CHRISTIAN NAUJOKS

Christian Naujoks' work has been heard and seen in a wide range of contexts, from nightclubs to concert halls, art venues and the theatre. He released three solo albums on Berlin-based label Dial Records. After his critically-acclaimed album "Wave" (2016), which has been praised as a contemporary masterpiece of ambient romance and "the most exquisitely melancholy thing he's done yet" (Pitchfork), followed by numerous collaborative projects with performance artist Ei Arakawa, filmmaker Loretta Fahrenholz and composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, among others, Christian Naujoks is back with a new record produced during his exhibition "Soft Mouth Data Service" at Galerie Max Mayer in Düsseldorf. - Releases on Dial Records, Staatsakt, Martin Hossbach - Includes a unique cover of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill" 01 Melenkeyz 02 Aberrant Joan 03 No rave 04 Cosmic Stringz 05 Soft Cover 06 Service Industry 07 Woman Ascending The Stairs 08 Ambient Rave 09 Insomnia 10 Self-Castration In Ur Sleep 11 Tearz Christian Naujoks' work has been heard and seen in a wide range of contexts, from nightclubs to concert halls, art venues and the theatre. He released three solo albums on Berlin-based label Dial Records. After his critically-acclaimed album "Wave" (2016), which has been praised as a contemporary masterpiece of ambient romance and "the most exquisitely melancholy thing he's done yet" (Pitchfork), followed by numerous collaborative projects with performance artist Ei Arakawa, filmmaker Loretta Fahrenholz and composer Ari Benjamin Meyers, among others, Christian Naujoks is back with a new record produced during his exhibition "Soft Mouth Data Service" at Galerie Max Mayer in Düsseldorf. Recorded live on site the eleven tracks featured on this album range from electronic ambient music, microtonal guitar excursions and abstract beats to a unique cover version of Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill - all characterized by Naujoks' evocative, humorously wistful approach to music-making and his self-aware yet unabashed search for fragile, intimate beauty. Showing once more that he can feign both naivete and virtuosity, camouflaging one as the other as he effortlessly dresses up art as pop and vice versa. Naujoks engages in a referential world-building that stays geared toward the here and now. In "Aberrant Joan" he combines glitched string orchestration with melodic synth-flutes that call to mind the online activism of K-Pop stans. The bass line of the song diptych "No Rave" and "Ambient Rave" takes the music to a deeper dimension, echoing early 90s rave which is contrasted by Naujoks' crystal clear voice. The album closes with "Tearz", a duet for piano and drum sampler, which captures both the emotional gravity and the surprising lightness of the entire album in one track. Edition of 300 copies pressed on transparent vinyl, lacquer cut by Mike Grinser. Includes inlay with liner notes by Colin Lang. Design by Laura Catania & Thomas Spallek, artwork by Christian Naujoks. Created 11 years ago as a gallery without a fixed location, Galerie Max Mayer has since become an integral part of Düsseldorf's cultural landscape. In 2020 the gallery moved to the historic Schmela Haus built in 1971 by the Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck. The building in the Mutter-Ey-Straße, made of raw pumice concrete blocks, not only handles the exhibition spaces in a playful way, but also offers excellent sound. The resulting recordings are released under the title of the gallery's new publishing house: Mutter-Ey-Press(e). Mother Johanna Ey was a proto-gallerist and prominent figure in the Rhineland art scene at the end of the 19th century until after the second world war. With Christian Naujoks' new vinyl album Mutter-Ey-Press(e) is happy to announce its first LP release that conveys his show "Soft Mouth Data Service" at the gallery space in 2021 that was conceived in direct interrelation with the audience.