The grey February morning on which I interviewed Pascal Schumacher about his forthcoming album and tour in a Belair café seems a world removed from the sunshine that now blesses Luxembourg as it slowly emerges from lockdown. Earlier that morning, 14 weeks ago, I had written that the WHO was warning the coronavirus outbreak was at tipping point, and Italy had recorded just three fatalities. Yet as we chatted amiably over coffee to a soundtrack of Fine Young Cannibals and Kool and the Gang while the bar owner set up shop for the day, we really hadn’t grasped what would follow three weeks later.

Pascal was clearly excited about the “Sol” album and especially about a 13-date tour of European cities, including Berlin, Paris and Brussels, planned for March, April and May. The tour was an opportunity to gain more experience playing an extensive set entirely solo. He explains that it would be something completely different, allowing him to travel quite light, with just a sound engineer and minimal equipment, and also to accept shows very quickly. He is now working on rescheduling some of the concerts for autumn this year, lockdown restrictions permitting.

The album itself is now due for a 5 June release, having twice been delayed. The initial release date had to be postponed because it had proven difficult finding out who had the rights to “Tearjerker”, a track by Ryuichi Sakamoto that Pascal had included on the album. They discovered that Sakamoto owned just 25% of the rights and popular performer Chilly Gonzales (who had recorded a version with Jarvis Cocker) owned another 25%--but getting clearance for the other 50% was tricky because nobody knew where they were. Problem eventually solved, the album was all set for an April release until coronavirus struck.

All the other tracks, save for a version of Mike Oldfield’s iconic ‘Tubular Bells’, are original Schumacher compositions. The Oldfield track wasn’t even initially planned but came about when Pascal discovered a set of tubular bells when he was recording the album in the concert hall at Opderschmelz in Dudelange, which he says is “a room that I really love.” But the instrument proved difficult to mic and get a good sound in the studio--so they are not actually used as much on the track as Pascal would have liked.

Nevertheless, “Sol” is a beautifully calming record that over 15 compelling tracks provided comfort during the first confusing week of lockdown. Now, in more relaxed times, it is aural balm on a sunny afternoon, as exemplified by the title track.

“I mean, there’s some tracks which are only vibraphone with effects and some of them have a bit more of an electro vibe because we used synthesizers. But it stays calm, even on the tracks that get a little more busy,” says Pascal. He had used a Yamaha CS mini-synthesizer on previous project “Drops and Points” for the bass line. “The vibraphone corresponds more or less to the right hand of the piano, so there's no bass ends.” The other synthesizer, a tiny Organalle by Critter & Guitari that Pascal often carries around to play around with, can be used for loops and can be programmed precisely for Pascal’s needs. “I use maybe 1% of what it can do, but that is enough for me,” he jokes.

It was while performing a five-minute solo slot during his “Drops and Points” shows that Pascal says he first started slowly imagining taking on a solo project. The ambitious “Drops and Points” album and concerts had seen Pascal “set the vibraphone a little bit apart” in some ways, which was what made him fall in love with his instrument again. “Piano players play solo a lot before they play with other people. Whereas, where I come from you first play with other people and maybe one day you want to play solo. Maybe I had to turn 40 to start imagining this.”

Standing out

It was a friend who runs a festival in Salzburg who first suggested that Pascal come and play two solo concerts. He initially prepared a short 30-minute set, but found the experience very liberating--he even ended up playing 45 minutes. At that stage, there had been plans to record a second “Drops and Points” album, and Pascal had to tell some people that he had a new love in his life. “It was a tricky situation,” Pascal explains, saying it felt like jilting a lover before a wedding.

He writes often by playing around in a home studio set up and then listening back to what he has improvised. “I would find an element or a motif that would be the starting point of a piece, and then make it grow. Playing solo has one big advantage, that you don't need to write it down for anybody.” So, there is a fixed version of the album but when he plays live he can adapt to the mood and be more reactive. Interaction with the audience is also more intense, he explains.

Like many other musicians, during lockdown Pascal has done a handful of online concerts. Indeed, Friday’s launch of “Sol” will be via a live stream of a performance at Mudam at 9pm. He says the concerts from home were initially a technical struggle, as well as musically. “It’s definitely is not the same, even though you know there are thousands of people listening to you, you do not feel them as in traditional concert situation.”

But Pascal has also been using the lockdown to be creative in his home studio and to enjoy nature by cycling, running or hiking in nearby forests and fields and “trying not to follow too much the news out there.”

“Sol” will be released on the Berlin-based Neue Meister label, which has impressed Pascal with their approach. “They work in this complicated neoclassical field, as some journalists like to call it. It’s becoming more and more popular and it attracts very interesting, open-minded and much younger audiences” that he says are interested in classical as well as electronic and ambient music. Pascal stands out because of his choice of instrument. “There are millions of piano players in this field, but there’s only one other vibraphone player, a Japanese guy. But he is in a completely different world to mine. So, there is obviously space also for these other instruments.”

“Sol” is out on 5 June and can be downloaded from various streaming services via this link.