Burnt,
how did you come to music?
Music
came to me
through
radio
and TV
nice
rhyme
and
true
was
clear to me
when
becoming eleven
that
music is the key
and
a passion
dropped
from heaven
a
mumbling monster
not
adolescent fashion threw
my yearns on every tape
because I
needed a nonstop swing
the flow
was making things fit together inside
tunes followed
me everywhere inside
only some
more tunes were able to wash away other tunes
How did
you get to work with Atom™?
Swing / frequency
/ wit
the aesthetics:
everything
sound-designed
it was inevitable
I know
we ve got
a similar approach
which possibly
is : hard disk rock don t stop
With
you working in Cologne and Atom™ located in Santiago
De Chile, how easy is it to work? To exchange ideas?
To discuss?
Around 1995
we both planned extensive travelling to Australia and
New Zealand and decided to hook up on a couple of live
gigs on the Australian Eastcoast. After Atom™ had moved
to Chile, we met up for the first time to record in
Santiago, in December 1997, but we already had spoken
about the music’s path when travelling to Australia
and New Zealand.
Flanger’s
music has always flirted with jazz. Where does that
come from?
That’s what
we wanted. We said: argh fuck lets make Jazz; (noooo).
Listen to a few early records of Atom™ on Rather Interesting
or N.U.F., it was already at least going from stiff
to cool, maybe around that time, in the early nineties,
the drum’n’bass hype provoked two very different options
: either something still obviously drum’n’bass and
something else, rather smart and not as definable, which
I think not only did affect programmers at that time
but also jazz musicians; herein I see that the extensive
use of ridiculous breaks had built a bridge between
today’s separate musical sources, the sequenced reconstruction
of naturalistic sound in a track format, a basic track
and the in expendable skills of a player/writer.
The two
first Flanger albums were released on Ninja Tune’s subsidiary
label N-Tone, however, Outer Space/Inner Space
is released on Ninja Tune. Why the move?
It suits,
don't you think ?
Is the
way you work with Atom™ much different from the way
you work when on your own?
Noddin
Four hands
You and
Atom™ have started touring for the first time together
this year. What can we expect of Flanger on stage?
Jaki is playing
drums, Atom™ keyboard and I play synth.
On the
booklet accompanying Outer Space/Inner Space,
an interesting look into yours and Atom™‘s world by
James Dean Brown starts with the following quotation:
"If we get a signal from outer space, what should we
do about it? Should we answer it and invite visitors,
or should we ignore it and continue to live in the universe
as if we are alone?" What would you do?
Ignore it.
The world would certainly be a much nicer place if humans
knew the cosmos was void, rid of any other shithead
and as vacuous as the human brain. Visitors? Sod off
in your rust bucket, I would scream. Only, humans
like to be
watched at, actually this has become desirable, a human
right. Continue to live in the universe as if we were
alone? I have encountered countless aliens since I started
walking. Some try to convey to me that I am a member
of the human race, right here not under the shades of
sodding Orion.
The title
of the album is inspired by J.G. Ballard¹s essay
Which Way To Inner Space, published in 1962?
Who suggested it, and why?
Well, every
time we meet, in Chile, we look into J.G. Ballard’s
Guide For The Millennium. It has lots of short
essays, quick to read, and beautifully written. It wasn’t
the book that inspired us thouhg, Atom™ had the idea
for the title, and I took the book and, found this essay
about the decline of cutting edge science fiction films
and literature.
What
is going on in Burnt Friedman’s inner space at the moment?
Trying to
invent gravity. Hard to avoid mentioning the day when
this rather frightening medium USA became conscious
it was a part of the world and not an immaterialising
island of infinite self-pity. Imagine a child growing
up under the conditions of public surveillance, omnipresent
threat and obsessive hygiene. It would accustom to handicaps,
a living regime customarily imposed under the name of
Christ and supported by modern very clean US Christians.
You are
currently working with ex-Can percussionist Jaki Liebezeit.
Is this going to essentially be a Burnt Friedman record,
or is this a new project? What does it sound like?
Burnt Friedman
& Jaki Liebezeit, even though 2 other musicians
were involved: Josef Suchy playing electric guitar and
Morten Grønvad from Copenhagen playing vibraphone.
Atom™
is renowned for his multiple collaborations with Bill
Laswell, Pete Namlook and so many others. You, yourself,
have worked with diverse people. Is there any collaborations
in the pipeline for you, apart from the one with Jaki
Leibezeit, that you could talk about?
There are
projects with a lot of people involved, players and
vocalists, contributors, friends.
Who would
you especialy like to work with?
Zigzag Zipper
from the High Resolutionists and Loony Locum
Stefan
Betke, aka Pole, recently released R, an album
made of remixes of two of his old tracks, plus some
new variations. He suggested, when we talked to him,
that the idea of the remixes was yours. What was your
original idea about these mixes, and how did you come
to think about remixing his work, as it has such a strong
definition already?
I am not
sure who had the idea, but I like those first 2 pieces
on the DIN 12".
What
do you listen to? What inspires you?
Jackie Mitoo,
Pascal Comelade, Rain, Rocksteady, Jon Hassell, Afrobeat,
Cal Tjader, Beige, Atom™.
What
was all that love and lust business about on your latest
album, Burnt Friedman Plays Love Songs? Do you really
have such a twisted mind?
What’s so
twisted about it ? Love/Sex: what is one without the
other?
Thank you
to Burnt Friedman and Lauren. |
