[nicola]

APOGEE








ABOUT

APOGEE

...from Official Website




"APOGEE means the point at which a body moving round the Earth in an elliptical orbit is at it´s greatest distance from the Earth." (The International Encyclopedia of Astronomy)
Arne Schaefer: All instruments, compositions and vocals (except accoustic drums on various Apogee albums by Uwe Völlmar, Thomas Reiner and Eberhard Gräf).

I was born June 17, 1962 and began playing guitar at the age of 14. Before that I used to play Beatles tunes together with a friend who played guitar. His name is Thorsten de Winkel and he is now a well known jazz guitarist. Back then I played some sort of drums (washing powder casks and a tambourine) and both of us were singing.

I am a self taught musician and the first thing I became interested in, after having learned to play some beatles songs on the guitar, was to compose my own music.

In the early days we used to improvise on chord progressions, trying to create some kind of "jazz-rock", in which we succeded to a certain extent.

At this time I discovered Yes, ELP, Gentle Giant and Genesis, having listened to Jethro Tull and Frank Zappa from an early age through the musical taste of my father. My mother practices ballet dancing and introduced me to some modern composers like Stravinsky and Prokofiev who also wrote a lot of ballet music.

My father bought Jethro Tulls "Thick as a Brick" when I was about 11 which made a large impact on my musical development. Still today it is to my taste one of the best rock albums from the compositorical as well as from the lyrical point of view.

In 1985 I joined a band called Vague Venture which played a New Wave/New Romantic style and was founded in 1985 as a trio with drum computer. This was the first band wich featured myself on lead vocals, although I had practiced singing with my home taping experience before.

One year later Stefan Maywald joined on drums and by the time my own influence pushed the band concept more in the progressive direction. In 1989 this finally led to a split up because of musical differences. Stefan and I convinced keyboard player Lukas Ernst to join the group, but he was never really satisfied with our musical direction and left again after one year to work professionally in the film music field.

Back then the group was named versus X after an expression I found in a book about physical chemistry (I am a professional chemist). I just thought it sounded good and it my be interpreted as "against the mainstream".

At that time I gave some solo concerts using accoustic guitar, keyboards and vocals, playing mainly song stuff. At one of these concerts Ekkehard Nahm saw my performance and his interest was captured. He called me up and soon afterwards joined the band. We discovered that we had almost the same vision of musical conception.

While paying in various bands I always produced my solo music simultaneously on an two track tape machine, in the beginning by means of a primitive ping-pong recording technique. Over the years technical and compositorical abilities progressed up to what you can hear on the first APOGEE CD "The Border of Awareness".

After having played our first self produced versus X CD to members of the french record company Musea they asked for more material and I presented to them a selection of songs I had recorded over a period of five years. They liked it and decided to give me a chance. For presenting the music to a larger audience we decided to use the "band" name APOGEE.

While on the first two Apogee Albums and my older Material I mainly used sample drums, the following Albums beginning with "The Garden of Delights" feature ex-versus X drummer Uwe Voellmar, Thomas Reiner and on the latest albums beginning with "The Art of Mind" also Eberhard Gräf on accoustic drums.


Musical Influences

Concerning my musical taste I do not care much about the actual sound of the music as long as it it interesting in terms of structure, rhythm and melody. As main influences I would like to point out some of my very favourite albums and classical composers. The following list may also serve as a recommendation for all fans of complex progressive rock and kinds of music.

Jethro Tull: Thick as a Brick, Passion Play, Stormwatch
Yes: Close to the Edge, Fragile, Relayer
Zappa: One size fits all, Overnite Sensation, Sleep Dirt
Genesis: Nursery Crime, Foxtrot
Gentle Giant: All Albums up until 1976
ELP: ELP, Tarkus, Trilogy
Rush: Moving Pictures, Permanent Waves, Hemispheres, Power Windows
Peter Hammill: In Camera, A Black Box
Van der Graaf: Pawn Hearts, Godbluff, Still Life
King Crimson: Red, Lizard, Discipline, The Power to Believe
UK: UK
Univers Zero: UZED, Ceux du dehors, Heatwave
XTC: English Settlement, Oranges and Lemons, Big Express
Dream Theater: When dream and day unite, Images and Words
Magellan: Hour of Restauration, Impending Ascension
Manfred Mann: Roaring Silence, Nightingales and Bombers
Queen: A Night at the Opera
Bruce Springsteen: Born to Run
Cardiacs: On Land and in the Sea
Beatles: Abbey Road
Kate Bush: The Dreaming
5 UU´s: Elements
Thinking Plague: In this Life, In Extremis
Anglagaard: Hybris, Epilog
Allan Holdsworth: Road Games, IOU
Traffic: John Barleycorne must die
Symphony X: Twylight in Olympus, Paradise Lost
Haken: Aquarius

