AIR Podcast

Perhaps best-loved for his dynamic take on techno in both his productions and his DJ sets — having been involved and around music for nearly 30 years, @DVS1 is an expert in his field, a true veteran of the scene whose roots extend beyond DJing into grassroots raves and event promotion in his native Minneapolis.

These days, he continues to push his own limits, getting involved in and starting up projects that fuel his love of music, but also his love of the community he was raised in and helped build. His most recent venture, Aslice, is a software-based platform which proposes a fairer music ecoysystem for DJs and promoters is in its early days, but its concept is bringing up questions for both me and Zak.

For episode 47, we're exploring the value of art, the definition of success, his own personal perceptions of his worth as an artist.

This month is a special one, and our first ever tandem interview — joining me for a Freerotation special are the festival’s founders @Steevio and @Suzybee.

Influenced by the free festival movement around the UK in the 1990s, Steevio and Suzy created Freerotation, an annual gathering of music and arts which now takes place in Baskerville Hall, Wales, and has, since its inception in the mid 2000s, become one of the scene’s best loved festivals. Kept relatively small and amongst friends and friends of friends, Freerotation is known for its thoughtful curation of both DJs, live acts, and VJs, and its intimate, familial setting.

In this conversation, Steevio, Suzy and I get into the festival’s early days and its direction and curation today, plus their own personal histories in art and music, and their distinctive creative philosophies.

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MUSIC:

Steevio - "Candescent" (2022)

Steevio - "Y Llifogydd" (2022)

Steevio - "Passive Resistance" (2022)

Purchase part one of Steevio's Dod yn ôl at fy nghoed here: https://steevio.bandcamp.com/album/dod-yn-l-at-fy-nghoed-part-1

Born and raised in Russia, this month's guest, DJ and producer @AnastasiaKristensen moved to Denmark when she was a teenager. Finding it hard to adapt to her new life in a rural part of the country, she went online, finding solace in her favourite music forums where she discovered not only music, but a community. Turning to music as an escape became a kind of ritual that she went back to again and again, the connection only deepening when she started DJing. In this conversation, Anastasia and I look back at those early days as an outsider, finding her identity as an artist, and how music was and continues to be the best escape.

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Music:

"The Flight" - Anastasia Kristensen (2019)

"The Voice Within" - Anastasia Kristensen (2021)

"Volshebno" - Anastasia Kristensen (2021)

Born and raised in Chicago, with roots in the footwork dance scene and many years of DJing under his belt, RP Boo is best known as a pioneer of footwork — a lightning fast genre of music that borrows from hip hop and ghetto house. Although RP came up in the 1980s and 90s, he flew under the radar outside of the footwork scene until the mid 2000s when his debut album Legacy released on Planet Mu, bringing his important and iconic work to the wider music industry, a long overdue step into the spotlight. In this conversation, RP and I discuss his roots as a musician, the art of sampling as a nod to his peers, and the legacy he’s spent three decades building.

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Music:

"Bangin on King Dr." - RP Boo (2015)

"Baby Come On" - RP Boo (2015)

"Try 2 Break" - RP Boo (2015)

"11 47 99" - RP Boo

"Ivory Surface" - RP Boo (2021)

Joining me this month for episode 43 is Christina Sealey: producer, live performer, and one half of Canadian industrial techno duo @Orphx.

Christina and music partner Richard Oddie founded Orphx back in the 90s, early on using what few instruments they’d collected: a reel-to-reel tape machine, some microphones, and an effects pedal to craft the kind of visceral sound they’ve since become celebrated and loved for. Slowly, they added in more instruments: analog gear, software, but also primitive pieces like sheets of metal, drills, kitchen utensils, razors… Anything they could manipulate to their creative liking. Their intense and often raw style of music is a kind of meeting point between rhythm and noise, with works like Pitch Black Mirror, Division, and Fragmentation leading the charge.

In this conversation, Christina and I discuss her love of primitive instruments, the creativity of limitations, and how to make music with what you’ve got.

