Gerd Weyhing - Progressive / Ambient

Hello to all!

I would like to suggest a new artist, and by sheer coincidence it is the same guy who plays my guitars, writes my music and rides my bike :-) As I am not the world's most pretentious guy but rather at home in understatement, I have no big words and statements.

I am a Musician since 45 years now, Guitarist since 35 years, playing also 12string TappingGuitar, Bass, Keyboards, Piano and Drums, Ableton Live and the Mobius Looper. A detailled biography is here:
https://schrottland.de/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/biography_gerd_weyhing.pdf
My Website is here: https://www.schrottland.de

I have done 4 albums now (starting 1999) with my own kind of mix of the Electronic World and the Guitar World (I call it Ambient Progressive Soundscapes), all of them live recordings:

Listen/Download/Watch:
https://gerdski.bandcamp.com/album/journeys-to-impossible-places
https://gerdski.bandcamp.com/album/live-in-koblenz-03092016
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGCp5QgIczI (a spacy video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSD-T_sVaSA (me looking a bit cartoon-like)

Review (in German)
http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?albumId=14239

Journeys to Impossible Places (Double CD)
CD 1 (the red disc)
1. Forbidden Tracks 32:19
2. Cryptomeria 31:01
CD 2 (the blue disc)   
3. Das Reich des schwarzen Fisches 21:24
4. Landscape and Memory 23:47
5. The Melism of A. 27:36
GW: Guitars, Electronics

Recently I have released Progressive Rock Album (as I see it) called SubTerraMachIneA, reminding People sometimes of Mike Oldfield's early Longtrack Albums. But it also features Crimson-esque stuff and an encounter into the Minimal World of Steve Reich and Nik Bärtsch's Ronin.

Listen/Download:
https://gerdski.bandcamp.com/album/subterramachinea
Review:
http://www.babyblaue-seiten.de/index.php?albumId=1789

SubTerraMachIneA    
1 | The Tree 30:22
2 | Clockwork for Uncertain Times 24:20
3 | Silence and Ecstasy 12:27
GW: Guitars, Bass, 12string guitar, 12string-Tapping Guitar, Piano, Keyboards, Drums, Programming, Artwork.

I am playing a few gigs every year with my Ambient Progressive Soundscape set, recently extended by 8-track-livelooping and synchronized visuals (Winamp Style).

I hope this Information is sufficient.

Please add me as an Artist to ProgArchives!

(and then enjoy the weekend!)

Gerd Weyhing aka "Gerdski"

eh ... listening to 'SubTerraMachIneA' this sounds Mike Oldfield reminiscent somehow, more than anything else ...
while trying to find a category (genre), just essential here, I'm gonna say crossover, at a first glance

will take some time ...

Crossover Prog is one of about 20 Prog categories (or sub-genres) which we use at this site for band/artist classification:  See http://www.progarchives.com/subgenre.asp?style=3

I think that definition should be updated (not that I'm volunteering for such a task) and could have been improved at the time (that "though 100% progressive" claim, which I think inaccurate, inexact, and actually misleading still irks me). I think it goes back to the early days when the Art Rock category was split into Eclectic Prog, Crossover Prog and Heavy Prog.

Think of it more as Art Rock bands in Crossover which have certain fairly mainstream music qualities. It might have a link to pop, glam, blues, "New Age" music, certain kinds of world music, ambient music, standard forms of rock or metal or alt. rock... The music can be very sophisticated, lack conventional song structure, it can be instrumental, but at the same time it generally has qualities that would be readily accessible.

It's rather subjective, and there's a huge amount of variety in Crossover. It's rarely about perfect fit, but we try for best fit of the categories which we have -- that which has acts with similar music and qualities in the category, or it just feels most right in a certain place, sometimes this comes down to a process of elimination. There can be some subjectivity about it, and it can depend on the associations that individuals draw on.

I haven't listened to much of your music, but my inclination would be that it best fits an "Art Rock" sub, and of those it best fits Crossover (partially for its ambient and World music qualities and for the music in the Archives which I most associate it with).   To me this also seems most Mike Oldfield-reminiscent and he was deemed best-fit for Crossover for his Progressive Rock meets New Age and Electronic Music, meets Progressive Pop.... That's the only category we have which I see it in based on my limited listening (I hear qualities in your music which I associate with some acts in Crossover, and I hear certain mainstreamish qualities in your music that would make me think that that category is most suitable).

Of our many categories, if you can think of another category which we have that you think your music would better fit, then do mention it, but through the process of elimination, even if not ideal, Crossover would seem to make the most sense to me. But I'm not on the Crossover team, hopefully one of them will share their impressions here and see if it's one that they think that their team should evaluate, or if another place would be better.


Edited by Logan - April 05 2019 at 11:47

Thanks. Eclectic Prog would have been my other option based on my rather limited listening (both that and Eclectic being two main art rock subs of which there is often a major overlap). I just heard Eclectic plus a more mainstream influence, and the ambient qualities, which made me think of Crossover (plus the Oldfield similarities who is in Crossover). I had already suggested it to Crossover, and they are looking into it, but if they find it better for Eclectic Prog, then they will recommend/ pass it to that team.

With many acts, they could be placed in various categories (many of those are Eclectic Prog by default, but various categories here contain various eclectic bands such as in Avant Prog, Eclectic Prog and Crossover prog -- often plenty of overlap in those categories).

Edited by Logan - April 20 2019 at 11:28