Classical composers:
Allan Pettersson
Dimitri Shostakovitch
Bela Bartok
Karl Amadeus Hartmann
Igor Stravinsky
Arthur Honnegger
Paul Hindemith
Gustav Mahler















Hi friends

2023 Work in Progress..ive



These are my best tracks of 2023


Track Title-Group or Artist-Album

I'm Done with You-RIVERSIDE-ID.ENTITY

Life Lines-SUNCHILD-Exotic Creatures and a Stolen Dream

Scanning The Dark Horizon-JOHN IRVINE-Scanning The Dark Horizon

Memories in a Box-SINGLE CELLED ORGANISM-EVENT HORIZON

To_find_the_light_part_two-GREAT WIDE NOTHING-Hymns for Hungry Spirits, Vol. II

Ghosts From The Future-OVERHEAD-Telepathic Minds (Disc 1)

King_of_the_world-RPWL-Crime Scene(Disc 1)

No Man's Land-TNNE-LIFE 3.0

Mysterious Forest, Pt. 1-KARFAGEN-Passage to the Forest of Mysterious

Something New-MARTIN MILLER-Maze of My Mind

Kill_the_sun_and_the_moon_and_the_stars-THE BLACK CAT'S EYE-The Empty Space Between A Seamount And Shock​-​Headed Julia

Gargantuan.(Part One)-AMPLIFIER-Hologram

The Beauty and the Least-MYSTERY-Redemption

Scratches-INNER PROSPEKT-Canvas Three

All Connected-YES-Mirror to the sky

Summer Lies Beyond-COMEDY OF ERRORS-THRENODY FOR A DEAD QUEEN

The Sacred Law of Retribution-TRITOP-RISE OF KASSANDRA

Ingravita-BUHO ERMITANO-IMPLOSIONES

Danger-ELOY-ECHOES FROM THE PAST

Naturens katedral-LARS FREDRIK FRØISLIE-FIRE FORTELLINGER

Ur askan-AGUSA-PRIMA MATERIA

The 11th Chapter: The Nine, including a) The Fire (pt II​)​, b) A Nonagon in Eight -RING VAN MÖBIUS-Commissioned Works Pt II - Six Drops of Poison

Journey to the Center of the Mind -MARCO RAGNI-HALLUCINATORY EMBRYO

Poker -I VIAGGI DI MADELEINE-TRA LUCE E OMBRA

The Gathering-SKY PASSAGE-The Gathering

Moving Through Tomorrow-SOUTHERN EMPIRE-Another World

Tell Me-KARMAMOI-STRINGS FROM THE EDGE OF SOUND

Liquid Suite-LA BOCCA DELLA VERITA-[Un​]​connected

Stronghold -THE FLOWER KINGS-LOOK AT YOU NOW

Helen-UNITOPIA-SEVEN CHAMBERS

Actual Brutal Facts-STEVEN WILSON-THE HARMONY CODEX

A Hymn for the Pioneers-SYNTH REPLICANTS-Time of Legends

Push-TREVOR RABIN-Rio

Labyrinthus-IL BALLETTO DI BRONZO-Lemures

Hydra-SEVEN IMPALE-Summit

The River-THIS WINTER MACHINE-The Clockwork man

Lotus Unfolding-OZRIC TENTACLES-Lotus Unfolding

i/o -PETER GABRIEL-I/O

THE LONG GOODBYE-GALAHAD-THE LONG GOODBYE

I Can Fly-CEN-PROJEKT-Dark Clouds

Noone but ourselves-APOGEE-Through the Gate

























Noone but ourselves-APOGEE
http://auralmoon.com/req.php?songid=200140







GOOD LISTENING