Aukai (Hawaiian) refers to a seafarer, a traveler. Also evokes a mystical, philosophical, introspective nature. The perfect name for the project by multi-instrumentalist and composer Markus Sieber.
It’s a collection of ambient acoustic soundscapes that take the listener on an inward journey to a place of peaceful stillness and tranquil beauty.
“Instrumental short stories” The phrase is an apt one. Moody, evocative, delicately ligreed, the pieces are brief, but haunting. They stay with the listener long after the sounds have faded, like gently melting snow on a sunny hillside.
All feature Sieber’s nuanced, expressive touch of the Charango, a plucked mandolin-like string instrument from the Andes, which took centre stage on his entire work so far. “It has an otherworldly, mesmerizing, dreamy sound, that I love,” he explains. “It comes from the Andes, and it’s sound literally transmits the experience of being up high in the mountains, a sensation of space and freedom.”
His own personal journey has been an eventful one. Born near Leipzig, East Germany, 15 years before the wall came down, his parents moved to a rustic simple old forgery in a village outside Dresden when he was six. Sieber spent free time in the summer shing or swimming in the nearby Zschopau and Mulde rivers and, in the winter, ice skating, sledding and skiing. In these early years of childhood a strong link to nature was already established, that remained from then on in his life as a major source for his creative work.
When he was 16 he moved to Potsdam near Berlin and played as guitarist in alternative rock bands as a part of East Germany’s vibrant ‘90s rock scene before shifting his focus to work as a theater, film and tv actor in Berlin and St. Petersburg. A life-changing move to Mexico put him in touch with world and indigenous music, awakening a new musical mission.
Like every musician, Markus Sieber is used to going the extra mile to make the music he hears in his head and feels in his heart.
“Music, he says, has this incredible potential to take us into a timeless state: a world of images and sensations, memories and emotions. Sometimes when making it, it can invoke a nostalgic sensationfrom past experiences, to this are added some of my current feelings, merging past and present so that, in a sense, time disappears. Within this timelessness the listener and I may nd a space to meet and share.”
