We’re guessing that most of the people who follow Alpha-ville’s podcast series will know Roly Porter predominantly through his previous dubstep project Vex’d. As Vex’d, Porter and his creative partner, Jamie Teasdale forged brutalist, edificial bass music that, for a period, seemed to contain the essence of what dubstep would become. If it ultimately didn’t, the impression left by its sheer weight and rude power was still felt within the genre long after the project dissolved from the landscape.
While Teasdale continued to make music as Kuedo post-Vex’d, Porter distanced himself from music altogether. However, at the end of 2011 Porter returned from his self-imposed extradition with outstanding album Aftertime. We’re not exaggerating when we say that when Pinch deployed ‘Hessra’ on his recent Fabric Live cd, we sat bolt upright. These new tracks, beatless, sometimes beautiful but often uncomfortable and harsh clearly represented a new direction for Porter, yet one not entirely broken from his past.

We’re very happy to say that the mix he’s made for Alpha-ville is arguably one of the finest in the series; an abstract and sombre affair, which, like his album, eschews beats altogether. We won’t spoil it here but rather leave you to discover it for yourself. First though, we caught up with the man himself for a debriefing on the tracks he’s chosen, where he’s at now and what it’s like swapping rewinds for people, well, standing and listening.

Firstly, Can you tell us a little about the mix you’ve put together. All the tracks featured are released on the recently relaunched Bristol label Subtext, right?
Yes, it is all either current or upcoming Subtext releases. I’m really happy at the label. I genuinely like all of the music and I feel it works well when presented together as one idea. I hope we do another Subtext event soon….

Listening to the mix it becomes quite apparent that you’ve steered clear of traditional structures – something which you also did on your album Aftertime. Is it liberating to be freed of impetus to make people dance?
Yeah definitely, when I was younger I loved to be in a rave. I was even seen dancing on some rare occasions but the highlights of it for me were when everything, bass, the noise would be overwhelming and I could just stand in another world on my own in front of the system. I wasn’t a very social raver. It’s that experience that I want to recreate. Dub has it, dance music can have it and I’m not ruling out ever writing beats again but I will definitely not release an album of 11 tracks all the same tempo or stand for the whole night listening to the same beat. I feel free from that now and although Vex’d was designed to be outside a genre we still got sucked in.

Coming from a dance/club background is it strange to make the leap into the more abstract. It seems playing to a club and playing to a room of people standing and listening would be drastically different experiences.
The only problem is one of self confidence. When you play dubstep to a club full of people dancing you can look up and hopefully see hands in the air or people shouting or you can see an empty dance floor. You can gauge pretty quickly whether you have blown it or not. When you play an hour of music with no beats, ranging from ambient to quite brutal noise, you look up and people are either standing or sitting but it is impossible to get a clear idea of how they are feeling. I feel completely confident in the music I am making now and in a sense I am happy to look up and see people leaving the room. It isn’t easy listening. People are forced to listen to this music, dancing is a distraction which can make dreadful music seem passable. I know that my music is uncomfortable and requires patience but if I look up at the end of a set and someone has stood still for a whole hour and is clapping, for me that’s as good as a club full of people shouting for a rewind.

The overriding mood is quite – and I hope I’m not oversimplifying – sombre and uncompromising; there’s a brute force in many of the tracks you’ve chosen. What is it that appeals about these kinds of textures?
It’s not oversimplifying, but I think it will be a different experience for each person. Or to explain better I think different people group emotions differently. If something is designed to be happy or uplifting I am likely to fight it and be grumpy. If something is haunting or melancholy or completely bleak I am likely to be much happier. It is difficult to explain but I don’t generally listen well with others. It is certainly sombre, but not depressing, only serious in its intentions.

Likewise, your old project Vex’d could be incredibly visceral. Do you see your work made under your own name as a continuation, in some ways at least, of what you began with Vex’d?
Yes, totally. I am still trying to achieve a similar goal that we set out to achieve with Vex’d. I feel a bit closer, but not there yet. The style of the music is not the whole point. I think we could have written a jungle Degenerate 10 years before and in a sense I feel I wrote a beat-less one many years after with Aftertime.

Besides the aggressive, industrial timbres there’s some really beautiful passages of modern classical music, which is something you’ve been experimenting with. Where did this interest in modern composition come from?
I feel that if I play an hour of just noise and bass the power of those elements will quickly be used up and become tiring. It doesn’t take a huge amount of variation to maintain a bit of tension. Also, for me, bass can be very beautiful so it is not a case so much of classical or string movements being a separate event to ease people along. I really want to incorporate sub and noise in that world.

