RELAX! THINK! ACT! — AMBIENT AS POLITICAL MUSIC Article
Authors
Marc-Stefan Andres
https://www.ag-text.de/
Marc started out in journalism in 1991 as editor of a music fanzine. For the last 20 years he’s been a freelance journalist, writing for magazines like brand eins, Süddeutsche Zeitung, doing conceptual work and storytelling for companies around the world. He fulfils his musical ambitions with his band Brandt.
Aida Baghernejad
https://aidabaghernejad.tumblr.com/about
As an award-winning freelance music and food writer, Aida eats and listens to music for a living. She’s also currently (and forever) working on her PhD on “identity as a commercial project”. She fights for a better world in her free time.
Maren Barton
Maren has been a translator and proofreader for nine years. She lives near London and frequently works for big publishers like Campus Verlag in Germany as well as for a number of universities, translating and proofreading academic publications.
André Boße
https://www.ag-text.de/
André, based in Cologne, was editor-in-chief of interview magazine Galore from 2005 to 2009. Since then he has been a regular writer for magazines and newspapers like Musikexpress, Rolling Stone, Mint, Visions, Spiegel, Süddeutsche and Berliner Zeitung. He also works as a lecturer.
Cameron Cook
http://www.cameronedwardcook.com/
Cameron is an American arts and culture journalist based in Berlin. His empirical opinions on music and film have appeared in Pitchfork, Noisey, High Snobiety, and others. Half of the Noughties he acted as editor of the influential SUP Magazine.
Nick Currie (Momus)
http://imomus.com/
Nick is responsible for over thirty albums of electronic folk music, six novels, and an apparently endless stream of cultural journalism. He believes that “everyone will be famous for fifteen people” and that “every lie creates the parallel world in which it’s true”. He lives in Berlin and is writing a memoir for Farrar, Straus & Giroux in New York.
Bill Drummond
An ex-gardener; ex-milkman; ex-steel worker; ex-lunatic asylum nursing assistant; ex-apprentice trawlerman; ex-chippy; ex-fly poster; and sometime van driver and publisher of printed matter. And full-time serial father.
Adi Englman
https://www.marcel-art-projects.org/team
Adi is an art curator specialising in modern and contemporary art. She was born and remains based in Tel Aviv. Adi is founder and artistic director of Marcel, a nonprofit organisation that initiates and produces special artistic projects and products. She is also co-founder and co-editor of the visual arts periodical Picnic Magazine.
Wolfgang Frömberg
Wolfgang is a freelance writer from Cologne. He was an editor for magazines SPEX and Intro and has published two novels – Spucke and Etwas Besseres als die Freiheit – and a collection of stories, essays and poems called How to Play Fußball. He also hosts readings under the name of “Literatur zur Zeit”.
Peter Gaide
https://www.ag-text.de/
Peter began playing electric home organ at the age of 10. Back then he admired Franz Lambert, who played an impressive white electric organ. Today, Peter listens to recordings of Jimmy and Johnny “Hammond” Smith while he sips booze in the gloomy jazz bars of Tokyo, carrying out research for CHART.
Kerstin Grether
http://www.kerstin-grether.de/
Kerstin is an author (“Zuckerbabys”) and pop culture journalist. Since her early teenage days, she’s been writing for German music magazine SPEX and is known as one of the originators of pop feminism in Germany. She is singer and songwriter of the chanson rock band Doctorella alongside her sister Sandra Grether.
Britta Helm
https://medium.com/britta-helm
Britta writes about pop music. Her work has appeared in Visions, Galore, Die Zeit Online and Missy Magazine, among others. She lives in Berlin.
Olaf Karnik
http://www.olafkarnik.com/
Olaf is a freelance journalist and author for Neue Züricher Zeitung, WDR 3, Spex, Deutschlandfunk and more. He has published articles, radio features and books about Hauntology, Library Music, Reggae in Germany and Afro-American Pop. He has been working as an university lecturer and as curator for club events. Olaf hosts the online radio DJ show “Do The Wrong Thing” on 674FM.
Jan Kedves
Jan is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. He writes on pop culture, fashion, art and anything in between, mostly for Süddeutsche Zeitung and occasionally for magazines like Fantastic Man or Glamour. From 2010 to 2012 he was the editor of German pop culture magazine Spex.
Lydia Lunch
Lydia is closely associated with the No Wave scene of Downtown New York of the late 70s/early 80s, acted in the early movies of Richard Kern alongside Henry Rollins and shared stages with everybody from James White over Glenn Branca to Richard Hell. She is still always on the run for readings and concerts.
Alexander Mayor
Alexander is a writer and musician based in London. He has written for The Independent, Kaput – Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop and Intro, publishes short stories and produces British pop music under the name Alexander’s Festival Hall.
Severin Mevissen
Severin moved from Hamburg to the United States as a correspondent for German magazines in 1992. His work has been published in Geo, Merian, Spiegel, Stern, Musikexpress, Rolling Stone and many others. He currently lives in Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn, where he spins records at his wife’s vinyl bistro “Bunny” whenever he doesn’t write.
Eric Pfeil
http://xn--dierealitt-y5a.de/
Eric is an author and singer/songwriter based in Cologne. In 2014 he was awarded the Rocco Clein Award for his monthly column „Das Pop-Tagebuch“ for Rolling Stone Magazine. As a musician he has just released his third album 13 Wohnzimmer, a LP entirely recorded in 13 different living rooms.
Eugene Robinson
Eugene is a journalist, author, novelist, actor and singer who has won awards for at least one of those things. He recently published records with his bands Oxbow (“Thin Black Duke”) and Buñuel (“Boys to Man”) and toured pain- and joyfully through the USA and Europe.
Anja Rützel
Anja writes about popular culture, TV, travel and animals (and everything else, really, even about soccer and the secrets of successful marriage dodgers). She just published her third book, an essay in defence of loneliness called “Better to be alone than having no friends at all”.
Johann Scheerer
https://cloudshill.com/
Johann is a music producer from Hamburg. He has worked with artists like Faust, Peter Doherty and At the Drive-In. Since 2005 he has run the analogue recording studio Clouds Hill Recordings and its related indie label, Clouds Hill.
Annett Scheffel
Annett is a freelance journalist who writes about music, film, feminism, contemporary culture, and the political in the personal. She’s based in Berlin and works, among others, for Süddeutsche Zeitung, Musikexpress, Radio Eins and Dummy Magazine.
Thomas Venker
Thomas, based in Cologne, acted from 2000–2014 as editor-in-chief of Intro magazine. He runs the electronic label onitor as well as the art imprint Edition Fieber. Since 2015 he has been publisher and editor-in-chief of Kaput – Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop, he also works as an lecturer and manages DJ and producer Lena Willikens.
Henrik von Holtum
http://www.henrikvonholtum.com/
Henrik is a musician and author. Since 1994 he has been the MC and producer of the german hip hop band Kinderzimmer Productions. He studied classical music, started working as a radio producer and journalist in 2006 and has been teaching at the Folkwang University since 2014.
Patrick Wagner
Patrick is godfather of the band Gewalt, Germany’s most expressive art thing. His back catalogue lists involvement in the labels Kitty Yo and Louisville and the band Surrogat. He is an expert for children’s soccer and visionary producer of Berlins “FuckUp Nights”, a monthly event, where people talk about their business failures.
Klaus Walter
Klaus, born in 1955, lives in Frankfurt a. M. He began working as writer and DJ in the late 1970s. Since 1984 he has been a DJ for public radio in Germany. He also works for the internet radio station ByteFM. He regularly writes for various newspapers and magazines like Süddeutsche Zeitung, die tageszeitung and SPEX.
Illustrators/Artists
Dennis Busch
https://dennisbusch.tumblr.com/
Dennis lives and works as a freelance artist, illustrator, musician and crystal/lightworker in Bremen.
Geoff Grandfield
http://geoffgrandfield.co.uk/
Geoff is an illustrator, having worked on series such as the novels of Patricia Highsmith, Raymond Chandler and Graham Greene. This assignment was a welcome opportunity to illustrate a live conversation. He is currently working on a graphic novel exploring mind control.
Lewis Khan
https://lewiskhan.co.uk/
Lewis is a visual artist from London, working with still and moving images. His portrait-based work is a study of emotion, relationships, and identity. Lewis’ practice has taken him further afield, shooting projects across Europe and the Americas. His project “Theatre” is published by The Lost Light Recordings.
David Markey
David Markey is a self-taught filmmaker and musician. His work is noted as documenting the punk scene in Southern California throughout the 1980s, growing to find a larger audience in the 1990s while continuing to produce work throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Markey has worked with Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The Ramones and more.
Anna Möller
Anna is an artist from Hamburg. She has had several international artistic residencies, including one in Tel Aviv in 2007. Her works were most recently shown at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Galerie Karin Guenther. She is studying psychology and surrounds herself with a big family to gain a better understanding of total strangers.
Tobias Trost
https://einsdreiundsiebzig.de/
