdisciplinary music festival. This means that every week of the year there is a unique festival in a different place in the country, which nevertheless takes place within a framework of common values and formats: Queer feminism, anti-racism, doing stuff with locals and internationals, common good, multiperspectivity, diversity, sustainability, transparency, flash mobs, lectures, workshops, democracy boost, respect, love, endless fun.
What real utopian stuff?
Real utopian projects are hypertemporal places, designed in the future and materializing in the present. Places where we can be different and multicollectively composed without fear. Places where we all have at least similar rights and opportunities. Places where we have generated a win-win balance of cooperation and healthy competition. Places where complexity is understood as an opportunity and at the same time a positive challenge for the ever-renewing.
Why Music or Life?
In general I don't separate music from the rest of my life. Everything I do and am influences my music. I see myself artistically primarily as a live performer, composer, producer and researcher but always also as a political figure. I have always seen my artistic career as a process and work with very long-term goals, with the urge to create something really new. Even before my studies
I composed a lot and tinkered with various guitar techniques. I am increasingly interested in expanding my imagination and using the paradoxes of paradoxes of speculation and concretization to gain new insights.
What slogans?
„Ethic endless fun, imagination unlimited, demanding power from below“, means: have as much fun as possible without hurting someone else (especially marginalized people and non-human entities, too), imagine the most way-out things within your work or passion, push your creativity as much as possible to reach something new and (most probably most important) join at least one political, social, plural economic, future-orientated movement and fight for a better "world".
Why not doing stuff now?
There is a lot more to say and especially to do, but that’s it for now. So, let's do cool stuff together, peace out!
Manifestos
My Lifs's Task
I irrevocably decide to go my own way, to love and accept myself and what I do, to continue to develop, to recognize my limits, to listen to my feelings and to communicate this as clearly as possible to myself and others. I always want to nurture my happy child and my healthy adult with goodwill and dedication.
In this way, I can give myself uncompromisingly and with full potential to my life's work and make a significant contribution to my closer and more distant communities, to humanity and to our planet.
As a result, I lead a meaningful and valuable life with inexhaustible energy, enthusiasm and joie de vivre. My life's work - my mission, my power and my opportunity - is to love myself and thus to be an inspiration and motivation for other people through my music-making, loving, researching, realutopian thinking and acting for the common good. And ultimately to help people all over the world to progress in all areas of life and levels of consciousness and to laugh with them, to enjoy, to be connected and happy with them and to feel the fullness of life.
My values
authenticity, attention, (self-)awareness, balance, communication, connectivity, cooperation, courage, creativity, ease, efficacy, efficiency, empathy, enthusiasm, exchange, feelings, flexibility, freedom, Friendship, gratitude, growth, happiness, hope, humor, imagination, independence, individuality, integrity, joie de vivre, justice, meaning, motivation, movement, multicollectivity, nature, optimism, pragmatism, personal responsibility, presence, process orientation, profundity, realization, real utopia, relationship, respect, sensitivity, solidarity, tolerance, topicality, trust, vision, vitality, willpower
my Affirmations
- I'm already there
- I'm Enough
- I don't have to do anything and lead a self-determined life
- I’m enjoying regular and healthy breaks
- I speak benevolently and motivatingly to myself
- I set smart goals and have healthy expectations of myself
- I love my process and learn with joy.
- I can set boundaries, listen to my feelings, and take good care of myself.
- I love what I do and who I am.
- My healthy adult and my happy child are always present
- I draw from my full potential
- All doors are open to me
- Other people inspire me
- I’m flexible in many ways
- I deserve happiness and enjoy my life to the fullest
- I am allowed to be happy
- I can feel satisfied
- I accept myself as I am
- I’m courageous
- I am the best at what I do
- I show myself and will be seen
- I am healthy, vibrant, and overflowing with joy for life
- I trust myself and life
- I find the right people and the right people find me
- I love myself fully and completely
- I acknowledge myself with all that I am and have created
- i take full responsibility for myself and my life
Motivational - inspirational
2025 - recap of 2024
2024 was a veryyyyyyy controverse year for me. For sure the pics n vids just show good stuff haha
Im extremely thankful for all the arty stuff i could do: concerts, recordings, producing, releases and community. But beside this there were a loooooooot of challenges. Im still in the middle of a huge transformation and healing process which is quite some work but the best thingy. I just wanna encourage you to do that.
