Kosma Solarius, Gong Master and Space Brother. Gong Sessions every Thursday and Sunday at Orion Healing. Past resident live act at Half Moon Festival and video promotion.
Preparing for a little world tour with the gongs and electronic live performances in Russia, America and Europe.
The following questions are to be used as guidelines!
Name: Konstantin Jagoulis
D.O.B.: 20.12.1972, Viechtach, Bavaria/Germany
Country: Germany
Occupation: Gong Master, Producer, Artist, Media Designer
To get started please add a short Biography.
Konstantin’s interest in art, music and technology were supported by growing up in a mixed cultural and very musical family. Around seven years old he started to learn the harmonica and his father introduced him into DJing on two Technics MKII’s and a vast vinyl collection to choose from multiple genres. By the time he was nine he got his first computer, a Commodore VIC 20 and starting from there he grew into the modern world of music production and media design. In 1989 he started the vocational training in electronics at Ultrakust / Bartek. From his first salary he bought a ROLAND MC303 Groovebox and started to explore electronic music production for the next few years. In 1999 he attended the media academy m@b Deggendorf in Germany and became a certified media-designer / programmer. Together with his friend Markus Engl (DigitalFrequenz-Records) they founded in 2000 the Carisma Project under which name they organized electronic music dance events in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In 2001 Konstantin met Jens Zygar and Steve Schroyder (Star Sounds Orchestra ‘SSO’) and learned about Cosmic Octave Tuning and earned a deeper understanding of the nature of sound. When touring with SSO for two seasons Konstantin fell in love with the symphonic planet gongs made by PAiSTe. The following years Konstantin spent all of his free time with producing cosmic tuned music and performing occasional as DJ. An astronomical event in 2004, the Venus-Transit, inspired him to organize a free 7 hour concert at the Adventure Camp Schnitzmühle in his hometown Viechtach. After working since 2000 as media designer in different companies and producing cosmic music, he decided in 2007 to move to Thailand and to dedicate his full focus on music production and live performance. Music productions for other artists became also part of his activities, like Raymond Romer (CH), Hans de Booij (NL) and Graham Gold (UK). In 2009 Kosma Solarius started to perform live with Jody Stoddart “guitar” and in 2013 under the project name Space Brothers, at the Half Moon Festival on the tropical island Koh Phangan. Also the Space Brothers concept is open to guest performances, Tranquilogen "producer & artist", Note Suviratanapat "producer & artist", Ueli Madliger "piano", Pete Kearton "guitar", Alexandros Karsiotis "vocal", Ritthichai Timjorn "saxophone", Juan Carlos Salamanca "flute" and Andrew Barnabas "piano" for example. In January 2013 Konstantin was trained by Jens Zygar as a Gong Master and certified as Sound Worker by Klanghaus Media Germany. Since then he has been giving well attended sunset gong meditations, twice a week at the Orion Healing Centre on Koh Phangan and his symphonic planet gongs are also included in the Space Brothers live shows.
What is the connection to Phangan? On vacation or living on Koh Pha Ngan? For how long?
My connection started in 1999 when i visited phangan the first time for a 3 month holiday. On the day i arrived here i felt home and very comfortable with everything. Already in the first day i met my now oldest Thai friend Panzak who heard from a friend who came to phangan a few weeks earlier, that i am a Dj and Panzak straight asked me, if i could play the next day in Tommy Resort at the Full Moon Party, because some English DJ disappeared and he was desperate on finding somebody who could play psy-trance. This was my start and we ended up doing maybe 10 parties during the 3 months i was here and i had one legendary set of 27 hours in Haad Chaophao at the Rock Garden, witch is now Sunsethill Resort. In 1999 i was just a fresh baked Media Designer and had already many years of DJ experience, because of my family having a entertainment business. After this mind blowing holiday on phangan I knew that i have to come back and create music here and mix my self under the scene. It took me 7 years of work and collecting experience as a media designer, so i was ready to finally leave and try my luck. Long story short, I managed to make a living only with the artwork i produce and after 7 years of wonderful experience on this tropical island the time has come and I will start touring the world and use phangan as my home base for the winter months.
What projects have you been doing here on Phangan?
My main focus by coming to phangan was in focusing on my music production quality level and since i arrived in December 2007 i started to produce and grow my studio situation with professional equipment. In 2009 I started to produce also other artists and got into different music styles and learned a lot this time. I am also using my time here on phangan to develop, together with my friend Jens Zygar, a special software related to the cosmic tuned music i am producing. here a little chronological overview about my projects: 2008 to 2010 some random DJ gigs and sound engineering at The Jam Bar. 2010 to 2014 live performance at the Half Moon Festival with the projects Kosma Solarius and Space Brothers. Since 2013 weekly sunset gong meditations at Orion Healing, Sri Thanu.
What projects are you currently involved with?
Currently i am working on my new album release for September and preparing my self for the first little world tour this year. Right now i am working on the promotion material and doing a lot of office work, to get the right informations out to the internet. Some days ago we published a promotion video “Gong Meditation with Gong Master Kosma Solarius” on youtube. The movie was produced by Antonio SunLaboratory in a high speed bungalow production session. Elena Petikova is doing a brilliant job as my chief manager by organizing actors and Anton who is a brilliant camera man and he also had the idea to the story of this little movie. It’s about a couple visiting the Gong Master for a gong meditation session and every time i hit the gong the movie shows what they experiencing and imagining. I straight away liked the story idea and Anton did a great job by filming it all in one afternoon at the still secret Magic Garden Project Koh Phangan :) My friend Gunta was very happy about my idea to use his magic garden place for the filming location and it turned out as the best possible choice and the whole team had a lot fun that day.