Tobias runs the independent design office Einsdreiundsiebzig in Berlin, a one man dog and pony show set up in 2003. Since then he’s been taking care of the design part of all kinds of printed matters while his drum kit gathers dust in the cellar.
Photographers
Julia Baier
https://www.juliabaier.de/
Julia works as a freelance photo­grapher in Berlin. She likes to travel – one of her favourite adventures as a photographer was a trip around the world with a German orchestra. She’s also very much into diving and underwater photography.
Giulia Bruno
http://www.giuliabruno.com/
Giulia is a Berlin-based artist working with film and photography. Her artistic and photographic research focuses primarily on the interaction between space of identity, space of technology, pragmatical space and contemporary contradictions.
Jonathan Forsythe
http://www.jonathanforsythe.com/
Jonathan is a Canadian photographer living and working in New York. He has published a book called Ngorongoro Smells Delicious with photographs of his cat Ngorongoro.
Stephanie Füssenich
http://www.stephaniefuessenich.de/
Stephanie is based in Paris. She works for magazines like Neon, Nido, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Der Spiegel, and Die Zeit as well as for big companies like BMW.
Mikael Gregorsky
http://www.mikaelgregorsky.com/
Mikael is a Swedish photographer based in London. Working on commissions and exhibiting, his work is found in various museum collections throughout the world.
Brian Guido
Brian is a Los Angeles based portrait and documentary style photographer.
Matthias Haslauer
https://matthiashaslauer.com/
Matthias is a freelance photographer based in Hamburg. He was born in Emsdetten in Westphalia, now he’s traveling the world. Since 2007 he works for various magazines like Zeit Magazin, Der Spiegel, brand eins, Vice, Neon, 11 Freunde, and DOGS. At the age of 16 he played drums in Uterous Ungerous, officially the worst band in Germany. Since then he’s collecting records of other great bands.
Tanja Kernweiss
http://www.tanjakernweiss.com/
Tanja studied photography in Munich from 2002 to 2007. She visited Arno Fischer’s master class at the Ostkreuzschule in Berlin. Her favourite part of the job is to make portraits of faces. Tanja’s photographs get printed in the Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, Die Zeit, Vice Magazine and Neon. Tanja lives and works in Munich.
Marco Krüger
Marco’s main profession is his work as a sound assistant (“boomoperator”) on movie sets. For Christian Petzold’s movie Transit he also shot the stills. He only shoots on film. He lives in Berlin.
Sannah Kvist
https://sannahkvist.se/
Sannah is a Swedish photographer and artist who collects animal bones and soviet memorabilia when she is not driving big trains across the country. She just bought a small house to live in waiting for the apocalypse.
David Markey
David Markey is a self-taught filmmaker and musician. His work is noted as documenting the punk scene in Southern California throughout the 1980s, growing to find a larger audience in the 1990s while continuing to produce work throughout the 2000s and 2010s. Markey has worked with Sonic Youth, Nirvana, The Ramones and more.
Ye Rin Mok
https://www.yerinmok.com/
Ye Rin is a Los Angeles-based photographer. She has shot portraits and interiors for Apartamento, Dwell, The Telegraph, WSJ among many others.
Anna Möller
Anna is an artist from Hamburg. She has had several international artistic residencies, including one in Tel Aviv in 2007. Her works were most recently shown at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Galerie Karin Guenther. She is studying psychology and surrounds herself with a big family to gain a better understanding of total strangers.
Jacob Park
http://texturedetroit.com/
Jacob is the lead curator and a resident DJ of “Texture Detroit”, an event series focused on cutting edge house and techno, featuring mind-bending spatial installs. He spends his time travelling, usually with a camera in his hand.
Charles Peterson
Charles is renowned for his documentation of the Seattle grunge scene. As a photographer, he’s gone on to do everything from a book on breakdancing to documenting an art museum. These days his kids are muses for a project titled “Child’s Play” that evokes the universal child in all of us.
Katharina Poblotzki
http://katharinapoblotzki.com/
Katharina is a photographer, restless traveller, native of Cologne, legal alien in New York City, terrible morning person and lover of fall.
Katja Ruge
https://www.katjaruge.de/
Katja is a photographer and Dj based in Hamburg. She loves the music of synthesizers and the work of musicians and other creative people. Her photo exhibition “Ladyflash” at kulturreich gallery Hamburg focused on women in rock and pop.
Armin Smailovic
https://www.arminsmailovic.com/
Armin studied at the “Bayerische Staatslehranstalt für Photographie” in Munich. His documentary work focuses on post-conflict societies and political issues. He is a founding member of the „Fotodoks“ Festival in Munich and was a co-curator until 2017. Since April 2017 he has taught documentary photography at the Fachhochschule Bielefeld.
Kathrin Spirk
https://www.kathrinspirk.de/
Kathrin is a Hamburg-based photographer for newspapers and magazines. However she likes to ride with her bike through the busy streets of London, humming songs from PJ Harvey’s album "Let England Shake".
Matt Veal
https://www.mattvealphotography.co.uk/
Matt is a London-based photographer and videographer. His work includes documentary, portraiture, still life and travel. He is currently working on a project that is documenting the world of female boxers.
Lisa Wassmann
https://www.lisawassmann.com/
Lisa is a photographic and video artist based in Berlin. Her work has led her to collaborations with Dazed & Confused, Zeitmagazin, I-D, Vice, Pitchfork, and Stella McCartney among others. She is currently working on her new book "Don’t you cry".
Erik Weiss
https://www.erikweiss.de/
Erik is one of Germany’s leading ­music photographers. His portraits of artists such as Jared Leto, Kendrick Lamar, Muse, Beastie Boys, Green Day and The Black Keys have been published in Rolling Stone, Q Magazine and NME, amongst others.
Staff
Marc-Stefan Andres [Editor]
https://ag-text.de/
Marc started out in journalism in 1991, as editor of a music fanzine, and has been a freelance journalist for the last 20 years. He writes for magazines like Brand Eins and works on branding and storytelling for companies around the world. He fulfils his musical ambitions with his band Brandt.
Maren Barton [Translator]
Maren has been a translator and proofreader for nine years. She lives near London and frequently works for big publishers like Campus Verlag in Germany as well as for a number of universities.
André Boße [Editor]
https://ag-text.de/
André, based in Cologne, was editor-in-chief of Galore Interview Magazine. Since then he has written for magazines and newspapers like Musik­express, Mint, Visions, Spiegel, Süddeutsche and Berliner Zeitung. He also works as a lecturer.
Alfred Bradford [Translator]
Alfred invented Punk at the tender age of six. Then – by an absolutely unexpected stroke of genius – also invented Post-Punk shortly thereafter. He has now retired to an 18th century windmill in the Westphalian countryside and lives off the royalty payments.
Matthias Haslauer [Photo Editor]
https://matthiashaslauer.com/
Matthias is a freelance photographer based in Hamburg. He was born in Emsdetten in Westphalia, now he’s traveling the world. Since 2007 he works for various magazines like Zeit Magazin, Der Spiegel, brand eins, Vice, Neon, 11 Freunde, and DOGS. At the age of 16 he played drums in Uterous Ungerous, officially the worst band in Germany. Since then he’s collecting records of other great bands.
Joe Kroll [Translator]
Joe is a freelance editor, translator and writer. An intellectual historian by training, he has contributed to publications including Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and the Times Literary Supplement. His translation of Hans Blumenberg’s “Rigorism of Truth” is forthcoming from Cornell University Press.
Alexander Mayor [Lector]
Alexander is a writer and musician based in London. He has written for The Independent, Kaput – Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop and Intro, publishes short stories and produces British pop music under the name Alexander’s Festival Hall.
Anna Möller [Editorial Consultant]
Anna is an artist from Hamburg. She has had several international artistic residencies, including one in Tel Aviv in 2007. Her works were most recently shown at Kunsthalle Düsseldorf and Galerie Karin Guenther. She is studying psychology and surrounds herself with a big family to gain a better understanding of total strangers.
Johann Scheerer [Editor, Publisher, Managing Director]
https://cloudshill.com/
Johann is a music producer from Hamburg. He has worked with artists like Faust, Peter Doherty and At the Drive-In. Since 2005 he has run the analogue recording studio Clouds Hill Recordings and its related indie label, Clouds Hill.
Maria Seidl [Proofreader]
Maria is a translator, editor and proofreader based in Berlin. She proofreads the daily newspaper Berliner Zeitung and translates fiction and non-fiction from English to German. Waiting for George RR Martin’s “The Winds of Winter” occupies much of her spare time.
Tobias Trost [Designer]
https://einsdreiundsiebzig.de/
Tobias runs the independent design office Einsdreiundsiebzig in Berlin, a one man dog and pony show set up in 2003. Since then he’s been taking care of the design part of all kinds of printed matters while his drum kit gathers dust in the cellar.
Thomas Venker [Editor]
Thomas, based in Cologne, was edi­tor-in-chief of Intro Magazine from 2000 to 2014. He runs three electronic labels – onitor, Scheinselbständig and Cereal/Killers – as well as the art imprint Edition Fieber. He is the publisher of Kaput – Magazin für Insolvenz & Pop and works as lecturer at universities.

