Philippe Laffer and Moonpools
Philippe Laffer, born in Basel in 1977, is a producer, studio operator, artist manager and musician is knee-deep in the Swiss music scene and has produced and promoted numerous bands in recent years as the owner and operator of Alterna Recording Studios in Basel. When he's not busy at the controls, Philippe takes care of the management of the Graubünden artist "Kaufmann". In the 90s, he was on tour at home and abroad with the band "Supernova" as a singer, guitarist and songwriter and has over 400 concerts under his belt. In 2004, he founded the band "ZHIVAGO", with whom he recorded his last record to date in 2007 in the dual role of band member and producer. Between 2013 and 2016, Philippe was the executive producer of the "Lo-Fi Dogma" project for the Sound Development Foundation, for which he worked with various studios and producers throughout Europe. Philippe has also been a board member of Musikbüro Basel since 2018.
Moonpools are a five-member band from Basel, founded in 2016 by Marcie Nyffeler (1994, vocals/guitar), Jasper Nyffeler (1997, drums) and Francesco Vona (1994, synthesizers), who were joined in 2017 by Matthias Gusset (1988, guitar) and David Blum (1988, bass). The band released its first EP in 2019, receiving the first positive reactions: the single “Brainbug”, for example, was proclaimed song of the week by Swiss radio SRF Virus. The second EP, “Damaged Goods”, was released in August 2022 via Young and Aspiring. Since the release of this record, Moonpools have played, among others, at the Winterthur Music Weeks and the Montreux Jazz Festival. The EP also received international airplay. In 2023, Moonpools won the Demotape Clinic at the m4music festival in the rock category with the single “Damaged Goods”. They are now working on new songs and have a new release planned soon.
Project
We would like to work with Philippe Laffer as part of the coaching program. He would support us in the area of mixing, which is currently the biggest hurdle for us when developing new songs. In a first step, he could give us feedback on the arrangements and recordings. In a second step, we would go to his studio and mix the songs together, where we could pick up the necessary expertise and mixing strategies for further productions.
As part of the coaching, he would also give us tips on how to optimise the instrumental sounds for live playing.
So we want to make progress in the areas of recording, mixing and live sounds and see Phillippe Laffer as a suitable coach thanks to his many years of experience and his flair for the rock genre.