lawrence: birds on the playground

DJ, producer, and Dial Records co-owner Lawrence produced his fourth album for Mule Musiq. The Berlin-based artist wrote nine new arrangements specifically for Studio Mule, the new audiophile listening bar that Mule Musiq's head-honcho Toshiya Kawasaki recently opened in Shibuya, Tokyo. "Toshiya's wine and listening bar was the inspiration for the project. I followed the idea of listening to music in this (for me imaginary) place on a magic vintage sound system, slightly drunk with an always special drink in my hand! The music is therefore also very eccentric and 'tipsy', improvised on acoustic instruments, synthesizers and computer, combined with recordings I did in Berlin's Central Tiergarten Park." Lawrence acknowledges the imaginative superstructure above his new album and his mode of operating during the recordings. Birds On The Playground features deep pulsating music that unfolds its true absorbing character when the auditor listens carefully to the detailed storytelling of Lawrence. Like always, his tunes have a special, radiant pulse, that somehow is a signature sign of most of his productions. Playful cosmic grooves, light-hearted, crafted with love and yet freshly unsettling in some moments. His arpeggiated melodies remind partly on the music of Hans-Joachim Roedelius. In other seconds, they display a jazzy spiritual character and drift into meditative areas, that sound to a degree like long forgotten Japanese folk music spheres. As Birds On The Playground isn't aimed straight for the dancefloor, the overall coating of the music is a relaxed, cautious one, that goes beyond the average definition of ambient music. Each track builds up gracefully, in order to present a mesmerizing musical architecture, that offers new sound dimensions with any fresh listening turn. As the record is made for Mule Musiq's latest public space enterprise, everyone who is closely connected to the label was involved. Mule Musiq's core artist Kuniyuki was in charge for the mastering. And the labels visual artist Stefan Marx painted the cover artwork.