The idea of “CHART – Notes to consider” is to publish a magazine totally outside of the conventional business circle. The high-class roundabout 200 pages magazine won’t be sold at stores. And it won’t be given away thoughtless. We have established a distribution model based on partners: Every partner of CHART will get up to ten copies. The person is then requested to give away these copies to ten people she or he identifies as readers. This model guarantees that chart won’t be a waste of paper, won’t be a magazine in the dirt or in the shelves. It really will wander from hand to hand. With a circulation of 2,000 copies. Published in English. Given away by partners from all over the world.

 

The first issue of CHART came out 2017 and dealt with “silence”. It was followed by the 2018 edition about “pain”. The newest issue of 2019 deals with “money”.

 

For CHART, our writers and photographers met with people like Little Simz and Jenny Wilson, Japandroids and Holly Herndon, Omar Rodríguez-López and Dieter Meier, The Mekons and Robert Forster. Other artists like Momus, Lydia Lunch or Bill Drummond of KLF wrote for us.

 

Please enjoy selected CHART stories on this homepage. If you are interested in getting the newest or the next issues, please contact us: editors@notestoconsider.com. But please be aware that the printed issues are strictly limited.

 

 

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CHART
Notes to consider
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Germany
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h) ProcessorProcessor is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

i) RecipientRecipient is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or another body, to which the personal data are disclosed, whether a third party or not. However, public authorities which may receive personal data in the framework of a particular inquiry in accordance with Union or Member State law shall not be regarded as recipients; the processing of those data by those public authorities shall be in compliance with the applicable data protection rules according to the purposes of the processing.

j) Third partyThird party is a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or body other than the data subject, controller, processor and persons who, under the direct authority of the controller or processor, are authorised to process personal data.

k) ConsentConsent of the data subject is any freely given, specific, informed and unambiguous indication of the data subject’s wishes by which he or she, by a statement or by a clear affirmative action, signifies agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

2. Name and Address of the controller

Controller for the purposes of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), other data protection laws applicable in Member states of the European Union and other provisions related to data protection is:

Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG
Billwerder Neuer Deich 72
20539 Hamburg
Germany
Phone: +49(0)40 98260501
Email: US@cloudshill.com
Website: https://cloudshill.com

3. Cookies

The Internet pages of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG use cookies. Cookies are text files that are stored in a computer system via an Internet browser.

Many Internet sites and servers use cookies. Many cookies contain a so-called cookie ID. A cookie ID is a unique identifier of the cookie. It consists of a character string through which Internet pages and servers can be assigned to the specific Internet browser in which the cookie was stored. This allows visited Internet sites and servers to differentiate the individual browser of the dats subject from other Internet browsers that contain other cookies. A specific Internet browser can be recognized and identified using the unique cookie ID.

Through the use of cookies, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG can provide the users of this website with more user-friendly services that would not be possible without the cookie setting.

By means of a cookie, the information and offers on our website can be optimized with the user in mind. Cookies allow us, as previously mentioned, to recognize our website users. The purpose of this recognition is to make it easier for users to utilize our website. The website user that uses cookies, e.g. does not have to enter access data each time the website is accessed, because this is taken over by the website, and the cookie is thus stored on the user’s computer system. Another example is the cookie of a shopping cart in an online shop. The online store remembers the articles that a customer has placed in the virtual shopping cart via a cookie.

The data subject may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies through our website by means of a corresponding setting of the Internet browser used, and may thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Furthermore, already set cookies may be deleted at any time via an Internet browser or other software programs. This is possible in all popular Internet browsers. If the data subject deactivates the setting of cookies in the Internet browser used, not all functions of our website may be entirely usable.

4. Collection of general data and information

The website of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG collects a series of general data and information when a data subject or automated system calls up the website. This general data and information are stored in the server log files. Collected may be (1) the browser types and versions used, (2) the operating system used by the accessing system, (3) the website from which an accessing system reaches our website (so-called referrers), (4) the sub-websites, (5) the date and time of access to the Internet site, (6) an Internet protocol address (IP address), (7) the Internet service provider of the accessing system, and (8) any other similar data and information that may be used in the event of attacks on our information technology systems.

When using these general data and information, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG does not draw any conclusions about the data subject. Rather, this information is needed to (1) deliver the content of our website correctly, (2) optimize the content of our website as well as its advertisement, (3) ensure the long-term viability of our information technology systems and website technology, and (4) provide law enforcement authorities with the information necessary for criminal prosecution in case of a cyber-attack. Therefore, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG analyzes anonymously collected data and information statistically, with the aim of increasing the data protection and data security of our enterprise, and to ensure an optimal level of protection for the personal data we process. The anonymous data of the server log files are stored separately from all personal data provided by a data subject.

5. Subscription to our newsletters

On the website of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG, users are given the opportunity to subscribe to our enterprise’s newsletter. The input mask used for this purpose determines what personal data are transmitted, as well as when the newsletter is ordered from the controller.

The Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG informs its customers and business partners regularly by means of a newsletter about enterprise offers. The enterprise’s newsletter may only be received by the data subject if (1) the data subject has a valid e-mail address and (2) the data subject registers for the newsletter shipping. A confirmation e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address registered by a data subject for the first time for newsletter shipping, for legal reasons, in the double opt-in procedure. This confirmation e-mail is used to prove whether the owner of the e-mail address as the data subject is authorized to receive the newsletter.

During the registration for the newsletter, we also store the IP address of the computer system assigned by the Internet service provider (ISP) and used by the data subject at the time of the registration, as well as the date and time of the registration. The collection of this data is necessary in order to understand the (possible) misuse of the e-mail address of a data subject at a later date, and it therefore serves the aim of the legal protection of the controller.

The personal data collected as part of a registration for the newsletter will only be used to send our newsletter. In addition, subscribers to the newsletter may be informed by e-mail, as long as this is necessary for the operation of the newsletter service or a registration in question, as this could be the case in the event of modifications to the newsletter offer, or in the event of a change in technical circumstances. There will be no transfer of personal data collected by the newsletter service to third parties. The subscription to our newsletter may be terminated by the data subject at any time. The consent to the storage of personal data, which the data subject has given for shipping the newsletter, may be revoked at any time. For the purpose of revocation of consent, a corresponding link is found in each newsletter. It is also possible to unsubscribe from the newsletter at any time directly on the website of the controller, or to communicate this to the controller in a different way.

6. Newsletter-Tracking

The newsletter of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG contains so-called tracking pixels. A tracking pixel is a miniature graphic embedded in such e-mails, which are sent in HTML format to enable log file recording and analysis. This allows a statistical analysis of the success or failure of online marketing campaigns. Based on the embedded tracking pixel, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG may see if and when an e-mail was opened by a data subject, and which links in the e-mail were called up by data subjects.

Such personal data collected in the tracking pixels contained in the newsletters are stored and analyzed by the controller in order to optimize the shipping of the newsletter, as well as to adapt the content of future newsletters even better to the interests of the data subject. These personal data will not be passed on to third parties. Data subjects are at any time entitled to revoke the respective separate declaration of consent issued by means of the double-opt-in procedure. After a revocation, these personal data will be deleted by the controller. The Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG automatically regards a withdrawal from the receipt of the newsletter as a revocation.

7. Contact possibility via the website

The website of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG contains information that enables a quick electronic contact to our enterprise, as well as direct communication with us, which also includes a general address of the so-called electronic mail (e-mail address). If a data subject contacts the controller by e-mail or via a contact form, the personal data transmitted by the data subject are automatically stored. Such personal data transmitted on a voluntary basis by a data subject to the data controller are stored for the purpose of processing or contacting the data subject. There is no transfer of this personal data to third parties.

8. Routine erasure and blocking of personal data

The data controller shall process and store the personal data of the data subject only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of storage, or as far as this is granted by the European legislator or other legislators in laws or regulations to which the controller is subject to.

If the storage purpose is not applicable, or if a storage period prescribed by the European legislator or another competent legislator expires, the personal data are routinely blocked or erased in accordance with legal requirements.

9. Rights of the data subject

    • a) Right of confirmationEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to obtain from the controller the confirmation as to whether or not personal data concerning him or her are being processed. If a data subject wishes to avail himself of this right of confirmation, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the controller.

