Syntaks the interview

Syntaks has been crafting crystalline soundscapes since their 2006 debut album “Awakes” under Benbecula records. Hailing from Denmark, the group is spearheaded by multi-instrumentalist Jakob Skøtt who creates the perfect sonic backdrop for Anna Cecilia’s ethereal voice to wallow and play in.  They have forged a distinct sound for themselves, a collage of undulating electronics, programmed beats that’s topped with live percussion, bathed in atmospheric guitars. Like the sound of a thousand cranes that’s ready to take flight, the music can take you in a vast land of endless possibilities. Jakob stopped by and was generous to give some answers to the Rooms inquisitiveness.

Room:  I believe that a bands moniker is a precursor as to how the music would sound, how did Syntaks came about?

Syntaks: Well, the syntagm is something progressing over time. Whereas most electronic music works as a paradigm, exploring repetition, I wanted to do the opposite. That was the original idea - making electronic music, where the pieces just weren't repetition and grooves, but actually having drama and stuff evolving in a unique way through time. Not just good textures, but interesting songs and structures as well. Since then, it seems the name has added to the project in unforeseeable ways - it's beginning to make sense on other levels as well. This latest album is inspired by a character in a book - sort of creating it's own 'syntaks' spiraling outward into something new. I think it's a very open term, and hopefully people will fill in their own idea of what it is and means. 

Room: When did you know that you were interested in music?

Syntaks: If you're thinking about me being interested in music in general, that's always been my passion. Nothing ever excited me more than good music - stuff that makes you breathless and want to loose youself in waves of sound. I always wanted to recreate that, ever since I was a kid. We had guitars and a piano where I grew up - but I always wanted to play the drums. When I started playing the drums, I wanted to record those on tape. Then I wanted to add effects to those and manipulate the tape - next thing you know, you're making music every day

Room: What is the difference between Syntaks and Limp musically?

Syntaks: Limp was a band that me, Jess, Jonas (Manual) & Rasmus (Aerosol) started up when we were about 11 years old - what ended up as the mini album Orion was recorded when we were about 18 - and released a few years later. So it's the starting point of many of our ideas - a place from which we all grew. We're basically a group of people playing together, getting together still to do different new things. We have our electronic concerts, where we usually play together no matter which name is on the bill. We have a free jazz / kraut rock / psych band as well. Also we're recording a folk record. So we're basically touching a lot of bases just the same 4 people. The names are just a way of separating it, so we don't mess up the audience too much. I guess this answer just did, huh?! 

Room: Who are your main influences that made Syntaks what it is today?

Syntaks: The things that have stuck through the whole thing is stuff like Brian Eno, The Cure, Slowdive, etc. All kinds of things that have these amazingly original combinations of sounds and a unique vibe. Most music today leaves me pretty cold - I prefer music from the 60s or 80s where everything had thick, recognizable textures and originality. 

Room: Where do you draw inspiration from when writing music for Syntaks?

Syntaks: Both me and Anna are deeply into literature - at the moment we're heavy on stuff like André Gides, Rainer Maria Rilke and Knut Hamsun - this stuff where the language and words themselves just sucks everything into a huge vacuum - leaving the storyline behind somehow. We're also very inspired by movies - especially italian genre films, where the images take over and sort of drift - like the Gialli movies of Mario Bava & Dario Argento. We're hoping to bring a bit of that transformation of shape and form that these works contain somehow into music. People are taking everything for granted these days - making the same sounds and recycling the same tired ideas. We're trying to put something together that's different - powered by our own subjective way of approaching music and art. 

Room: Kindly describe the sound you create on your own words?

Syntaks: Hopefully it sounds like the labour of love this album is - it's something that me and Anna have worked on together for years, playing with it, being serious with it, noodling with it. Now it's like a bond between us - it's very physical in that way, and hopefully some of that finds it's way into the experience of the listener. 

Room: Kindly name a few artists that you find interesting and that I should check out?

Syntaks: I will just give one: Popol Vuh aka Florian Fricke - just start at the beginning and work your way through. 

