July 2010
1 post
Final Goal Reached! You Did It!
41 days ago, Sylvia and me started raising funds for the next paniq album. I expected it to be a slow and exhausting uphill-battle, where we would have to convince each and everyone that giving us a few cents would become be the best thing they ever did.
Little did we expect the torrent of support that almost swept us away. Close friends and fans alike were the first to donate, and...
June 2010
2 posts
1 tag
First Goal Reached!
Yesterday evening, after only 14 days of fundraising, we reached the first funding goal of €4588, which means that we can produce the most remarkable album on this entire planet exactly as planned.
It’s amazing how fast you guys & gals reacted. We are speechless, and we love you all. Again, a big thank you to everyone who carried us this far.
Now for the second and final goal: as soon...
Goodbye Blogger, hello Tumblr!
“Wha..what happened to the blog?” you may wonder, to which I softly whisper, with the intonation of a madman: “Like what I’ve done with the place?”
I like Tumblr’s nicer user interface, theme database and templating system. On first impression, it can do a lot less layout-wise than Blogger, but I like how clean and web 2.0-ish everything looks. I imported all...
May 2010
10 posts
The Shout-Out Post
Here are the shout outs to our most generous supporters of the most remarkable album: Reza Esmaili, Yuriy O’Donnell, Martin Klein, Richard White, Andrew Holland, S.J.Bennett, Dominik Rothenberg, Mathias Garbe, Oliver Grünewald, Felix Bohmann, Fabian Giesen, Alex Brem, Richard Hafner, Malte Thiesen, Marcel Stritzelberger, Ulrich Bär, Tammo Hinrichs, Sandro Manke, Andrew Conkling, Andrew...
New Tracks: Two Remixes
I held these two tracks back for a few months. Here they are.
The Most Remarkable Album On This Entire Planet
Originally we planned to launch the campaign on May 29th, but then I noticed that today is Towel Day, and that pretty much changes everything. You see, Douglas Adams is the name patron to “paniq”. 14 years ago on IRC, when I had to pick my first nickname ever, I went for “PaNiC”. As you can imagine, I have not been the only one using it, so I changed one letter. Alas, here...
Results From the Fan-Funded Album Survey
A big hug to everyone who took the time to take part in the survey. There were 54 participants in the survey. We added the last question later, it has only been answered by 39 participants. Just for fun, we added the survey donations and ended up with a hypothetical $1620. That would already buy us almost one month of production. We will most likely go for a fundraising with four distinct...
Fan-Funded Album Project Survey
After our previous efforts at Kickstarter have oh so miserably failed, Sylvia and me set up a survey to solve the issue of how exactly we are going to fund the next album. Please have a look and if you like, give us your opinion. That would be tremendously helpful. Thanks in advance! :D Update: The survey is closed. Results will be published soon.
HALP! - The Odyssey of Crowdfunding My Next Album
Dear internet. I have a plan, reality is chaos, and thus, I humbly ask for your guidance and wisdom. You see, I wanted to make a new music album this year: The Most Remarkable Album On This Entire Planet. In fact, that’s the actual title of the album. I own all kinds of technical equipment and musical contraptions, all waiting to join the action - yet the last piece of equipment missing from...
New Video: "Aliens on Earth"
Finally managed to compile my mini-documentary of plants at Planten & Blomen, thanks to OpenShot. Also features some of my music, check it out.
Aliens on Earth from Leonard Ritter on Vimeo.
New Track: "Time"
Tried my old paths, bored myself to death. Finally found something new. I think it’s exactly the feeling I’m resonating with right now. Have a look.
Figuring out my life bottom up: loose ends,...
This is a list of loose ends. These are things that I want to do, a collection of ambitions and general goals. I want to tie all these loose ends into one big picture, where all those ambitions build a workable master plan. This is the only way to give my life a meaning and a higher purpose. There are a few causes which I want to support: renewable energies; environmental protection; electric...