 

    • b) Right of accessEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to obtain from the controller free information about his or her personal data stored at any time and a copy of this information. Furthermore, the European directives and regulations grant the data subject access to the following information:
      • the purposes of the processing;
      • the categories of personal data concerned;
      • the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular recipients in third countries or international organisations;
      • where possible, the envisaged period for which the personal data will be stored, or, if not possible, the criteria used to determine that period;
      • the existence of the right to request from the controller rectification or erasure of personal data, or restriction of processing of personal data concerning the data subject, or to object to such processing;
      • the existence of the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority;
      • where the personal data are not collected from the data subject, any available information as to their source;
      • the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, referred to in Article 22(1) and (4) of the GDPR and, at least in those cases, meaningful information about the logic involved, as well as the significance and envisaged consequences of such processing for the data subject.

      Furthermore, the data subject shall have a right to obtain information as to whether personal data are transferred to a third country or to an international organisation. Where this is the case, the data subject shall have the right to be informed of the appropriate safeguards relating to the transfer.

      If a data subject wishes to avail himself of this right of access, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the controller.

 

    • c) Right to rectificationEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to obtain from the controller without undue delay the rectification of inaccurate personal data concerning him or her. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, the data subject shall have the right to have incomplete personal data completed, including by means of providing a supplementary statement.If a data subject wishes to exercise this right to rectification, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the controller.d) Right to erasure (Right to be forgotten)Each data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to obtain from the controller the erasure of personal data concerning him or her without undue delay, and the controller shall have the obligation to erase personal data without undue delay where one of the following grounds applies, as long as the processing is not necessary:
      • The personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
      • The data subject withdraws consent to which the processing is based according to point (a) of Article 6(1) of the GDPR, or point (a) of Article 9(2) of the GDPR, and where there is no other legal ground for the processing.
      • The data subject objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) of the GDPR and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing, or the data subject objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(2) of the GDPR.
      • The personal data have been unlawfully processed.
      • The personal data must be erased for compliance with a legal obligation in Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject.
      • The personal data have been collected in relation to the offer of information society services referred to in Article 8(1) of the GDPR.

      If one of the aforementioned reasons applies, and a data subject wishes to request the erasure of personal data stored by the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the controller. An employee of Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG shall promptly ensure that the erasure request is complied with immediately.

      Where the controller has made personal data public and is obliged pursuant to Article 17(1) to erase the personal data, the controller, taking account of available technology and the cost of implementation, shall take reasonable steps, including technical measures, to inform other controllers processing the personal data that the data subject has requested erasure by such controllers of any links to, or copy or replication of, those personal data, as far as processing is not required. An employees of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG will arrange the necessary measures in individual cases.

 

  • e) Right of restriction of processingEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to obtain from the controller restriction of processing where one of the following applies:
    • The accuracy of the personal data is contested by the data subject, for a period enabling the controller to verify the accuracy of the personal data.
    • The processing is unlawful and the data subject opposes the erasure of the personal data and requests instead the restriction of their use instead.
    • The controller no longer needs the personal data for the purposes of the processing, but they are required by the data subject for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.
    • The data subject has objected to processing pursuant to Article 21(1) of the GDPR pending the verification whether the legitimate grounds of the controller override those of the data subject.

    If one of the aforementioned conditions is met, and a data subject wishes to request the restriction of the processing of personal data stored by the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG, he or she may at any time contact any employee of the controller. The employee of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG will arrange the restriction of the processing.

    f) Right to data portability

    Each data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator, to receive the personal data concerning him or her, which was provided to a controller, in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format. He or she shall have the right to transmit those data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to which the personal data have been provided, as long as the processing is based on consent pursuant to point (a) of Article 6(1) of the GDPR or point (a) of Article 9(2) of the GDPR, or on a contract pursuant to point (b) of Article 6(1) of the GDPR, and the processing is carried out by automated means, as long as the processing is not necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

    Furthermore, in exercising his or her right to data portability pursuant to Article 20(1) of the GDPR, the data subject shall have the right to have personal data transmitted directly from one controller to another, where technically feasible and when doing so does not adversely affect the rights and freedoms of others.

    In order to assert the right to data portability, the data subject may at any time contact any employee of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG.

  • g) Right to objectEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to object, on grounds relating to his or her particular situation, at any time, to processing of personal data concerning him or her, which is based on point (e) or (f) of Article 6(1) of the GDPR. This also applies to profiling based on these provisions.The Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG shall no longer process the personal data in the event of the objection, unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the data subject, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.If the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG processes personal data for direct marketing purposes, the data subject shall have the right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning him or her for such marketing. This applies to profiling to the extent that it is related to such direct marketing. If the data subject objects to the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG to the processing for direct marketing purposes, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG will no longer process the personal data for these purposes.In addition, the data subject has the right, on grounds relating to his or her particular situation, to object to processing of personal data concerning him or her by the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG for scientific or historical research purposes, or for statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89(1) of the GDPR, unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out for reasons of public interest.In order to exercise the right to object, the data subject may contact any employee of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG. In addition, the data subject is free in the context of the use of information society services, and notwithstanding Directive 2002/58/EC, to use his or her right to object by automated means using technical specifications.
  • h) Automated individual decision-making, including profilingEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her, or similarly significantly affects him or her, as long as the decision (1) is not is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between the data subject and a data controller, or (2) is not authorised by Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject and which also lays down suitable measures to safeguard the data subject’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, or (3) is not based on the data subject’s explicit consent.If the decision (1) is necessary for entering into, or the performance of, a contract between the data subject and a data controller, or (2) it is based on the data subject’s explicit consent, the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG shall implement suitable measures to safeguard the data subject’s rights and freedoms and legitimate interests, at least the right to obtain human intervention on the part of the controller, to express his or her point of view and contest the decision.
    If the data subject wishes to exercise the rights concerning automated individual decision-making, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG.
  • i) Right to withdraw data protection consentEach data subject shall have the right granted by the European legislator to withdraw his or her consent to processing of his or her personal data at any time.If the data subject wishes to exercise the right to withdraw the consent, he or she may, at any time, contact any employee of the Clouds Hill GmbH & Co. KG.

10. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Facebook

On this website, the controller has integrated components of the enterprise Facebook. Facebook is a social network.

A social network is a place for social meetings on the Internet, an online community, which usually allows users to communicate with each other and interact in a virtual space. A social network may serve as a platform for the exchange of opinions and experiences, or enable the Internet community to provide personal or business-related information. Facebook allows social network users to include the creation of private profiles, upload photos, and network through friend requests.

The operating company of Facebook is Facebook, Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025, United States. If a person lives outside of the United States or Canada, the controller is the Facebook Ireland Ltd., 4 Grand Canal Square, Grand Canal Harbour, Dublin 2, Ireland.

With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet website, which is operated by the controller and into which a Facebook component (Facebook plug-ins) was integrated, the web browser on the information technology system of the data subject is automatically prompted to download display of the corresponding Facebook component from Facebook through the Facebook component. An overview of all the Facebook Plug-ins may be accessed under https://developers.facebook.com/docs/plugins/. During the course of this technical procedure, Facebook is made aware of what specific sub-site of our website was visited by the data subject.

If the data subject is logged in at the same time on Facebook, Facebook detects with every call-up to our website by the data subject—and for the entire duration of their stay on our Internet site—which specific sub-site of our Internet page was visited by the data subject. This information is collected through the Facebook component and associated with the respective Facebook account of the data subject. If the data subject clicks on one of the Facebook buttons integrated into our website, e.g. the “Like” button, or if the data subject submits a comment, then Facebook matches this information with the personal Facebook user account of the data subject and stores the personal data.

Facebook always receives, through the Facebook component, information about a visit to our website by the data subject, whenever the data subject is logged in at the same time on Facebook during the time of the call-up to our website. This occurs regardless of whether the data subject clicks on the Facebook component or not. If such a transmission of information to Facebook is not desirable for the data subject, then he or she may prevent this by logging off from their Facebook account before a call-up to our website is made.

The data protection guideline published by Facebook, which is available at https://facebook.com/about/privacy/, provides information about the collection, processing and use of personal data by Facebook. In addition, it is explained there what setting options Facebook offers to protect the privacy of the data subject. In addition, different configuration options are made available to allow the elimination of data transmission to Facebook. These applications may be used by the data subject to eliminate a data transmission to Facebook.

11. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Google AdSense

On this website, the controller has integrated Google AdSense. Google AdSense is an online service which allows the placement of advertising on third-party sites. Google AdSense is based on an algorithm that selects advertisements displayed on third-party sites to match with the content of the respective third-party site. Google AdSense allows an interest-based targeting of the Internet user, which is implemented by means of generating individual user profiles.

The operating company of Google’s AdSense component is Alphabet Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, United States.

