DESCRIPTION:
Matti Bye "The Piano Ship"
From "Bethanien" LP
Release date: December 2013

It began in 2010. If you were anywhere near Oranienstraße, you may have heard it as it traveled through the hallways of a Kreuzberg artist residence once used as a hospital, as it passed you by and continued across the canal, along the piers. The sound of Matti Bye carefully pressing the keys of an old grand piano. Its singing tones taking flight for all of Kreuzberg to hear. Illuminated by the stars of a clear winter sky. Illuminated by the beams of a scorching summer sun. Kreuzberg wasn't always like this.

In 1847, Kreuzberg's Bethanien hospital opened its doors to the public. If you didn't know better, you may have gone there for medical treatment. If you didn't know better, that is. Most did. If the sight of the makeshift, outdoor operating tables didn't change your mind, maybe a perfectly rational fear of infection did. If you still, despite even the notion of contracting some new disease, chose to enter, being denied treatment was still a possible out. Not because you weren't in need, but rather to teach you a lesson. A lesson of patience. Bethanien hospital was not one of repute.

In an otherwise war-torn Berlin, Bethanien was somehow spared. This, however, did little to improve its reputation. By the 1970s, the hospital yard had been taken over by squatters. The hospital itself was no longer in use and, in time, it developed into an artist residence.

It ended in 2013. Finally, the sound of Matti Bye playing his grand piano was captured. Gently accompanied by layers of shimmering, soaring soundscapes. Produced and tastefully engineered in the Wiener Futurismo studio by Joel Danell. The result is soulful, haunting and melodic. Matti Bye's Bethanien takes you, the listener, on a lyrical journey into the world of dreams and illusions.