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Episode 42 welcomes a music industry veteran: Anthony Child, also known as Surgeon (@dynamic-tension), got his start DJing in the 1990s, Tony has long been an integral force in the world of techno, best known for his driving DJ sets, and his thoughtful productions. His music has also expanded into experimental live performance, with projects like The Transcendence Orchestra allowing him to explore even further corners of electronic music and question the very limits of what constitutes techno.

In this conversation, we focus on an idea that has been on both our minds lately — what makes music authentic? How can an artist bring honesty to every facet of their work? What constitutes authenticity in a fickle industry? What does it mean to be true to your own voice?

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Music:

Master of All Visible Shapes - Surgeon (2018)

Winged Assassin - Surgeon (2020)

Satsuma Felt Slow - The Transcendence Orchestra (2021)

Transparent Radiation - Surgeon (2011)

Having My Head is Felt - The Transcendence Orchestra (2021)

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We’re back for 2022 with episode 41 of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. Joining me today is Spanish producer and DJ @jass-29.

Silvia’s music first caught attention in 2017 when she put out her debut album Weightless, which was well-loved for its heavy use of drone, its avant-garde sound and its industrial mood, terms that JASSS’s intense DJ sets also came to be celebrated for. Now a seasoned artist in her prime, her sophomore record A World of Service, out now on @ostgutton-official, continues to explore those primal tones, not only in its sound but also in its visual elements and a custom made scent that accompanies each vinyl. As such, Silvia and I sat down to talk about music as a sensory experience — how we experience music through each of our five senses, how factors like drug use, social context, and emotionality enhance our artistic world, and the role of memory in our love of music.

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Music:

"Vapor Dentro" - JASSS (2021)

"Camelo" - JASSS (2021)

"Luis" - JASSS (2021)

"Instantaneous Transmission Of Information" - JASSS (2017)

Can you believe?! This is the 40th episode of AIR, and this month’s guest is American composer, musician, and visual artist Charlemagne Palestine.

Born and raised in New York, Charlemagne plays a wide variety of instruments — favouring hours-long pieces for piano and organ, often utilizing techniques like strumming that he himself has invented. His music is expansive both in tone and quantity, and his style has often been described as “playing an entire building.”

In fact, I had intended the theme for today’s episode to be maximalism — but true to his own rebellious nature, Charlemagne almost immediately rejected the term’s usage in our interview. Instead, we approached the topic of a “total art experience,” the many ways he creates visceral music, and the physicality of playing.

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Music:

From "Four Manifestations on Six Elements" - Charlemagne Palestine (2020)

"Strumming Music" - Charlemagne Palestine (1974)

From "Schlingen-Blängen" - Charlemagne Palestine (1999)

Clip of Charlemagne playing the carillon at AV Festival 2013

From "Four Manifestations on Six Elements" - Charlemagne Palestine (2020)

Episode 39 is the second instalment of our talks about mental health with producer and DJ object blue.

London based object blue has quickly established herself as a producer and live performer to be reckoned with, finding solace in the making and playing of music. She has often been outspoken about battling with depression since she was a teenager, and has talked openly about how dark thoughts can interfere with her work. In this conversation, we delve into imposter syndrome, mental health and creativity, and the power of music as a healing force.

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Music:

"Cerco de Deus" - object blue (2018)

"Bipp" - SOPHIE (2015)

"Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" - object blue (2019)

"Even in You" - object blue (2019)

"Closed Open" - object blue (2021)

Episode 38 welcomes longtime AIR favourite Seth Horvitz, also known as Rrose. Initially bored with dance music early on, Seth had in mind to leave the club scene behind altogether before his studies at Mills College gave him a change of heart — he came back to techno, albeit in a completely new way. His music project and persona Rrose has become known for a forward-thinking take on music of all kinds. Whatever form the music takes, Rrose is an incredibly thoughtful artist, and together we dig into the precise and particular processes of composition, reinterpretation, and performance.

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Music:

"Bandage" - Rrose (2019)

"Purge" - Rrose (2015)

"Organ Study No. 1" - Rrose (2020)

"Having Never Written a Note for Percussion" - James Tenney (Rrose reinterpretation (2015)

"The Goldennn Meeenn + Sheeenn" - Charlemagne Palestine + Rrose (2019)

"Mine" - Rrose (2019)

"White/Drip" - Rrose (2012)