WARAWARA

Warawara is the national bird of Curacao, a beautiful and magnificent animal. It was also the name of their own navigation system on the island when people still used extra navigation devices like TomTom or Garmin.

I didn't know all this when I came up with that new instrumental arrangement: programmings with lots of percussions and a fast bass part, a result of practicing sophisticated classical music on electric bass (Segei Prokoviev in particular). I didn't have a name for it yet, but I showed it to @Tania Kross – she liked it and recorded some amazing vocals on top. She created a real mystique blend of Peruvian Baroque and Celtic sounds. After we finished our recording session at Wisseloord Studios, I asked her how to call this song. Until then it was just an audio file with a working title on my computer (a pretty neat and small file by the way, because we only did a few takes, Tania nailed it – of course!). "Warawara" Tania answered right away, "that should be the name". Well, that was straight, clear and convincing. I loved it – and there it was.

It was, of course, an honor, that one of my first projects in the Netherlands was with such an amazing artist. But it was also especially exciting because we got together from quite different music planets: the world of classic and opera on one side and the bass-beat-rock-experimental world on the other. But we both have colorful music backgrounds, always curious about what's going on in other genres and excited to make musical encounters. And we both have a proper dose of 90s rock in us, the music of our youth.

The recording session in the wonderful Wisseloord Studios was big fun. @Tarita Rehm filmed us there and made this great video. She also came up with a concept for an animation video. It turned out awesome and for lovers of the "Matrix"-trilogy and "Sixth Element" - as we are - there nice hints and references in there. Thanks so much @ Tarita. The videos are below.

By the way, in may 2019 I had the pleasure to play some shows with Tania in Curacao and also stay with her and her wonderful family for quite some time. That trip to Curacao was an experience of a lifetime, I saw amazing things and met fantastic people. One of which is a famous veterinarian, her flamingo "Bob" is known for his pictures in National Geographic and on Instagram. And in her tropical pet wellness compound, I happened to meet one of those rare birds: a real Warawara.

WARAWARA

@Tania Kross : vocals | Philipp Rehm: bass, programmings

recorded at Wisseloord Studios, Hilversum | mixed at Topaz Studio, Cologne | mastered at Milianmastering, Hamburg

@Tarita Rehm : production, art-design and videos