07/30/2021

It’s winter and the Corona lockdown, and the order situation looks terrible, to put it mildly. Federal financial aid is slowly trickling in after a year, even for artists, but it only just covers the costs and is not really able to offer any perspective or way out.

Then Andreas had a brilliant idea! He called me and asked what I thought about riding the entire length of the Elbe on a tandem bike with a cargo trailer on which our piano is standing.

With all our decisions and ideas for projects, we try to go with our gut feeling and let the joy decide. I have learned: an initial “Mmmh, I don’t know yet,” “Sounds pretty good,” or “I’ll have to think about it again.” means NO!

With Andreas’ idea, I immediately had a clear YES and a big grin on my face at the mere thought of daring to take on such an adventure and taking on this challenge purely physically, and so at the beginning of 2021 we decided to put the project into action. We needed something to give ourselves a perspective. Something that gave us confidence, satisfied our hunger for encounters, action, artistic realization and adventure. We needed something that would happen, come what may, that we could plan and prepare with one hundred percent certainty: It will happen and it will be great!

No sooner said than done. We started to develop initial ideas about how our piano should follow us, called the first manufacturers and companies that knew about cargo bikes and trailers and built them, and were initially amused and somewhat surprised by the prevailing statement: “What you are planning is not possible.” Almost no cargo trailer would be able to carry almost two hundred kilos and without an electric drive it would be completely unimaginable.

Well, when we have something in our minds, we don’t let up until it has somehow become reality. It often doesn’t correspond to the first dreams we have, but whatever, on the whole it is still unbelievable, crazy and inspiring and corresponds to the basic idea. So we kept looking and when we discovered the “Pianomobile” by Karen Schlimp from Austria, we knew: It’s possible! This woman, who is at least as crazy as we are, drove a grand piano around. With a giant trailer and a three-person tandem, she even drove around with a cellist playing. That was the proof and we continued to research.

Next Entry: Our first crowdfounding!

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