Один из признанных Отцов-основателей и живых классиков немецкого Транса и Эмбиента, лидер Earth Nation – в эксклюзивном интервью, взятом у него вашим покорным слугой специально для сайта "Classical Trance: Old Masters", поведает об истоках своего увлечения мусическими искусствами с самых младых ногтей, о знакомстве со Свеном и совместной студийной работе с ним в рамках проекта Barbarella на Eye Q и Harthouse, о годах популярности и бурной концертной активности своего клубно-электро-трансового проекта Earth Nation с Marcus Deml, о своём творческом периоде "After Techno" (после закрытия Eye Q) и мн. др., так что желаю всем пользователям своего сайта приятного и познавательного чтива!
Публикуется с благословения и одобрения Ральфа на языке оригинала.
Огромная честь для всех нас, что и говорить!
Danke, Ralf, благодарю за ответы!!
Shoot by Ira Wirth.
First of all, could you tell us some words about the beginning of your acquaintance to music, and the starting of your musical career? What musicians have most influenced on you, on your own style and your vision of music?
I began to play the classical piano when i was 9. At this time i was very much into classical music such as Mozart, Debussy, Chopin and jazz such as Thelenious Monk, Chet Baker, etc.
Later, at the age of 14, when my fascination for keyboard sounds started, I started to play in my first band. At this time we've been quite influenced by pop & rock music from USA, such as Toto, SAGA, etc., but I also liked synthesizer stuff such as Jean-Michel Jarre.
So in the end it's a big mixture of lots of stuff which influenced me.
How did you come into the electronic music (from rock)? What was the most interesting and important thing for you in this janre (electronic)?
I think as a keyboarder you'll sooner or later automatically get fascinated by the possibilities of electronica music, and synthesisers, etc.
The fascinating thing of the whole electronic music scene in the 90s was the aspect, that somethings really new was happening and we could create a new direction of music. The electronic music, techno or ambient, had completely new structures in the arrangements, complete opposite of the typical "A, B, A, B, C, B" song structure, it had rather the structure of certain classical music from the beginning of the 20th century.
That's probably one reason why I loved that stuff so much, it had a certain link to classical music, even lots of people wouldn't see that.
How did you meet Sven Väth? Tell me about your work as "Barbarella" duo, please.
Sven started the label EYE Q with Matthias (A.C. Boutsen) and Heinz Roth. I know Matthias and Stevie B-Zet from playing together in bands, that's how we met again and how I met Sven.
I did some remixes together with Sven in the beginning and than he came up with the Barbarella idea. We watched the film with Jane Fonda and loved it, because she looked like the kids at our time in the clubs. We sampled some stuff out of the movie and did the tracks, the concept was to have 12-inches with a quite hard club track on the one side, and a trance track on the other side. Later we completed the album.
How did you work together with Sven in studio? I mean your production (or co-production?) of his first albums ("Accident in Paradise", "The Harlequin – The Robot and The Ballet-Dancer")...
We worked very close together, he's not a real keyboard player or computer freak, but we had our own language to communicate and he was always so full of ideas, it worked really well.
When the idea of Earth Nation project came to you for the first time?
When Markus Deml, the guitarplayer i've started the project with, come over to Frankfurt from a long stay in the U.S., we thought it might be cool to do a project which mixes the electronic music of these days with guitars. It was very uncommon these days to use a guitar in the techno or trance music.
This was about 1993, I think.
Let’s remember The 28th Montreaux Jazz Festival (1994)… was it the worth experience for you?
Yes, there was a whole night with Eye Q artists, an electro night at the Montreux Festival.
It was extraordinary, there was a "Recycle or Die" all star band with a fantastic ambient set up, I played with Earth Nation and later in the night Sven was spinning. It was really an very special night, the audience have been very open and great and the whole thing did end up in a great party.
What kind of equipment did you use during the Earth Nation's Live acts?
I used the Nordlead, Roland JD 800 and some Rack modules and a live midi sequencer. The drummer had an electronic drum set, so he could play with all the drum sounds from the albums which was cool. Most stuff was played live.
What had happened with Eye Q records in 1997, and what were your personal feelings of that?
Eye Q went down shortly after they've moved to Berlin. Times had just changed and the whole company was too big to keep on going. It was all quite a mess of course, artists coudln't be paid anymore, etc.
It was a sad ending of a great area, but it was kind of okay for me as it was a time of change anyway, and I stayed over here in Frankfurt, founding Schallbau with Stevie B-Zet and A.C. Boutsen, when the label moved.
What do you think about the modern situation on the "Trance scene", about the changes in it after the middle of the 90s??
It's hard to say as I am not into it that much anymore.
I think there was a big hole in the late nineties, but later there started to come out lots of good stuff, particular from Germany. I think it's good to see that techno is NOT dead, even it looked like for a while. It has been proper settled as a music direction which is simply there now as other music directions.
Tell us about your "post-Eye Q" period, please! What is the sphere of your musical interests in the recent years, and nowadays? Your last releases and projects?
"After techno" I did a lot of artist productions and song writings for pop artists, it went actually really well and with "Schallbau" the production company I founded with B-Zet and A.C. Boutsen we became one of the top artists-producers in Germany. I also worked a lot in London.
In the last years I turned a bit away from straight pop productions, I think it simply became too boring for me and I'm more into music driven productions and projects such as the indie-pop act Cargo City or my own solo album, I also want to do more film music again.
What are your creative plans for the future?
I'm going to build up my own label "Rebecca & Nathan" more and more, slowly but surely, to release my own projects and signed artists. I also want to work more for films and TV.
При копировании материала ссылка на ClassicalTrance.blogspot.com обязательна.
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