Is there any point in talking about recovery if we have never really been healthy? I started working on this album four years ago. I had in mind the Americans' obsession with self-help, self-sufficiency, and self-empowerment - all just a cruel and cheap substitute for charity and mutual help. With this principle, only those who have enough money to help themselves are rewarded, and all others are punished because they allegedly did not make enough effort. Then a new president was elected - and since then, culture and economics have been about one thing and one thing only: bringing our more powerful, more daring, more pure-bred times back to life. Some of my friends became seriously ill, others have died or committed suicide, and all my fears have become reality. But don't worry - the music on this record does not sound depressing. As always, I have spent the last fifty years throwing art rock and soul into a mixer and putting it at full throttle. When I wrote the pieces, my constant companions were mainly 10cc, J Dilla, Liaisons Dangeroux [1], Jean Claude Vannier, Anna Meredith, Slade, D'Angelo and so on. But you will probably find that out for yourself when you listen to them. The music on this album is the result of a close collaboration with my partner Monica BouBou (violin and vocals) and our super band consisting of Josh Johannpeter (drums), Jim "Dallas" Cooper (bass), Billie Howard (keyboards and strings), Devon Davis (guitar) and the sound artist DJ LeDeuce. The recordings took place in the basement of a house over several months. In the piece "Brother", synthesizer genius Felix Kubin gets a guest appearance, and the whole thing was mixed in the most wonderful way by Tobias Levin and Hannes Plattmeier in Hamburg
