late last week, i was over at my favorite music video blog, and found this excellent video for brandt brauer frick (check it out below, or click here to take you straight to youtube), a german group that produces music with elements of house and contemporary classical music- haven't heard anything like this before, really original stuff.
Paul Frick and i had a little q&a-
slam: What got you guys started and how long have the three of you been working together?
PF: Jan Brauer and Daniel Brandt have been making music together since school times. I heard a track of their project "Scott" on myspace and loved it. So I contacted them (well, not entirely sure who contacted whom...), and as Daniel and Jan happened to come to Berlin shortly after that, we arranged a meeting to exchange some records. In the meantime they had noticed that I also compose music for classical instruments, and they proposed to start a project together that combines techniques and aesthetics of techno and contemporary classical music. Our first studio session was in late 2008.
slam: What's happening in the near future - any LP in the works?
PF: Our debut album is almost finished and will appear in march on Tartelet Records. Before that several EPs are coming as well:
"Wallah / Button" on The Gym
acoustic rework for Bozeman on Doppelschall Records
"Bop / Paino Shakur" incl. Losoul RMX on Tartelet Records
acoustic rework for Emika on Ninja Tune
And apart from that: touring, setting up our BBF ensemble with about 12 musicians, working on a performative installation for San Francisco based Gallery GAFFTA amongst others... it has to do with several musicians in separate rooms, and it requires the manipulation of the visitor/listener.
slam: It's great to hear some work by electronic musicians that is self-sampled. You don't often hear musicians of this genre sample only themselves. There are groups who play a lot of instruments, but sample (like The Twelves), and then there are groups that are electronic influenced, but don't sample at all, or rarely (like Whitest Boy Alive or Studio). Your work is different and feels like a unique approach. What brought you there? AND there's a lot of real instrumentation, but with very strong house roots. What brought the sounds together?
PF: Being 3 people with instrumental skills in a nicely equipped studio, it feels rather natural for us to record everything ourselves. We are of course not the first ones to do this... But we hope that our colliding aesthetic visions help in creating something authentic. As a lot our pieces use prepared piano, I should mention that our detuned old piano has also become quite typical for us: playing normally sounds really bad, so we focus a lot on interesting sounds... In a similar way, various instruments that we use determine our sound. And about the house roots: in our separated projects we are all much more housy. On our album we have set the house influence a bit aside, but on our new EP on "The Gym" the house side shows a lot (like already on our EP "Iron Man"). Those tracks will not be on the album, as their style does not really fit to it.
slam: Where do you take some of your inspiration and what are some artists you listen to?
PF: Concrete musical inspiration comes for example from Gustav Mahler, Morton Feldman, Kevin Saunderson, Mr. Bungle, Matthew Herbert, György Ligeti, Helmut Lachenmann, Meshuggah, Steve Reich, Thelonious Monk, 4hero, A Tribe Called Quest, Akufen, Theo Parrish...
The forthcoming debut EP of the Dutch producer "Bozeman" has lately inspired me a lot.
slam: Any plans to tour in the US?
PF: Not yet, but hopefully soon.
slam: The Bop video is a beautiful complement to the many layers in the track. Did you guys come up with the idea? How was the shoot?
PF: The concept and realization of the "Bop" video was made by Daniel Brandt who is a professional director, besides being a musician. One aspect of the video was also to visualize how we want to perform in the future, with a larger ensemble. The shoot was really stunning for me, having had very few film experience before. it took two 16-hours working days, with about 30 people working on it: amazing! Daniel directed it together with Julian Schleef, who also makes incredible work.
Wallah:
Button:
currently only available on vinyl. upcoming LP will be in digital and CD. look out for it!!!
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