2020 was a turbulent and memorable year, but also opened many new opportunities for me. milestones: debut album, 1 EP, 1 LP, a video game published <!--more--> <!-- put this at the end of what we wish to have as an excerpt --> ## Milestones and thoughts To start my musical journey in such a wild year was quite something but all in all it played in my favor because I had more time to work on my music and develop personal skills. I want to make a habit of reminiscing at the start of each year about what happened in the last, to see what I have achieved and formulate my wishes for the near future. In April 2020, I released my debut album [Dimsum&Jetlag](https://riesenradler.bandcamp.com/album/dimsum-jetlag). This was a big moment for me because while I have been writing music for many years, this was the first time that I felt like contributing an original, new voice to our musical landscape. I was so happy and motivated, that the second album [Under The Nanorain](https://riesenradler.bandcamp.com/album/https://riesenradler.bandcamp.com/album/under-the-nanorain) practically wrote itself in just a couple of months, a darker, future oriented work, released in November. I am also interested in the non-artistic elements of building up a musician|s persona on the internet in the 21st century and a big part of my learning process actually involved things like using social media to promote and reach out, videos to further flesh out a style or atmosphere and the different channels available to actually get your work heard. This is an area where I have lots of ideas to build up from and want to continually improve, because my biggest joy is presenting a whole stylistic package for people to think about, to dream, to have fun and - why not - also to argue about. My favorite artists allow me to see the world under new angles and viewpoints and enrich my life immensely and I want to be one of those artists. Because I want to maintain full artistic control over what I do, in terms of numbers things are developing slowly but there has been a noticable and steady uptick. Starting from zero, I was able to reach around 20 monthly listeners on spotify and some more on bandcamp and youtube towards the end of the year and most importantly, a couple of these come back regularly to listen to specific songs. This blows my mind and makes me want to jump right back into my DAW :) Across all socials I am at about 220 followers. During the summer I finalized [The Veganeko Weirdo Game](https://riesenradler.itch.io/veganeko-weirdo) with my partner. I am fascinated by video games as entertainment and art and always wanted to contribute to the field. To actually bring a game from idea to a finalized state is an unbelievable amount of work and I certainly learned to appreciate every game I play even more, now that I know what it takes to make them. Both of us learned a lot during the project, especially the use of a real time engine and how to adapt art and music to be usable in engine. I certainly want to continue making games, although music will take precedence in 2021. ## New Discoveries One last aspect of actually taking the leap and publishing my music that I did not expect at all and might be the most enriching, is that while showing myself as a musician on social media, I actually got to know a whole array of new artists that I might never have otherwise discovered. I feel this is most direct reward for spending your time online in order to establish a presence in your field: you learn about the thing you love even better and make the acquaintance of like-minded people. Here, I want to take a moment for a shoutout to the artists I have come across during this year and whose style resonates with me particularly well. I cannot reference everybody of course, but you know there is always more to discover ! I have particularly enjoyed the work of these musicians: - [The Broken Cradle](https://thebrokencradle.bandcamp.com/album/gilead) wonderful ambient music - [Petra Jasmiina Haapamäki](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCq8Hul6HG7Y93mFlyBwRACQ) promising singer-songwriter - [Theo Van Dyck](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt6b6y77KHQBpjL748St8Uw) trumpetist, very original compositions - [Polarity](https://www.youtube.com/user/polaritydnb) electronic music powerhouse, great educator - [Hainbach](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeovElJP0n0i8ADaPsRSd8g) analogue electronic gear wizard, great communicator - [Yhiira](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCztAeIf3W6bMeSHEAqJl_eg) promising cinematic composer ## Outlook To close off this review, a little look-ahead to my projects for 2021. I am currently working on an electronic album featuring the voice of the hugely talented <a href="https://www.instagram.com/veganekoweirdo/">Veganeko Weirdo</a> . It will be a quite critical take on our current, isolated, internet dependent society. Later this year I have another album planned, which might be based on some of my old sci-fi stories and would like to build up more visual interpretations of my music and create music videos. I want to bring up my listeners to double the current peak amount and provide some more direct means to interact with my audience. Thank you all for listening and I hope you will enjoy what|s coming next! ## Header image by [loravisuals @ unsplash](https://unsplash.com/@loravisuals)