What inspires you to get up in the morning a write a track? Do you have to be a particular zone to be able to create your music? I mean, the music you’re making now, particularly on your album, seems to come from quite a specific place.
I really don’t know why. When I wrote Aftertime I did not expect it to be released and I definitely didn’t expect anyone to like it. I also don’t really remember the actual process of writing it which happened quite quickly. I was listening to a new piece in the studio with a friend last week and when it finished my first thought was I wonder what I did that for? It is something that I feel is missing from the music that I hear.

Some time lapsed between Vex’d coming to an end and you beginning to make music again. What were you doing?
I stopped listening to modern music, stopped going to clubs and I stopped writing music. I worked as a carpenter and I learnt the banjo. And I had children. This meant that the time I could spend listening to music was massively reduced but my emotional response to it was definitely increased.

Are there any musicians who you feel are currently pushing musical boundaries right now? Who?
Sorry, I can’t really answer that. There is a lot of quite strange music around and I feel that often it can’t really be judged. I like to make instant decisions and I take ages to change my mind, so I tend to hear three seconds of something and say “nope, shit” or totally fall in love. But there is so much music that can’t really be judged at the moment. Emptyset is a good example. Do I like it? It pushes musical boundaries but is that a good thing, is that impressive in itself? The answer for me is, in this case, yes I do like it but it can’t be judged and it certainly can’t be analysed the way you might with other music, like is it beautiful, does it make me want to dance etc.

Any exciting things in the pipeline which you can share with us?
I want to be in a band.

(Interview by Louise Brailey)

Listen and download here:

Track list

Sketch for Industrial Machinery – Paul Jebanasam

Function Remix – Roly Porter

Burn Hole – Eric Holm

Pretending to Breath – Eric Holm

Interstice – Emptyset

Giedi Prime – Roly Porter

Music for the Church of St John Baptist pt. II – Paul Jebanasam

Return – Emptyset

Al Dhanab – Roly Porter

interlude

Hessra – Roly Porter

Haxan – Paul Jebanasam and Roly Porter

Corrin – Roly Porter

His experience of working with sound installations and field recordings lends a rough grain to his take on deep house – he’s released on Curle, Dial, Scape and Onitor. Perhaps Troyer’s aesthetic is best exemplified by his edition of the Alpha-ville podcast: a mixture of influences and records he’s feeling which doesn’t shy away from the rawer end of the spectrum. From Oni Ayhun to Terrence Dixon, via Kassem Mosse and a brand new cut from Troyer himself. It even finds a place for Actress’ excellent remix of Panda Bear’s Surfer’s Hymn. Essentially, the mix serves a great intro to Troyer – if you don’t know, now’s the time get to know.

First up, how would you define your sound?
Hm, that’s a difficult question. I do like a bit of dirt I guess but I sure appreciate clean and clear sounds as well. But in the rawness and in the noisiness there is some kind of space and haptic quality, which – at least for me – enriches the listening experience. It’s like that noise equals room or space. The Rodney Graham installation (photo below) has a very similar quality and by blurring the image you add some space for imagination. I just saw the Gerhard Richter exhibition here in Berlin two days ago, and I do like blurred images. I also try to make influences audible which come from outside the 4/4 world, that’s also quite important for me.

How – and when – did you get into making music? Can you single out a particular moment when you decided you wanted to make a career out of electronic music?
The interest was always there. My brother and I experimented with our cassette recorder when we where kids. We did some “experimental music” back then at the age of 9 or 10 without actually knowing what we where doing at all! We had a small electronic circuit model kit set up as a basic oscillator and some metal objects to make noises with. But i think it was when i started to study in Vienna – I actually started with literature studies but I soon realised that I was thinking about music all day, so after one year I changed to the music university.

And then there was the Sub Club, which was the weekly drum and bass night at the Flex-club, where I liked to go – and the first Mego and Cheap nights. The electronic music scene in Vienna was quite intense in those years, that was quite overwhelming.

Growing up were you exposed to much electronic music?
We had 1 cassette which was a breakdance sampler with Grandmaster Flash on it, Herbie Hancock, Chic. The other cassettes where Simon and Garfunkel.

Your brother Ulrich Troyer is also a musician so it seems natural to presume you come from a musical household…
No, actually not musical at all. It’s just my brother and I that we are both music-nerds. I think my father will never understand why we are so much into such a thing as “music”, my mother is very openminded and interested.

