RESET

In 2017, two years after the release of „Home“, on a meeting of the friends who are called Sylvan, one of them spoke out what was in their minds: „We need a new album!“ And – for long lasting friendship leads to a special sense of humor – another one replied (perhaps like swearing an oad?): “Even if it’s the last thing we do, there must be at least a 10th studio album!” and added „Ending up with number 10 would make a spectacular farewell – maybe we should have a goodbye tour.“ – But it turned out to be „Not A Goodbye.“

Studio album number 10 should, of course, be something special again – it should express what they all felt at this time. It should be about life, its changes, its growth… and its passing. – It became all of this and it became also different.

When Sylvan started working on it, the music took shape bit by bit, piece by piece, and built up more and more complex. Marco revealed to us in 2020, that he did “feel the desire to write about the cycle of creation, in some way about our [Sylvan’s] cycle.“ And he explained what that meant: „When we started working on this 10th Sylvan album, our thoughts revolved around this idea; there were all these questions in our heads and all these doubts. Is it worth continuing? What do we want to achieve? Why do we do, what we do?“

Despite severe time problems of some Sylvan members, the album grew and grew. Volker, Johnny and Marco were the main contributors of this beginning. As the working title “10” reminded Marco of digital numbers, One To Zero was born. Throughout the work, initial hesitations gradually turned into enthusiasm and time problems diminished. In the end – the album was formed by all Sylvan members. Finally, in 2021 One To Zero was released on CD and vinyl – in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic!

Due to pandemic restrictions, the prog world had to wait a long time for the first One To Zero live experience. The release concert was finally announced as a Christmas concert on December 22, 2022.

Therefore, Sylvan began rehearsing regularly again. After an unusually long break, they were pleasantly surprised by how much joy playing together brought them. They felt the „we“ finally strong again. They really wanted to play it live! Not just a release concert, it should be a great One To Zero tour.

However, after the pandemic, it proved to be much more difficult than expected, as all venues were booked well in advance – too many bands were making up for what the pandemic had taken from them. The One To Zero tour would have to wait until October 2023 at least.

Through all the waiting, one thing remained clear: In all Sylvan albums – and especially in One To Zero – there is a kind of restart at the end. And so, also Sylvan should restart with this release concert after a long forced pause – reset!

But one day before the Christmas release concert, Marco suddenly lost his voice! That would be a catastrophe for any band – and for the fans as well!
But Sylvan is not just any band, and Sylvan fans are not just any fans. That’s why December 22, 2022, turned into a spontaneous and fantastic international fan gathering at the Knust in Hamburg. Between previously unreleased Sylvan live videos, fans had the opportunity to talk face-to-face with all the Sylvan members and get answers to their own questions. Marco, lacking his voice, wrote answers in the chat – remote from his sickbed. After that, unplanned but fabulous, fan meeting, Sylvan again had to go back to the beginning – Reset!

On February 24, 2023, the wait came to an end – finally the One To Zero release concert was a Christmas concert in February! Ultimatly this album Number 10 release, had become a release for Sylvan and for the fans – because release also means liberation!

Volker describes the beginning of One To Zero in his usual dramatic style. For him, there was initially „absolutely nothing for a long time. Just a big void.“ After a long break, partly due to family and partly due to professional circumstances, Sylvan seemed to be in a motivation slump. And this was decisive for the initially slow development of the album. „Discussions about how to continue, had been going on since 2017,“ said Volker. At the beginning of those discussion, there was even a significant project: the idea of a „20 Years of Sylvan Anniversary Blu-ray“, a Best-Of Sylvan as a grand show on a ship under Sebe’s direction. „Of course, everyone was immediately excited. But unfortunately, the whole thing failed financially.“ Naturally, this was a source of deep frustration.

Nevertheless, the desire to create a new, a tenth, studio album arose relatively shortly afterward. But it just didn’t get started. Fortunately, there was and still is „The Gentle Art Of Music“, which is much more than a label for Sylvan, but rather close friends. „Kalle Wallner was at Sebe’s birthday party“, Volker remembers [Editor’s note: in 2018 or 2019]. „Kalle took me aside and said, ‚Volker, you have to make another album! There’s no point in keeping all those ideas in the drawer!‘
Bullseye – because Volker had his drawers brimfull with musical ideas! He had reserved some of those for his – at this time very vague – solo project [LINK: Violent Jasper], and a lot, of cause, for Sylvan.

