Goodbye 2009. For me and many people I know this year has been, more than usual, a year of extremes – peaks and valleys, disruption and elemental change. Oftentimes blindingly positive, occasionally bitingly harsh. Mid-October, my dear friend Finn mailed me, introducing Rayna. An invite. Loved Modyfier, of course; glad to accept! Three days later I was sitting on a grey train speeding through Belgian rain to attend the funeral of a former lover in Antwerp. In the interim I programmed a rough version of this mix and this first bare-bones sketch sound-tracked what turned out to be the most strangest of weekends...
That Antwerp visit was spent in the closest company of Gerard; he filled my blank bleak mindset with music and art; phrases rendered in neon at a Ceryth Wyn Evans installation (“In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni”) burnt into my mind. We watched Jack Smith's joyous “Normal Love” and I decided to splice its woozy nth generation VHS soundtrack into it all. On my return, I decided to restructure said sketched sequence, focussing on the work of colleagues, collaborators and friends, adding in tracks gifted to me during the past twelve months by those I love. Quite by accident, a composition of my own sat centrally – recorded a year ago for a friend in Berlin who has since moved on, whilst I was leaving Paris, retreating to London.
To call this a mix is pushing a point. Not a DJ, see – much more an editor. Maybe best think of it like scanning the airwaves; late-night radio. These tracks were finally (re)arranged in mid-November, recorded in four passes, then compiled in Logic. Sometimes you are hearing up to eight tracks, layered. It's quite dark in places and intentionally dumb in others. I guess it's about movement, space and claustrophobia – trying to make those contrasts heard. Why do I like sounds intermingling like this? Because I like to try to connect all the disparate parts of my life, my friendships, my work. Falling forwards from one experience to the next, headfirst! I particularly like the end section, which has made my neighbour bang angrily against the walls...
I sit here in London in late November writing these notes. The record covers I have been designing these past weeks are all copyrighted 2010. Falling into the future. Keep travelling forwards, not forgetting lessons learned. Goodbye 2009.
(This sequence is dedicated to Manu, who would've no doubt not much liked it and preferred me to have made a 7am-at-Berghain kinda mix for him!)
01. Portsmouth Sinfonia - Also Sprach Zarathustra op.31 02. BJ Nilsen - Gotland 03. Ryoji Ikeda - Headphonics 0:0 04. Chris Watson - Quelja Mine 05. Daníel Ágúst - Someone Who Swallowed A Star 06. Clara Rockmore - Valse Sentimentale 07. Rachel Sweet - Wildwood Saloon 08. Oren Ambarchi / Lasse Marhaug - Devil Wolf Men 09. Tony Conrad - Extracts from the soundtrack to Jack Smith's “Normal Love” 10. Tyrannosaurus Rex - Wind Quartets 11. Henry Flynt - Blue Sky, Highway And Tyme 12. Brian Gulland & Frank Ricotti - Journey 13. The Percussion Research Ensemble - Trance Formations 14. Souls on Board - Hole 15. Hildur Guðnadóttir - Erupting Light 16. Derek Jarman - "Is that actually going? It really is…" 17. BJ Nilsen - Viking North 18. Philip Marshall - Ghost 19. Jana Winderen - Drift 20. Stephen O'Malley - Petite Géante 21. David Sylvian - A Fire in the Forest 22. A.C. Marias A.C. - So 23. Alfred Schnittke - O Thee, the sovereign of everything existing, who gives us precious gifts 24. Akira Rabelais - Gorgeous curves lovely fragments labyrinthed on occasions entwined charms, a few stories at any longer sworn to gathered from a guileless angel and the hilt edges of old hearts, if they do in the guilt of deep despondency. 25. Mika Vainio - Behind The Radiators 26. Nana April Jun - Sun Wind Darkness Eye 27. Philip Jeck - All That's Allowed 28. Panasonic - Minus 25 29. Shed - Ostrich-Mountain-Square 30. Nana April Jun - The One Substance 31. Roxy Music - In Every Dream Home A Heartache
If I were to answer, "Why do you do what you do?" I would say, "It is because of how I imagine the future."
For me, it’s all about that. I moved into art so that I could build a place where all my thoughts projected forward and split into something real -- music, soundart, pictures and so on. It is a feeling, maybe a hidden one, that grows from the inside and tries to step out. Art is the place where thoughts grow into shapes. So the point is, how do I find a way to let them live outside that place, without me?
