MORPHEUS
MUSIC INTERVIEW - KRUSSELDORF
20.05.10 - on release
of Bohemian Groove
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| Q:
We always like to know how artists got started
– what’s your background story? |
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I went to pianoschool at a really
early age, but grew tired quickly of playing other people's
works so I started making my own gradually. Everything changed
when I discovered my first Tracker program on my older brother's
amiga and hooked up my 1$ microphone to it. The music I made
was all about atmosphere and a few years later I found out
that genre was called "Black Ambient". Now at that
age I was around 10-12, I never stopped experimenting in my
free time and when the big metal era came I stared playing
bassguitar in a band. Frustration kind of grew since my band
wanted to play coversongs, I spent my free time writing my
own material and spent all my money on buying studio equipment.
Cubasis saved me, I started recording everything from bass,
electric guitar and layering electronic drums and sounds ontop
of it. It sounded very Rammstein.
Fast forward, a lot of mushrooms later and the new millenium
is here. I am making GOA/Psy and funk-chillout playing at
Raves all over Scandinavia with the Knaprika project I started
with Donald Persson. I am working with Simon Kölle and
Donald Persson with Za Frûmi, the medieval/fantasy project
which got a fantastic reception because of our odd take on
what abstract music could be, blending bombastic compositions
with classical instrumentation and field recording all over
europe with film typemicrophones and portable DAT-recorders
and not least a storyline spanning 3 albums with dialogue
in Black Tongue (the tolkien language of orcs). This resulted
in a 10 page article in Wired Magazine (which seemed huge
to us at that time) and later got us featured on Swedish television's
annual celebration of classical music, with the famous Swedish
Radio Orchestra performing our work. More importantly these
times showed me how much fun making music could be, travelling
all over with friends discussing sounds, vibrations and techniques
and creating a world beyond our own.
It was all very non-rock n roll, just laidback, friendly and
philosophical.
In my free time during all this I worked on the solo dark
ambient project Atrium Carceri which got me right back at
where I started. This time creating far more complex landscapes
of abstract noise and using my knowledge of field recording
to great effect making Atrium Carceri what it is today, one
of the leading acts in the genre with 6 albums released. Za
Frûmi was worked on during this 10 year period as well
spanning 8 albums and sometime during all of this, Knaprika
was slowly put on hold and in its vacuum Krusseldorf was born. |
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Q:
What was the plan when you began the
Krusseldorf project? |
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It was mainly an outlet for my
downbeat and more laidback styles of music I always have produced.
The first demo I sent (due to DJ Bakke pointing me in the
right direction) got me signed instantly at Iboga Records
and I could focus my time in the studio instead of promoting
myself. I believe you should really work on your details if
you want others to listen to your music while creating something
unique and Krusseldorf has always been about experimenting
and creating something new, reshaping old genres or creating
all new ones.
The only foundation of what Krusseldorf is for me personally,
is that I should be able to listen to it in a pitch dark room
and be taken to a world beyond the physical.
Krusseldorf as with all my other projects is based on my musical
philosophy that all music should be visual, that is also a
big reason I dont play many livesets since what you see misguides
you from what I believe you should experience behind closed
eyelids. I have always prefered listening to music alone and
in the dark rather than at concerts and when producing I always
do it night time which has resulted in my awake hours ranging
from around 4pm to 8am which is perfect in Sweden as we have
so many dark hours each day.
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Q:
The current album has a beautiful, serene
warmth to it – what influenced the creation of Bohemian
Groove?
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I thought the name was kind
of obvious if you remove one O from a certain word.... but
it is about hope after all although the strong anti-NWO
theme is still there. What influenced me is to question
everything we see, hear, smell, think and so on. Humans
think we experience everything around us so well, but our
squinting jelly eyes can't see very well, our muffled ears
have got a very limited frequency range, our smell is close
to nothing compared to other beings and our thoughts are
basic compared to what they could be and so on.
