new book: MUSIC and TRANSCENDENCE – STORY OF A DREAM TEAM (the mystery of sounds, from Antiquity to Psychedelic Rock)
new album: TRANSCENDENAL BLUES
Richard Koechli's latest multipack - a book about music and transcendence (in a German and an English edition), and at the same time the psychedelic gospel blues album "Transcendental Blues". Plus an 8-minute video clip produced in the USA by "Relaxing Blues Music" and the single "Love endures everything" (radio edit).
--> Book & album trailer --> Video clip "Love endures everything" --> Download press release --> book cover (print) --> book cover (web) --> album cover (print) --> album cover (web)
Stream and download the album:
Order book (German edition) incl. CD (worldwide): --> cede.com
Order english book (paperback, hardcover, e-book) incl. free mp3 download directly from publisher (worldwide): -->tredition.com (scroll to the bottom (right) of the tredition website to change the language from " Deutsch" to English)
Order english book (paperback, hardcover or e-book) incl. free mp3 download from bookstores: 
Music exhilarates, enchants, fires, liberates, calms, comforts, heals. Like hardly any other medium, it lets us take off into a world beyond time and space. How does it do that? What is the secret of sound? There are theories, suppositions and hunches from the most diverse fields, but in no epoch has it been possible to finally lift the veil.
Tenaciously, playfully and at times ironically, Swiss musician and book author Richard Koechli searches for answers as to how and why music touches us and, in the sense of "transcendence," even takes us beyond ourselves. What processes are going on there, in the brain and in the soul? How has all this influenced the history of humanity? Meticulously, Koechli examines explanations from musicology, natural science, psychology, music therapy, sociology, literature, philosophy, mysticism, spirituality and metaphysics. He passionately quotes legendary stars as they experience the magic. Concerned, he also asks why, since time immemorial, the "drug" of music is often not enough for us, why we believe we can top the high with some substance or occult practice. Last but not least, Koechli ends the 200-page adventure with a fascinating foray through the history of "psychedelic rock", because that music from the hippie era also taught him how to take off back then.
For anyone involved in music in any way. A relevant book because it multiplies respect for the mystery of sounds. A stirring one, because it takes the love for music to infinity.
In his role as a multiple award-winning blues musician and singer-songwriter, Richard Koechli combines it all with a very personal album: "Transcendental Blues", a complex musical trip through the ups and downs of being human.
Richard Koechli: "Both are an experiment; the book to get to the bottom of the millennia-old musical miracle as well as the psychedelic spirit of the hippies in an interdisciplinary way - and the album to reflect the roller coaster of life in a musical-personal way. The heart of the album is a 30-minute composition with mystical lyrics, divided into 6 scenes. The scenes are also on the album as individual songs, and beyond that the whole thing as an instrumental mix to chill out."
"Originally, the project was created as a purely instrumental composition; different moods and scenes that blend into each other in a harmonically, melodically and rhythmically sophisticated way. Strong contrasts, which I connect pauselessly and fluently, partly underlaid with noises. In life there are no pauses either, everything contradictory merges."
"In the end, I felt like singing anyway and representing various emotional states lyrically as well. I felt the desire to dive into my personal spiritual home - which is why I referred to very specific Bible passages that mean a lot to me for a considerable part of the song lyrics. For example, the words about the nature of true love (1 Corinthians 13), which I quote in the song Love Endures Everything (the album's radio single), they are hard to top in terms of wisdom and poetic beauty."
The album has no direct reference to the book; "as a musician, I can't be a generalist and look for answers in different disciplines - I can only reflect completely subjectively in my own personal language as a blues and folk musician."
It's Koechli's most elaborate studio production to date; "more than 2 months went just into mixing the album ... - thankfully in my own studio, otherwise I would have ended up in jail long ago, heavily in debt, haha."
It was worth the effort, the album sounds excellent and very dynamic, also thanks to the fantastic collaboration of his long-time live musicians Fausto Medici (drums) and Michael Dolmetsch (piano, Hammond) and the very sensitive mastering job of Philippe Schneeberger (Lakeland Studio).
ISBN Softcover (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92836-7
ISBN Hardcover (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92837-4
ISBN E-Book (incl. mp3-download): 978-3-347-92838-1
Sponsoring: Many thanks for the generous support to Marlise and Walter Köchli (my parents), Thomas Bühlmann, Sylvia Frey and Cyrill Deschamps!