I’m really interested in the ways that music lives without the musician. A lot of musicians, including me, use loops during their live sets and recording takes. Some live sets are mostly based on layering loops upon loops. Sometimes I like to imagine that I could leave the stage and that my instruments would go on without me. I shift positions from the composer to the audience. That’s incredible. It is an exciting example of a separation process.
I’m getting more and more into soundart projects as “places” where things I say can be tried. I’m really convinced art should live without the artist. The music that I -- and a lot of others -- am doing lately is a beautiful occasion to test this theory, and not just through recording (on cd, lp, mc, digitally, etc.).
The track below is taken from my last album “Ode” on the Sydney based label Preservation. It’s called “Tropical Malady” as the title of the Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s movie. The music here moves from the clash of light and dark in the movie (its atmosphere).And here I sit, listening to my music as I would listen to the leaves in the dark night of a tropical forest.
It was a bit more than a year ago when, through my friend Mossa, Rayna contacted me to do a mix or a track for Modyfier.
Initially, I thought making a track and simultaneously writing down the process of composition was a great idea. I thought it could it be a good way for me to remember how I do things, since every time I finish a a track I can't remember how I got there or how I made a particular sound. I guess that is because I don't follow the same path from one track to another.
Anyway, lots of things happened in the middle. I was traveling a lot. I also moved to a different country and didn't have a studio to sit down and work in and so it was hard for me to find the time to do the exercise. Fortunately, in the meantime, I found this mix that I made in Mexico in early 2003. It's one of those mixes that you never show to anybody, a personal one that captures a special moment in your life. So recently, when I was going through special moments one more time, I listened to it again and it felt right for me to finally share.
It is an atemporal mix, even if you can place the sounds of a particular time. It doesn't contain the kind of music I usually play on a Saturday night or the top ten of the hour. It is just one of those mixes that keeps popping up every now and then, that I keep re-listening to and enjoying once more.
I'm very glad to be a part of this amazing project. I hope you enjoy it.
For some time, I've harbored hopes of putting together a feel-good mix of records that have really stood the test of time, and harbor genuine emotion and meaning to me. And what better time than the beginning of another UK summer that arrived with such high hopes (Don't they always?). And right now, in November, as the nights draw in, and the air begins to bite, what better time to remind ourselves that it's always Summer, somewhere...
The beginning of 2009 was a time of cross-genre musical celebration, with the warm, organic feeling of 'real' house, disco and techno with a non-minimal studio approach enjoying a resurgence, which continues today. Studio-tanned die-hards, such as Aeroplane, Todd Terje, Omar S and DJ Koze were crossing over all over the place, and becoming bonafide members of the pantheon of dance.
This mix is my attempt at telling a story which, such is life, has a bittersweet overtone... Reading between the lines, the second half of the mix is more autobiographical than I feel its necessary to reveal in public. Like the best stories, and the best summers, I hope this mix leaves you with unanswered questions, unrequited emotions but the reassurance that, at the end of it all, everything really is going to be alright, and it will always be summer somewhere.
01. Aeroplane - Aeroplane 02. Tommy Seebach - Bubble Sex 03. Low Motion Disco - People Come In Slowly 04. Skatebard - Marimba 05. Woolfy vs Projections - Abysnth (Marcos Worgull Remix) 06. Blackbelt Anderson - Sandoz 07. Studio - Life's A Beach (Todd Terje Remix) 08. Justus Kohncke - It's Gonna Be Alright 09. James Chance - One More Regret 10. Omar S - Psychotic Photosynthesis 11. Addled - I'm Sorry 12. John Tejada - The End Of It All 13. DJ Koze - Mariposa 14. Tommy James & The Shondells - Crimson & Clover
I was extremely pleased when Modyfier asked me to contribute to the Process Series, so I spent an extra special amount of time preparing and creating this mix. I think it’s fair to say that this is an exact representation of what’s floating my boat at the moment and what I’m constantly playing out and at home. I’ve tried to encompass a nice broad style of House and Garage in the mix and hopefully representing the UK to the max (all of the artists featured on the mix are from the UK, barring Claude Von Stroke, and well the Brackle’s remix is of John Legend but I’m going to let that one swerve). Starting with some really nice trippy 2 step from Pariah released on R & S Records and then moving through the mix we hit man of the moment, Joy Orbison. A couple of tracks from Hot City are in the mix. This is an artist I’m particularly into at the mo. This boy’s harking back to the days of 90’s rave and UK Garage (peak time around the late 90’s, early 00’s) and using this to make fresher than fresh House. A little bit of nice Old Skool UK Garage is flexed, too, from Scott Garcia ("A London Thing" never leaves my box) and finishing up with some recent Claude Von Stroke. Hope you enjoy.
