THE WASTELAND YEARS are original compositions from the mid-1990s, when I was around 17-18 years old. The chords and melodies are partly improvised, partly developed on the sequencer and digitally interwoven in an adventurous way. Some of the music belongs to the ambient genre, some to darkwave or electronic music.

Bonus Items:
- Original MC Cover illustration (1996)
- Original Artwork untouched (1996)
- Two unreleased “Bandpics” from 199x
- Foto of the treasure item, the BASF CD-R

What is the concept behind THE WASTELAND YEARS?
THE WASTELAND YEARS describes the world after a nuclear war. It begins with a flashback to "D-Day", which led to the nuclear strike, and highlights all aspects of post-nuclear life such as tyranny, improvised life in sewer systems and ends with the memory of better times. Dissociation as an escape from a hostile reality.
Several sources inspired me to write on this topic. The two Terminator films released to date were unmistakably among them. But also the echoes of the Cold War, which were reflected in pop culture. I often watched Sting's music video for his song "Russians" on MTV and was moved by his lyrics ("How can I save my little boy from Oppenheimer's deadly toy?"). And although the music video for "Land of Confusion" by Genesis was more humorous, the global danger of a possible nuclear war was also very clear here. These were songs from the mid-1980s, but I only became aware of them in the 1990s, so they ignited the initial spark for the concept of THE WASTELAND YEARS.
However, I wanted to keep my demo instrumental - apart from a small spoken track ("Sorry").

What was the musical inspiration for the demo?
At the time I was trying my hand at music, I already had a demo band with my friend Markus. That’s why some of the songs on “The Wasteland Years” sound similar in terms of instrumentation. We listened to a lot of "Deine Lakaien" at the time, and you can certainly hear that here and there on THE WASTELAND YEARS. Other tracks were completely new territory, both in terms of production and composition. I thought to myself, if artists like Jean-Michel Jarre and Enigma could incorporate ambient tracks into their albums, why shouldn't my project be allowed to do the same?
A third influencing factor was the music of my childhood: Matthew Cannon's C64 soundtrack to the game "BATMAN - The Movie" had a big influence on the tracks "Kevlar Cowboy" and "Sewer City", but influences from Jutta Stahlberg's soundtrack to the German science fiction radio play series "Jan Tenner" cannot be denied either.

How were the recordings made?
The 90s were a time of miracles. Mobile telephony arrived, Microsoft launched Windows 3.11 and access to the World Wide Web gradually became affordable for private individuals. Sometime between 1992 and 1996, I must have become interested in music production. The only equipment I had was an acoustic guitar, a bad Yamaha keyboard and a cheap microphone for connecting to a PC sound card. I borrowed my friend Markus' programmable Technics KN 1000 PCM keyboard and a KORG 05R/W General Midi sound module. This expanded my possibilities many times over. But to combine all devices, I needed a recording option.
I found that Windows 3.11 provided a small built-in tool called "Sound Recorder" in the "Accessories" folder. Perfect! Now I was able to save analog audio signals as WAV files on my computer.
Much better, however, were very helpful functions of the tool: you could increase or decrease the volume of a WAV File in 25% increments and there was the groundbreaking "Mix with File" command. This meant I could combine different WAV Files (=recordings) or as many tracks as I wanted. The only problem was that the tool's interface hardly allowed me to work precisely. Whether the transitions between the tracks matched up well sometimes was a trial and error brute force.
And yet I didn't let that put me off. I composed individual pieces on the KN 1000 and used the built-in composer to pre-mix keyboard tracks and record them as a finished mix. Then I added atmospheric sounds live during the recording with the KORG module.
I have no idea how I ended up with such a well-rounded result. Of course, there are a few drawbacks. The recordings are all in mono, and some of them are overdriven. You can also hear digital crackling here and there. BUT!
For the nursery recording that was THE WASTELAND YEARS, I still find the result impressive today and bow to my younger self for how stubbornly it followed this vision.

Why are the recordings only being released now, 28 years after they were made?
At the time, I didn't think THE WASTELAND YEARS was professional enough to release. And so the mixed WAV files remained on my hard disk and I forgot about them. Years later the files fell into my hands again by chance. They sounded better than I remembered! So I burned a CD to listen to it in my car, but my opinion had not changed. These recordings were not suitable for commercial marketing. They were in mono and the sound dragged here and there. That was very sad, but it couldn't be helped. So the CD ended up in a drawer and gathered dust. But burning a CD of the WAV Files somehow was a lucky coincidence or a divine inspiration, because some years later the old hard disk had a defect and had become unreadable. But the CD stayed and I kept it unseen along with several other backup copies. Over the decades, this CD always moved with me.
When I started a "clear-out" last year and got rid of countless old backup CDs, I also checked this one CD labeled "TWY". And there they were – those eight tracks from the past. A little time capsule.
Today I think differently about these recordings. I find them enriching, because they show the basic sounds, moods and motifs that you can still hear in today’s TWO WORDS IN JAPANESE.
That's why I want to share these recordings with you.

Have the recordings been adapted for Bandcamp?
I left the recordings largely unchanged. I reduced excessive volume fluctuations and made sure that some of the the high frequencies didn't shred your ear canal. :D
I have also opted for a slightly different order. "Day of the End" was actually the second track on the CD, but today I think it sounds more like an intermezzo and wanted to hear at least one song-like track first.

I hope you enjoy this little surprise.