Stage is Steinbrüchel’s second full-length solo release on LINE. The album contains 10 scenes that move between warm organic and melodic digitalised sounds and cold crystalline-like sparks. The sounds and compositions are even more detailed and have a more melodic approach then previous recordings by Steinbrüchel. Single isolated and stretched tones are structured together with smaller loops and particles of clicks and noises into dense atmospheres. Parts of the sounds used in several scenes are based on piano recordings by Bernd Schurer and/or guitar recordings by Tomas Korber. For the first time Steinbrüchel has used and processed recordings of acoustical instruments to this extent in his compositions. Stage brings to life once again a collection of precise and carefully composed structures and textures, which are formed into different scenes where they all interweave with each other.

All the tracks were composed in 2005 for the interactive dance performance HYBRIDOME, produced by Avventure in Elicoterro Prodotti a Ariella Vidach AiEP. The tracks on the CD release are in a different order and are also structured differently than the actual still unfinished dance performance.

Ralph Steinbrüchel, born in 1969, studied Communication Design at Central Saint Martins School in London, where he acquired a Masters of Arts and Design with distinction. He now lives and works as a musician and graphic designer in Zurich, Switzerland. In 2002 his composition zwischen.raum [domizil] was distinguished with the Max Brand Award for Electronic Music [phonoTAKTIK.02 Festival, New York]. In the same year he received a compositional scholarship from Pro Helvetia, Arts Council of Switzerland, to work on his release Circa [LINE, US]. Last releases were the solo-CD Skizzen [Binemusic, Germany], the collaboration Status [12k, US] with Frank Bretschneider (raster-noton) from Berlin and the composition opaque [room40, Australia] together with five additional reinterpretations.