Too much happened to mention everything and everyone who spent time with me this year. I'm deeply grateful for what i have, had and will have. Thank you everyone doing cool stufffffff with me. It's the best.
Let's do cool stuff together. Let's support each other in these dark times. Let's go on, let's build more bridges, more places to gather, more of the good shizzle, let's not give up. Im sending love good energy and endless funnnnnnnn.
Peace Out Jo
2024 - Recursive rhythm get-together retrospect and prospect
Hey peeps, after 12 recursive rhythm get togethers, i want to say thank you to all participants and encourage you all to come by. It is a socialist and community project for us.
So far some people come regularly, some here and there, some once, some are highly professional, some are amateurs or even out of the music world. Usually in the first hour we clap, count and sing some of my concepts or concepts I got to know through my more than 15 years of research. In the second hour we analyze one of my - about 60 - tunes with complex or complexistic rhythms. From most people coming I got super cool and nice feedback. But I also got some feedback, that people somehow don't dare. I totally can understand because i also would feel insecure or vulnarable with other topics in music or life - there are a lot with me, just to let you know.
Yet I want to encourage you, because the atmosphere is not at all about who can or knows what. It's a lovely, fun, respectful and concentrated mood, where I try to make things as clear as possible. Even though there are topics, which might be new or overwhelming and someone might feel like a beginner. But I want to emphasize that these are the moments where we can learn the most, especially in a group where we can feel comfortable.
Still I don't have a proper awareness concept, but I won't tolarate any discrimiation, misbehaviour or bullshit. In case something happens to you I will be your contact person and will help where I can, although I'm no professional and have personal limitations with that.
Why am I doing that: Because our western, still not decolonized academic world, don't wanna see that we could learn from so many different perspectives. As long this world continues to mostly limit itself to the endless re-interlacing of the self-created and pseudo-universal 12 tones, i will continue my work to change that and have one more reason to call my music postcontemporary, haha.
More things that could happen:
There will be a collective of people who wanna play more of my composition and learn with them, there will be more people who can jump into some more exciting rhythmic structures while improvising freely together, there will be more people who belive in a democratic (probably planned) socialism and share their knowledge without the capitalistic competition mindset. Be as progressive as possible, Peace out Jo
2023 - Endless Releases
Hey, huhu, still someone here? haha... Beatdenker is on fire: Dropping 3 albums and 2 eps, 6 singles this year, endless music videos. I don't give a fuck anymore. Just dropping and continuing my music and videos. It's gonna be stronger, deeper, more ridiculous, unique, fat and endless fun. yippie.
This is the last single before I drop my new album, "Real Utopia" next week. "Ooo, Sfo, Humans, Objects and so" is a granular beat reflecting ideas of the object orientated ontology and the fields of sense ontology.
First one is rejecting the privileged human existance (anthropocene, or probably better capitalocene) and second says there is no singular bigger thing (also the concept of the universe is too narrow minded, instead different fields of senses are overlapping).
Let's do cool stuff. Let's do real utopian stuff, less boring and stupid shit. haha yippieeee
have fun listening and watching, peace out, beaty
2022 - Future Bloom starts
I am the happiest person when I see new communities like the Queer Cheer emerging, among others because of our Future Bloom - Festival Boost Now! initiative.
Future Bloom is a meta-community that unites 52 communities all over Germany. Each community will host a week-long interdisciplinary festival with a queer feminist, anti-racist, plural economic and sustainable framework. They consist of innovative musicians and artists of diverse identities to present self-empowering and independently fresh and future music and much more to represent a cross-section of society and support marginalized groups within the (music) business through an intersectional, multicollective approach.
Due to the climate crisis, as well as the uncontrolled markets and the little planned digitalization, it is very difficult not to fall into a dystopian worldview. We believe that we have to counter these scenarios with real-utopian projects and movements (our role models are for example: Economy for the common goods, The Ocean Cleanup, FFF, Black Lives Matter). That's why one of our main concern is that the 52 communities then invite each other to their festivals, so that even more exchange, respect, empathy, cooperation and endless fun can emerge beyond music. i.e. breaking bubbles towards a plural, open society of the 21st century.
(For a more detailed description, please check out our detailed concept here - sorry english version isn't there yet): https://subwaterbeats.de/futurebloom/ https://subwaterbeats.de/futurebloomfaq/
Where are we right now? So far we have about 10 communities and many individuals who want to join.
We are in the process of founding an association that can run the whole project financially and organizationally.
