Человек, чьё хрестоматийное имя на протяжение более чем десятилетия гремело на Abfahrt, Eye Q/Harthouse/RoD, Superstition, Platipus, и чья волшебная, нереально красивая музыка со всегда узнаваемыми щемяще-грустными интонациями по сей день вызывает ни с чем не сравнимое волнение и сладостное замирание в сердцах преданных поклонников L.S.G., The Ambush, Paragliders, Spicelab, Java, Mirage и мн.-мн. др. классических проектов и алиасов Оливера!
Последний романтик олд-скульного немецкого Транса, дольше других (вплоть до 2004-го г.!) остававшийся верным идеалам классического и трушного трансового звучания... Человек-эпоха в электронной музыке, без преувеличения!
Каверзные вопросы к интервью были сформулированы и подготовлены совместными усилиями Питера (в моём лице), Москвы, Амстердама и Вюрцбурга. Интервьюировать артиста и личность такого масштаба – громадная честь для всех нас, натурально!
[Уже второй подобный опыт виртуального допроса "Отцов стиля" в рамках моего блоггерского исследования – после интервью, взятого у Ральфа Хильденбейтеля в конце 2008-го.]
"Trance today is mainly pop".
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Techno great Oliver Lieb from his interview in Minneapolis. Photo by Klaus M.
Q.: Being strongly interested in researching of your earliest period, may I ask you about your very first steps in music, please? It is known that your musical growing started very early, at the age of 14! In what genres you've tried yourself in those years, what musical instruments did you mastered? Did you have a teacher?
A.: The first instrument where I really worked on my skills was the e-bass. I started with 14 and soon found a great teacher from the US that was showing me where to work and focus on.
I played all kind of styles I felt interested in and where a bass player was needed in Frankfurt. So I played in a funk/soul band, a jazz trio and some others but with these two we also played live several times.
Legendary Force Legato – System single is named as "One of the very first Trance records ever" sometimes. Could you tell us about working on this in collaboration with Torsten Fenslau? How was it – to work together with him?
Well... I think calling this "trance" is complete nonsense... this is just some electronic music far away from any of the genres that came later. Also in the US this record was more in that typicall Miami sound back then.
It wasn’t really a collaboration. Torsten was Dj in the Frankfurt-airport club “Dorian Gray”...
On the second demo tape I gave to Torsten there was System and he called me asking if I would like to release this track. So since I had just started and not really a good sound yet there was the option to go to Torsten's studio with my sounds and mix it there.
I went there with my sampler and sequencer and we converted it to play there. On the remix that came out 6 months later it was a bit closer since we really mixed the tracks together at his studio and did a few tweaks at the arrangement while mixing.
Tell us about the night of your live performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1994, please! Alongside with Earth Nation and the Recycle or Die band... The Ambush was performing live with a participation of Harald Großkopf [Ash Ra Tempel, The Cosmic Jokers]. Why didn't you record your live act, like the Earth Nation did with their Live at Montreux promo-CD?
I didn’t think to record it since it was recorded and broadcasted on TV and I still have the VHS tape that I have to put on my computer one day and then on Myspace...!
Besides Harald there also was Marlon Klein from the band “Dissidenten” on drums, Bas Broikhus on drums, another percussionist from my former live-band and two dancers... the organizer of the festival did like the gig that much that he asked a South American dance group that was dancing on another stage to come down and dance for The Ambush.
This was when I was almost finished with the gig and suddenly a door opened and fully dressed up dancers came out and somebody told me to go on with the gig. So we had to play some songs again...
This was really special and like I said I have to put the video of this on Myspace.
Could you explain the connection between the Effective Force's and L.S.G.'s famous "My Time is Yours" track? Where this sample is finally taken from?
There is no “connection” there. At least not from my side.
The voice is from the George Lucas movie “THX1138” from the year 1971.
I did first see the movie in German and used the voices of the German-translated version several times... then I got my hands on the English version and used this one...
Remember back then there was no Internet as today and the movies came out on VHS. I always taped movies like this on TV... Thx, Quiet earth, PhaseIV, The Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy series, etc. But since almost everything back then on TV was translated in German it was a big challenge to get my hands on the originals...
Your solo L.S.G. project is world-known not only by it's beautiful music, but also by very unusual and really specific track names and covers... Could you remember, how the idea of "Rendezvous in Outer Space" cover artwork arose? I mean this positive yellow picture with the big sunflower, designed by Zacharias!
Not 100% sure anymore. In general I always had a basic direction where I wanted to go with a cover then the graphic guys made some suggestions and we got closer and closer.
But the picture wasn’t my idea… ;)
With the names its really special... the more music I write in the years the more problems I have finding the names. Suddenly they are in my mind...
When should we expect the official release of the last L.S.G.'s "Unreleased album" (which was spreaded in Mp3 only in 2002)? Is it possible to pre-order this CD straight from "Maschine" label?
I will release that soon. But not on CD. Digital-only on beatport on my label Solieb Digital (http://www.myspace.com/soliebdigital).
I don’t see this fitting on Maschine. Also because this was done some time ago before I was starting the label.
What were the origins of "Ivan" Techno project, which is notable by it's "Soviet Union" aesthetics? Have you ever been to Russia on artistic/Dj tours, or as a common visitor?
I just like playing with different alter egos. Maybe also because back then there werent too many acts from former SU around. But I have not yet been there playing.
What are your thoughts on the Minimal scene?
Minimal was there years ago when the people went on from the early Techno and more melodic tunes to something new. Compared to these times the minimal sound of today is basically more slow. Some have weird plugin effects in there and when this was about to get big some time ago there was no limitation in what you can do. There were melodic, percussive, housy whatever mixed tunes and this reminded me on the early days, but now this seems to have finished some time ago and everybody seems to look again for some more specialised sound and have the borders set up again. At least that’s for the majority of what I hear.
To be quite honest to me there only is an electronic music scene. The rest is artificial and not created to last very long. The words "trance" and "techno" to me are the most abusive words you can use in the music business since it only brings the wrong names, music and connections to most peoples mind.
The thing is that there is no real scene. There are people listening or producing. There are also small groups that think that they invent the wheel new but at the end this is all really intolerant and full of ego-only.
In art, sport or whatever there is scenes – everybody respects each other also the competition situation is maybe harder than in the music scene. Maybe its just to easy these days to get out something on the market.
What do you think on the modern situation in global "Trance industry"?
Trance today is mainly pop [– Emphasis added.]. I can't stand it anymore... but I also understand that – if you are new to this sound or “scene” – it sounds interesting and maybe there is some small movement here and there, but I am not able to follow or find it. As well since I just try to do whatever I do... and some years ago some people called some of my records "trance". But I have never seen myself as a trance producer.
Putting this in words might sound more dramatic than I actually feel about it. I don’t miss it since I was always trying to move on with what I do and not just stand still. Sometimes faster and sometimes more slow...
Danke, Oliver, благодарю за ответы!!
При копировании материала ссылка на ClassicalTrance.blogspot.com обязательна.
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