A long-time collector of dub, jazz and funk records, Berlin-based musician Jan Jelinek made his debut release as Farben back in 1998, on Frankfurt's Klang Elektronik imprint. He has since released under various guises, such as The Exposures, Gramm and N Gratin, releasing ambient works, techno and microhouse on a slew of labels.

 

Much of his output has surfaced by way of ~scape. Established by Stefan 'Pole' Betke at the end of the nineties, the label operates in the dub-laden fields of microhouse and glitch electronics, with a back catalogue that features large chunks of Betke's own output, alongside seminal early works from the likes of Deadbeat, Burnt Friedman and Kit Clayton.

 

Jelinek's Loop-finding-jazz-records was released on ~scape to critical acclaim in 2001.

 

How did you hook up with ~scape? It must be cool to work with a label that has such an individual style?

I'm living in Berlin and ~scape also has its agency here, so we met many times in the same clubs and concerts. I think it was more or less a matter of time before we would do something together because we have musically the same interests.

I agree, that ~scape has an individual style, but maybe with this corporate design, the individuality of artist gets lost. To be honest I'm not really sure about this kind of label concept. On one hand, I like the idea of a strong label-code, on the other hand I also like labels with individual artist support; anyway I was really happy with the label deal because ~scape is something in between; incorporating design but individual artist support as well.

Loop-finding-jazz-records is an album heavy on textures and atmosphere. Is this something you set out to do or happens by accident?

No, it's the only thing that doesn't happened by accident. While I'm producing I'm really focused in generating deep atmosphere. I think, its the most important thing in my sound; arrangement, the specific editing of sound, etc. The rest all happens more or less by accident. All my tracks are result of a process. I never have a master plan when I start a 'song', it is a result of an interaction between machines, software and me.

On the ~scape site it mentions that you use 'antiquated operating systems' — how far back do you go?

Actually, I worked with an ASR10 Sampler and an Atari Sequencer; these tools are still quite popular with a lot of producers who come from the 'hardware period', the pre-software synth producer scene. These tools have no fetish character for me; I like the ASR maybe because I started with this machine, and so I can handle with this tool very well. I also like the possibilities of new software; during the last year I've been focused more into new gear and produced a lot of tracks exclusively with my laptop.

Who are your main musical influences? It seems there is quite a combination of styles in the record.

Nice to hear that people have this impression as it's true I have a lot of influences. As a teenager I was more concentrated into soul/dub/funk-related music. I was retro orientated but in the same way very frustrated about that, just because I really liked to play music — but it actually makes no sense to play in a soul group in 1990. My first house party experiences changed that dramatically. I just thought that this is it, producing modern abstract soul, but after some years I was bored of this genre as well, and so I switched again to non-electronic music genres.

Coming from a philosophy/sociology background, Is there a political message behind the music?

Actually no. I'm not into political activism, I believe in a political message of aesthetics. My work is exclusively focused on an aesthetical point of view, but of course an aesthetic can be political as well. Maybe its the only non-violent, non-hieratic discourse, celebrating special codes and signs. This month the last of four EPs of a special series will be released on Klang Elektronik; it's under my alias Farben. The artwork of each EP show members of the RAF a German left-wing terrorist group of the 70s/80s. In political discourse the RAF is still something of a taboo in Germany, but in an aesthetic way they are quite now pop icons. Of course, the result is a trivialilisation of a formerly political message, re-contextualised into that of style and fashion. This is the bad aspect of this discourse, but on the other hand this triviality helps us to discuss the political aspects as well, reminding people of political activism and of course makes it possible to discuss these taboos. So there are existing two different contexts and maybe each of them is important.

What are you working on at the moment?

At the moment, I'm working on a new album for ~scape. I think it will be quite different from the last one. I've also just finished editing of collaboration from last year in Tokyo, I played a two-hour session with with a band called Computer Soup. Its strictly improvised stuff and will be released in summer this year on the Quatermass label. Also in April 2002 a CD compilation of the last four Farben EPs called Textstar will be released.

Five inspirational objects?!

Hmm...

1. Stevie wonder — For once in my life
2. Yves Saint Laurent biography
3. My Braun coffee percolator
4. Yamaha CBX Keyboard
5. Adidas Stan Smith sneakers

 Originally published on Universal Source by Dan Bond of Sedgemoor Union.