Notes to

FlorAzul - Moja Rodzina

This Music is - on one hand - my great thank to a polnish family of which I – up to now - only know the core part along my friend Ewa, her husband Jacek and her 2 girls Asia and Zuzia since 2010. I was so greatfully touched by recognizing and witnessing what all they have created and performed in their 3 life generations that I decided 2013 to present each one of them his own song to express my thankfullness !

On the other hand this music is about an hommage to the Positive & transcultural Psychotherapy along Nossrat Peseschkian (www.positum.org). This is a smart method of Psychotherapy to work both on personal capacities as conflict and life theme ressources as well as to activate ones ressources to development ones own personality. "Think yourself as the one you could be in the best view - think of your partner / counterpart as the one he could be in the most positive way!"... The PPT is practised in about 26 countries worldwide.

The songs of the CD are to describe the positive capacities of each family member in musical way...

Together with Ewa we caught the concept – to the 60th birthday of her parents Bozena & Edward – to impress each personality with an instrument so that I composed the song melodies for these instruments, the symboized personalities and their weighted capacities after. Back in Germany I won my friend Harald Bernstein – high creative sound engineer / MSK studio owner and exciting bassplayer – and a lot of colleagues and friends to arrange & to record together with me these songs. It became a low budget project at its best – no one got a cent for his contribution, except for the amazing trumpet Valerij Geneberg from Ucraine who accepted a box of vegetables and the bodhran Player Paul Gilbert whose living community kitchen had to come along with tons of cherries.

I would like to give an even unexpressionable big thank to all of you who added your musical capacities, your ideas, your time and your patience to this project:

Harald Bernstein – big and passionable thanks to ongoing sensitive, exciting recording and engineering, but in deed you are much more the arranger, besides your never used up ideas ressources, and your musical capacities as bass player. And – at the last time of engineering - thanks to practitioner Fabian Boyke for your intuive ideas and your advices on modern platform strategies ! www.facebook.com/Medienschmiedekassel

Axel Garbelmann – for your sensitive as rocking mandoline (Bodzena) & advices to clear the melody line

Stefan Riesner – for your smart, as romantic as swinging cello-music on so much songs (Bodzena, Ewa, Waldemar, Theresa)

Alan Poteon / Trinidad – for your powerful steel-pans, your creativity and your musical advices as inspiring percussion teacher as well (Zuzia)

Martina S.Schäfer – for your beloved tones and smells on your flute, your neverending creativity and your sisterly expressed encouragement and allday joy of your life you let me participate in our friendship and our working relatonsship in my praxis and in our Group FlorAzul (Ewa, Waldemar, Theresa)

Kai Dumeier – for our longyeared friendship, and your great inspirative way to sing and to use your voice for the goods of beings, and in our Group FlorAzul

Paul Gilbert – for your multi-colorfull and creative rhythm sounds and melodies by performing your special way to play the irish Bodhran with paintbrushes – on a lot of songs

Valerij Geneberg / Ucraine – for your fresh, beautiful, sometimes barokian, in sum timeless swinging trumpet lines (Edward, Zuzia)

Jürgen Grauer – for your charmfull drum-set add-ons you performed only on wooden cajon & sllides

Wulf Hamelmann – for your elderless fatherly grooving charmant tenor sax (Adam), and for our longyearing familiar friendship

Janne Hamelmann – for your wonderful improvised melody idea formly found on violin, which as the main impulse got overtaken and performed then by Stefan on cello (Ola)

Conny Lewandowski – for your unnumbered inspirations I got in the time working with you together, just while I recognized how you worked out your own musical projects (look at: www.youtube.com/channel/UC0Yf0O1lEI5eZmZ9gyg51SA).

Vera – for all your love as my wife-of-my-life and your patience to let myself engage so much time in the studio and with my instruments

Aaron – for your beloving developing patience, too, with me as your father – you are one of the lights of my life !

Mary Jane Folkmann - you were present in every second of our work – just with your daily advise – “What ever we plan, whatever we want to do – be aware, we have to paint everyday !“ Your love and your prayers – and so your song – are part of all this here, too ! Thank you !

My father Franz Norbert Mennemeier and Tomoko Mennemeier – without your longlife love nothing ever could happen in my life

My mother Felicitas Mennemeier – every day in my mind and my heart, since you left us; aware and present in my music and my life-acts every time

Armin Engelhard, Kiko and Dennis at our famous Musicshop FARMSOUND at Kassel for all your ensured ongoing friendly and creative athmosphere and for my chance and freedom there to create a lot of music on their – and sometimes then mine - instruments over the last 15 years ! You add so much to the culture in our region and wherever your effects come to earth – thank you !


May be that I composed the basic songs structures – most harmonies and melodies, even the solo songs (Adam / Mary Jane / Asia – Flute), but in all group arranged songs all of you, the instrumentalists, contributed your own melody- inspirations and improvisations: you interpretated this music like we do in Jazz… So, in sum, I can admit that this result of music is a cooperative enterprise of art.

It could be also an example of art as a social sculpture: from us to you, living in Poland or somewhere in this created world – a work by friends for friends – over all regional borders away.

I offer this music as a gift of honor and deeply respect in my heart to the Polish family, to my own family, Wulfs family and Mary-Janes - as a sign of famliarity and global networking for a unique human mankind !

If you like to widespread the music to your friends or your own families - enjoy !

God bless you all,
Stefan Mennemeier

“The whole world is one country, and all human beings are the citizians.” – Bahá’´í