Born in East Berlin before the wall fell dividing it from the West, and now based in Potsdam, brothers Sebastian & Daniel Selke began releasing music together under the moniker of CEEYS, a clever portmanteau that references their primary instruments (Sebastian on cello and Daniel on keyboards). Their last album, 2020’s Hausmusik (Neue Mesiter), marked a shift in focus from the memories of growing up in the communist-era GDR that informed their first four albums toward the present, a shift which continues on their first release as Brueder Selke which is due out next month on the Oscarson label.
While the foundational elements of Marienborn are the same – a blending of beloved classical instruments with vintage electronic gear from the Soviet era and Eastern Europe – the brothers push forward with a penchant for experimentation and sonic exploration that embraces asymmetrical time signatures, dual effects, and analog filters. It is a unique approach that not only characterizes their solo recordings but has made them sought after as collaborators on high-profile music libraries as well, elements of which surface in the new record.
This first Brueder Selke album shows up our deeply anchored need for experiments. Here we not only search for the hidden sounds of Daniel’s two beautifully restored pianos by the use of unconventional recording techniques and Sebastian’s cello contribution on a virtual string quartet by Ólafur Arnalds. All acoustic piano sounds are based on our library Go East II – Pianos and so the manipulation of previously carefully recorded samples is also a new aspect of our artistic work to explore.
Links: Bandcamp (LP/digital) | Brueder Selke | Oscarson
A lovely introduction to the album featured here is the title track, a gentle clockwork of interlocking piano lines that serve as a canvas for painterly cello textures that combine to form some of the most exquisite work the brothers have yet created. We’ll leave it here for now, but there is more soon to come as the album release approaches including a conversation with Sebastian and Daniel about their music and the 2023 edition of Q3AMBIENTFEST which they have been curating for the past seven years – so stay tuned!
Marienborn will be released by Oscarson on November 11, 2022, in three physical LP editions in addition to digital download & streaming – standard black and a pair of very limited handmade deluxe book editions tied to the album’s color themes, one in blue hot foiled in silver and the other in silver hot foiled in blue.
Stationary Travels 