A forced break from touring due to corona and one band member's particular penchant for documentaries led the instrumental proggers from Münster, Germany, LONG DISTANCE CALLING to follow a creative impulse and start working on a new album. Drummer Janosch Rathmer and bassist Jan Hoffmann explained in an interview with eclipsed how their eighth studio work "Eraser" subsequently became a real affair of the heart with an unusual concept, which was developed in close cooperation with Greenpeace
Long Distance Calling remain curious. On their new album "How Do We Want To Live?" the German quartet conquers new sound territories and, in addition, treats a number of complex socio-political themes almost without words.
After two albums with different vocal pieces, the Münster post rockers have been mainly instrumental again since the rather hard "Boundless" (2018). Their latest work is an enormously dense sound journey with a high proportion of electronic elements. Furthermore, although it contains no lyrics except for one song and various speech samples, the group wants to draw the listeners' attention to socially highly topical issues such as the relationship between humans and artificial intelligence, global networking, social media, surveillance, ethics, humanism and cultural standards. We talked to bassist Jan Hoffmann about an album that is above all meant to make people think.
Long Distance Calling have long since established themselves in the German postrock and new art rock scene. After a good ten years in the business and two albums with vocals, the Münster-based instrumental rock quartet now returns to its origins and creates one of its strongest statements with the new work "Boundless".
Bassist Jan Hoffmann sees many things critically in the previous work of his band Long Distance Calling. He is, however, satisfied with the current situation that the Group has worked through over the years. Which is not only, but also due to the new album, as he emphasizes in the interview with eclipsed.
eclipsed: "Out There", the opener of the new album, goes straight to the top.
Standstill has never been the thing of Long Distance Calling. This has made the band from Münster one of the most exciting German acts of the last years. Already on the predecessor "The Flood Inside" the former pure instrumental rockers had integrated a singer with Martin Fischer and drove well with it.
Progressive Rock is certainly first associated with a metropolis like London, but even a dreamy small town like Canterbury could develop into a haven for prog, even though it was a long time ago. But Münster of all places? The name Münster also stands for departure from convention, but the time of the Anabaptists dates back half a millennium. It's hard to believe that a band like Long Distance Calling is making similar waves, but at least the band from Münster is changing the German music scene and a bit of Europe's progressive music scene.