What are the next steps? We are looking for a person who wants to take over the overall coordination and organization and can be paid fairly for it. For this job we are looking for funding or private sponsors.
We are also looking for more communities who are willing to organize a one-week festival and see the overvalue of this project instead of remaining in the exhausting loneliness as an individual competitor.
A penultimate an personal note: I tremendously hope there will be a super strong global plural economic movement who will finally end neoliberalism with all it's super stupid and insufferable injustices towards a future democratic planed socialism or something like that, which would immediately (financially) support projects like that.
Thank you DiEM25, Debt for Climate, Progressive International, Wohlstand für Alle, Geld für die Welt, Future Histories, @Scientists for Future, Economy for the common good for all your amazing work! Did I drift off a bit? Haha.
Last thing: Better do cool stuff, join Future Bloom, haha yippie!
P.S.: How annoying can a minister of finance be, ahhhhhhhhh! #2023 #Schuldenbremse
P.P.S.: Sunday July 10th, come to the first Queer Cheer event at Donau115, yippieeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
2021 - Topics of the online recursive rhythm get-together
6.: Triple isorhythms / Xenofeminism
- extended rhythm pyramid pt.2
- how to generate these 331 polyrhythms/relationships
- "2.1" a composition for Sinularia
- (delayed) isorhythms / isomelodic equidistances
- something i try out right now: fun in 25 over 7/8
- (short) introduction to xenofeminism (uh yeah)
- something, fun, stuff, haha
5.: 331 polyrhythmic relationships // Thomas Piketty
- extended rhythm pyramid
- 331 polyrhythms from 1-8*1-8 over 1-8*1-8 for band stuff
- my composition "NEU 3" for Zur Schönen Aussicht
- something i tried the last days maybe works, haha
the 5 pattern (x-xx-) in triplets and septuplets at the same time
- some thoughts on Thomas Piketty's inequality research
- something something, any something or nothing more, haha
4.: Zur Schönen Aussicht, composition, philosophy / futures cone
- "NEU 9" a composition for Zur Schönen Aussicht
- 11/4 in 7tuplets
- carnatic wave rhythms
- isomelodies
- patterns of my speculative multiple dimensions concept
- premiere of the live video from Kulturrabazzz 2020
- some band philosophy about 11 years of ZSA
- futures cone
- spontaneous stuff **~//?!*
3.: something with 5 and 7 / Economy of the common goods
- Donna Lee in 19 over 11 (for the jazzy people, haha)
- nested tuplets in 19 over 11
- my composition "3.3" - 1 idea - 42 pages full score on 1 page
- fibonacci stuff
- "3.3" 5/7 patterns at the same time in different subdivisions
- Little introduction of Gemeinwohlökonomie
(economy of the commen goods) by Christian Felber
and hopefully spontaneous stuff yippie
2.: Fibonacci and #weneedabillion
- my composition "2.9" for Sinularia
- introduction in the Fibonacci series
- 55 over 8
- different cycles (e.g. 5 and 55) grouped in 2-7
- (self-made) festivals
- my idea/project #weneedabillion and its potential
1.: Xeno(rhythms)
- 37 over 23 over 13
- prime numbers
- triple nested tuplets
- 1-33 over 7
- equidistant rhythms
- my composition "NMB 6"
(the New Music Beats 1-10 are substructures for Postcontemporary Beats through speculative rhythms i.e. improviseable
complexistic rhythms)
- some wanna be philosophical stuff, haha
2020 - After last kulturrabazzz festival
Dear people and beyond, after more than 150 concerts as a main organizer in the past 5 years, i just can say: let cool stuff happen.
Forget moaning, being depressed nothing is happening, and so on.
It is the coolest fun to do stuff together with friends, new friends, random people, machines, planet earth.
Look around and use your privileged state for something fresh, try to find possibilities, experiment, try it antidisciplinary, build your one, new, transparent structures, let emerge stuff, make new friends, give your best to be lovely, respectful, open, plural, holistic, creative and beyond. Exchange, collaborate, cooperate.
If you look more far into the future, it really seems there is no other way than to welcome diversity, complexity, technology, knowledge and especially "the xeno". Present is slipping from our hands, so we need to think from the future. Try to show answers. Speculate with possibilities. To name just a few things: check out the futures cone, cradle to cradle, xenofeminism, aerocene, recursive thinking, diem25, cryptoeconomics.