Room: Thank you so much Jakob! Should you have any messages to the readers?

Syntaks: You're welcome. Thanks for listening, everyone.

Learn more about Syntaks

Bitcrush talks to the Room

Captivating, bewildering, enamoring and cathartic. The delicate electronic passages perfectly blends well against the wall of dense guitar washes accompanied by angelic disembodied voices that echoes through out a cacophony of beauty. Yes, Bitcrush paints this onto a musical canvas. The gentleman behind this is also the owner of the famed experimental record label n5MD, Mike Cadoo. It's with great honor and with much pleasure as Mr. Cadoo sat down with the Room and talked about life and music.

Room: Hi Mike, I really like your bands name, how did this came about?

Bitcrush: Thanks Carlo. I think it was just something that described the project when I started it. The first album Enarc having its style very firmly planted in the IDM genre. It then became my main project and the name just stuck even though the music I am making now has little to do with bit reducers distortion or the love of bits / bytes.

Room: When did you know that you were interested in music?

Bitcrush: Very early on. My grandfather purchased a toy guitar for me when I was very young and I wore it out fairly quickly. I was always into music and sound. I picked up music lessons as soon as you are able to in grade school and never once thought about if it was right for me. It just felt like something I innately needed and wanted to be doing.

Room: I understand that you were a part of other acts earlier on your music career namely Gridlock and Dryft. How are they different from Bitcrush?

Bitcrush: I have actually re-instated the dryft project. It initially started out as a way for me to experiment with different styles of electronic music outside of the confines of the parameters of Gridlock. I tried to not incorporate too many extra curricular influences into Gridlock as I had a partner that had a certain vision for the group. At a certain point I stopped dryft and brought all those influences into Gridlock. This eventually became a strain on our working relationship...even though I think the last 2 post-industrial/IDM Gridlock albums are our best. The new dryft album Ventricle should be out sometime in late 2010 and i think it will please fans of my previous work that have not been able to follow my bitcrush project's trajectory into shoegaze/post-rock/ambient/etc.

Room: Who are your main influences that made Bitcrush what it is today?

Bitcrush: Interesting as I never really get asked this. One thing that had a very interesting influence on me that I just recently realized... Gridlock used to be in a studio/rehearsal complex with many rooms. Sleep, Drunk Horse, AFI, and The Donnas all practiced there. There was a band in the outer most corner of the complex who called the selves The Jim Yoshii Pile-up and they played a sort of indie/post-rock. Because of the distance they were from our room and the fact that we could hear them through the void in the ceiling between our skylight and the roof added natural reverb really made them sound so lush and huge. They were a very good band in their own right but much more personal and clean sounding up close so this added distance really made them something I vividly remember and I think that subliminally I tried to get that widescreen sound for bitcrush....i don't think I succeeded... but I do try. Other influences would be Jim Thurwells' Foetus production techniques (butterfly potion era Foetus especially) , Idaho (especially the song bass crawl from the forbidden ep). Sigur ros is an obvious influence on my basswork as well. The aforementioned The Jim Yoshii Pile-up have a specific song “before i left, after i got back“ that has been a an influence especially on my longer tracks. Swervedriver is another not so obvious influence. All these influences are not so much the bands' styles but an element about their production or a specific song from them.

Room: Where do you draw inspiration from when writing music for Bitcrush?

Bitcrush: Mostly all personal. Life is a great creative enabler when a project such as bitcrush is used mostly as a personal catharsis.

Room: Your music is quite spacial albeit the wall of noise. Is this reflective on how you view life?

Bitcrush: Life as spacial? Oh I don't know... that is a hard one. I have a very very skeptical view on life and the issues that are around us. My music is very personal and the spacial aspect may just be what I have inside me....i really have no idea.

Room: Kindly name a few artists that you find interesting and that I should check out?

Bitcrush: Nadja, worriedaboutsatan, and the american dollar are some I could recommend.

Room: Thank you Mike! Should you have any messages to the readers?

