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Lindstrøm: The Interview

one small seed — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 11:48:44 +0000

Norwegian dance music producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, known simply as Lindstrøm, is a bit of a peculiar part of the electronic music community, with his cosmic sound drawing inspiration from the most unlikely of places. The string of albums, EPs, and 12”s he has released over the past decade have proved him to be a vital member of the Nordic electronic music community./

Lindstrøm, photograph: LinStensrud

While numerous gigs throughout Europe and his relentless passion for making music keeps him comfortably in that part of the world, our one small seed Detroit contributor Kelly Frazier was able to catch Lindstrøm right off stage at a rare North American appearance at this past May’s annual Movement Electronic Music Festival in Detroit to speak to him about his motivations behind his unique style of music.

What types of stuff do you get inspiration from?

Sometimes it’s just fooling around in the studio, playing with instruments. Or it’s just listening to music, all kinds of music, like a lot of music from the ’70s and ’80s.

What type of stuff do you like from the ’70s and ’80s?

I like a lot of it because there is something about the sound of it and how they were producing everything. Everything from popular rock to country, it doesn’t really matter the style of the music, as long as it is from the ’70s and ’80s. Some of the stuff is really dry. I just like the way they were using instruments like synthesizers and keyboards, and at some point it sounded really interesting. I guess that kind of music using synthesizers, for those who were originally introduced to it, probably sounds like alien music. It was a really radical change in the use of instruments.

Lindstrøm: "Six Cups Of Rebel" Album Art

What is your process of making music? Do you just play around and use the good stuff?

Yeah, I usually do that. I guess I have my own way of doing it. It’s about fooling around and finding something that can be useful for a song or a remix or whatever, and then I just keep on working on it.

I read a quote online that you said your album Six Cups Of Rebel is your Metal Machine Music.

I’ve been feeling that it’s too weird for those people that have been following my music and my sound over the years. It was something radical and different than what I’ve been doing.

I kind of imagined how Lou Reed was getting reactions from doing something completely different.

I don’t think my album is that weird, but it is different than what I’ve been doing before. I know a lot of people were alienated by listening to it because it is something they were not expecting. That was part of the intention when I did it really.

You have been putting out records on your own for nearly 10 years now. Looking back, how you feel about that time in your life?

A few years ago, somebody came up to me and said to me ‘Hey! You’re a veteran! You’ve been around since forever!’ I was like ‘Oh really?!’ I don’t really feel like I’ve been doing it for that long. I guess ten years is a long time. I’m really happy that I’m still being able to put out music and keep doing what I like to do. I don’t take that for granted.

Lindstrøm, photograph: LinStensrud

How do you like coming to the United States?

I really like playing here. I often find the audience really comes to listen to my music.

A lot of parties in Europe, especially the clubs, people are just there to party. They don’t often know who is playing.

Usually, in the US, I get a lot of good feedback from the crowd.

What kind of a kid were you growing up?

I think I was curious. I really like working on technology and stuff like that. I really liked pulling things apart and examining how they worked. I was really passionate about music already when I was a kid. After doing homework, I couldn’t wait to go up to my room and listen to music. I think when I was about ten I got my first synthesizer and started playing in bands. I was really curious and wanted to know everything about the mysterious world of music.

What kind of bands were you playing in when you first started?

I started in a soft heavy-metal band.

Lindstrøm live at Le Poisson Rouge, image: hificartel.com

Check out Kelly’s exclusive with techno legend Jeff Mills in the new issue of one small seed – “The Bigger Picture” Issue – out in stores now!

interview by: Kelly Frazier

images: Lin Stensrud , HiFiCartel.com

Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre: “The Ruins of Detroit”

one small seed — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 07:49:19 +0000

The Ruins of Detroit is a five-year collaboration between French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre. Together they have documented Detroit’s abandoned buildings, bringing to light the current state of ‘Motor City’ through a cinematic series of starkly beautiful photographs.

