Katja Werker feat. Gert Neumann Contact Myself 2.0: Live at Stockfish Hybrid Stereo SACD

My album 'Contact Myself' was released in the year 2000 and it was/is in many aspects a musical milestone for me. It opened many doors and paved my way as a singer, guitarist and songwriter up to this day. Regardless of the ups and downs I faced since the release of this album, these songs were always there for me like the strong and caring arms of a father.

During an intensive phase of radical changes and new beginnings in 2018/2019/2020 a wish grow in me to record the songs from 'Contact Myself' anew for the 20th anniversary of this album. It would be live and minimalistic - exactly like how I wrote them in my kitchen in Hamburg back then.

Stockfisch was the only label I considered for this project.

Günter Pauler and his team made it possible for me to realize this quite challenging project not only at highest audio-technical brilliance, but also in an environment of human warmth and calmness. And challenging it was, because, though I have released many albums over the years, a real live recording was a completely new experience for me.

I thank Günter and Evelyn Pauler, Inés Breuer, the whole Stockfisch team; and best of all, Gert Neumann, who has accompanied me with his guitars, with great effort, artistic spirit and absolute dedication.

It was a recording session full of encounters, during which I had the opportunity to experience a hardly familiar feeling of arrival and acceptance, and a chance to rediscover everybody involved in the project, including my own self.

And that's what life and songwriting are about.

Encounters.

It's an honor for me to be able to work with such engaged, friendly and competent people, after almost two decades of being on the road alone with my songs.

And I thank Günter Pauler also for the Maton guitar that I played during the recording of this album and which will now accompany me to the end of my days.

-Katja Werker, July 22nd, 2020