You’ve mastered records for Efdemin, Pantha du Prince, Pole…the list goes on. How does it feel making the leap into making your own records?
It is actually a leap to make my own records. Since you can always go on working on things, refine sounds, add some equing here, remix parts there…. but the danger is that mixes then start to become boring, or that you lose a certain spontaneity and musicality when your focus jumps to much between musical and technical aspects while composing.

With the work on the forthcoming EP I decided that I wanted to do it with outboard gear only. At my job in mastering I’m sitting at the computer all day editing sound, so I didn’t want to do that again when doing music. I used the computer only for recording the mixdown. The idea was also to capture a certain spontaneity and to force myself not to focus on details or too many technical aspects but rather record a few takes and that’s it. The result is a bit raw. There are quite a few things which now I’d prefer to have done differently but…there´s no way back. Maybe you could call these kind of “errors” or “mistakes,” also a sort of noise in terms of unintended decision-artefacts which hopefully make the whole picture more interesting.

Photo: Rodney Graham, Edge of a Wood

You’ve got a formal education in audio engineering and computer music having studied in Vienna. Does this academic background have an influence on the way you work?
It definitely has a influence on the way I work but, to be honest, all the academic background can also be a burden in the sense that you might lose the spontaneous, intuitive and maybe even naive way of doing music, which I think is something extremely important.

Can you tell us a little about the mix you’ve put together for Alpha-ville?
Basically I just put things together that I like or are an influence for me at the moment. So there are some tracks which have been important to me since the very beginning like Terrence Dixon – I didn’t listen to them for quite a while – and then there´s something of STL, I love the tracks he did on Smallville!! There´s Phillip / Efdemin with my favourite track of his – ‘Farnsworth House.’ There´s Kassem Mosse, there´s stuff from Relative, which I discovered last year, I like their raw “live”-approach…It´s rather eclectic, I’d say.

I notice there’s a record by you on the mix called ‘Stills’ – Is this a forthcoming release?
Yes, it´s the title track of an EP coming out on Dial in the next weeks!

I think I detect the crackle of vinyl in there. Do you have a preference for vinyl?
Yes i do. I did vinyl cutting for some time myself. I like the physical experience of vinyl, I like to have some relation to the music i buy and listen to, I don´t really have any relation to a sound file. Although I obviously appreciate listening to things on my phone while I’m outside.

Are there any producers that you feel are pushing the boundaries right now?
I don´t know if pushing boundaries is the right word, it’s more a personal thing: I’m really into Kassem Mosse at the moment, and I´m curious as to what they will put out on the Ominira label. And I’m following the Will Bankhead / Joy Orbison Hinge Finger label and the Relative guys.

Any interesting plans in the works which you can share?
I´m working a lot for Hendrik / Pantha du Prince lately. Currently I’m also working on a remix, I’m preparing to set up a new studio and so on, and then there’s this really big project that started just a week ago, It’s music for a dance piece I’m involved in. I’m quite happy, there’s a lot going on at the moment!

(Interview by Louise Brailey)

Download and listen to the Kassian Troyer podcast from the soundcloud track below – enjoy!

Tracklist

pigon – flip over pill
oni ayhun – oar004b
kassian troyer – stills
dbx – spocks brain
farben – rrival inn (all)
pigon – flip over pill
vinalog – offcenter 2
kassem mosse – we speak to those
vinalog – 45
terrence dixon – math test
madteo – xtra loose change (2010 refix)
panda bear – surfers hymn (actress remix)
terrence dixon – building blocks
stl – 2 deep
efdemin – farnsworth house
ryuichi sakamoto – exhibition

Growing up in Greifswald, a university town in northeastern Germany, Löffler’s musical tastes are broad, encompassing jazz, classical and rock. Despite his electronic epiphany, these influences are still readable in the music he produces and releases on labels such as c.sides, Orphanear and Ki Records – the latter being a label he co-founded. Indeed, if it’s difficult to pin Löffler down to a particular sound, well, that’s the beauty: the connecting thread that runs through his productions is an almost painterly evocativeness of mood, an ability to throw into relief that house and techno needn’t, and shouldn’t, be reduced to a series of signals to impel the body to move.

Taking time out from producing his debut, Löffler has crafted a tight and stylish podcast that takes in crisp textures, sick beats and an emotive, almost romantic upsweep that’s irresistible when there’s frost on the window panes. Furthermore, as Löffler is also a visual artist, he’s chosen a selection of images to accompany the podcast, to produce a kind of audio visual narrative – a first for an Alpha-ville podcast.