Again thank you Kukulida, Zur Schönen Aussicht, Subwater Beats and all people in and around the crew, all people coming out, in, or somewhere, all people helping mentally, financially or just with presence. There is nothing nicer. Although it seems last week was our last edition of Kulturrabazzz, stuff will happen. Endless contingencies are waiting. DO COOL STUFF!!!
2020 - hyper creative mode
being hyper creative sometimes just happens.
just landing from a 4 week long trip within i wrote 28 postcontemporary tunes/beats.
8 for my Sinularia dudies, 10 for my Zur Schönen Aussicht dudies, and in between i produced in 4 days a 10 beat album for Beatdenker. so now 2 Beatdenker albums are waiting to be released, 1 Sinularia album and the 10 songs of the Zur Schönen Aussicht album we recorded in summer and I mixed, produced and mastered afterwards will get 10 badass rappers on top. so I hope all this stuff will be released soon!!!
and from now i gonna start to practice all this crazy complexistic xenobeats. yippie.
important, i'm extremely happy to have these amazing musicians and fun people on my side, who are into this journey of unknown rhythmic territories: Felix Henkelhausen, Max Santner, Paul Berberich and Flo Lauer. but i think this trip will be worth it and another step to push further the band art with making complexistic beats/rhythms improviseable a bit more.
wish you all the best in these crazy times!
peace out jo
2020 - Inspirations beyond music
Thanks to all these amazing people and movements, their thoughts and actions!!! This all is full of positive, transforming, extremely forward-looking power.
Will this bad phase be able to bring some good, pluralistic, open-minded, speculative, forward-looking, more social thoughts into the foreground?
How we need to treat environment (Fridays For Future, extinction rebellion), technology (Harari, Laboria Cuboniks, accelerationism, blockchain), how to transform the EU into something truely cool (DiEM25 (btw definitely check out the current Euroleaks!!), Martin Sonneborn), political economics ( Makroskop, Makronom, Gemeinwohl-ökonomie), (speculative) design (hyphen labs, cradle to cradle), human rights (Victoria Ivanova), philosophy (New realism (Markus Gabriel), speculative realism (Armen Avanessian), Byung-Chul Han), sociology (Elena Esposito, Aladin el-Mafaalani, Steffen Mau), art (aerocene), psychology (Inner child, stages of ego development, Schema Therapy, Affirmations), body perception (Alexander Technique), neuroscience (assc), education (Akademie für Potentialentfaltung), xenophilous and music (Banda Internationale, Musaik, speculative multiple dimensions concept - my own attempt to bring speculative thinking into music). There is a lot more, but some things I was reading, thinking about or experimenting with for my own in the last Fifteen years.
It seems to be clear that we need to think much further ahead to understand for example exponential growth (e.g.: climate change, Even compound interest) and "the present" displacing algorithms. Or maybe better, thinking completely new e.g. to think from the future to the present and recursive.
Have fun with reading, thinking, experimenting and especially DOING.
2019 - Beginning of Recursive rhythm get-together
What will happen:
Basically I'll be there and gonna practice, clap, count, sing (mostly) rhythmic ideas out of my Speculative Multiple Dimensions Concept plus thinking, talking about and doing "stuff" we think we can't. From there we keep it speculative, haha.
It will be in-depth, respectful, nerdy, fresh, lovely, creative, holistic, experimental, complex, emerging as well as for free and open for EVERYBODY, everything and every something.
for years I've imagined this happening. So I wanna say thank you to "every every" helping me reaching this point. My latest inspirators (beside much more): family, nature, Sanni Loetzsch, flatmates, Paul Berberich, Flo Lauer, sports, Max Santner, life, Felix Henkelhausen, fun, Thomas Zoller, future, Greta Thunberg, Richard David Precht, Pauli Paul, Miles Okazaki, laughing, Eric Schäfer, change, Armen Avanessian, hope, Fridays for future, Steve Coleman, patience, Frans Petter Eldh, chance, Marko Junghansz, randomness, The Ocean Cleanup, speculative realism, Sinularia, Vijay Iyer, weirdness, Dan Weiss, Philipp Gropper, silliness, Zur Schönen Aussicht, multidisciplinarity, Tyshawn Sorey, (xeno)feminism, Beatdenker, stuff, Subwater Beats, simplicity, BRAINFEEDER, music, KIM Collective, Fusion Festival Music, Banda Internationale, Christian Lillinger, Adrian Kleinlosen, more fun, Ariel Doron, SURfF Festival, 4/4 meter, Kukulida... and endless more.