What is the world tour about? I have to keep some details secret, but I can say, that i will be the whole July in Moscow, holding gong meditations and I have some outstanding bookings which i can’t announce officially in the moment :) still top secret End of August, after a short stop in Germany, I will go to America and be part of a theme camp at the Burning Man Festival with my gongs and electronic ambient live performances. After Burning Man I am planning an extended tour through America with a possible final destination at the Memphis Gong Chamber @@ :) After America I will go back to Europe and perform in Germany and maybe Switzerland.
How did you get the chance to travel around with your Gongs?
The chance came to me while performing at the sunset gong meditation. I just love what i do and do what i do the best i can. I never asked for a booking in my life and always thought event organizers will ask, if they like what i do. For me the main focus is always the actual music i am creating. So, it happened naturally that people started to talk about what i do and i actually stopped promoting with posters and flyers over 1,5 years ago, because the meditations are very well attended and there was no more need to advertise. It became self sufficient and last year i started to add one more day per week to the schedule at Orion. The chance to travel with my gongs came with the bookings and i have now a beautiful crew of Russian female top managers “Elena, Maria and Yulia” who are all very motivated and professional :) I feel blessed by the cosmos, by sending all this new opportunities and cosmic elves. It feels all very magic… 7 years of preparation, 7 years of work and production and now i am looking at 7 years of live action by tuning the world with the frequencies of the planets.
What is your idea behind the Gongs? The gongs are a magic tool to me. I can express what i want to say in the meta language called music and the special planet tunings of my gongs are experienced on a multidimensional level. Those cosmic frequencies are like a cell massage and very relaxing. They also trigger intuition and inspiration. Gong meditations with symphonic planet gongs are a modern, transcendental and holistic form of sound therapy, beyond existing concepts.
What do you feel you can bring to the Phangan scene and the world tour?
My approach is fully focused on the art and it’s authenticity. Everywhere on this planet real art is important and a essential culture generator. Specially with the gongs and including them in electronic music performances is a fusion of cultural influence. Asians are very familiar with gongs and they have never seen it used the way i use it. The Thai people know gongs mostly from the temples and traditional music, but they have probably never heard of cosmic tuned symphonic planet gongs which i play melodic and sensitive. The combination of electronic music and live music is in general the asset i represent to the phangan culture. Most music became too synthetic and the bridge between some boring cover bands and the common dj performances is what i create. The Space Brothers project specially is made as a open concept, so musicians are joining in and playing along with electronic music and off course all is cosmic tuned to the planet frequencies :) Phangan needs totally some more concert culture. There are parties and there are temple festivals, but there are rarely real concerts and i think Phangan would be really a perfect place to develop this.
Do you have future plans on Phangan still?
Oh YES !!! :) The plan is to be back in December and stay over winter and leave for the annual tour in summer.
What do you feel you are or did get out of his Phangan experience? 7 Years of Koh Phangan were like a bath in magic for all this time. It is a strong energetic place and many people break on it, because it is also rough on you. Some people call it Karma Island and i agree. You have to be your self and honest to your self. If you lie to your self or to others you will not be able to grow here. The codex is clear - be true, be honest and respect the local culture. I have made very good new friends for a live time and I met countless interesting people, I learned so much about the world and the spirit of the people and i feel like the time on phangan was like the metamorphosis of a caterpillar to a butterfly. I experienced it all - Love and Pain and i learned to love the Thai culture and thinking. Yes, i understand them much more and in many ways i agree to their way of living and thinking. We from the west think so often, that we know how things are going right or wrong and anything else is stupid. That’s simply silly and false. I have learned a different way of looking at reality and I like a lot i have learned from that. Sure there is good and bad everywhere, but Phangan became my place of growth and development. The cosmic seed grew to a flower. …and i love Thai food :)
How did you get to where you are today?
Serenity! I practice serenity and i am timeless. If you are in serenity the truth can come out and if you put your self under pressure you start to make mistakes. I had always the deep feeling of being guided by the cosmos and i trust the cosmos the most of all. if there is something like a god, it’s simply nature - the cosmos. Because i think this way, i always focused on my intuition and inspiration. I trust my dreams and try to manifest them all. One by one and step by step i am simply doing what i am doing and it is growing with time. I was stubborn and never listened to anybody. I always followed my own opinion and when it ended in a mistake, i accept it as my lesson. I know, that you can’t trust experiences, because you can make them differently all the time. I learned to listen to my heart and gut feeling. That brought me where i am today.
Is there something special to communicate to the people regarding the project/s or just something that you feel will be good for the interview? For all the readers from Russia, I would like to refer to my facebook Gong Master page where i will post the upcoming event dates in Moscow in July 2015. www.facebook.com/gongmaster.kosmasolarius I am still open for more bookings during my time in Russia and America and also Europe, so if there is interest from some event organizers, they are welcome to ask. They can contact me over my website www.kosmasolarius.com. Please link the video to me also )) .. Ha, you did already on Facebook? This is the new one ye? )) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpG1veaUe0o
Keep updated with phanganist.com by following our Facebook page.
