Escape Velocity
While I still like a bunch of tracks from my last album „Miami Nights“, I knew I wasn’t done yet.
I tried to do better and I knew I could. This may be the result. I am very excited to present you my child of heart: „Escape Velocity“, an album I recorded maybe one week after finishing „Miami Nights“. I really like „Starlight“, „Vector Limit“, „Sunrays“ and still feel all the other pieces are necessary in a way I can’t really put into words.
Feedback has become rare in recent months and I’d love to hear from someone. Is there something on this album you like, hate or don’t care about?
Miami Nights
This album is about you.
This might be the 346th synthwave album named „Miami Nights“ but hey, there are many nights to have in that town, right? Last time I did synthwave, I wasn’t happy with the results („Earth Sounds“) and I removed the complete album from Bandcamp. The only surviving piece is „Warm Tissues“, which you can find on this album right here.
After some abscence of anything non-instrumental, you will find some vocal tracks on this one. My favorite might be „Supernova“, but I’m not final on this opinion.
This album is „lighter“ than it’s predecessors, it’s not as dark as my synthwave albums used to be. I had great fun with creating sume funky, some powerful, some sweet tunes for ya!
Have fun and write some reviews! I love you!
You ready for a Threesome?
The „Journey“ trilogy is finished!
III. Return
Well, I’m done for now. This is part 3 of my „Journey“ albums which took you to jupiter and back.
Again, I tried to do something different than on the previous parts, but without abolishing what has led to this musical conclusion.
This time, there are quite some tracks with vocals done by me. „Violent Dreams“ & „Incarnation Inspiration“ were originally recorded in 1999 by a younger version of myself.
You may listen to these original recordings at:
https://engelsblut.bandcamp.com/album/engelssucht
Those two songs and a bunch of other old stuff was re-recorded in 2015 and finally re (or de-)mastered again for this album release.
There’s a lot of synthwave going on, but it’s not a pure genre album, as dark wave and other electronical influences may be very dominant this time. It is what it is: A part of my soul, ready to be listened to.
Music is my life and so I spent a lot of time with doing it. I’m always eager to try new stuff, change my style, but always express who I really am. This might result in strange things like this album.
Making these three albums was an abolute thrill! It brought back memories of my early beginnings as a musician. Those were the good times. Times, when I still figured out how to do things. This is what these albums are about (at least to me). Trying things I haven’t done before.
Have a wonderful time with these melodies and keep reviewing it as I really would like to read your thoughts!
Stay healthy and keep loving!
Ben
II. Jupiter
This is a tale about someone who listened to my previous album „Sunset Roads“. No it isn’t, just because I can’t come up with any interesting right now because I’m drunk.
„Sunset Roads“ was very chiptune-y, but had also some „Outrun“ and 80s vibe to it. Ok. Maybe I’m wrong but at least that were my intentions when doing that album. I wanted to create some catchy tunes for people like me.
There’s a little story hidden in „Sunset Roads“ which is told by music, not by words. At the end of the album, the story takes you on a journey to Jupiter.
This is that journey.
It might not be that catchy, it definitely isn’t that much chiptunes anymore. It is my journey into a musical genre I fell in love with – just recently.
Finally, at the end of this album you arrive at Jupiter. Maybe it will take you somewhere else.
Maybe.
Something personal (trying to act not drunk): I’ve been doing music for about 22 years now and I’ve released almost 700 songs with my primary project „ENGELSBLUT“. If you listen to AND like this album you might never have heard of that other stuff. It’s German, something between dark wave and medieval folk and quite strange. I grew into that kind of music and it is my „daily piece of things I like to do beside of going to the toilet“). I never earned real money with doing music as I released my stuff for free for almost 15 years but I keep doing it anyway.
I’ve never felt that much excitement at making music as with these two albums (this and „Sunset Roads“) because they are so much closer to what I feel and love than my „main“ stuff.
If you like this album, please make a comment. I’m not urging you to buy it (well you really should if you want some more) but I really would like to read if you like it or not. This is so important, though I know it’s hard to take yourself some time to do so.
If you want to buy this album: Go ahead and do so! Maybe, just maybe, some day I can fully concentrate on my music and quit my daily job. I always dreamed of this but being a solo-project without any kind of management creates a giant anxiety of the unknown. I can’t exist without music, so you’re investing in more music at least.
Are you really reading this album description? Come on! Listen, dance, love, feel lonely and live!
I. Sunset Roads
This album is dedicated to anyone who likes being a person.
This album is also dedicated to people who like catchy tunes and listen to tracks from start to finish!
It is heavily influenced by playing Horizon Chase Turbo. After playing this game for the first time, I fell in love with everything about it. That night I decided to make a new instrumental album (yeah – no vocals. AGAIN.), stuffed with synthies and a lotta love! This is the result!
I produced 11 tracks for this album within a week. A quick shot for sure, but I am very pleased with what came across my mind. 2 tracks turned out that awful, I had to kill ‚em with a flamethrower.
So there’s 9 tracks and there wont be any more for this album. Looking at previous albums, I tend to never finish them at all and then you get these 40 track monsters noone ever wants to listen to.
You really should buy this stuff because these tracks want to fall in love with you! Give ‚em a new home!
With this album, the old name MONOPILOT is no more related to this music project. In fact there’s another band calling itself MONOPILOT way before I did. From now on, STARLANDER is what you’re looking for.
There won’t be a lot of new music till autumn has arrived in all it’s glory. There’s another upcoming release called „Wanderlust“ which will be a musical stew made of ambient / synth / piano & classic music. This, again, will be instrumental. There are already some tracks available, but I’m in no mood for silent & sad tunes because of the fucking hot weather.
If you’re looking for classic „MONOPILOT“ style, listen to „Tea&Fruits“ in my discography. It has been finished only a few weeks ago and phrases my musical legacy very much.
Thanks for reading this much too long release notes and let me hear if you dig the album!
Benjamin
Upcoming: The video game!
about
STARLANDER (formerly Monopilot / Mono: Poly) is a music project by Benjamin Johannes Luikenga. It was founded in 2005 by Benjamin Johannes Luikenga & Markus Jack Dijkgraf .
story
In 2005, the two friends founded an experimental music project to let off steam in different styles together. The first release followed quickly in the form of the album “ Grocery Store „. Without being supported by a label, the first work was distributed internationally as a CD and was sold out within a short time. Only a little later followed the album „Apple Department“, which was exclusively distributed digitally.
In the following period Luikenga concentrated increasingly on his meanwhile more popular project ENGELSBLUT. Despite missing publications, he wrote and produced more demos for Mono: Pilot.
Finally, in 2017 all produced works were published under a new name „MONOPILOT“ on the music platform Bandcamp. Later it was renamed to STARLANDER! What a mess! The discography also includes some purely instrumental albums from various genres, some of which were produced as soundtracks for podcasts , independent films and games .
Since 2017, a wealth of new songs has been created, which have since been published in a timely manner.
style
STARLANDER uses many stylistic elements of different genres. These include Synthwave, Electro-Pop , Rock , Metal , Chiptunes and Classical.Significant influences include the Beatles , Daft Punk & Findel .
