Thomas Leisner

About Beauty and Bright Ideas
September 21st, 2016

Acrepearls Album Release

My current band Acrepearls just published their first release “Mikrokosmos” on Lalonova. The album features the band’s first team including Kai Mader – saxophone, Joh Weisgerber – bass and myself on drums. It was recorded in 2014 at Kanin near Potsdam.

June 23rd, 2016

Rebecca Lenton Recording

I am happy to present my first classical recording at Delicious Drums Studio, featuring flute and harp, played by renowned soloists Rebecca Lenton and Nathalie Amstutz. We recorded three pieces from classical over modern to improvised music.

Rebecca and Nathalie call their Duo A Moveable Music. They bring an innovative flute and harp programme, combining classical repertoire and contemporary works with improvisation tailored to each performance and venue.

I had the chance to encounter the two at a private concert, a musical “Salon” at the home of one of my drum students. From Bach to Takemitsu and beyond, Rebecca and Nathalie guided their listeners through a multitude of musical styles, giving a brief introduction to the works along the way.

For many in the audience, including myself, it was the first time to have this combination of instruments, and especially to listen to a harp so closely. I had the opportunity to bring that experience even one step further by recording the duo, putting my favorite microphones as close to the instruments as possible.

Rebecca Lenton and Nathalie Amstutz both have a wealth of experience as soloists, chamber players and orchestral musicians in a wide range of musical genres. They play together as a duo to explore and further the repertoire for flute and harp.

Born in Switzerland, Nathalie studied in Detmold, Frankfurt am Main and Berlin. She was solo harpist with the Osnabrücker Symphoniker, Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and the Bremer Philharmoniker. Today she freelances with orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Düsseldorf Symphoniker, Bamberger Symphoniker, Philhamonie du Luxembourg, Oslo Opera,WDR Orchester Köln, the Hamburger Philharmonik and the Tonhalle Zürich. She is also very dedicated to contemporary music, having played at several new music festivals and working frequently with Ensemble KNM Berlin.

Born in England, Rebecca studied in London at the GSMD and in Basel. She has been a member of Ensemble KNM Berlin since 2001 and has performed at prestigious concert venues and festivals worldwide, including at the Carnegie Hall in New York, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Wien Modern, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Ultraschall Festival and Märzmusik in Berlin, Festival Présences in Paris, and tours to Argentina, Japan and Taiwan. She is also a regular guest with Klangforum Wien in Austria and has freelanced with orchestras including Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London Philharmonic and BBC National Orchestra of Wales.

May 12th, 2016

Acrepearls Snippets

We mixed a short medley of beautiful moments from our public live recording session at Spartacus, Potsdam. The video gives an impression of the band’s concept of playing improvised contemporary music.

April 19th, 2016

Fairy Tales

It’s a while ago since I did this speech recording at Delicious Drums Studio, but since these fairy tales were meant to welcome refugees over here at Berlin, it’s certainly not too late to welcome them again here at my personal site.

A very engaged friend of mine over at, Andreas Gerts, had the bright idea to realize a project to welcome people from all over the world to Germany by telling german fairy tales to them and especially to their children. So we recorded a CD including ten versions of “Frau Holle”, read in ten different languages.

These were handed out as welcome gifts for people with children arriving at Berlin. We realized that project during autumn of 2015, when german media discussed the so called refugee crisis every day. I hope that it was a small contribution to making these people feel a little more at home and coming to a rest in Germany after having had a troublesome time.

January 24th, 2016

Acrepearls Public Recording

I am happy to announce the recording of Acrepearls‘ second album. The first one is only close to finished and has yet to be published, but we’re on our way for a second album already! This time it will be a live recording session, so you are welcome to drop in and participate in the process by simply listening, watching and enjoying the atmosphere.

Acrepearls is an experimental jazz trio improvising freely and heading towards electronic club beats. It consists of my good old friend Kai Mader on saxophone, the piano player Nicolas Schulze and myself on drums. We all added some electronics to our setup to extend the sonic possibilities. In Nico’s case he also plays a synth bass, whenever there is a need for it. This is especially interesting since Joh Weisgerber, our bass player on the first album, is no longer with us. The trio got an interesting new quality and sound by Nico’s talent on grand piano, and still we enjoy the analog bass sound we liked so much from Joh’s playing.

