NITRADA
We Don't Know Why But We Do It

Electronic music can turn you into a bit of a recluse.  Especially when, like Christophe Stoll aka Nitrada, you tinker with it by yourself - in the dark cellar of a dark city.  This might sound a little sad, dramatic even.  And in a way it is, but precisely these circumstances triggered an idea which proved crucial for the first ever Nitrada long-player: to brighten up his self-imposed solitude Christophe decided to, every once in a while, leave the basement door ajar - a welcome invitation for a stream of guest musicians to enrich these nine tracks with external ideas and impulses in a variety of possible combinations.  Amongst the contributors were Jukka Reverberi (guitar on "Fading Away" and "Start Today") as well as Corrado Nuccini (guitar on "No. 4") of Giardini di Mirò, Francesco Cantone of Tellaro/Twig Infection (vocals on "The Only Solution" and "Start Today"), plus Kaye Brewster (vocals on "Fading Away") and Nina Sophie Schwabe (vocals on "Like A Souvenir").

The idea itself is not a new one, but for Christophe‘s modus operandi it posed a brand new challenge: four of the five guests featured live far away from his hometown of Hamburg.  For this reason, it all started off with him mailing early versions of the songs to Scotland, Northern Italy and Sicily.  And in a way, the anticipatory wait for musical reactions, the initial listening and subsequent processing of these external triggers, proved to be an exciting and vital part of discovering his own sound: "Reminds me of playing in a band" the former drummer of noise rock formation "Motorambo" sighed with just a hint of nostalgia.  Although some of the guitar and vocal parts were recorded at home in his bedroom, most of the contributions made their way to the northern German harbour town via post or telephone lines. 

For the final mix, too, Christophe invited a "fresh" set of ears after months of solitary fine-tuning: the tracks received their final polish on Paul Kominek‘s (aka Turner) ancient analogue radio mixing desk.

Inter-European diversity has snuck into the sound spectrum of "We Don’t Know Why But We Do it" to enrich the instrumental blueprint of it‘s predecessor, the “0+”  EP.  But whether it’s noisy breakbeats ("Old Love, New Idea"), declarations of love ("Fading Away") or dreamy, guitar-driven melancholy ("Start Today") – the idea, the sound underneath it all, remains pure Nitrada.