01. Pariah – Orpheous 02. Synkro – Just Say 03. Joy Orbison – J Doe 04. Zomby – Digital Flora 05. Joy Orbison – Brklyn Clln 06. John Legend – Heatbreaker (Brackles Remix) 07. Hot City – Head Work 08. Scott Garcia feat MC Styles – A London Thing 09. Roska – Hey Cutie 10. D-Malice – Keep On 11. Hot City – What Am I Doin’ 12. Claude Von Stroke – Storm On Lake Saint Claire
This is most of the Reagenz live show we did at 222 Club in San Francisco on 1-October 2009. Reagenz is a collaborative project that I do with Move D, aka David Moufang, that we started in 1994. This show has a few tracks from our upcoming album “Playtime” which comes out 1-November on Germany’s Workshop records, as well as a bunch of new tracks we’ve been trying out live over the last few months.
Gear we use includes a Nord Modular 1, a Roland TR808 (which handles most of the drums), a virtual Korg MS20, an analog delay and Ableton Live (which acts as the clock (it’s still unstable, please take note, anyone from Ableton)). There is also a lot of Oberheim OB8 that I just picked up a couple of weeks ago (the lushest 80’s polysynth ever). We trigger a few Ableton parts that are from our recording sessions and mix it up with the live hardware as well as some inspired guitar from David. The idea is to get the machines to do as much cool stuff as possible, in real time, and to keep it as interesting for ourselves and the audience. The first track ‘Shibuya’ is actually edited in from our Decibel Festival show a few days earlier – I didn’t press record in time in SF! To hear the complete Decibel gig, click here.
The 222 show was a really fun gig for us because there was lots of improvisation going on and unexpected things coming in and out of the mix - and it was a great crowd. So here it is, warts and all.
We were really flattered when we got the invite to do something for Modyfier, alongside all these other great artists who have contributed. At first, we thought about painting a picture or cooking one of our wicked toast/egg creations. But, after a while of thinking, we decided to do the thing we can do best: doin' music. To be exact, doin' a proper dj mix for all the Modyfiers out there. We're always on a mission to guarantee a good party, so the aim of this dj mix is to make you dance...when you're at home, at your moms house, on the streets and so on. So you won't hear a Chill out, 80ies-Classics or eclectic Rock-meets-house-meets-rap-meets-everything mixtape, as this ain't Dualton. But you will hear a groovy uplifting set of finest house music, like the ones we are doin' in the clubs right now.
To describe the mix: At the moment we're really into deep groovy house music, often garnished with analog instruments and vocals (without being cheesy). So we go on with new tracks of masterminds like Luciano, Mendo, Damian Schwartz alongisde newcomers like Roger Gerressen, Yvan & Tristan and ourselves. The mix starts off very energetic and uplifting, goes deep in the middle to collect some new energy, and comes back like a hurricane with joints of Radio Slave and Steve Lawler. At the end, it features one of our new releases on VIVa MUSiC which is called "Shanti". What else to say?…uhh…the mix is quite an hour long and we hope you enjoy listening as much we enjoyed doin' it.
If you want to check out what we have produced in the past, just check our releases on imprints like Steve Lawler's VIVa MUSiC, Vivid Recordings from Berlin and of course our older stuff on Rompecabeza and Bedrock. We always appreciate feedback dealin' with our work, so if you like our stuff and if you like this mix here, just drop us a line.
01. Luciano - Los Ninos De Fuera 02. Yvel & Tristan - Candela 03. Mendo - Everybody I Got Him (2009 Mix) 04. Roger Gerressen - No School Like The Old School 05. Frankie Flowerz - It's Funk, It's House (Damian Schwartz Remix) 06. Leon - Puertorican Etno 07. Seth Troxler - Panic, Stop … Repeat! (Paco Osuna Remix) 08. Radio Slave - Koma Koma (Steve Lawler Remix) 09. Dualton - Shanti (Dub) 10. River Ocean feat. India - Love & Happiness (Michel Cleis Remix)
Location: san francisco, california, United States
selections from the audience...
thoughts about defining how music comes to me, the ebb and flow of sounds...
thoughts about palimpsests. about the happy medium between creation and erasure, about redefining lines, edges...
thoughts about remembering how to listen...about listening so hard for things that ear wax melts (you know pauline oliveros?). you know that feeling?
thoughts about how music steps across genrifications to be about the everyday, the mundane, the routine. for me it is. in all moods. always moving me.
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