The purpose of Google’s AdSense component is the integration of advertisements on our website. Google AdSense places a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. The definition of cookies is explained above. With the setting of the cookie, Alphabet Inc. is enabled to analyze the use of our website. With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and into which a Google AdSense component is integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject will automatically submit data through the Google AdSense component for the purpose of online advertising and the settlement of commissions to Alphabet Inc. During the course of this technical procedure, the enterprise Alphabet Inc. gains knowledge of personal data, such as the IP address of the data subject, which serves Alphabet Inc., inter alia, to understand the origin of visitors and clicks and subsequently create commission settlements.

The data subject may, as stated above, prevent the setting of cookies through our website at any time by means of a corresponding adjustment of the web browser used and thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Such an adjustment to the Internet browser used would also prevent Alphabet Inc. from setting a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. Additionally, cookies already in use by Alphabet Inc. may be deleted at any time via a web browser or other software programs.

Furthermore, Google AdSense also uses so-called tracking pixels. A tracking pixel is a miniature graphic that is embedded in web pages to enable a log file recording and a log file analysis through which a statistical analysis may be performed. Based on the embedded tracking pixels, Alphabet Inc. is able to determine if and when a website was opened by a data subject, and which links were clicked on by the data subject. Tracking pixels serve, inter alia, to analyze the flow of visitors on a website.

Through Google AdSense, personal data and information—which also includes the IP address, and is necessary for the collection and accounting of the displayed advertisements—is transmitted to Alphabet Inc. in the United States of America. These personal data will be stored and processed in the United States of America. The Alphabet Inc. may disclose the collected personal data through this technical procedure to third parties.

Google AdSense is further explained under the following link https://www.google.com/intl/en/adsense/start/.

12. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Google Analytics (with anonymization function)

On this website, the controller has integrated the component of Google Analytics (with the anonymizer function). Google Analytics is a web analytics service. Web analytics is the collection, gathering, and analysis of data about the behavior of visitors to websites. A web analysis service collects, inter alia, data about the website from which a person has come (the so-called referrer), which sub-pages were visited, or how often and for what duration a sub-page was viewed. Web analytics are mainly used for the optimization of a website and in order to carry out a cost-benefit analysis of Internet advertising.

The operator of the Google Analytics component is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, United States.

For the web analytics through Google Analytics the controller uses the application “_gat. _anonymizeIp”. By means of this application the IP address of the Internet connection of the data subject is abridged by Google and anonymised when accessing our websites from a Member State of the European Union or another Contracting State to the Agreement on the European Economic Area.

The purpose of the Google Analytics component is to analyze the traffic on our website. Google uses the collected data and information, inter alia, to evaluate the use of our website and to provide online reports, which show the activities on our websites, and to provide other services concerning the use of our Internet site for us.

Google Analytics places a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. The definition of cookies is explained above. With the setting of the cookie, Google is enabled to analyze the use of our website. With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and into which a Google Analytics component was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject will automatically submit data through the Google Analytics component for the purpose of online advertising and the settlement of commissions to Google. During the course of this technical procedure, the enterprise Google gains knowledge of personal information, such as the IP address of the data subject, which serves Google, inter alia, to understand the origin of visitors and clicks, and subsequently create commission settlements.

The cookie is used to store personal information, such as the access time, the location from which the access was made, and the frequency of visits of our website by the data subject. With each visit to our Internet site, such personal data, including the IP address of the Internet access used by the data subject, will be transmitted to Google in the United States of America. These personal data are stored by Google in the United States of America. Google may pass these personal data collected through the technical procedure to third parties.

The data subject may, as stated above, prevent the setting of cookies through our website at any time by means of a corresponding adjustment of the web browser used and thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Such an adjustment to the Internet browser used would also prevent Google Analytics from setting a cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. In addition, cookies already in use by Google Analytics may be deleted at any time via a web browser or other software programs.

In addition, the data subject has the possibility of objecting to a collection of data that are generated by Google Analytics, which is related to the use of this website, as well as the processing of this data by Google and the chance to preclude any such. For this purpose, the data subject must download a browser add-on under the link https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout and install it. This browser add-on tells Google Analytics through a JavaScript, that any data and information about the visits of Internet pages may not be transmitted to Google Analytics. The installation of the browser add-ons is considered an objection by Google. If the information technology system of the data subject is later deleted, formatted, or newly installed, then the data subject must reinstall the browser add-ons to disable Google Analytics. If the browser add-on was uninstalled by the data subject or any other person who is attributable to their sphere of competence, or is disabled, it is possible to execute the reinstallation or reactivation of the browser add-ons.

Further information and the applicable data protection provisions of Google may be retrieved under https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/ and under http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/us.html. Google Analytics is further explained under the following Link https://www.google.com/analytics/.

13. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Google-AdWords
On this website, the controller has integrated Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a service for Internet advertising that allows the advertiser to place ads in Google search engine results and the Google advertising network. Google AdWords allows an advertiser to pre-define specific keywords with the help of which an ad on Google’s search results only then displayed, when the user utilizes the search engine to retrieve a keyword-relevant search result. In the Google Advertising Network, the ads are distributed on relevant web pages using an automatic algorithm, taking into account the previously defined keywords.

The operating company of Google AdWords is Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, UNITED STATES.

The purpose of Google AdWords is the promotion of our website by the inclusion of relevant advertising on the websites of third parties and in the search engine results of the search engine Google and an insertion of third-party advertising on our website.

If a data subject reaches our website via a Google ad, a conversion cookie is filed on the information technology system of the data subject through Google. The definition of cookies is explained above. A conversion cookie loses its validity after 30 days and is not used to identify the data subject. If the cookie has not expired, the conversion cookie is used to check whether certain sub-pages, e.g, the shopping cart from an online shop system, were called up on our website. Through the conversion cookie, both Google and the controller can understand whether a person who reached an AdWords ad on our website generated sales, that is, executed or canceled a sale of goods.

The data and information collected through the use of the conversion cookie is used by Google to create visit statistics for our website. These visit statistics are used in order to determine the total number of users who have been served through AdWords ads to ascertain the success or failure of each AdWords ad and to optimize our AdWords ads in the future. Neither our company nor other Google AdWords advertisers receive information from Google that could identify the data subject.

The conversion cookie stores personal information, e.g. the Internet pages visited by the data subject. Each time we visit our Internet pages, personal data, including the IP address of the Internet access used by the data subject, is transmitted to Google in the United States of America. These personal data are stored by Google in the United States of America. Google may pass these personal data collected through the technical procedure to third parties.

The data subject may, at any time, prevent the setting of cookies by our website, as stated above, by means of a corresponding setting of the Internet browser used and thus permanently deny the setting of cookies. Such a setting of the Internet browser used would also prevent Google from placing a conversion cookie on the information technology system of the data subject. In addition, a cookie set by Google AdWords may be deleted at any time via the Internet browser or other software programs.

The data subject has a possibility of objecting to the interest based advertisement of Google. Therefore, the data subject must access from each of the browsers in use the link www.google.de/settings/ads and set the desired settings.

Further information and the applicable data protection provisions of Google may be retrieved under https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/.

14. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Instagram

On this website, the controller has integrated components of the service Instagram. Instagram is a service that may be qualified as an audiovisual platform, which allows users to share photos and videos, as well as disseminate such data in other social networks.

The operating company of the services offered by Instagram is Instagram LLC, 1 Hacker Way, Building 14 First Floor, Menlo Park, CA, UNITED STATES.

With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and on which an Instagram component (Insta button) was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject is automatically prompted to the download of a display of the corresponding Instagram component of Instagram. During the course of this technical procedure, Instagram becomes aware of what specific sub-page of our website was visited by the data subject.

If the data subject is logged in at the same time on Instagram, Instagram detects with every call-up to our website by the data subject—and for the entire duration of their stay on our Internet site—which specific sub-page of our Internet page was visited by the data subject. This information is collected through the Instagram component and is associated with the respective Instagram account of the data subject. If the data subject clicks on one of the Instagram buttons integrated on our website, then Instagram matches this information with the personal Instagram user account of the data subject and stores the personal data.

Instagram receives information via the Instagram component that the data subject has visited our website provided that the data subject is logged in at Instagram at the time of the call to our website. This occurs regardless of whether the person clicks on the Instagram button or not. If such a transmission of information to Instagram is not desirable for the data subject, then he or she can prevent this by logging off from their Instagram account before a call-up to our website is made.

Further information and the applicable data protection provisions of Instagram may be retrieved under https://help.instagram.com/155833707900388 and https://www.instagram.com/about/legal/privacy/.