We caught up with Christian over email to fill us in a bit more.

The first thing you notice about your podcast is its emotive scope. What were you thinking about when you made it?

What was important to me was to elaborate the contrast between deep and narrative tracks and rather functional parts. The podcast is supposed to show that techno and house can offer more than just the incentive to dance.

That ability to evoke a feeling or landscape is a feature of your own records. Whether it be that brittle, wintry sunlight of new single ‘Aspen’ or the foreboding thrum of something like ‘Cast’ off the c.sides release Audible Approaches to a Better Place. Do you set out to create an emotive response in the listener?

Yes, that`s essential to me. I try to transfer certain emotions or feelings I had during the process of making the music and those that made me write a song upon the listener. Of course everybody’s got their own associations and thoughts while listening to the music, but I try to lead them into a certain direction with the instruments and sounds I use.

You’ve chosen some photographs to accompany the mix – again these seem very brooding, almost poetic. Is there an underlying narrative to be extrapolated from them? Or is their meaning more abstract? What drew you to the tree, which features in all of them?

Due to the fact that I’m also working as a visual artist, I follow the same approach when I make music that I follow when painting or taking photos. It is more about telling a story than making everything accessible to the listener right from the start. Trees were always fascinating to me. I guess it`s their kind of mystical appearance.

Each photograph seems, to me, to speak of solitude, of a state of contemplation. Is this reflective of how you feel when you make music as an artist? Are these essentially portraits of the artist?

I guess it’s in the nature of a solo artist, no matter if a musician or a painter. Most of the time you are alone with your thoughts, especially while working in the studio. That is a kind of solitude I absolutely need for my work.

As someone who studies visual arts, is there an artist or a particular piece of work that you would say has inspired your music?

There is a lot, especially in fine arts, that inspire me. For instance works of the painter Tim Eitel. “Boot” is one of my favourites. It seems calm and withdrawn, but if you have a closer look, you can see the power that is in it. This is something I also try to realise in my music.

You used to have a side project called A City Is a Tree, which was an output for your more acoustic material. Since you’ve left that behind do you find yourself reconciling your impulse towards acoustic music within your electronic productions?

I’ve developed some strategies to use acoustic material and singing in my productions. Amongst others I sample different stringed instruments and percussion. I continue working with the recordings on the computer, combining, layering and alternating them. Also field recordings are a big part in my work.

Who, of the people making music today, do you feel is pushing music forward?

Starting with Daisuke Tanabe, who has an outstanding approach of combining sounds and samples, through to Apparat, who merges acoustic and electronic material, to the Icelandic artist Sin Fang, who I admire a lot.

You’re currently busy producing your debut album, right? How’s that going?

My debut-album called A Forest is going to be released in March 2012 on Ki. It`s a big step forward for me and my music. I am continuing to experiment on my approach of combining emotive and physical elements – I particularly intensify the work with my voice. There`s no other instrument that can be more direct. I try to forge a bridge between more dance floor oriented tracks to calmer, more classical sounding tracks.

The album will feature an extensive artwork. Beside the records/cd there will be a poster and a beautiful booklet inside the sleeve.

We`re planning a lot of things in connection with the album including videos, an interactive, constantly changing web page, printed cards, posters, bags and a magazine. A very good foretaste of what is to come is my new single “Aspen.”

[Listen to the promo version of Aspen here]

Lastly, can you tell me a bit about Ki records which you co-founded. Is it tough running a label with the music industry in its current state?

Ki turns three 2nd of January and my next EP “Aspen”, which will be released 23rd of January, will be our 9th release. As a label we are trying to put out more versatile music in genres. Therefore we have Daisuke Tanabe on board who is more into HipHop and Downtempo and will be on the Ki number 10 coming in February next year. Then we’ve got our favorite indie-band from Hamburg, Me Succeeds, who’ve just released their 4th album and a dub/techno artist from Hannover whose feeling for atmosphere is just incredible!

Saying this, I just want to state that Ki is a label that’s more on its own – we can’t really compare ourselves to any other label at the moment. Especially as we are not a major label like Stones Throw, Domino, Warp or K7. Therefore, we can’t speak for the music industry in general…but if we talk about Ki, I can say that we are very confident about the future as more and more people are listening to the music we like and release. This is a great feeling for all.