2019 - Release of my SPECULATIVE MULTIPLE DIMENSIONS CONCEPT
Yeah yeah yeah! After around 10 years of deeply researching rhythms, life and stuff with all my engeries, abilities, time, knowledge, non-abilities, love and so on, I'm sooooo happy to finally share this little/huge page. Again thanks to everybody, everything, something helping me to develop this thing.
This postcontemporary concept provides a framework for a (predominantly) rhythmic imagination that is not yet conceivable. The whole system is simply made by a human, like any other system of economics or society, we believe in.
This speculative system is not exhaustive – find your own intervals, substitutes, patterns, dimensions, explanations, games, delvelop it further or even destroy it, …
I hope this small page inspires and helps to be more (choose your preferred term) on certain issues - don't take it as seriously as i do, haha!
Rhythmic contingencies, I'm working on sub concepts:
waves / nature / acceleration / fun / fibonacci / xenorhythms / nothingness and being / complementary rhythms / time (present, future, past) / how, when to change harmonies or voicings / certain (number) series from other worldviews / chance / ??* *?~?! ?? / circles / [space] / simplicity-complexity relationship / nested tuplets formular / morphing / absurdity / recursive patterns / counterpoint, reverse or random rhythms and endless other stuff I try to imagine
Yesterday we started the weekly recursive rhythm get-together with a lot of fun and began to check this shit out.
Next date: Tuesday 22th 4pm-6pm @ Möbelhaus A-Z in Allerstraße 16. (still thinking about how to find the best date for all...)
Political - philosophical
Small Brainstorming on the 2025 Federal Election (This Time in German)
This is the result of some hours of reflection—nothing is complete or perfect. At best, it helps YOU engage in a loving and respectful discussion with your friends and family about the upcoming federal election.
The shift to the right is everywhere. I see no response to it from any centrist party. Even though I don’t agree with everything Die Linke proposes, it is my pragmatic choice for the federal election now that Wagenknecht is out. Please take a look at Heidi Reichinek, Clara Bünger, Ines Schwerdtner, or Ferat Kocak. (Aren’t they at least a little more likeable than Merz, Söder, Spahn, Linnemann, Klöckner, Scholz, etc.?) Especially for the second vote. In 6 to 8 of the 299 electoral districts (Berlin Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Berlin-Mitte, Berlin Neukölln, Berlin Treptow-Köpenick, Berlin-Lichtenberg, Leipzig-South, Weimar, Rostock), there is a chance that Die Linke will win a direct mandate. And if necessary, they can still enter the Bundestag with at least three direct mandates, even if they don’t reach the 5% threshold. The idea of a Bundestag without a real left-wing opposition, without a genuinely humane voice for the common good, makes me sick.
We don’t even need to discuss the AfD. The CDU/CSU speaks their language. The so-called firewall is gone!!!
I truly urge you all to make sure that your people do not vote for fascism or anyone who cozies up to it. Let’s do what we can.
The SPD sold out to neoliberalism under Schröder and Agenda 2010. There’s hardly anything left of the people's and workers' party. It's absolutely appalling! And the Greens—sorry, but where’s their fight? Nothing remains, all hope is lost. Sure, Habeck is still the most likeable in this horror lineup, but that’s not enough. I sympathize with some small parties (e.g., Mera25), but this time, I’m being pragmatic and assuming Die Linke will enter the Bundestag—so every vote against fascism counts!
Real Utopias
Real utopias are hypertemporal places designed for the future and realized in the present. Places where we can exist without fear, in diverse, multi-collective ways. Places where universal human rights apply and are lived. Places where universal moral values are recognized as real. Places where we all have equal opportunities, no matter where we come from, what we look like, what we believe in, how we live, what gender we have, or how our bodies function. Places where we have created a win-win balance of cooperation and healthy competition. A place where complexity is seen as both an opportunity and a positive challenge for continuous renewal.
In times of multiple global crises and wars, it is extremely difficult to imagine such places. But how are we supposed to create these desirable places, or realize them in the present, if we have already given up imagining them? That must not happen—especially not in parts of the world where, on a global scale, democracy, freedoms, the rule of law, and human rights still function reasonably well.
Genuine utopian projects have the power to change history or create completely different realities for the better.
