play this crazy stuff!”

At a Balkan music workshop at the University (held by a professor from California) I met a clarinetist with a not very balkanese name: Thorsten Müller.

He played klezmer music with a strange band The Singing Counter every night for a glass of wine. Because I would make him yummy coffee and he could check his emails on my computer he came to every rehearsal.

Franka Lampe lives around the corner, but was hard to reach because she teaches accordion classes all over Germany.

Daniel Bätge lives far away in Weimar and was touring with Clueso. So we had to do the bass rehearsals via email.

Kristina Lösche-Löwensen plays the violin in the theater company a rose is in Berlin. Suddenly she became pregnant and I got an apologetic sms from southern France.

Vladimir Karparov’s father and my father had spent 2 years together serving in the Bulgarian army. He played unconditionally the part of the soprano saxophone, and in return I helped him to move into a relatively windowless but inexpensive apartment in Berlin-Neukölln. As it turned out we are even distant cousins.

Finally, it was on me to play the oboe, the guitar and to sing.


Facing Reality

People with totally different music tastes started to react ecstatically when listening to the demo – and I got nervous. Somehow, somewhere I had to produce an album. How fantasy became reality I leave up to you to imagine. Finally, a low budget recording took place, extremely difficult, very slow, but with constant joy – the first Xell record. Compared to that the new challenges I had to face: the harassing job center, my exploding bills, and worried relatives were easy. Life became more exciting, more and more moneyless, but it had something of a positive meaning, even happiness. Well, I didn’t merry after all, but God knows how painstakingly I looked for The One.


PS:

When people learn about my dual citizenship they always ask me: “Do you feel more German or more Bulgarian?”

Wouldn’t it be more inspiring to ask me how to combine some interesting and precious cultural traits of East and West, or rather: to hear them combined?
Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Will we catch cats to rub our tummies?
What?

Will our lives be ruled by money?
Errr, yeah? Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

Will we be stuck in national belonging?
No!

Will we make eccentric music no matter how hard someone is banging on the door?
Yes, yes, yes!

Will we bend or do what we want?
What we want, man!

And that is Xell!
Have fun or come up with your own stuff... ;-)

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