Christian Loeffler Gallery:

Listen and download the podcast for the next 2 weeks:
Alpha-podcast presents Christian Loeffler by Alpha-ville

Tracklist
1. The Notwist – The Hague
2. Christian Löffler – Aspen
3. Phantom Ghost – The Shadow Im Schutt (Pantha du Prince Remix)
4. Yør – Rave
5. Max Cooper – Heresy
6. Radiohead – Lotus Flower (Jaques Greene Remix)
7. Biodub – Barracuda (Glitterbug Remix)
8. Carsten Jost – Chateau Jalousie
9. Jon Hopkins – Vessel (Four Tet Remix)
10. The Dø – Too Insistent (Trentemøller Remix)
11. fLako – Relief
12. Robot Koch – Glassdrops
13. The Notwist – Jonas
14. finn. – No Slow Motion Hype (Lawrence Remix)

The second edition of a series of mixes in collaboration with Inverted Audio. This mix features Kompakt’s Cologne based Dj and producer Jennifer Cardini – who delighted us with an amazing set at Alpha-ville 2011.

Alpha-podcast presents Jennifer Cardini by Alpha-ville

Read a full interview with Jennifer here.

Tracklist
TOMAS MORE – THAT THING – CORRESPONDANT Exclusive
ENOLA – L’AURORE – CORRESPONDANT Exclusive
Larry Heard -25 Years From Alpha
Massimiliano Pagliara – In Order Of More Depth
Gesaffelstein -The Lack Of Hope
Loquace-Synthologie – Re.you & Rampa Remix
enola -slowmotion- nhar remix -correspondant Exclusive
Anthony Collins - Don’t Look Down Now – Roman Fluegel Remix
My Dirty Laundry – Original Mix Axel Boman
CJ BollandCarmargue – Original Mix

This is the first of a two part series of podcasts & interviews in collaboration with Inverted Audio, the London based electronic music and visual culture publication.

This occasion is a special one with Erik ( Svarte Greiner) compiling rare and  unreleased tracks. The mood is deep, drone and intense. Listen and read an exclusive interview with the artists here:

http://www.inverted-audio.com/svarte-greiner/

Tom Russell (a.k.a. Truss) heralds from a small Welsh village on the outskirts of Cardiff, yet he brings some of the darker and harder elements of techno to   many of the UK’s urban concrete haunts such as Corsica Studios. Having released several tracks on London techno label Perc Trax, Miniscule, Dumb-Unit Synewave among others, his sound comprises stripped-back minimal techno that is hard and driving. Stocking records from UK-based techno producers Surgeon, Perc, Shifted and Sigha in his crate, Truss is clearly part of the scene here that pushes a sound that is loud, visceral and exactingly scientific.

Following a superb closing set at the Alpha-ville afterparty last year, Truss is returning to perform a live set at this years festival as well as contributing a mix for the Alpha-ville podcast series. We had a chat with him about his podcast and the current state of the UK techno scene.

Your closing set last year went really well. Have you played in many similar events since then?

That party was brilliant fun. Yes, the venue in deepest Hackney, it had a great crowd and sound system and no closing time! Most other gigs since then have been slightly more conventional.

When playing a set, is it strictly vinyl or do you incorporate computerised-elements?

I play mostly vinyl, but recently I have been using a few CD’s also. It’s nice be able to play some of mine or my friends’ new music that is not yet on vinyl.

You remixed Lucy on Stroboscopic Artefacts, can you tell us what you find interesting about the label?

I was really chuffed when Lucy approached me for a remix as I’d been into a lot of the music the label was releasing.  I like the fact that Lucy encourages the people he works with to experiment with their music. He’s very open to more abstract forms of electronic dance music.

The UK techno scene has seen a small resurgence in the last five years, is this driven by the popularity of Berghain and it’s record label Ostgut Ton?

I don’t think there’s any doubt that the whole Berghain / Ostgut phenomenon is partly responsible for the resurgence of Techno in the UK. However, I think there are also many other factors at work. There are a lot of promoters in London and other cities around the UK, putting on consistently good and varied line ups, which I think has really helped nurture an interest in Techno beyond just the influence of Berlin. There are a lot of producers breaking through in the UK at the moment too, not to mention many established artists still releasing great music. There seems to be a real sense of community building between promoters, labels and artists. It’s exciting!

Has the techno scene in the UK become more accessible since you first got involved?
The Techno scene has always seemed accessible to me. If you are passionate about the music as a producer, DJ, promoter or punter then that’s what it’s all about.

Most events that host techno DJs tend to make use of Funktion One sound, is this good thing?