15. Data protection provisions about the application and use of Twitter

On this website, the controller has integrated components of Twitter. Twitter is a multilingual, publicly-accessible microblogging service on which users may publish and spread so-called ‘tweets,’ e.g. short messages, which are limited to 280 characters. These short messages are available for everyone, including those who are not logged on to Twitter. The tweets are also displayed to so-called followers of the respective user. Followers are other Twitter users who follow a user’s tweets. Furthermore, Twitter allows you to address a wide audience via hashtags, links or retweets.

The operating company of Twitter is Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, CA 94103, UNITED STATES.

With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and on which a Twitter component (Twitter button) was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject is automatically prompted to download a display of the corresponding Twitter component of Twitter. Further information about the Twitter buttons is available under https://about.twitter.com/de/resources/buttons. During the course of this technical procedure, Twitter gains knowledge of what specific sub-page of our website was visited by the data subject. The purpose of the integration of the Twitter component is a retransmission of the contents of this website to allow our users to introduce this web page to the digital world and increase our visitor numbers.

If the data subject is logged in at the same time on Twitter, Twitter detects with every call-up to our website by the data subject and for the entire duration of their stay on our Internet site which specific sub-page of our Internet page was visited by the data subject. This information is collected through the Twitter component and associated with the respective Twitter account of the data subject. If the data subject clicks on one of the Twitter buttons integrated on our website, then Twitter assigns this information to the personal Twitter user account of the data subject and stores the personal data.

Twitter receives information via the Twitter component that the data subject has visited our website, provided that the data subject is logged in on Twitter at the time of the call-up to our website. This occurs regardless of whether the person clicks on the Twitter component or not. If such a transmission of information to Twitter is not desirable for the data subject, then he or she may prevent this by logging off from their Twitter account before a call-up to our website is made.

The applicable data protection provisions of Twitter may be accessed under https://twitter.com/privacy?lang=en.

16. Payment Method: Data protection provisions about the use of PayPal as a payment processor

On this website, the controller has integrated components of PayPal. PayPal is an online payment service provider. Payments are processed via so-called PayPal accounts, which represent virtual private or business accounts. PayPal is also able to process virtual payments through credit cards when a user does not have a PayPal account. A PayPal account is managed via an e-mail address, which is why there are no classic account numbers. PayPal makes it possible to trigger online payments to third parties or to receive payments. PayPal also accepts trustee functions and offers buyer protection services.

The European operating company of PayPal is PayPal (Europe) S.à.r.l. & Cie. S.C.A., 22-24 Boulevard Royal, 2449 Luxembourg, Luxembourg.

If the data subject chooses “PayPal” as the payment option in the online shop during the ordering process, we automatically transmit the data of the data subject to PayPal. By selecting this payment option, the data subject agrees to the transfer of personal data required for payment processing.

The personal data transmitted to PayPal is usually first name, last name, address, email address, IP address, telephone number, mobile phone number, or other data necessary for payment processing. The processing of the purchase contract also requires such personal data, which are in connection with the respective order.

The transmission of the data is aimed at payment processing and fraud prevention. The controller will transfer personal data to PayPal, in particular, if a legitimate interest in the transmission is given. The personal data exchanged between PayPal and the controller for the processing of the data will be transmitted by PayPal to economic credit agencies. This transmission is intended for identity and creditworthiness checks.

PayPal will, if necessary, pass on personal data to affiliates and service providers or subcontractors to the extent that this is necessary to fulfill contractual obligations or for data to be processed in the order.

The data subject has the possibility to revoke consent for the handling of personal data at any time from PayPal. A revocation shall not have any effect on personal data which must be processed, used or transmitted in accordance with (contractual) payment processing.

The applicable data protection provisions of PayPal may be retrieved under https://www.paypal.com/us/webapps/mpp/ua/privacy-full.

17. Legal basis for the processing

Art. 6(1) lit. a GDPR serves as the legal basis for processing operations for which we obtain consent for a specific processing purpose. If the processing of personal data is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is party, as is the case, for example, when processing operations are necessary for the supply of goods or to provide any other service, the processing is based on Article 6(1) lit. b GDPR. The same applies to such processing operations which are necessary for carrying out pre-contractual measures, for example in the case of inquiries concerning our products or services. Is our company subject to a legal obligation by which processing of personal data is required, such as for the fulfillment of tax obligations, the processing is based on Art. 6(1) lit. c GDPR.
In rare cases, the processing of personal data may be necessary to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of another natural person. This would be the case, for example, if a visitor were injured in our company and his name, age, health insurance data or other vital information would have to be passed on to a doctor, hospital or other third party. Then the processing would be based on Art. 6(1) lit. d GDPR.
Finally, processing operations could be based on Article 6(1) lit. f GDPR. This legal basis is used for processing operations which are not covered by any of the abovementioned legal grounds, if processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by our company or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal data. Such processing operations are particularly permissible because they have been specifically mentioned by the European legislator. He considered that a legitimate interest could be assumed if the data subject is a client of the controller (Recital 47 Sentence 2 GDPR).

18. The legitimate interests pursued by the controller or by a third party

Where the processing of personal data is based on Article 6(1) lit. f GDPR our legitimate interest is to carry out our business in favor of the well-being of all our employees and the shareholders.

19. Period for which the personal data will be stored

The criteria used to determine the period of storage of personal data is the respective statutory retention period. After expiration of that period, the corresponding data is routinely deleted, as long as it is no longer necessary for the fulfillment of the contract or the initiation of a contract.

20. Provision of personal data as statutory or contractual requirement; Requirement necessary to enter into a contract; Obligation of the data subject to provide the personal data; possible consequences of failure to provide such data

We clarify that the provision of personal data is partly required by law (e.g. tax regulations) or can also result from contractual provisions (e.g. information on the contractual partner).

Sometimes it may be necessary to conclude a contract that the data subject provides us with personal data, which must subsequently be processed by us. The data subject is, for example, obliged to provide us with personal data when our company signs a contract with him or her. The non-provision of the personal data would have the consequence that the contract with the data subject could not be concluded.

Before personal data is provided by the data subject, the data subject must contact any employee. The employee clarifies to the data subject whether the provision of the personal data is required by law or contract or is necessary for the conclusion of the contract, whether there is an obligation to provide the personal data and the consequences of non-provision of the personal data.

21. Existence of automated decision-making

As a responsible company, we do not use automatic decision-making or profiling.

22. Data protection provisions about the application and use of YouTube

On this website, the controller has integrated components of YouTube. YouTube is an Internet video portal that enables video publishers to set video clips and other users free of charge, which also provides free viewing, review and commenting on them. YouTube allows you to publish all kinds of videos, so you can access both full movies and TV broadcasts, as well as music videos, trailers, and videos made by users via the Internet portal.

The operating company of YouTube is YouTube, LLC, 901 Cherry Ave., San Bruno, CA 94066, UNITED STATES. The YouTube, LLC is a subsidiary of Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, UNITED STATES.

With each call-up to one of the individual pages of this Internet site, which is operated by the controller and on which a YouTube component (YouTube video) was integrated, the Internet browser on the information technology system of the data subject is automatically prompted to download a display of the corresponding YouTube component. Further information about YouTube may be obtained under https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/en/. During the course of this technical procedure, YouTube and Google gain knowledge of what specific sub-page of our website was visited by the data subject.

If the data subject is logged in on YouTube, YouTube recognizes with each call-up to a sub-page that contains a YouTube video, which specific sub-page of our Internet site was visited by the data subject. This information is collected by YouTube and Google and assigned to the respective YouTube account of the data subject.

YouTube and Google will receive information through the YouTube component that the data subject has visited our website, if the data subject at the time of the call to our website is logged in on YouTube; this occurs regardless of whether the person clicks on a YouTube video or not. If such a transmission of this information to YouTube and Google is not desirable for the data subject, the delivery may be prevented if the data subject logs off from their own YouTube account before a call-up to our website is made.

YouTube’s data protection provisions, available at https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/, provide information about the collection, processing and use of personal data by YouTube and Google.

23. Use of web fonts from Google™ LLC

This website uses web fonts provided by Google™ LLC 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA for graphical representation. When you visit the website, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache to display the corresponding fonts correctly. If your web browser does not support the web fonts, a standard font is used by your computer. Further information about Google™ Web Fonts can be found at https://developers.google.com/fonts/faq and in the privacy policy of Google™ LLC: https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

24. Use of web fonts from Monotype GmbH

External fonts from fonts.com are used on our website for graphical representation. This is a type service of Monotype GmbH, 61352 Bad Homburg, Werner-Reimers-Straße 2-4. When you request a page of our website, your browser loads the required web fonts into your browser cache so that textscontents and fonts are displayed correctly. The browser you use must therefore connect to the servers of the web font provider (see above). If your browser does not support this feature, your computer will use a default font for display. In the interest of a uniform and informative presentation of our website, the web fonts are used. This represents a special interest within the meaning of Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f DSGVO. More information about Fonts.com can be found at https://www.monotype.com/legal/privacy-policy

This Privacy Policy has been generated by the Privacy Policy Generator of the DGD – Your External DPO that was developed in cooperation with German Lawyers from WILDE BEUGER SOLMECKE, Cologne.