YouTube Suggests Revenue Sharing, Then Threatens...
Update: YouTube replied with questions specifically targeting the music. I provided them with exact information on used programs and instruments, and that did it for them. Thankfully, the video got approved and now shows up as “Featured Video”. Now they suggested Masagin for revenue share, and I tried to be as specific as possible this time. Hopefully that fixes it. Here’s the...
April 2010
2 posts
Death on a Birthday
Perhaps you may have noticed that the title of the blog has already changed, and my real name is featured on the paniq.cc front page. This is all in preparation of me ceasing to use paniq as an artist name beginning July 31st this year, which also happens to be my 30th birthday. From then on, any new release will be associated with the upbeat name my family gave me. That’s right. It’s...
About Page Expansion
I expanded the About page to reflect my filmmaking ambitions, and also added a new photo and a background story on my relationship to my dad, so I don’t seem all awesome and shiny. Also, it’s a sad story which happens to be true.
March 2010
7 posts
New Track: "Unresolved"
I did this one all for myself. So screw you if you don’t like it! It’s my baby *sob* Ah yes, THE LINK.
New Track: "Stolen Identity"
More orchestra work. Getting better. Here it is.
Fan Videos on YouTube
There is yet another reason for me to spend a lot of time on YouTube, and it’s you. You, who made all these videos featuring my music. The videos that I search for when I need some cheering up. So I built a fan video playlist for everybody to enjoy. I’m going to extend the playlist as new videos come up.
New Track: "Perseverance"
Allow me to entertain you once more with my trusty MIDI orchestra. Voilá
New Track: "Get Me to Hollywood"
Another short piece. In this case I also wanted to test a new set of free instrument patches. Enjoy.
A Photo
My wife shot a few pictures of me, here’s one of them that we both like.
New Track: "A New Era"
Continuing in the spirit of “The Fourth Turning”, here is another short piece you can groove to. Enjoy.
February 2010
2 posts
Gentlemen: The High Scores.
I was contemplating about how I could increase the number of people who are familiar with our music. One way to do it is to spend a truckload of money on advertisement. Another way is to increase visibility on Last.fm, a music discovery webservice which tracks listening preferences, and makes suggestions to users. So I thought, why not turn this into a little game. I call it the listening game....
New Track: "The Fourth Turning"
A new year, a new kind of music. I’m making first steps with my new music software, Jacker. I was astounded how the new workflow pulled me along. The track kind of wrote itself. I like the relentlessness of the piece, the feeling of inevitability. Here it is.
January 2010
2 posts
New Track: "1-Up Mushrooms"
Played around a bit. Here it is.
Live DJ Set @ TUM 2009: Video & Audio
Happy New Year! In December, I had my first live act, which was not as live as you might expect: As you might know, I don’t play any instrument fluidly, I’m merely a composer. So, all I did was mixing pre-recorded songs, including a few unreleased ones. Fortunately, the organizers of TUM recorded the whole performance (including both crashes of my self-written alpha stage DJ software)...
November 2009
3 posts
New Track: "Technoia"
I survived the common cold, and this is new music.
New Track: "Popgeschäfte"
The idea came up while watching TV. Enjoy.
Mini-Podcast: Einführung
This is my first-ever podcast - an introduction. Unfortunately it’s in German, as I don’t see myself fit to talk english fluidly - trust me, you wouldn’t enjoy it. Listen to it here
October 2009
3 posts
New Track: "Es hilft"
Yay! I managed to do something with lyrics again. It’s about reconciliation and a bit of love, and the lyrics are in German, I’m afraid - but a translation is included. Click Here
Five New Tracks: Holiday Batch!