Funktion One are definitely due credit for increasing people’s appreciation (and demand) for good quality sound. I think it’s a good thing that they are being so widely used now. However, everything else from decent working turntables to correct acoustic spacing must also be right, otherwise you might as well be using any old sound system.

The experimental elements in your mix hint at a similar pushed by Sandwell District (Regis & Function), did they influence contemporary techno?

Regis has been, and is still a huge influence on Techno in my opinion, and Sandwell District have definitely been key in helping shape the current sound of Techno.

In your productions, do you lean more to analogue or digital tools to build your tracks?

A mixture of both. Sometimes more digital, sometimes more analogue.
We noticed you have a Soundcloud account for sharing your music, can you tell us how the site has helped the scene?

For me personally it has replaced Myspace as a way of being able to network with people and share my music. I’ve discovered quite a few new (to me) artists since joining up. I think it can also help less established producers get their music heard.  It’s generally all positive stuff for the scene I guess.

Which producer would you point to as doing something really interesting right now?

I can choose only one? Hmmmm, too many to mention! A Made Up Sound (aka 2562) has released some amazing music including ‘Rear Window’ which is one of my favourite records. The ‘Shattered’ mix on that record is absolutely deadly and also quite tricky to mix due to some weird time signature / swing thing going on (that’s my excuse anyway). It’s definitely one of the more interesting records I’ve heard for a while. Also been blown away by Blawan’s productions too. Proper next level sounds.

Sorry that was two names, I know…..

What treats can we expect from your Alpha-ville set?

Expect a bunch of house and techno, old and new as well as the odd stepping, off kilter type record thrown in for good measure.

Enjoy this mix:

Alpha-podcast presents TRUSS by Alpha-ville

Sigha – HF029B1 – Hotflush
TBR – Ganymede – CDR
A Made Up Sound – Rear Window (Shattered) – Delsin
Blawan – Lavender
Radial – Three Steps – Planet Rhythm
Steve Bicknell – How Can We Know (Steve Bicknell Definition) – Cosmic
Shifted – Drifting Over – Mote Evolver
Roland Casper – Take This – Magnetic North
Jobody – Bound – Unreleased
Rrose – Bare Hand – Sandwell District
Heiko Laux – Re-Televised (Donor / Truss Remix) – Forthcoming on Thema
Sigha – HF029A1 – Hotflush
Sev Dah – Saint Of The Cave (Donor / Truss Remix) Forthcoming on Gynoid

We have approached Jacaszek in the run up to Alpha-ville to offer you a taste of what to expect when you see him live at the opening concert together with 2 other musicians: a harpsichord and clarinet. Buy tickets from 10th July from this page: http://www.alpha-ville.co.uk/jacaszek

His mix for the Alpha-ville podcast series bridges deeply atmospheric electronica with string instruments such as cellos and violins with percussion elements such as xylophones, chimes and orchestra bells. His sound is deeply moving and fuses a wide array of samples to closely match an acoustic classical set in turn, creating a highly emotive piece of music.

Due to perform at Alpha-ville Festival on the 22nd of September, we caught up with Jacaszek in advance to ask him a few questions.

1. Your mix is deeply emotive and, dare we say it, melancholic. How did you feel when you put this mix together?

I felt really good. Some sort of melancholia is in my ordinary state and it doesn’t interrupt my work, life, everyday existence. I actually like it!

2. Do you feel there a sadness about your sound or do you find it can be optimistic or hopeful?

Sadness or sorrow have many different shades, on the one hand we have black, hopeless distress, on the other, a quite pleasant feeling of nostalgia. My sound is definitely not depressing, it carries some positive emotions; it is like with recalling beautiful memories, it’s sad, but somehow brings hope and pleasure.

3. What do you consider to be the cross over with poetry and musical performances? How can the two blend to compliment one another?

First of all I think that poetry can be present in music even when there are no words. Lets take Philp Jeck’s long instrumental poems, with their internal drama and narration. In Jeck’s case (but not only) poetry or poetic phrase is an initial impulse for instrumental composition. Another example: polish project Emiter_Franczak exploring the subject of “Concrete poetry” – a very successful fusion of “visual” poetry and music.

Considering poetic text itself and its music interpretation you can find a lot of good examples in the classical music world: Schubert’s songs cycle to Wilhelm Muller poems, Pawel Mykietyn, Shakespeare’s Sonnets, Pawel Szymanski Georg Trakl poems and many, many more. I think good poetry doesn’t necessarily need music to become powerful, but sometimes by adding a melody, chords, music to the respecting text’s meaning can open someone’s heart to receive poetry.

