If this year was a color, what shade would it be? If this year was a scent, what would it remind us of? If two thousand twenty was a metaphor for a season… what would the scenery look like?

 

“Winter in America” is not a musical answer to this question, but rather an impression that Johannes Brecht has gained in the past months by observing the social climate and glimpsing at the Western hemisphere. A mixture of political ice wind, turbulent questions of faith and societal climate changes.

 

These are also the topics that have always connected Johannes Brecht and Fetsum, personally and artistically. As big Gil Scott-Heron fans, the classic “Winter in America” has almost offered itself to be reissued and contextualized. Two very different friends, with two very different biographies, but a complementary view forward.

 

Next to “Winter in America”, Johannes Brecht offers his track “Crystal”, which was created almost entirely in a C15 synthesizer. “The track was born from a live jam. I wanted to try to create techno tracks not in a sequencer, but to play them properly and the C15 forces you to do that.”