Bitcrush: Look for the next Bitcrush album Of Embers (n5MD) due out on March 30th. Thanks to my fans for listening and Carlo thanks so much for the interview and playing Bitcrush (and n5MD) music on your side of the dateline!!

n5MD
Bitcrush

Christ. aka Chris Horne

From an early age christ. has been a musician. His supposed collaborations in his formative years at school and early 20s are well documented, suffice to say that at the current point in time, determining the original source of cross-pollinated styles is futile. Since his first solo release proper in 2002, he has proved to be as individual and creative as the next guy, forging a unique path of musical beauty that escapes derivation. Can much more be said? What's the point. Christ.'s expert layers of melody, broken beats and textures say pretty much everything, and along with his popularity as a formidable live act, he is a rare breed indeed. (myspace)

Been a fan of Christ for quite some time now, the music always compelling the slight shifts intriguing, the little nuances I take notice. I run out of words on how I would describe Christ. It's electronic music with a heart, it makes me feel warm and cozy every time I listen. Never cold. I feel so fortunate that one of my heroes Chris Horne took time out to answer a few questions from the Room.

Room: Christ. is such an interesting moniker, how did this come about?

Christ: i think it's pretty well documented... quite simply, my mates when i was a teenager used to call me christ. it stuck, and the potential of the name really appealed to me. that's it.

Room: When did you first start writing music?

Christ: writing my own stuff pretty much began to develop about aged 8. previous to that i had figured out a really primitive way of multi tracking using tape recorders, and had spent a couple of years trying to put together versions of stuff my dad listened to. i still have copies of one or two of those early recordings.

Room: Who were your main influences that made Christ. what it is today? Hauntingly beautiful.

Christ: difficult question to answer, that one..em..i listened to a lot of the more melodic end of the eighties synthpop stuff... heaven 17, depeche mode, yazoo, human league and that kind of thing, and i think that played a big part.. i'm a sucker for a big melody played on an analogue synth. later influences probably included acts like nitzer ebb, meat beat manifesto, cocteau twins, the orb. other than that, i tend on the whole to be kind of self perpetuating.. one idea feeds another, so to speak. i couldn't point a finger at a single act and have a eureka moment regarding where it all comes from. i dunno. life really.

Room: Kindly name a few artists that you find interesting and that I should check out?

Christ: new or old? i've been getting all misty eyed and nostalgic recently over the new la roux album... such a pure journey into the past. i have a huge amount of time for just about everything that elbow have ever recorded. i love stevie wonder, prince and the beatles. in terms of more modern esoteric stuff, i've been getting right into the new kelpe album, and i played recently alongside felix kubin, who is both hugely talented and extremely creative. i need to track down some of his stuff.

Room: Thank you Chris! Should you have any messages to the readers?

Christ: thanks for listening, i guess. we've got a few live dates coming up in the uk and europe, so if you're interested, keep an eye on the christ. myspace. as regards future records, i'm currently recording, and chatting with one or two labels, so i'm not quite sure where i'll rear my rather ugly head next.

For more information about Christ.
http://www.myspace.com/christ.music
Support Christ.

Pantha Du Prince

Hendrik Weber once lived in the same woods that the Brothers Grimm fairy tales were based in, which perhaps explains the frequently strange and magical atmospheres to be found in much of his music. Under the pseudonym Pantha Du Prince, he fuses house, techno, shoegazy electronica and psychedelic electro-acoustic soundscapes into music that is at once both beautiful and bewitching.

Hendrik has released several recordings to date, through the respected German label Dial Records, which is run by and for it’s artists. His previous album ‘This Bliss’, a bitter sweet take on techno, appealed to both dancefloors and living rooms alike and was hugely successful and as a result he has recently been remixing tracks for amongst others; Depeche Mode, Animal Collective, Bloc Party, Phantom/Ghost, The Long Blondes and several underground house acts.

Pantha Du Prince is a brilliant electronic act! Please do check it out!

http://www.panthaduprince.com/