The major tasks of our time are understanding complex interrelations, enduring ambiguities—while simultaneously resolving paradoxes—and describing problems as concretely as possible. Enabling contingencies while eliminating vagueness and post-factual distortions.
Even though we humans are tiny in relation to space and time, we have, alongside all our great achievements, created these circumstances ourselves: climate change, the destruction of biodiversity, the exploitation of our essential natural resources, the exploitation of people, billionaires, racism, abuse of power, war, indifference toward future generations, oligarchies, patriarchy, the collapse of democracy, all forms of discrimination, (transgenerational) trauma… At the same time, it should be clear that we can change things and circumstances—and that we bear responsibility for doing so. No nihilism, no determinism, no constructivism, no bullshit. We cannot escape reality. It is here, and it is perceivable in this very moment. There is no other option than to give yourself and your life meaning through your own ability to shape your self-image.
My Three Personal Slogans:
Ethic endless fun, imagination unlimited, demanding power from below
Meaning: Have as much fun as possible without harming anyone else (especially marginalized people and non-human beings). Imagine the most extravagant ideas related to your work or passion—push your creativity as far as possible to create something new. And (probably most importantly) join at least one political, social, pluralistic, future-oriented movement and fight for a better world.
Focus on Germany and the 2025 Federal Election
With cheap energy from autocracies, extreme export surpluses, economic power abuse within the EU, a self-imposed inhumane low-wage sector, and an unresolved colonial and Holocaust history, we have created today’s prosperous Germany—a country that is at least comfortable or seemingly well-earned for all non-marginalized groups and especially for the top 10%. Meanwhile, almost everyone else is being exploited: (0.1% own 20%, 1% own 33%, 10% own 60%, and just two families own as much as 50% of the population). Meritocracy and the trickle-down effect are, of course, just two of countless ideologies.
Chancellor
Wouldn’t it be nice to have someone who is empathetic, who stands for the common good of everyone, who flips off the tech bros, who has integrity, who is genuinely future-oriented, who has a sense of humor, and who finally tackles the real problems? Deporting 20,000 more migrants—does that really solve everything? Seriously???
Finance
Don’t we want someone who actually understands the monetary system (MMT)? Who finally gets rid of the damn debt brake in the constitution? Who makes hundreds of billions appear despite the debt brake—haha. Who finally abolishes the 130 billionaires and taxes the super-rich properly? Who finally implements meaningful progressive tax policies? Let’s goooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Economy
Isn’t it already crystal clear that we need to invest in future-oriented jobs? Transform our industry in a timely manner, create new jobs, support people whose jobs will gradually disappear? No one should have to suffer a social downfall. In reality, about 6 million people are unemployed. Why doesn’t the state create good jobs? The debt brake is gone—let’s go!
n the next ten years, nearly ten million baby boomers will retire, far more than young people entering the labor market. There is no political solution for this massive, prosperity-threatening problem. How is this supposed to work without migration? (Not even from a moral standpoint, just from an economic perspective!) Ten million more retirees—who will work in healthcare, elderly care, and other essential sectors???
Climate Protection
WTF! Is there still anything unclear about this? REALLY? Socially just climate protection—it can't be that hard.
Internal Affairs
For thousands of years, we've been talking about “us” and “the others.” Can we finally overcome this twisted ideology, please? We are all human beings, aren’t we? What’s the point of all this? Does anyone here actually believe that building a wall in Europe (cough Frontex cough) or, even better, at Germany’s borders, will solve any real problems? Will it fix industrial transformation, clean energy, safe bridges, schools with working water taps, or the massive shortage of healthcare and teaching staff?
Foreign Policy
Where did the concept of feminist foreign policy go? Why can’t we even recognize a genocide as a genocide? Why do we deliver weapons to warmongers and autocrats? Why can’t we demand universal human rights? Why is NATO still beyond question? Looking toward the future—where do we want to go? Towards peace or into even more absurd, highly militarized AI-driven nationalist alliances?
Justice
A police state? Never heard of it? Why do my friends keep getting beaten up at leftist protests, while right-wing extremists scream hate-filled slogans under police protection? Why are people who don’t look “biodeutsch” automatically more suspicious? How can anyone be okay with this?
Transportation
What the hell is going on? Ramsauer, Dobrindt, Scheuer, Wissing… No, for fuck’s sake, we don’t need more highways! Why do these ministers always stand in the way? We finally need climate-friendly transportation policies. Yes, people in rural areas should still be able to drive cars—preferably electric (even though that won’t save us). But please, let’s finally redesign our cities! Surely, the majority of people want to be able to ride their bikes safely. And not be overtaken by someone going 300 km/h on the autobahn.
