Ratatoeskr is created to produce sounds that evoke pictures of desolate, bizarre and bleak landscapes and deep emotions of solitude and despair... It shall be looked upon as a trip into darkness, to places which get lost among the needs to do and have everything as easy and quickly as possible. Close your eyes, listen and forget everything else.
Ratatoeskr was founded in September 2004 by Thomas Keitel. The first song ever to be created was Lost in the Ether which was supposed to evoke a feeling of emptiness in the hearer. Of course at this time the skills concerning soundquality were not that good but I carried on to write songs and already in March 2005 the first output was released, a split CD with Emptying Place from New Jersey, USA which contained three songs by Ratatoeskr. At that time the aim of making droning soundscapes which contain melody as well as non-melodic sounds was already defined and the songs were even rather harsh and destructive, for instance S-I-D which is still the noisiest song that was created by me. The first output with full length was Leaving the light with 7 songs at about 80 minutes. The style was a little different from the Split CD, the main attention was put on vast and empty droning sounds that surround and support the melodies which appear from time to time but most of the time only as an accent that gives a lonely, small glimpse of light to the dark drones and noises which are omnipresent.
Its not possible to play that live I think.
Influences can maybe be found among the artists who produce drone and noise, minimalistic soundscapes and ghost-electronics. Actually I discovered this genre only after I made the first few songs
Casio CTK-611
several software
my voice
everything that makes sounds, like pots, forks and spoons, cups and that sort of stuff
Id like to say thanks to everyone who is interested, drop me a line if you came across my stuff and tell me what you think