Dealing with chronic fatigue syndrome for the past few years, I took on a habit of hiking in nature frequently, which in turn led to a budding love of birdwatching. When I hear them I’m back at that peaceful place immediately. The opening track Brunnengasse features the wind chimes from the garden there. “In the summer of 2019 I took only a guitar and a “pocket piano” to a holiday retreat in rural mid-Germany that I visit regularly, and wrote most of the basic ideas for Tape 4. Somehow I feel some optimism can be found in these songs that perhaps reflects how I experienced this process.” Inspiration came from the emptiness after a stranded relationship, finding balance, peace and strength within yourself again. In Topper’s own words: “most of the compositions on Tape 3 originated at home, with a small and basic setup of a keyboard, a guitar, a rhythm box and some small instruments lying around the tape deck. With echoes of the dreamier end of 1980s English indie-pop, minimal ambient music and Brazilian bossa-nova, Topper’s musical storybook includes touches of The Durutti Column, echoes of Ethiopian Tezeta, hints of Antônio Carlos Jobim and Baden Powell, whilst all set firmly in the summer fields of Germany and the Netherlands. With a breezy and soothing quality these fourteen lo-fi, instrumental, jazz-infused sketches written on guitar, with cascading keyboards, vibraphone and drum machine, seem perfect for the second half of 2020, a year in which we could all surely use some curative and uncomplicated music. They were composed and recorded by Topper with just those aspects in mind as a personal remedy for the ailments of modern life. Tape 3 & Tape 4 is an intimate, emotional, lilting and melodic solo project with a restorative, therapeutic nature. As before these will be released as two separate digital EPs and then together on one vinyl LP.
Following on from 2018’s Tape 1 & Tape 2, Dutch producer and musician Eelco Topper returns to Soundway Records for the next two instalments of his Felbm project.