Work & Social Affairs
Lazy unemployed people and evil migrants—if only they didn’t exist, everything would be perfect, right? No, damn it. Does anyone really believe that being unemployed, being harassed by the job center, and struggling to make ends meet is “the dream life”? No—people want to be effective, contribute something, do something meaningful. Or does anyone here feel differently? Please understand that all these narratives are just distractions.
There are 3.6 million unemployed people, 240,000 in short-time work, and 1 million involuntarily in part-time jobs. Women would work if there were enough childcare and nursing home spots. Refugees and migrants who want to work don’t even get a work permit. Meanwhile, there are 1.57 million job vacancies, of which 1.24 million are supposedly “immediately available” (though the working conditions remain unclear).
This isn’t an individual failure—it’s a failure of macroeconomic and labor policies. The simple truth is: the state could create good jobs.
Defense
Yo, conscription and the weapons lobby—fantastic. I wish we had a real debate about what is actually necessary and what isn’t. Yeah, I know—Putin, etc. But we still need a vision of what things should look like 30 years from now.
Food & Nutrition
Good, healthy food—why shouldn’t it be affordable for everyone? Cut VAT on essential groceries. It would direct €10 billion to the poorest and €2 billion to the super-rich. At least it’s a quick, pragmatic solution.
Why do we fertilize our fields with harmful chemicals? Why is responsibility always dumped on individuals instead of simply banning harmful products at a policy level?
Education
Hey, shouldn’t we strive for a society that is truly respectful, generous, loving, open, and honest? Maybe we actually do need school subjects like applied psychology, happiness, or philosophy. Or should we just keep cramming our kids with even more useless crap they’ll never need? Or traumatize them further with rigid grading systems? Is it really that hard to imagine something better?
Family
Can we please finally abolish the patriarchy? It’s so exhausting. Women and queer people deserve equal rights, equal pay, equal opportunities, equal respect. Why should that be a problem? Or do we prefer chauvinism and shady “boys’ club” business deals?
Healthcare
Abolish the two-tier healthcare system! Why shouldn’t everyone be treated equally? Why can’t we provide better healthcare services through public funding? Have we really learned nothing from the pandemic?
Hospitals are closing, nurses have terrible working conditions and salaries (and the baby boomers are about to flood the system). Do we still not get that the free market screws everything up?
Environment
Please, let’s think about actual solutions. Yeah, it’s cute that bottle caps are now attached to plastic bottles—but does anyone really believe that this solves our problems? It’s the perfect metaphor for how everything is handled. Instead of asking “Do we need all this plastic?”, we just say, “Let’s glue the caps on tighter.” WTF!
Development
The Global North sends $210 billion in so-called “development aid” to the Global South—while simultaneously sucking $450 billion in debt repayments out of it! Meanwhile, colonial crimes remain unaddressed, racism persists, and the Mediterranean is a disaster zone. WOW!
Housing
Come on, let’s be honest—can we create affordable housing for everyone? Or do we really need real estate sharks making billions from speculation, destroying our city centers, and wiping out vibrant neighborhoods?
Culture
There’s not even a proper government ministry for culture. Yeah, it’s a state-level issue, but still—congratulations, everyone! We now exclusively produce crappy Netflix films and listen to AI-generated garbage on Spotify. We don’t fund independent arts anymore. Instead, we just work, sleep, and repeat. Awesome.
Acknowledgment
Endless gratitide to every entity and single atom helping me to be where I am now, to be who I am now!!!:
family, My former and current partners, friends, all musicians i had the possibility to work and learn with, All my teachers and mentors, nature, sports, flatmates, life, fun, future, all the inspiring activists out there (utmost respect for you), laughing, change, history, All philosophers i could Read or even meet, hope, all political and social movements doing the most important work, Present, all musicians i never met but learnt endlessly from, patience, chance, All producers i learnt from, randomness, new and speculative realism, all my bands i ever had, have and will have, weirdness, all the people who push music further, silliness, multidisciplinarity, All therapists i ever had, progressive feminism, stuff, All the collectives and communities i'm part of, simplicity, all cool labels out there, music, all progressive and lovely festivals, All the political activ bands, all composers i could learn from, more fun, 4/4 meter, Kukulida... and endless more people and stuff.
