Vrystaete / Netherlands / RE 2026
Baldruin aka Johannes Schebler is no stranger in the field of ambient music or to Vrystaete. Together with Christian Schoppik he is (was?) Diamantener Oberhof whose album was released on Vrystaete in 2015. Also released in 2015 was Miniaturen. A cassette album in an an edition of 60 copies released on the A Giant Fern label.
Here we are 10 years later and Baldruin has ever since been building his name and repertoire… releasing 9 albums during these years… Quite some of these albums are finding its way to the turntable here on a regular basis… But the Miniaturen album on cassette has always been my personal favorite…
Johannes and I have discussed several times to release a Baldruin album on Vrystaete… but none was fitting the Vrystaete aesthetics so well as Miniaturen… it is dreamy, comforting, but also melancholy without becoming too heavy on your mood… Music wise the Baldruin trademark is there… the music is playful… created with electronics and all kind of (toy) instruments… the sounds are like the compositions itself: small, delicate, magical, surreal and full of craftmanship… only Miniaturen sounds less abstract and hectic as some of the Baldruin albums do at times… it has a flow and mood similar of Coil’s Musick To Play In The Dark… at least to my ears…
These 11 small compositions have never felt like 11 separate pieces to me… they have always felt and have been experienced by me as two larger pieces of music… the way the pieces flow in and out of each other made me press the music to vinyl as two long tracks… one on each side of the record… so without hard cuts in between the tracks but still with the original flow as intended by the musician…
So again… here we are 10 years later and back at Miniaturen to celebrate its anniversary…