RELAX! THINK! ACT! — AMBIENT AS POLITICAL MUSIC
Text
André Boße
Photographer
Lisa Wassmann

Music can do many things. It can make us dance or help us relax, make us happy or sad, provide a soundtrack to situations that we’ll never forget. It can even articulate a political position through its lyrics or, depending on the context, via the notes themselves. When it does this, music is usually loud and aggressive, hitting you directly in the face or straight in the stomach. However, there is another way: open, calm, relaxed. Today’s political tone could be labelled ambient. Because right now only calmness can be a source of power.

M

Mid-December 2010: a vegetable seller from a provincial town in Tunisia sets himself on fire in the middle of a public square. The reason for this dramatic action is that he felt harassed by the authorities. He dies from his injuries three weeks later. This tragedy leads to local protests and demonstrations in the capital Tunis. The government’s attempts to censor reports in the media just make the images spread ever faster on social media networks. On January 14th 2011 the protests reach their peak with thousands demonstrating against the regime of the perpetual president Ben Ali. His government is corrupt and self-serving, food prices are high and rising, the streets and water pipes are in bad condition. Unemployment is high and young people have little chance of getting a good job – even though in Tunisia the younger generation has a higher standard of education than in other Arab countries. There are outbursts of violence in the capital: stones fly, tear gas and batons are used, barricades appear.

 

The revolt that is gaining momentum here is called the Jasmine Revolution in the western world. It sounds mildly poetic, with jasmine being the national flower of Tunisia. The driving force behind the revolt is students. The young protesters take to wearing diving masks and rubber gloves to protect themselves from tear gas and burning missiles – a revolt of the frog creatures. Their most important tool is their smartphone. It provides a connection between the revolters and enables news to spread outside the government-controlled and censored state media. Smartphones also play music and thus provide the soundtrack for the revolution. The people listen to songs by the hip hop artist El Général, whose highly political and acrid songs directly take aim at the despised president. His songs come across like threats: “Rais Le Bled” – “President, Your Country!” Songs by another hip hop musician, Balti, are like a shot in the arm for the insurgents listening to his powerfully eloquent raps about Tunis at night, and to his attacks on the president, whose cronies he nicknames Ben Ali and his 40 robbers. The beats come like whip lashes, sirens wail, samples of news readers build the tension – it is what we expect a revolution to sound like.

The citizens’ duty? To think outside the box!

But what’s the opposite of all the above? Minimalist opulence and techno-romanticism, a snow flurry of sound with meditational bells tinkling away, precision and perfection, tune and structure, elegance and concentration. And yet this is just what some of the demonstrators were looking for as their sound – rather than brute musical force. Hendrik Weber found this out when he was on holiday in Tunisia. Some of the protesters were using his album Black Noise, which he had released under the name Pantha Du Prince, as their soundtrack. This is even more absurd if you get to see the cover, which shows a Bavarian lake with an old church and mountains in the background. An idyllic Alpine scene to soundtrack a revolution in North Africa? Surprisingly, this actually fits together, but it really forces you to think far outside the box. Straightforward protest songs hit the listener violently around the head in order to mobilise them to resist. Cases in point are the primarily political albums, for example by rappers like Ice T., Public Enemy or the Tunisian artists El Général and Balti. Also, the politically motivated punk of The Clash or the Dead Kennedys, the sound of slogan producers Rage Against the Machine and Rise Against!, or the revelatory-poetic music of PJ Harvey. And yet, political music doesn’t necessarily have to be so noisy. Marvin Gaye and Sam Cooke, for example, managed very nicely by using the appeal of soul music to express their protest. Folkies like Guthrie, Dylan and others delivered their protest message by acoustic guitar. But always was there a message, carried by explicit lyrics. Pantha Du Prince’s electro-techno project doesn’t have any of those. There are no lyrics, not even slogans. The beats do not whip you. The album doesn’t adrenalise. Rather it floats away, ideally carrying the listeners along with it. And yet this is the album the protesters were listening to through their headphones whilst at the front line of political reality, facing the water cannons of the government. How on earth did that happen?

Noise kills concentration

Hendrik Weber, early 40s, born in a provincial backwater in Hesse in Germany, is a global star of the electro and techno genre. He says: “Seeing Black Noise as the soundtrack for a revolution, that’s a really wonderful image. But even to me it’s a mystery.” So let’s try to solve the mystery with a theory: maybe in the here and now an uprising doesn’t need noise and clear messages. Because it is the noise and the ever-present imperatives that rob us humans of our ability to concentrate and stop us from working out what being human is all about, who the enemy actually is and whether it’s worth starting a rebellion against them.

 

Hendrik hides his delicate features behind a full, long, black beard from which individual gray streaks protrude like veins of silver in a mine. His fingernails are long, his clothes widely cut. If there were any pre-school children present in this Berlin cafe, they would be forgiven for thinking him a wizard – although they might be unsure whether a good wizard or an evil one. There’s something slightly suspect about Hendrik Weber: he says that since he became a musician, he has never had a flat of his own for any length of time because, as an artist, he moves around like a roving druid, temporarily staying in wonderful places like the Villa Aurora in western Los Angeles, where the writer Lion Feuchtwanger stayed after he fled the Nazis and which today is an artist villa for the use of selected artists-in-residence. As Pantha Du Prince, Hendrik sees himself not just as a musician but as a scholar of sound. His calling includes exploring how sounds and sound structures impact the human psyche, and how brain signals and body functions change when the electronic beat of house music meets the sound of falling snow. For his album Elements of Light he travelled to Norway to meet the group The Bell Laboratory and write music for a three-ton glockenspiel with them. Recently he re-recorded his latest album The Triad in an ambient version, meaning: without any beats. “It was really the record company’s idea, but I liked it,” Hendrik says.

Welcome to the enhanced silence

Without the beats, however, Pantha Du Prince’s electronic music loses one of the main functions of the genre: getting people dancing. So then, what’s left apart from emptiness? This leads us effortlessly to the genre of ambient music in the purest and most stereotypical or prejudiced sense: content-light music that doesn’t offend anyone; the smallest common denominator; music that lacks power. “Ambient might have emptiness, but that doesn’t mean that this music has no power. Quite the opposite,” Weber contradicts me forcefully. What follows is a tremendous monologue about this musical genre while his grin gets ever wider – the kind of grin that would probably lead our imaginary pre-schoolers to the conclusion they had better not mess with this particular wizard. You have to imagine ambient as a field, he says. Well, any song can be a field, but most of those fields are packed as tightly as an underground train during the rush hour stuffed with all sorts: choruses and verses, bridges and interludes, choral and solo parts, lead vocals and bass lines, all that rock and pop stuff in other words. In ambient, however, the whole area is swept clean to start with. The creator invents the music, but he neither leads the way nor tells others what to do. And that is why ambient is much more than just no music. Complete silence is just as distracting as noise. Ambient is enhanced silence. A musical space with the largest possible latitude for the listener. “Ambient has got to offer everything,” is how Brian Eno, the genre’s pioneer, defines it. “It’s got to be as easy to ignore as it is interesting.” Ambient thus has no hierarchy and its creator consequently abdicates any claim to leadership. He leaves the music to the listeners who, if they so wish, can enrich the music with everyday noises: rain falling, wind blowing … Or, as in Tunisia with the sounds of revolt: sirens and loudhailers, screaming people and screeching tyres, the sound of the protesters and – as in a song by American rapper KRS-One – “the sound of da police”.

 

Brian Eno states that ambient shouldn’t come with an instruction manual and we should be free to ignore it. Whilst listening to ambient, listeners are free to do yoga, watch plants grow, consume intoxicating substances or vegetate in front of the television. The mental energy is lost, but no-one can say that this very closed, inward-looking listening style is wrong. Ambient does not exert authority. On the record player Brian Eno’s current double album Reflection is spinning, each side just one long track, numbered “Reflection I–IV”. The music fills the room almost incidentally, it isn’t obtrusive, doesn’t seem to have a clear aim. On the near black cover, the creator is also almost indiscernible, his face the merest suggestion like a slight lightening of the shade. But can Eno actually be considered the creator? Reflection was partly composed by artificial intelligence. There is an app available for this album that continues the automation process further still – it is Eno’s attempt at dissolving the last remaining hierarchies of this universal field. And he says that to navigate this field and tap into its energy is madly interesting. The calm tones without hierarchy encourage the brain to concentrate, to think precisely. It gives people the chance to reflect, to develop their thoughts, about themselves and the cosmos, about society and the political situation. Does that sound like do-it-yourself therapy for stressed city dwellers whose lives are devoid of meaning? Not according to Brian Eno. After the Brexit vote and Trump’s election as President of the US, Eno was angry about the self-righteousness of the liberal left – including himself. Constantly hooked to digital devices, their tablets and smartphones, networking with everyone and anyone, talking the world up or putting it down with their online friends and always staying within their liberal left comfort zone until they can’t see the wood for the trees. And then, bang! Brexit! Trump! The ugly political reality that didn’t just come out of the blue and that they could have seem coming beforehand.

