********************************************************************************* dear friends, 2004 was a busy year here at treuland. and 2005 seems to be revving up to be just as turbulent. last year was shaped mostly by the work on and the release of the new der plan album ³die verschwörung², which i¹m very proud of. we got lots of both enthusiastic and scathing reviews - indicating that der plan is still good for causing unrest and divergence. i would have felt bad if the album had only been gently applauded by each and every lamer in the writers¹ guild. in times like these, who needs music sans content anyway? der plan premiered live at the periferias festival in huesca / spain and was spoiled to pieces by the passionate audience there. a lot of live performances are planned for 2005 as well. we¹ll be visiting sweden, france, spain and japan soon. my collaboration with richard cameron has born fruit as well. we¹re currently working on our new project ³fluffy target², which you should be hearing from quite soon. not much time left for hanging out - particularly since the mutter boys are always recruiting me for live-gitarrenlärm. the documentary movie ³wir waren niemals hier² (we were never here) about the band is celebrating it¹s premiere at the berlinale this february - a good opportunity to practise some red-carpet-walking. latest newsflash: i just received a brilliant remix of der plan¹s ³deutschland, bleiche mutter² from dj malente. it¹ll soon be released on the belgian dance label lowlands. i¹m looking forward to have this thingy spinning on my Œtables... thanks for staying in tune. yours treuly, ********************************************************************************* dear friends, sorry it¹s taken me so long to update this time. i¹ve been so busy working on projects with der plan and mr. cameron that i¹ve barely had the time to shave. eeew! i just discovered something very cool and exiting: it¹s called ³good promotion² - and i think it¹s the next big thing. it all started when i began getting lots of offers to participate with my work on various cd-compilations, newly founded web-labels (they sprout like mushrooms!), commercials, and the like. people from all around the world are offering to use my musik and, in return, give me good promotion for it. i was a little sceptical at first, because i worked so hard on all those tunes, and there was, of course, no money involved. but in the end - and that¹s the whole point - it all will be very good promotion for me and my work. so i dropped my objections and, thinking it over more deeply, realized that this is actually a very interesting concept. early the next day i was ready to give more good people the opportunity for some good promotion too. first thing in the morning i asked gisela, the saleswoman from my bakery on the corner, for a promotional breakfast supply, which will at some point be really good promotion for her and her business. and guess what... she handed my a whole bag of good berliner schrippen with a big smile! man, that was successful. next thing i tried was to convince the driver on the bus to town about the advantages of good promotion. somehow i had the feeling that he did not really get the whole concept behind good promotion. he seemed quite distracted anyway. but in the end he waved me through and i got a free ride into town. the next day i expanded my promotional activities and gave my landlord a call. he owns various buildings in the area and it definately would have a good promotional effect for him to have a well-known artist like me living in one of his appartements. but what a bummer! that guy is just so old-timey! he really thinks he¹s fine without any promotion for his business at all. how silly is that? but, i¹m telling you folks, this sort of narrow-minded behaviour still seems to be strong in our society. people often need a long time to grasp a new groundbreaking concept. our local gas and power suppliers are the best example. and even somewhat ³new² businesses, like my telephone and internet providers, are still not ready for ³good promotion². not to speak of georgio, the owner of that little italian restaurant here in my street. he actually acted kinda rude. nevertheless, i think of ³good promotion² as a thing of the future. people just need more time to appreciate the benefits of giving your work away for free. i still strongly believe in the spirit of ³good promotion². i¹m even thinking about calling my next album that. yours treuly, ******************************************************************************** just recently i found myself sitting in the studio admidst my musical pandemonium, brooding over dark and unhealthy thoughts. all through the years i have been sprinkling wondersome tunes across the world and still the four walls of my little studio remain empty of them platinium records they should rightfully be plastered with. to cheer myself up, i wrote a little note to the supatopcheckerbunny, that ever-helpful little rodent of titanic fame to asked for some advice that could brighten my tortured mind. a couple of days later, as i was right in the middle of having a good cuppa cawfee at the breakfast table, and was still wearing my pyjamas, the doorbell rang unexpectedly. surprise! a little white rabbit stood in front of me and introduced herself as the supatopcheckerbunny. ³mang, you need a hit record - that¹s fo sho² she said. and while i was still fiddling with my morgenmantel, she plopped out a tiny guitar from her fluffy fur and started strumming and singing. quickly, i leaped to turn on the revox tapemachine, whilst the fluffy fellow was dancing Œround the microphone singing hysterically, ³hey! freaks! listen up, i have a message for you...!². when i plugged in the little moog to add a freaky lo-fi bassline we both got into a jamming frenzy. in nullkommanix the new song was on tape and later back in the kitchen over a strong pipe of the best homegrown and a carrot, bunny gave me some very useful advice. she said: ³you¹ve got to continue making good music, even if it¹s not paid well. people love you for your music, they just don¹t wanna to spent too much on it, because they need their stash for designer clothes. just imagine you are karl lagerfeld. he has so much money that he just don¹t care about it any more. if you¹d buy big sunglasses it might help, too². ³thank you supatopckerbunny!², i shouted, while the little critter hopped away to catch the last u-bahn. ******************************************************************************* hi friends, what¹s new in treuland? just finished helping out mr. cameron with some soundtrack work for the dutch movie ³phileine zecht zorry². it will premiere at the end of september in amsterdam. see you at the buffet! september is also seeing the release of my long awaited collaboration with electronic music pioneer jon appleton, the mighty ³herrr prrrofffessor tonbandmeisterrr². our new record company crippled dick hot wax just set up a little homepage with all of the juicy details. checko, checko! ...and i recently went on safari with peter licht. his new album will be out soon too. check out the maxi, it¹s lot¹s-o-fun. yours treuly, kunstler treu