I’m posting this on Christmas eve 2024, so what better time to talk about Easter Eggs – not food ones, but something hidden in a work of art to be found by either carefully looking for it or stumbling on it by chance. I find that starting with an idea of an “easter egg” will generate more ideas when thinking about how to hide them and how to connect the Easter Egg to the underlying concept of the piece.

Some examples:

There actually is a reason why I bring up Easter Eggs on Christmas. On the recent joined release “Christmas 2024“, spearheaded by my friend Sal, created together with him and another friend and fellow Munich musician, Zinkl, I was able to hide one Easter Eggs that still made sense for the overall idea of the song:

Il freddo dell’asfalto

Sal’s lyrics for “Il freddo dell’asfalto” are about a lonely person wandering the cold streets of an Italian city on Christmas and meeting an unhoused person. Sal wanted the song to start with a dark intro with voices reciting the third article of the Italian constitution which declares human rights and equality.

When I first came to him with the idea to use the melody of the Italian hymn for this passage, he was sceptical. He did not want this to sound patriotic or nationalistic as the ideas expressed by the song are the quite the opposite of that. But I was able to show to him that taking the melody of the first part of the hymn (“Fratelli d’Italia …” etc.), slowing the melody down, re-harmonizing it and arranging it for String Quartet, would transport the feelings he wanted to evoke. So, if you listen closely to the line the cello plays, that’s the melody of the Italian hymn.

Easter eggs in “The Song of the Machine“

There also two musical Easter Eggs hidden in the recent Phaneronaut album “The Song of the Machine”.

Travel Time No. 2

The songs in “The Song of the Machine” are based on the Royal Road chord progression – which is also the chord progression in “Never Gonna Give You Up” by Rick Astley. So it was – to me – a quite obvious idea to hide a Rickroll in the album. Sorry not sorry about that.

There is another Easter egg melody hidden in “The Song of the Machine”, from another part of music history altogether. But you got to find that for yourself for now.

Happy Holidays, everybody!