Having studied classical piano for ten years, Dusseldorf-based pianist / composer Volker Bertelmann’s work as Hauschka is based upon a playful exploration of the possibilities of the 'prepared' piano – an adventurous intervention into the preconceived idea of the piano as a pure-toned, perfected instrument simply waiting for a gifted virtuoso to play on it. His resulting tracks are vivid, unconventional pieces made in a spirit of playful research-enthusiasm. Prior to his involvement with FatCat, Hauschka released two albums on the Karaoke Kalk label - 'Substantial' (2004) and 'The Prepared Piano' (2005). Volker is also a member of Music A.M., a collaboration with Stefan Schneider (To Rococco Rot) and Luke Sutherland (Long Fin Killie); and of the electronic / club tracks duo Tonetraeger, with Torsten Mauss. Since ‘Room To Expand’, Hauschka’s cultural stock has increased considerably, based particularly around the revelation of his live performances, including rapturously received support tours in the USA with Múm, in Japan with Colleen, and a debut, sold-out London show with Max Richter. Where the previous album appeared almost in isolation, ‘Ferndorf’ arrives with a coherent extended campaign including increased live activity, a digital single, and a video triptych by Japanese animators Overture (responsible for Múm’s ‘Rhubarbidoo’ video).

Glance at Dustin O'Halloran's ever-increasing list of projects, and you could be forgiven for assuming that he's something of a restless spirit. His life story does little to dispel the impression - it's a litany of motion, of different homes in different continents, and sometimes hardly any home at all. But all this activity is deceptive; or, at least, it's just surface detail. All the time, beneath the surface, there's been a constant, stealthy, steady pulse - O'Halloran's wistful and beautiful music.

His compositions are languid and contemplative. The melodies are hestitant; plucked, slow-motion skeins of sound that fall languidly from solo piano or from naked acoustic guitar. And although they're delicate - miniature marvels of nuance and balance - they carry an unfailing emotional charge. It's hardly surprising, then, that O'Halloran's music is being used, and heard, increasingly widely.

O'Halloran's early years were spent in Los Angeles, he took his first piano lessons there at the age of 7, and played one of his own compositions live for the first time when he was 11, but when he turned 13, things changed. He went to live with his father, a change of scene that proved disruptive in many ways, not least because it meant that he abandoned the piano for several years. Eventually, though, he found himself back in Los Angeles, where he enrolled to study art at Santa Monica College and where a way back into music opened up.

It was there that he met Sara Lov; each recognising in the other a kindred spirit, the two formed Devics, an uncategorisable musical enterprise whose swooningly atmospheric songs seemed to float free from any obvious ties to a specific time or place. Not surprising, then, that their tenuous links to California were soon broken - they signed to a British label (Bella Union), and shimmered their way into the hearts of listeners all over the world.

Devics is an ongoing project, a new album, the follow-up to 2006s Push The Heart is in the pipeline but in recent years O'Halloran has found his musical activities expanding, gaseously, beyond it. The catalyst lay in the decision to move to Italy back in 2000 he found himself based in an old farmhouse in the rural depths of Emillia Romagna, with space to think and the use of a beautifully restored 1920s Sabel piano. Gradually, he developed the conviction that piano music could avoid both the staid rigour of the classical tradition and the vapid noodlings of New Age, and he started to develop his own personal, meditative approach to the instrument. It was a shot in the dark, a purely instinctive activity started - initially at least - with no idea that there might be an audience. But when an album - Piano Solos emerged (in 2005) things started to happen.

Simon Raymonde at Bella Union, an ex Cocteau Twin with a well-honed ear for limpid beauty, fell for the record and immediately offered to release it. Others soon joined the cause, and, in that serendipitous chain of cause-and-effect that marks the progress of so many unheralded gems, word about the music reached director Sofia Coppola, who immediately asked O�Halloran to write some more for her then-work-in-progress Marie Antoinette.

It wasn't the first time that a director had been struck by the seductive, filmic qualities of O'Halloran's melodies, Devics had previously contributed to the soundtrack of Guiseppe Bertolucci's L'Amore Probabilmente, and it wasn't to be the last. Subsequently, he performed music for the Will Ferrell / Dustin Hoffman project Stranger Than Fiction, and his most recent cinematic project, the score for William Olsen's feature-length movie An American Affair, is set to see the light of day later in 2009.

And if the spaciousness and poise which characterised Piano Solos and it's companion release Piano Solos Volume 2 (2006) was in some sense a response to the remote tranquillity of his Italian retreat, it's tempting to hear in the music for An American Affair an increased activity which reflects O'Halloran's latest location Berlin. As measured and as spare as ever, the score nonetheless enhances O'Halloran's signature piano cadences with far more expansive arrangements. The touches are light caresses rather than grand gestures - but sighing string quartets, diffidently plucked harps and the warm breath of woodwind all make their presence felt. It's a sign of expanding confidence and a hint that the next solo album, whenever it arrives, will be an altogether more widescreen, immersive experience than the Piano Solos. All of which suggest that 2009 should be marked by yet more interest in the work of this singular and singularly gifted composer.

Sven Kacirek studied drums and marimba at the conservatory in Arnhem NL, in Hamburg Germany and at the Drummers Collective in New York City.

He has collaborated with musicians and bands like F.S. Blumm, Alexander Schubert and field, and has also composed and performed music for modern dance theatre pieces and contemporary ballet. He worked with choreographers Angela Guerreiro, Filip van Huffel, Antje Pfundtner, Johnny Lloyd, a.o. In 2009 Sven Kacirek composed the soundtrack for the movie "4 Ways to Dario" by Dario Aguirre. His first Solo-Album "The Palmin Sesions" came out in 2007. (Pingipung/Kompakt, A-Musik)
Last year Sven went to Kenya to go up country, where he recorded many traditional musicians. He is currently working on a new album that combines the field recordings with his specific kind of music. The project is documented at http://www.barabara.fm.