Basel-Genève (2017)

For this project, drummer Julian Sartorius hiked for ten days through Switzerland. In his luggage: two drumsticks and a curiosity about the sounds they might produce along the way. Out of the beats collected en route he made the album «Hidden Tracks: Basel – Genève», an experimental sound collage that maps Switzerland far from the usual stereotypes. In the distribution of the record Sartorius is also charting new territory: It will not only be sold as a vinyl record but also as a hiking map with a download code.

For his last major solo project – «Beat Diary» (2012 / Everest Records) – Julian Sartorius left the studio; each day for one year he played a track in his immediate surroundings. For the album «Hidden Tracks: Basel – Genève» Sartorius progresses a thousand steps further: In October 2016 he donned his backpack and hiked for ten days from Basel to Geneva via the Jura Ridgeway Trail (270 kilometres). For sound sources he used what he found en route: tree trunks, hiker turnstiles, empty silos, dry corn stalks – each object evoking its own voice. As an explorer of the quotidian, Sartorius evoked with his drumsticks a universe of sound that’s hidden to the regular hiker. With a backpack full of recorded rhythmic patterns and sound sources Julian Sartorius returned to the studio to create the album «Hidden Tracks: Basel – Genève». Sartorius edited the different audio files, layering and combining them together. The result is an experimental sound collage in which every track represents one day of hiking and where the familiar meets the previously unheard.

The album «Hidden Tracks: Basel – Genève» will be released in June 2017 by Bernese label Everest Records. It will be available in two formats – as a hiking map with a download code and as a regular 12” vinyl. The map, designed by Silvio Brügger, charts and retraces the paths that Sartorius walked, inviting people to follow in the footsteps of the artist. In addition, one track of the album will be released as an artwork postcard that can be played as a vinyl on a record deck. The album release tour will see Sartorius guide an audience along a short hike circuit during which Sartorius will improvise with objects he finds along the way. The audience participants will follow while listening using headphones that receive audio from a microphone Sartorius trains on the objects. These hikes will start and end at selected music venues.

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