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

Shooting with a large format, custom-made camera and taking advantage of natural light using long exposures, the images embody the unique atmosphere of each location. Marchand and Meffre’s work retains a formal quality and is conceived as a document, giving the viewer a surreal glimpse of Detroit’s former glory. Like the great civilizations of the past, we interpret them through their remains.

Ruins are the visible symbols and landmarks of our societies and their changes, small pieces of history in suspension. (Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre)

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

The images bring to mind a Biblical disaster; it is as if all Detroit’s citizens had fled. The abandoned factories and buildings, vacant schools and derelict ballrooms, to name but a few, are a poignant reminder of the fragility of the modern world and, possibly on a different scale, of a now ‘broken America’. These beautiful, but disturbing, images look un-compromisingly at the remains of the once-astonishing Detroit, as a then global center of capitalism and its following, even more extraordinary, descent into ruin. One is reminded of Detroit’s prophetic motto: Speramus meliora, resurget cineribus (‘We hope for better things, which shall rise from the ashes’)

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

© Yves Marchand, © Romain Meffre

Source text: www.tristanhoare.co.uk

Source Images: www.marchandmeffre.com

Red Bull – Maximum Signal Control

one small seed — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 09:13:17 +0000

In much the same way Da Vinci’s inventions were ahead of their time, Red Bull is creating a sound system so advanced it makes current sound rigs look like tapedecks. The Red Bull Music Academy World Tour kicks off in Cape Town with a three day event that we don’t want you to miss. Read on to find out how you can win a double ticket to the three-day event courtesy of one small seed and Red Bull.

Between August 29 and September 1st Cape Town will host the visionaries behind the world-famous Valve Sound System (UK), Dillinja and K-aze along with SIAN, DJ and founder of Octopus recordings (UK) and some of South Africa’s most prolific crews, DJs, promoters, producers and creative collectives. What is being done is the construction of a massive sound system that will travel to some of South Africa’s largest musical events as a tribute to the nucleus of club culture. When completed, the collaborative construction of the world-class system will be capped off by a three-day festival of sound. Taking place at The Assembly in Cape Town, September 1-3, it will feature a full spectrum of electronic music where all participating local crews will have the opportunity to perform on the newly built system alongside world-renowned selectors.

Dillinja – hard noize

Having pioneered the first filtering drum system and creating unique Amen breakbeats, Dillinja and K-aze are versatile producers and mix masters who, since the 1990s, have been lauded as versatile producers and mix masters. Fellow Briton SIAN throws down his own hypnotic take on techno with his avant-garde approach and trademark experimental DJ-ing style. With a list of 26 talented and respected DJs throwing their hats into the ring, it’s almost guaranteed the event will blow everything else out the water.

Lemon D vs Aphex Twin – Manhattanannou

With the Red Bull Music Academy World Tour hitting over ten major cities all over the world including Berlin, Paris, Detroit, Melbourne, Rome, San Paulo and London kicking it off from Cape Town is a great hour we’re sure the city is happy to accept. Each stop will delve into unique elements of the Red Bull Music Academy experience, bringing together influential musicians from various corners of the world across different eras of music to pay tribute to the pioneering sounds that paved the way for today’s deepest funk and hip hop.

So be at The Assembly from the 1st to the 3rd of September to show your support and pride in Cape Town’s own vibrant and definitely celebrated club culture. For your chance to win a double ticket to the THREE-day event courtesy of one small seed and Red Bull rack your brain a bit, do a bit of research HERE, leave a comment below answering the following questions and tell us why you want to go. Winners will be announced on Tuesday 30th August.

1. What is the name of the Soundsystem that Dillinja and Lemon D built?
2. Name one of the famous Soundsystems owned by eccentric DJs during the early days of Jamaican Soundsystem culture.
3. Where would you like to hear the Red Bull Studio Signal Control Soundsystem aside from the Assembly next week? (Choose any party / venue. Who knows the Soundsystem might make its way there one day).