4. Which classical music composer would you consider to be particularly influential in your music?

Arvo Part and H.M. Gorecki – that’s what I find in reviews most often and its true that I love these composers and I frequently listen to their works. Some critics point to Ligeti, Kancheli and Taverner as well. Film music composers have definitely influenced me as well: Badalamenti, Kilar and Nyman to name a few.

5. Likewise, which electronic music producer would you say has 
influenced your work?

I think it would be Geir Jenssen (Biosphere) and Murcof & Colleen.

6. When you say ‘recorded sound is going to enrich traditional acoustic instruments’, what do you mean?

Most artists nowadays use digital tools to process and edit traditional sounds. My idea is based on a certain respect I have for this traditional sound of acoustic instruments. I don’t intend to completely deconstruct its characteristics. I’m trying to find a way to keep all richness, subtleness and dynamic coming out from musician gesture, but at the same time I want to give it my own shape, adapt it to my own taste. This “enriching” process can be sometimes very simple: like cutting or exposing specific frequencies, lowering the tune a few octaves, combining two or more sounds together…

7. If you had to choose one performance space as a favourite to use where would it be?

Acoustic problems aside, I like it when a venue has some individual character. I don’t mind if it’s a church, concert hall or industrial space, but it is good when there is some dialog going on between the music and its surroundings. This dialog can be harmonious, but it can also turn into a quarrel! Generally I hate open air venues, but once we had great gig in a beautiful park in Brussels, where the stage was located in a big, ancient arbor.

8. Who would you name in Poland as someone doing something interesting musically right now?

Right now I’m more concentrated on classical music. I see many young generation academic musicians in Poland tending to cross academic borders: Neoquartet, Kwartludium, Kwadrofonik, Male Instrumenty and more. There are a lot of interesting events happening as well (I think curators can act as artists actually), Unsound Festival, Sacrum Profanum, Misteria Paschalia and many more.

9. Can you describe your experiences living under Communism in Poland?

Oh, this is complex issue! Let me just mention some experiences important in my current work. A good thing is that after communism I no longer relied on cultural institutions – which brings me the comfort of not being constantly disappointed! A bad thing is that I still subconsciously consider Western Europe as a kind of perfect world, and to some degree this may affect my work, preventing me from fully speaking with my own artistic language.

10. What project are you currently working on right now?

I’d like to recommend my new album that will be released in Ghostly International label in November, it is entitled “Glimmer’ and is a collection of ten pieces composed out of a live harpsichord sound, bass clarinet and some processed loops and samples. My friend called it “modern chamber music”. I will perform this at Alpha-ville Festival this September.

Alpha-podcast presents Jacaszek by Alpha-ville

Tracklist:
1.J.J.Froberger: “SuitaXXXamoll_allemande”
2.Jacaszek: “Dare-gale”
3.Colleen : “Floating on the clearest night”
4. Jacaszek “Pod swiatło”
5. Gavin Bryars+Philip Jeck with Alter Ego: “Sinking of the Titanic (excerpt)
6.Jacaszek: “Orszula”
7.Calefax Reed Quintet: Arvo Part “Pari intervallo”
8.Jacaszek: “II”
9.Pawel Szymanski: “Lux aeterna”
10.Jacaszek: “Martwa cisza”
11.Georgy Ligeti: “Lux aeterna”

Heralding from Athens, Dimitris Dimas Δ Δ (Delta) /// Dmitri is a Greek electronic musician and DJ who’s visceral and innovative productions have caught the ears of Get Some UK among others across Europe. Having put together an exclusive mix for the Alpha-ville Podcast series, Dimitri gives a heavy nod to the house music producers emanating from the US, making use of a mixing style (similar to that of Moodyman) that does not alter the tempo of the original tracks, allowing them to play at full length in the way that the original artist/ producer intended.

His projects mirror that of friend and two-time Alpha-Ville performer Eleni Adamopoulou who plays under the alias Manekinekod.

We caught up with Dimitri to ask him a few questions about music, his influences and how the economic situation in Greece is affecting the electronic music scene there:

1. The podcast for Alpha-Ville is a great journey through some of the more interesting US house music producers making records at the moment including Omar S, Moodymann and Theo Parrish, can you tell us why you chose to highlight them?

When I make a mix or a podcast, it’s usually all over the place but with this one I tried to make something more coherent and that’s what
I came up with. To be completely honest, it’s just a selection of records I had laying around that day. The podcast is the music you’d normally hear at my house on any regular day.