There are other worlds out there and people listening to
this genre of music have most probably already opened up
the mind's eye to be free from the shackles of seeing just
our own personalized bubbles of worldview. I wanted to create
an album free of all image and ego, an album inspiring hope,
dreams and enlightenment. |
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Q:
Can you tell us a bit about your favourite gear and your recording
studio? |
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It has to be all my microphones,
it sounds boring but they are fantastic. I could mention
my guitars, synths, kaos pads, my very homely keyboard but
the microphones have a very special place in my heart. I
am still using a Röde NT1 for acoustics on many tracks
for that kind of special hollow sound. |
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| Q:
When you make your music – how
do you begin – what gets your compositions going? |
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It is always
a visual representation, very hard to describe but it comes
very natural laying down of beats and melodies. The work
begins really when trying to solve the problems that all
producers battle with such as Harmonic/Disharmonic problem
solving, cutting frequencies trying to hold on to the characteristics
of what you are using your surgeon skills on to make room
for new transplants and so on. |
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Q:
What would you say is the hardest part
of making music? |
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Problem solving and trying not
to mimick other artists, which is a reason I try when working
on albums NOT to listen to other artists in genres close to
what I am producing.
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| Q:
What have been the best bits of feedback
you have received on your music so far? |
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When people
get really into it and get what I am doing like the following
bit (from an Atrium Carceri review at Heathen Harvest): Ptahil
in the Mandaean cosmogony is one of the three beings responsible
for the creation of the universe. A very fitting name, as
this is exactly what every Atrium Carceri release does, it
dips its fingers into the primordial clay of the unconscious,
of the dream shapes, the outer planes, and haphazardly finds
there the material to create a new universe, out of what originally
appears to be non-existent, unknown, and perhaps a little
frightening. So the best way to assimilate this experience
is to fall into a somewhat meditative state, forgetting everything
related to everyday life, and to let this curious deity carry
you in a journey through its newly acquired domain. After
a while the images take form spontaneously, naturally, and
if they are enough they might even complete a piece of the
puzzle. If not, the general idea is still enough to be fascinating.
Taking the first steps in this virgin landscape, a female
voice invites us further in, in a foreign language, with a
melancholic yet appealing chant – it sounds Slavic but
truth be told, I couldn’t recognize the language. The
chant has a deeply ritual, religious character. As it vibrates,
intensifying, organic sounds are introduced and we are led
inwards with thumping beats, crackling sounds and horrifying
whispers, by all kinds of creatures residing in the shadowy
corners of this corridor we are traversing.
Shadows made more intense by the scarce rays of light that
fall on the rusted, metal doors and walls. As we proceed someone
laughs ironically, at our slow realization of the kind of
place we are in. The doors extend some distance away on both
sides of the hallway, patterns of rust and mould forming on
their surfaces. Faint moans heard from the inside, insinuate
the suffering, the modifications taking place in each of the
cells. It feels familiar, somewhere we have wandered many
times, many centuries, many lifetimes ago
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Q:
How involved do you get in promoting
and marketing your music?
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Not very much,
I have one interest and one interest alone and that is working
in the studio, the rest is why I have labels I am working
with. If they did not promote and market my music I would
probably start my own label and release my music there. |
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| Q:
Do you have any interesting stories around
the making of Bohemian Groove? |
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When we recorded
Pouncer, the dramatics of the composition and idea was so
strong that I had to leave the studio for almost an entire
day because Carolin Terzian had to connect and get "into
character/enlightenment" while recording the vocals.
She always does this, no one is allowed to hear her sing while
recording... she draws on some mysteria and you can hear the
magic in that track very well.
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Q:
What are you involved in currently musically? |
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Krusseldorf,
Atrium Carceri, Za Frûmi, Knaprika (yes we are doing
something soon again dusting off the old project), Preponderance
(almost, but not completely abandoned dubstep project from
a few years back), Dorf Unit, Alembic, Sojobo, Abnocto (we
are talking about a new album), Couchlock, SOC and my Krusseldorf
Collaboration with Iboga mastermind Michael Banel.
As you can see I spend all my time in the studio which makes
my annual 3 month vacation so much more appreciated.
Be free brothers and sisters! |
| Thanks
to Krusseldorf and the guys at Beats & Pieces for allowing
us that interview.
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