Although CPN have been keeping it low key since they started out almost ten years ago, they present a kind of best-of album with their first release. 2010–2018 were Powernap Years for Arlo Everling and Carsten Tabel, who have been playing music since their early youth.
As they were both quite busy and kept moving to different places they met two to three times a year to write and record songs together. Some of the songs gathered here were composed specifically for performances and video work, but most were created for a different and more significant reason: music has been a form of intimate communication and friendship for Tabel and Everling for over 20 years. Their relationship is based on productive exchange and common composition. The fact that their musical output was mostly unaffected by an audience or musical scenes or genres is evident in this release. But it would be wrong to say that this is purely a documentation of a hidden artistic practice. In addition to superficial eclecticism and raging movement between genres and musical styles, CPN – The Powernap Years tells the story of a type of production marked by interruptions and spatial and temporal discontinuity that addresses no one but itself. With the release of this album, CPN enter a new phase in which they will be performing new and old songs in combination with performative and narrative elements.
This is initially due to a desire to expand one's own practice, but also to check whether, after twelve years that Arlo and Carsten did not stand together on stage, an emancipation from common performance patterns and band dynamics is possible and can be transferred to an audience. As on this record, it is about a possible oscillation between ingratiation and affront, about the indistinguishability of authenticity and artificiality, between seriousness and humour.
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