2. Some of your productions such as “Earth Documents 1″ reflect aspects of the UK dubstep scene, can you tell us what effect this scene has had on your music?

I think I’m influenced by any and all sounds. I don’t operate within a specific style or genre and that allows me to incorporate elements from all angles. When I first started making my own music, the UK sound had a significant effect on me, as it was new and exciting and you could go into any direction you wanted. I think it offered an open platform for people and that’s probably the reason why so many people around the world got involved with it and the sound spread and evolved so quickly.

Nowadays dubstep’s grown so big, everyone seems to have their own interpretation of what it is and it’s so far from what it originally was.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, as it encourages people to experiment and explore new territories. That is never a bad thing when it comes to music making.

3. Is dubstep something that has relevance to the wider European electronic music scene outside of the UK and Germany?

It was a matter of time before dubstep reached more people and made its way out of the underground. In the past few years there have been quite a lot of gigs and parties in Greece that feature some of the most exciting musicians and DJs around today and they were all very well received, so at least that’s an indication that good music will always get noticed eventually.

4. What do you think of the emerging electronic music scene in Athens? Can you tell us about how it is evolving?

I’m not sure if there is a scene yet, but it feels like we’re gradually getting there. There are quite a few musicians and producers around today who are really active in their territories and their musical output is increasing with time. It’s refreshing to know that there are still people around willing to really work on their music and push things forward, but there needs to be a lot more than that for it to be considered a scene.

It has to do with the ecology of music, with the relationships between people and their interactions with where they are. These things take time and sometimes things are simply coincidental, just a bunch of people who happened to be at a certain place and at a certain time.

5. Some of your productions make use of traditional Greek music and
Eastern influences such as “Closure”, do you feel there is a cross-over between these influences and modern electronic music?

Obviously, there is one, but that’s the case with music in general. I don’t really see any distinctions when it comes to sound, it has to do with how you experience sound in general, anything can go together, if you discover the way to blend things together. The only thing that changes is the way people use the symbols of their environment to communicate through it. I mean, for me a dub record from 70′s Jamaica might be expressing a similar feeling to a 90′s Norwegian black metal album. If you take a step you back you notice these connections between things that might otherwise appear remote.

I like all music the same way I like all colours and all shapes.

6. What sort of effect do you think the economic crisis in Greece is having on the music scene there?

Whenever there’s a form of crisis, art and expression flourish, as people search for new ways to escape their surroundings. It’s that love/hate relationship with our environment that’s usually the trigger for people to get together and form a movement or a scene, so maybe at some point we might actually experience the evolution of a scene in its geographical sense. Greece nowadays is a place of uncertainty, anxiety and fear for the future, but at the same time I’d like to believe that there still exists a way to channel all these negative emotions and experiences into something productive. Otherwise, we’re doomed and there is no point in getting out of bed in the morning.

7. Some of your tracks make use of sounds that appear to be sampled from records, can you tell us about the production process?

It’s not a clear process, more of a sketch or a collage of ideas. I like to make sounds with whatever I can get my hands on, whether that’s a synthesizer, a sampler or a record, I don’t know, it depends on what state of mind I’m in at the time. Most of the time I’ll be messing around with something and if that sounds good, I keep on doing it to see how far I can take it. It’s almost trial and error, like examining all these different formulas. But basically it’s just fun to mess around with sounds. As for the production, I use Ableton Live and occasionally Pro Tools for additional production, but I’d like to work more with analog gear in the future and I still have a lot to learn.

8. What projects are you currently working on at the moment?

I’m working on a quite a few projects, I have a collection of songs that are starting to form a relationship between them and are gradually morphing into what looks like an album or a couple of EPs. I usually like to upload a few songs every month, just to keep track of what sounds I’ve been making at the time. Right now I’m working on some new purely electronic stuff and I’m also thinking of recording a few tracks with live drums because I haven’t been playing much lately and I’m starting to miss the physical aspect of music making.

9. Who would you highlight as an electronic music producer you feel is doing something really interesting?

I’m a big fan of Boddika, I like his hands on approach to production, the textures and dynamics of his music and his overall aesthetic. His music would be the perfect soundtrack to a cyberpunk movie.

10. Can you tell us the story behind your artistic name “Δ Δ (Delta)”?

Well, it’s actually the initials of my Greek name, so I don’t know if there’s much of a story to it. I just wanted something that didn’t sound like anything or mean anything that would be open to interpretation and have a visual aspect to it. And after all, it is my name and I can only be myself.

Alpha-podcast presents Δ Δ by Alpha-ville