Serv – Volker Söhl
So they decided „Volker, you take the lead!“ And he did. And Jonathan Beck was on board from the beginning. Volker said, „I had the desire to do something on my own even before 2017. A solo project. – Well, I had already worked a lot with Jonathan. We met privately and just had fun – we did fan projects with Tobias Harnack, or we simply created silly music projects.“ Just for fun.

At some point, Volker invited Marco to contribute vocals, notably for his solo project, which would later be named Violent Jasper [LINK]. The unplanned boost of motivation for One To Zero also occurred because Marco sang parts for a „Violent Jasper“ song with the working title „One Of Us“ early on. This fueled the work on Sylvan’s One To Zero which, at this time, didn’t yet carry that name.

Return – Jonathan Beck
Volker and Johnny spent many days and nights working tirelessly, having hundreds of sessions. Marco was sometimes involved as well. And he described Jonathan’s special role in this process for us: „For example, we had two songs that we completely scrapped in the pre-production, even though they were almost finished. And we started them all over again. – The time Johnny invested in that, especially together with Volker, is what distinguishes this production phase from others. Without Johnny, it simply wouldn’t have been possible

Is One To Zero „typical Sylvan“, or is it somehow different?
In Volker’s opinion it is definitely different. Firstly, not everyone could fully participate in the beginning since Matthias had been heavily involved in family and work for years. Despite this, the effort put into pre-production was beyond anything done for previous albums. Volker, Jonathan and Marco were the key players in that phase. Looking back, Volker added, „It was similar with ‚Home‘ actually. Back then, the pre-production was handled by Marco and me.“ The unusually long and intense time Sylvan took, led to exceptional attention to detail, which is also evident in the final product.

They also revealed to us, which song on One To Zero is „the oldest“. To our surprise, it was „One Of Us“, the song that Marco was supposed to sing for Volker’s solo project! But finally it ended up on the Sylvan album as „Part Of Me“.

Interestingly, the working title „One Of Us“ and the title „Part Of Me“ on One To Zero, while seemingly similar, clearly show a change in the perspective of the narrator (the artificial intelligence), as described by Marco on the limited vinyl edition of One-To-Zero. This change apparently occurred during the pre-production phase. We will come back to that fact later.

Returning to Jonathan’s influence, both Volker and Marco agreed that Johnny was overflowing with ideas, constantly showing things, quickly creating loops, layering one on top of another, and unconsciously also having more and more influence on the topic of the story.

Marco’s thoughts increasingly gravitated towards artificial intelligence and, in his unique style, he expressed its development and demise in words that are shaping emotions. The story evolved during the pre-production phase from its minimalist beginnings – in complete analogy to Aaron, the artificial intelligence, which also starts from a few bits and gradually becomes something substantial.

Marco made it clear in the 2020 interview: „Volker has been the driving force for a long time. He had the material, which he originally wanted to use differently. He started and pulled us along at the beginning. Johnny created the working environment Volker needed through his presence and his unceasing activity.“ Volker added, „He had a tremendous impact on the sound of the album.“ „But ultimately“, Marco continued, „the album, as always, is compositionally shaped by Sylvan as a whole. We all have a hand in it, even though 80 to 85% definitely comes from Volker’s pen; but that was also the case with earlier albums. – And that’s what gives it the Sylvan character.“

Volker’s conclusion on One To Zero: „The top magic word throughout the entire production is filigree.“ And that becomes clearer with every time one listens to it.

So, it became a typical Sylvan project. Pressure at the beginning. Volker taking the lead. Pre-production handled by Matthias and Jonathan – as Volker’s musical technique is limited to „pen and paper.“ Lyrics by Marco. Sebe is responsible for video and organizing live shows. Cover design by Sebe’s brother, Tobias.