Don’t panic! It’s not the end of the world

Eno’s advice for the shaken souls of the liberal left: less time wasting online, less overexcited rushing around. Instead: calm down and think. That is the only way to keep track of everything, to leave one’s bubble, change one’s perspective, and regain such things as empathy and a sense of justice – all of which are prerequisites for political action. Eno’s theory is that we so-called goodies are allowing ourselves to be infected with the hectically apocalyptic it’s-the-end-of-the-world stress that the baddies cultivate. Yet if the running temperature is near fever pitch, then we cannot possibly win this fight. This requires an atmosphere of calm and contemplation. Not in order to remain within this inner self and consolidate existing structures but to encourage mental development which leads us to develop political opinions and to enhance democratic processes. After all, if we claim that we want to defend the Western values of an open society, then really we ought to be able to say what these values are – and how these can be consolidated and fostered in today’s digital society. “What is our life like today?” asks Hendrik Weber in our Berlin cafe. After a moment’s thought he grins and answers: “Friends, acquaintances, companies, advertisers …, all of these constantly try to bait us with new and ever changing triggers to consume more. That’s how fake needs are created.” We are expected to buy and to share, with every activity being turned into a purchasable commodity, “it’s a system we as people are trapped in”. In the darkest, furthest recesses of our brains we do harbour a belief that life without Uber and AirBnB, without Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp or Facebook is possible. But we aren’t totally convinced of that. We are of course aware that these service providers and all the options they offer, aggressively push us to “simplify our lives”, but mainly succeed in creating more stress. “Ambient music aims to encourage people to reflect on what their real needs are,” Weber says. “Open music like this creates a space onto which I can project all of those inputs that were projected onto me from the outside. And I can re-project those very precisely and intensively.”

 

This is the way in which humans find the answers to the question of what makes them individuals and what the kind of society they feel comfortable in might look like. And also the answer to what we as humans need in order to make our lives human again, rather than living our lives as a mere series of reactions to triggers. Only if they are able to answer these questions can human beings think politically. Therefore, a music genre that leads people towards reflection is in itself definitely political because it lays the foundations for protest to develop at all. “We are no longer self-sufficient, no longer autonomous,” Hendrik Weber explains. “First of all we’ll have to fight to reclaim these qualities.”

The misery of our times: one for all

You can see why this fight is important on a random walk around London. Let’s take South Hackney in north-eastern London. “In and lively” is what the travel guide says about this part of town. We know what that means: boutiques, galleries, restaurant chains. We take a wrong turn and end up in an apparently very hip and busy bar by the name of Bistrotheque. It’s trying to be a restaurant and a wine bar, somewhere to dance and see live events, a place to go with friends and dates. There are customers here who spend six hours or more in this place and switch roles several times during their visit. At first they enjoy a meal at a table they reserved, then they spend time drinking at the bar, later dancing downstairs, then flirting, and finally they end up back at the bar. The organisation for all of this is done by smartphone. If you ask these people whether they feel self-sufficient and autonomous, they’ll answer, “Sure.” However, if you ask them what they would need to make their lives more worth living, they’ll stumble briefly and then one will say, “Time.” Just imagine that: People spend several hours in a restaurant and wish for more time. That’s the world of the Bistrotheques, that’s what Hendrik Weber meant when he said that we, the people, are “constantly being triggered”: We hang out, but we don’t relax because we are continuously being assaulted with stimulation. I would bet that no-one in the Bistrotheque in South Hackney has ever written a novel, ever conceived of a political thought, ever planned the revolution. If the Bistrotheque were a piece of music, it would be a loud, overamplified, modern pop song that’s been compressed to death.

Slowness is the goal

It takes 15 minutes to walk from the Bistrotheque to 174 Victoria Park Road, where the Sound Gallery of the Erased Tapes label has been based since February 2017. “You’re welcome to slow down,” the sign at the entrance tells visitors. There are Japanese slippers by the entrance, too, which visitors can, but don’t have to, wear. I would definitely recommend wearing them, though, because the old wooden floorboards feel sensational in slippers. Behind two comfy chairs and two record players there’s a sign that says, “We will sit and listen together.” There are also pianos in these rooms, but unusual ones. One of the pianos was co-developed by the Erased Tapes artist Nils Frahm. It is called Klavins Una Corda and looks like a cross between a harp and a piano. Again, it’s accompanied by a note: “Please ask to play our piano.” Putting on slippers, walking on wooden floors, listening to music, playing the piano – and asking beforehand … The Sound Gallery is the opposite of the Bistrotheque. You can while away the hours here, too, but without the stress. The Gallery is open from lunchtime until 8 pm, eight hours in total, so anyone who wants to can spend those eight hours counting floorboards or admiring old stone walls. “Some buildings sound better,” says the sign next to the floating staircase that leads upstairs.

 

The Sound Gallery was Erased Tapes’ gift to itself on its tenth birthday. Since its foundation in 2007, the label has become the enormously successful home of calm avant-garde music. Artists such as Nils Frahm, Ben Lukas Boysen, Ólafur Arnalds, Lubomyr Melnyk or A Winged Victory For The Sullen are published under the Erased Tapes label whose music sounds as free-floating as the aforementioned staircase looks. There are some genres that are frequently associated with Erased Tapes: minimalism, neo-classical, ambient. “The older we get the less we care about these pigeon holes,” says the label’s boss Robert Raths. Increasingly there is a higher-level aesthetic permeating the label which is noticeable on the records. At the Sound Gallery you can see, smell, walk and sit this aesthetic. Robert Raths grew up in Cologne, moved to London with his family, studied architecture there, and founded the label in 2007. He still looks like an architecture student: five to seven days’ worth of stubble, long hair in a little pony tail and loose, summery clothes despite the cold and the rain outside. “I grew up with punk,” he says. “Our revolution with Erased Tapes consists of searching for calm and deciding against noise, against being bombarded with Oasis or Metallica records that have been mastered to death, against billboards plastered with adverts.” Every record at the Erased Tapes label is essentially to be seen in relation to that noise. The same holds true for the London Sound Gallery. “The building dates from the 18th century,” says Raths. “We gutted it but didn’t destroy the original house. You can still see the old bricks, and whoever looks at them will automatically be led to think: about time, about sustainability, about change, about craftsmanship. If we always block the old bricks with plain white walls we also block out history, in doing so we block finding the answers to a lot of questions.” Some people struggle with problems that are visible; they try to perfect their gardens and homes, their towns and villages, their relationships and their children. But that doesn’t make the problems go away. “My approach is to live and work with the non-perfection, not just in architecture and music, but also in my relationships,” Raths says. And he is certain that this way he will find solutions that work.

Down with capitalism!

Erased Tapes translates this political philosophy into a unique label culture: for many of its artists the soldering iron is just as important a tool as the production software Ableton Live; the pianist Nils Frahm has long been not just a musician but also an inventor of instruments; the label’s artists often get together in new cooperations which lead to new records or EPs – but which sometimes lead to nothing. It doesn’t matter because the energy that is created when people get together doesn’t just evaporate. “I was always good at maths, and I needed that as an architecture student,” says Robert Raths. “But when it’s about people, then the total is bigger than the sum of its parts. One plus one then doesn’t add up to two, but at least to two and a half or even three.” If this is how you do maths and how you lead your company, then you have to run the business differently from ordinary music managers. “For me, music isn’t an industry,” he claims. “For me, music is a gift.” Erased Tapes takes the liberty of opting out of capitalism. An industry is a hierarchy to him: top, middle, bottom. With his label, Robert Raths wants to prevent hierarchies. “In an ideal scenario there is no longer a stage; artist and audience become one.”

 

 

This is ambient music, too: the field is open to influences from outside, the rain becomes part of the audio, the reaction of the audience becomes an emotional track and the artist reacts to that. Why should this view of art not become a model for a new view of politics, for a kind of public participation that is different and not your typical information evening where the politicians and civil servants sit on an elevated podium at the front whilst the citizens struggle through the evening on uncomfortable chairs? “None of our artists would dare put themselves above the audience,” says Robert Raths. “That works because the music that we publish doesn’t do hierarchies. The chorus isn’t worth more than the verse. There are no hits, no lead vocals. Each track, each moment counts the same.” He stops, then laughs. “That sounds like dispossession and socialism.”

 

It doesn’t get any more political than that.