Gerd Weyhing – Biography
Gerd Weyhing is a German composer and musician in the fields of Progressive Rock, Ambient, Drone, Soundscapes, Electronic Music, and Italian Progressive Rock. He lives and works in a small, quiet village in the Palatinate Forest. From early childhood, he played various instruments, including accordion, clarinet, and organ. At the age of 14, he picked up a guitar for the first time, which he has not let go of since. Recently, he has also been playing a 12-string tapping guitar (similar to the Chapman Stick) and drums.
His inspirations include the Beatles, Mike Oldfield, King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Genesis, Magma, Hedningarna, Klaus Schulze, Steve Reich and Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin, and for the past few years, Italian progressive rock from the 70s. At 18, he began composing long, complex pieces with unusual rhythms and time signatures. One of these is Sutherland, which consists of 4 parts. In 2024, Sutherland (Part 1) was released after 35 years. Work on the 2nd and 3rd parts and the coda is currently in progress.
While living in the Scottish Highlands, he met Morris Pert, who also lived there. They had some great sessions (which unfortunately were not recorded). In the 90s, he was active as a guitarist, singer, and composer/lyricist for the progressive band “Brightness Falls” (named after a piece by Robert Fripp and David Sylvian). The band played, among other events, at the ProgParade#1 in Bonn, but disbanded after a few years. The remnants continued (mainly without Gerd) under the name “B4 Sunrise“, consisting of Reinhold Krämer, Wolfgang Bechtluft, Michael Brückner, etc. After years of searching for a convincing way to make live music alone, he discovered the software “Ableton Live“.
For several years now, he has been able to “play” the guitar with various effect devices (loops, delays, etc.) and the software simultaneously; the merging/interlocking of the “Guitar World” with the “Electronics World” is increasingly successful. With this concept, he was able to play live much more often, starting in 2012, at numerous museum nights throughout Germany, as well as at electronic music events such as the Schallwende-Grillfest in Essen and the Dinosaurier-Treffen #3 in Bocholt 2013. His CD “the hidden symmetry”, recorded live in December 2011, has received some good reviews, e.g. in Eclipsed magazine 02/2014 (8/10 points), on the Babyblauen Seiten and on Musikreviews.de.
The double CD “Journeys to impossible places” consists of the best live recordings from 2013 and has been reviewed, among others, on the Babyblauen Seiten (12/15) and Gaesteliste.de.
In the election for the Schallwelle Prize 2013, he took third place in the category “New Discovery 2013”.
In later concerts, a visualization synchronized to the music was also used. There were plans to expand and enhance this with moving machines and programmed LED visualization. However, this did not come to fruition… the live guitar soundscape visual concerts were discontinued, mainly because no more opportunities could be found to play live.
Fortunately, shortly after, he founded the guitar duo Cadence & Cascade with his partner Birgit Rehse. They play songs from Italian progressive rock of the 70s, including PFM, Banco, Le Orme, New Trolls, Branduardi, and also Elio e le Storie Tese.
In September 2024, he accidentally discovered the music AI software udio.com, was immediately captivated and excited by the quality and originality of the instruments, voices, and compositions, and in 3 weeks released the album Giardino dell’ Impossibilità with 11 songs, for which he received both love and hate, as well as 2 reviews: from Athos Enrile (Italy) and on the Babyblauen Seiten.
As of February 2025, he has created over 60 new songs and pieces with the help of Udio, mainly Italian prog and cantautore songs.
And now the 2025 season for Cadence & Cascade begins… 🙂