The Shell Collector – Raw, improvised and live from a studio in Nalepastrasse

This simply is what it’s about in music.

This track puts me right into session mode. I used to play with a krautrock band a couple of years ago, and this was exactly the music we were aiming for. This is living, breathing music, it’s the essence of what musicians are about, of what they are trying to transmit and what they are in their soul.

First things first: this is no ordinary well-polished radio track. You need to have time for this kind of track. It’s an improvised session recording lasting about half an hour long. I don’t say this too often, but it’s okay to drink or smoke something while enjoying this track. You need to relax and allow the music to have an impact on you. Not just your ears, you need to focus on what’s happening in there. This isn’t just some guys playing together, it’s a highly sophisticated form of conversation between the guys. If you listen closely, you can hear the several stages of every single musician. Feel how the tension is rising all of a sudden. Hear how the bass line breaks out of the inear pattern to lead to a change of pace and energy. Listen to the beat swelling from laid back to kickass psychedelic rock while the guitars get lost in silky riffs in one second and then change to distorted raw and edgy tunes in the other second. There is a mutual understanding of the guys happening, and this cannot be bought or faked, it has to evolve like ay form of relationship.

If you can’t feel this track on this level, then I’m sorry, this won’t be for you. You have to be able to get lost in music for the tune. The track was played in commemoration of the liberation of Italy from Fascism, but you know what? Forget about the main idea behind the music for a second. Not that it’s completely unimportant, but I want you to actually understand the language the guys of The Shell Collector. They react to one another, they form an idea together, they evolve this idea on the fly, they feel what works and what doesn’t, they are brave enough to let glitches happen in search for the next highlight. THIS is what session music is all about, and session music is what the core of music is all about. This, my friends, is why I love music so much.

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