Hi, I’m Stephan.
I live with my family in Berlin and an old farmhouse in a small village in the rural Northeast, the most sparsely populated part of Germany. It’s our off-grid paradise, quite close to the Polish border and the Baltic sea.
These days, I am working as a freelance writer, consultant and university lecturer.
I fell in love with ambient and experimental music in a difficult phase of my life. I was in my mid-30s, I’d left a job that I loved because of burnout, my first marriage was disintegrating and I suffered from severe mental and physical health issues.
I discovered the healing power of music while getting involved with mindfulness, meditation and minimalism. I started attending spiritual retreats – a course in Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) made me want to explore the traditions and practices of Zen Buddhism, Vipassana and Deep Listening.
A couple of years later, I deleted all my social media accounts. To keep in touch with friends and “followers”, I launched an old school mailing list. I used it to send out irregular music recommendations and life updates – hence the title, Zen Sounds, which became zensounds (lowercase, like much of the music I present here) after I moved to Substack, switched to English and adapted a weekly schedule. That happened in late 2022.
Publishing my own newsletter seemed like a viable way of getting my writing out to people who are still interested in connecting deeply with music and culture, unfazed by mainstream trends and the popularity contests of streaming numbers and social media vanity metrics.
People who listen to albums instead of playlists, who read books instead of bingeing podcasts at double speed, who prefer slow arthouse films to short video reels.
People like you, I assume.
Where I’m From
I spent my childhood and adolescence in a small beach town in Northern Germany. It was a beautiful place to grow up – bustling with excitement in the summer, sleepy and cozy in the winter.
Reading became my first passion. An early favourite was Tolkien, and in high school, I’d be devouring Hesse and Dostoevsky novels. Of course I’d go through a heavy Beats phase, then a New Journalism phase.
We got our first VCR in the mid-1980s. On weekend mornings, I sat on the living room floor, watching movies like War Games, Back to the Future or Blade Runner. A few years on, I’d discover the works of Jim Jarmusch and David Lynch. They introduced me to the wonders of indie and arthouse cinema.
My parents owned a sizeable vinyl collection. My father was into progressive rock, my mother preferred blues and folk. Both loved Roxy Music.
One of my cousins, who’s a couple years older than me, used to record music off the radio. Sometimes she’d babysit me. Her mixtapes, which I’d borrow and copy, were a huge influence on my formative taste. It was synth pop, italo disco, early hip-hop and what we’d call electro.
I spent my youth on a diet of MTV, skateboarding videos and Amiga games. I was 14 when Nevermind came out. I listened to grunge and metal, then shifted towards goth and industrial, and by the mid-90’s, I got deep into hip-hop, drum’n’bass and electronica.
Inspired by the sample-based production of those genres, I started digging for older records as well. My musical universe constantly expanded through my finds – to jazz, soul, funk, dub, afrobeat, bossa nova, and so on.
While acquiring two pretty much useless law degrees, I began writing for music magazines. I didn’t know yet I’d spend most of my professional life in music and culture journalism.
For many years, I edited and wrote for magazines and newspapers here in Germany. Then I became an artist manager, ran an independent record label and hosted community radio shows for fun. I got involved in streaming playlist curation, which I’d do full-time for several years.
I wrote and published a non-fiction book, Zen Style, in 2021. I’m quite proud of it – but so far, it’s only available in German.
For the last couple of years, I’ve been working as a freelance writer and consultant, but also teaching culture journalism to university students – and writing this newsletter.
The Schedule
I currently publish new episodes once to twice per week.
Publishing days are usually Tuesday and Saturday. I don’t stick to a super rigid schedule though.
The content of my posts may vary – I might tell the story of one specific record, or conduct an interview with an artist, or write a personal essay. Some posts include a “Media Diet” section with brief listening, reading and watching recommendations.
Musically, this will be all over the place, but focused on “experimental” music – which I do realize is a very flawed and indefinite term. Still, it’s the only way to describe the quality I’m looking for.
I don’t care too much about genre. I write about ambient, experimental electronic, leftfield hip-hop, avant-garde rock, spiritual jazz and anything else that sparks my interest really.
I hope you appreciate the diversity.
Where To Start
I try to create mostly evergreen content, so please dive into older issues – they will hopefully still feel new and relevant to you.
The archive contains almost 150 back issues as I write this.
It’s exclusively available to paid subscribers.
If you’ve subscribed for free and enjoyed my posts, please consider upgrading your subscription for the full experience.
Here’s a quick selection of six articles that seem to provide a good start into the world of zensounds.
3 Most Popular Posts
Boards of Canada – Rare Transmissions
A recap of my favourite electronica group’s career
A Guide to Berlin’s Experimental Music Scene
An overview of venues, festivals, listening bars and online resources
Life Without Streaming: An Update
A personal essay on canceling my Spotify subscription
3 Personal Favourites
It Seemed Like Someone Else’s Life
Why personal branding is wrong, limiting and can even make you sick
My life from 5 to 45 in 9 records
How I Turned Into A Gorpcore Minimalist
Life is too short to not wear your favorite clothes every day
If you feel like introducing yourself too, please reply to this email or take to the comments. I love hearing directly from my readers.
Same goes for questions you might have. I will happily try to answer them.
Thank you for reading,
Stephan
PS: I want to thank
for inspiring this post. Her newsletter on mindful living, , is a real treat. Go check it out.
Happy start of a new year ✨🌿✨ I’m a music maker and sound designer from Helsinki. Also a fellow wall-starer (been sitting zazen for quite a while now). I really enjoy your writing here, and hope read more during this new year. Reading your thoughts on music have inspired to start formulating some thoughts of my own, perhaps even to publish some here. Take care ✨🌿✨
Hallo Stephan, vielen Dank für die persönlichen Einblicke. Das erhält man gleich eine neue Perspektive des gelesenen. Besonders deine Artikel über experimentelle Musik haben es mir angetan. Ich plane dieses Jahr 2 Besucher meiner Heimat Stadt Berlin und werde deine Tipps beherzigen. Keep up the good work 🤩
Matthias
P.s. bin auch ein Cure Fan, aber nur bis Faith. Werde nie verstehen was Dir an pornography gefällt 🤣🤪