He fires up the world music scene, complimenting his bass tonal deep voice singing with strong layers of melodic structures and edgy Electroscapes. On EFJ Phaeder rediscovers his love for his first instrument and injects his unique guitar styles into EFJ with surprising results. Phaeder developed EFJ returning to his avant-garde roots. He pushes musical expression to the limit, staying accessible and humorous. EFJ weaves together years of life playing and recording of exquisitely crafted Beats, Flamenco, Singing and chanting in nine different languages and uncompromised Electronica.

Prolific music journalist/writer Graham Reid writes....In a recent conversation this German-born Auckland-based guitarist mentioned an album of his I had forgotten about: it was Kling-Klang (on Ode) and at a guess came from some time in the early-to-mid 90s.
His mention of it prompted me to get it out again because I had been very taken with it at the time. It was Haeder in a variety of settings from solo, to duets with Steve Garden on percussion and piano, a trio track adding bassist Bob Shepheard, and finally in a quartet with pianist Phil Broadhurst.
Even now the album stands up: Haeder's guitars and deep voiced chanting (he is a longtime Buddhist) made for an album that was very different in New Zealand music at the time: not jazz entirely but in that zone.
Haeder -- who sometimes performs under the more enigmatic name phaeder -- really fits nowhere in New Zealand contemporary music.
If Kling-Klang could be described as loosely improvised/experimental, then Lotus Beat in 2002 was dancefloor electronica with Buddhist overtones.
Then last year came two albums released simultaneously and which were featured on Elsewhere: the gentle but probing acoustic guitar album Emerald, and its companion Singularity which was Buddhist chants alongside gentle prog-rock electronics.
It came after an intense meditation retreat in South India where he recorded the chants which are woven through the tracks.
Haeder is perhaps best described as avant-garde -- but in New Zealand that often means someone working independently and in the absence of any guides or followers. Haeder is certainly doing that.
It makes him unique but also, given the connections his work has, part of a global musical culture rather than a specifically local one.
Recently he has posted some internet-only material on his website which are little short of cut-up cosmic trips of treated vocals, synth beats and guitars, and astral-jazz attitude. Think avant-jazz from an alternative nightclub on Saturn.
They are exceptional, challenging and beguiling, and they here: http://www.phaeder.com/
There are few musicians anywhere who have such mastery of acoustic guitar, electronica, beats and Buddhism, not to mention the interplanetary flights of his internet work now posted. I bring the eclectic Peter Haeder to your attention again because he and his music truly embody the spirit of Elsewhere. Graham Reid

PHAEDER raises the bar with EFJ.Breaking taboos, new sonic territory.Exciting, fresh, uncompromised music!

Phaeder: "Lotus Beat" review By Ben Nicholson nz musician  -  Any novelty factor aside, this is a well produced and sonically challenging record. With an organic mix of Asian drumming and Tibetan rhythms fused together by chant-based deep throat singing, Phaeder has produced a collection of drum' n' bass, techno and downbeat which would mix effortlessly onto any dance floor.

http://www.phaeder.com  http://www.myspace/phaeder1