The public recording will take place at freiKlang studios, Potsdam, on February the 3rd and 4th, 2016. Visitors are welcome in the evening of both days. See the flyer images above for details. The recording space is a large hall suitable for up to 800 people, but we will have just a small stage for the three of us in the middle of the big room, with maybe a handful of guests sitting or walking around with wireless headphones, enjoying studio quality sound. Should be a nice atmosphere! On the website of Lalonova there are some additional informations and a map, in case you wonder how to get there.

Potsdam’s Newspaper “Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung” has published an Acrepearls Feature as an announcement to the public recording. I hope this link will stay active, so you can still read the article later on. For just in case I also pasted the article to the comment below.

August 24th, 2015

Drums for Anna Margolina

I recently joined the band of fabulous Jazz singer Anna Margolina for a studio session and some live gigs in Berlin. Here are some very short impressions.

February 12th, 2015

Julia Toaspern & Band

Here is a demo recording for Julia Toaspern & Band I recently produced at Delicious Drums. It features four original tracks with Julia’s brand new acoustic band.

We met one day in December to record the whole band at once, playing together live in my studio, to capture the most authentic live feeling. Following the new concept of the band we aimed for a clear and acoustic, yet modern sound.

Musicians on this recording are besides Julia Toaspern on vocals and guitar: Brian Haitz on vocals, guitar and flute, Ralph-Eric Berg on double bass and Anselm Bresgott on beatbox. Compositions by Julia Toaspern, Arrangements by herself and her marvelous band.

Recording, editing, mixing and mastering by myself. I’m looking forward to hearing some more great tracks, and maybe to record an album soon at Delicious Drums!

 

 

November 16th, 2014

Flow

Here is a little recording I did together with my good old friends of Strange Fluid these days in my freshly refurbished little recording studio at Delicious Drums.

After two months of reconstruction at Delicious Drums everything looks shiny and like new. I wanted to show the new “Sound Kitchen” to my friends, talk about the good old times and just by the way we whistled one or two notes, the result of which you can listen to right here.

Besides Kai Mader on Saxophone, tracks three and four feature T. C. Mabemba of Strange Fluid on vocals. As my favorite bass player Joh Weisgerber was so busy recording Ratatöska‘s new album at his own studio, Jürgen Munder jumped right in for him on the last track, playing the bass on a keyboard for the very first time! As far as I know that was his first time for him playing an instrument on a recording, and it definitely was a big fun and pleasure for the other three of us, as we only knew him as our effects specialist at Strange Fluid before.

August 25th, 2014

Drum & Bass Sessions Day 3

Here’s the third part of my series of improvised Drum & Bass recordings I did with Abelha Supersonica. Another day, another sound. We had quite different inspirations in that session compared to the other recordings on day one and two.

The session was improvised again without any preparation or rehearsing and recorded directly to stereo in one go. Just Abelha’s voice and groovebox and my prepared drumset.

June 4th, 2014

Waiting For The Rain

I recently had the great pleasure to play with my good friend and saxophone player Kai Mader to check out a new way of recording in my studio. We improvised a little and got some fine results.

I had played together with Kai in some jazz projects many years ago, but we had lost improvisation out of sight as our electronic band Strange Fluid turned from experimental attempts to clearly arranged songs. After having a spontaneous jam on a party lately we decided to improvise together at some occasion soon, and after Kai had invited me to check out his new recording facilities at Dorfplatzmusik I in turn invited him to Delicious Drums to have this little jam here.

March 1st, 2014

Drum & Bass Sessions Day 2

This second day we met was probably the most creative and productive of my meetings with Abelha Supersonica. The result is a solid piece of improvised drum and bass, which I split into five tracks afterwards.

January 28th, 2014

Drum & Bass Sessions Day 1

In wintertime it’s good to remember the last summer sometimes. I specifically remember my sessions with Abelha Supersonica, a vocalectro live act from Berlin. With just her voice and a few little boxes she creates a superbly flowing performance.

November 29th, 2013

Lydia und Claudia

I just finished the production of a CD for folk-singers “Lydia und Claudia”. It’s their first album and it’s got a rough and fresh attitude to it, which I like very much.

August 30th, 2012

Lessons and Coachings

I offer private lessons for drums, vibraphone and piano, as well as coachings covering all aspects of sound engineering, music production and band training. See here for details.