I took a week off and worked on my private projects. Of course, some new tracks got made too:
Weltkrieg
The Adventures of Little Miss Smoochie Smooch
Unemployed
The Oyster Quiz
Resolution
I’m also working on my own version of Tico Tico, but it’s not ready yet. :)
The Shpongle Debacle & Why My Music is Free
I listened to the most recent Shpongle album. It sounded like someone needed money. It certainly didn’t beat “Nothing Lasts But Nothing Is Lost” (which I bought, months after having it on repeat), it felt like a recap on what Shpongle had done so far, some of the ol’ Shpongle spirit, so to speak, and thus I believe that the leak of this album has been unfortunate - because...
September 2009
5 posts
Web Statistics for the "From Zero to Hero" Release
Here is some statistics, two days after the release of my new album, which was dedicated to the candidacy of the Piratenpartei in the German general elections 2009. The data is for Sept. 20, 2009 to Sept. 21, 2009 (Sunday + Monday). The site had 2,416 unique visitors and 3,308 pageviews, with the major part of 1,607 visits on sunday, and 809 visits on monday. There were slightly less actual hits...
New paniq Album: "From Zero to Hero"
After two years without a new release, I ultimately have found the time to compile a new electronic music album, containing all kinds of weird, funny and energetic tracks produced over the past two years. This album supports the Piratenpartei Deutschland, which takes part in the general elections for the first time, and stands for freedom of information and open governance. Klarmachen zum...
Announcing New paniq Album: "From Zero to Hero"
Update: The album is out.
Nerdkern: Fuck Fuck Party Party
There’s a new Nerdkern track on the internet. Get it while it’s hot, which is, uhm, forever!
Paniq Music Featured in Piratenpartei Spot!
The Piratenpartei is attempting to enter the Bundestag in the German elections 2009, and one of their (very nice) TV ads uses the track “Occidental Nemesis” by yours truly. The first ad (featuring my track) ran just about 10 minutes ago, the other ones will be aired over the following weeks:
Saturday, September 5th, 22:45 (CET) on ARD: “Ich bin Pirat”
Tuesday,...
August 2009
3 posts
Nerdkern: Nonstop Copyright Infringement
My other project has a new (possibly humorous) track online that you can listen to here.
New Track: The Future of the Internet
I couldn’t possibly add vocals or lyrics to this, it’s clearly too packed already. Enjoy until you turn deaf.
New Track: Piratenswing
After listening to Jazz of the thirties and fourties for a few days, I played around with Aldrin and tracked my first swing track. It’s not very long, but I’m happy with the result. Here it is.
July 2009
3 posts
New Track: Lost Purse
Only later, after I named the track, I thought about calling it “Synecdoche”, because of the movie, but as much as I like the music, I don’t think it would do justice. “Lost Purse” is a culmination of various ideas I have been tinkering with in the past months separately, such as 6/8 measures, full-on/psycore arpeggiator basslines, primitive analog synth presets,...
New Track: World in Crisis (II)
Kept fiddling with the track, and came out with this. Enjoy.
New Track: World in Crisis
Almost forgot to post it here. It’s a new small instrumental track that I made this weekend. Enjoy.
April 2009
2 posts
Nerdkern
If you like nerdy German Sprechgesang, may I recommend to you the brand new site of Nerdkern, with their debut single “Guter Text”? I heard the guy behind it is also responsible for another great electronic music act.
New Track: Toco Toucan
A kammerstück, check it out :)
March 2009
2 posts
New Track: Hotfix Waltz
A new track for your listening pleasure.
New Track: That's Why I'm Here
Hah. There’s another new track! Have fun :)
February 2009
8 posts
Finally Unfinished Part One on Bandcamp
Allright, since it was virtually impossible to get such a big track on Jamendo, and Bandcamp is a new site not yet enlightened by my presence, here is Finally Unfinished Part One for those who do not know it yet, containing 50 minutes of unfinished tracks. Enjoy :)
New Track: Schwierig
Here’s another new track, Schwierig. As the title says, it’s awkward :)
New Track: Indie Schmindie
Seems I’m on a winning spree. Here’s the link. I think the beat is pretty rad.