NN15

Brain Ego, the artist whose real name shall not be revealed here, was born in 1962 in a small town just next to Frankfurt, Germany., called Bad Orb. He is one of those figures who managed to remain completely invisible over the decades, due to the fact that he never considered himself to be a recording artist at all. A very wise and somewhat innocent move to bypass all scenes and hype that have swamped electronic music in Germany since the early 90s. "The Ego has Landed" is an album that had been lost for almost a decade, as the only master tapes had been in the possession of the later Peter Kuhlmann. Only now, have the twists and turns of history made this music unexpectedly reappear. The original masters were restored carefully and the completely unaltered recordings shall be presented herewith, as they restore and complete the narrative of electronic music of the Frankfurt Era
The artist had agreed upon releasing a limited edition vinyl run on NN. And to my surprise, the entire edition had sold out by the time  those copies had arrived. This announcement therefore seems to be a mere formality, pleasing only Brian's ego as to see his hibernating masterpiece finally made public.

The artist was so kind to shed some light on the "whens" and "hows", answering a couple of questions:

NN: When and where were those recordings made?

BE: I recorded them somewhere between 1997-2001 in my studio in Bad Orb
What you hear now on "The Ego has Landed" is composed out of a long series of recordings I had done for myself, without any intention for releasing them.

NN: Can you tell us more about the recordings? Maybe some technical information?

BE: I had a small studio in my apartment which had come about as I was collecting synthesizers over the years. I would often play around with them, but mainly just for fun. My love for electronic music started back in the early 90s, yet it was mainly my fascination for synthesizers themselves which captivated my imagination. I think this might have been the point were Peter and I connected.  
We had met at an auction in Berlin where a rare Yamaha CS80 had been sold. I had gotten the synth, though Peter had been very keen on it and we were both bidding head to head with each other. Peter was a gentlemen and he congratulated me after the auction and we started to talk. By that time in my life I had collected quite a many synths. A lot of them, very rare ones. The music on those recordings was made with way too many machines for me to list here, but the CS80 was used amongst a lot of ARP and the classic Roland gear of course.

NN: What happened to those recordings then, what's their story?

BE: Peter and I had quite regular conversations throughout all those years, right up until his sudden death. I was very, very reluctant to send Peter any of my music, since it was not made "for public", but just for myself. Peter was very insistent, so I sent him a bunch of DAT tapes with heaps of music on it. Most of it was "finished" material. Finished in the sense that I could not re-record or remix any of that. All my music was recorded in one take and straight onto DAT. Because I sent Peter so much material it took him quite a while to actually listen to all of it. I hadn't expected that he would like any of it, to be honest, so I was very surprised that he did seem to like it. For many months we kept talking about certain tracks and Peter then made a collection of his favourites. He told me that he would like to release them on his label, which of course totally shocked me. Honestly, my first reaction to his proposal was negative. I'm not a musician, you know, not like Peter was. Also, I do have a normal day job and the world of "music business" seemed kind of unnecessary and a little too serious to me. Then, around 2003, I developed a serious health issue which interrupted most of my activities, and unfortunately the conversations with Peter as well, lasting i guess until around 2005-2006 or so. It took a while to get back into sync with Peter then, as he had also moved to another place and seemed quite busy with farming.

NN: And then Peter died.

BE: Exactly. It was a real shock for me, as for so many, I think. Unfortunately, and on top of all of this: I had given Peter the original master tapes and didn't have copies myself. I told you...I'm not a professional. Basically all that music was lost. It was somewhere at Peter's estate and nobody could tell me anything about anything for many years. I had assumed that the music was lost, until I then got a message from Peter's daughter who then sent me the DAT tapes back.

NN: What about your pseudonym and all that?

BE: Peter thought it was very funny, we both had a great laugh about it.

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All titles composed by Brain Ego.
Recorded and mixed at "The Ego's Nest", Bad Orb 1997-2001.
Original mastering by Brain Ego.
Mastered for vinyl by Jordan Rose.
All tracks restored from original digital audio tapes.
Artwork by Michaela Meinl.


A1 Fly Like an Ego
A2 Silver Ego
A3 Where Egos Have Been
A4 Ego Rock

B1 Brian Damage
B2 Monkey Brian
B3 Heart Ain't a Brian
B4 Ego Brian


"Brain Ego: The Ego has Landed", all configurations and releases:

"Brain Ego: The Ego has Landed" - Limited Edition 12" (NN/2021)


ITEM SOLD OUT