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?

For more information on Flanger, visit the Ninja Tune & NTone web sites.
Thank you to Burnt Friedman and Lauren.

© themilkfactory.co.uk 2001