From film-directing to generative art. Creative expression is all around ! The Papaya caught up with Polish generative artist Kasia Stangrecka and found out what her work is all about
Original article: Roskilde University, Papaya Magazine Jan 2012 Issue: www.thepapayamag.com
Hi Kasia ! What inspires you as an artist ?
I’m not an artist. I am a builder? A creator? Everyday shapes inspire me ! Last time I looked at a lettuce I couldn’t help noticing how much like fractals the leaves looked like.
What exactly is it that you do and how long have you done it for ?
My video works are generated through coding, Eisenscript to be specific. I first imagine a shape and then express it with letters and numbers in code. I started doing this a year ago. Creating the code takes me all night and then I render the image.Now that I have a new computer and it takes about 10 minutes to render an image and around a week for a movie. It took 10 times longer on my previous computer !
What’s the most difficult thing about what you do ?
Getting what’s in my head into a language understood by the computer. My communicational tools are purely letters in numbers in a code sequence. Controlling how shapes in my head get digitalised on the computer is probably the hardest thing about what I do
Any exciting plans for the future ?
Well I’d like to develop my skills further. Currently I do short films about life, expressed in generative form. I would like to do a whole series of them and in so doing, illustrate how coding can create a small, independent digital life form
Inspiration From Behind the Camera Lens, Seven quick questions with up and coming film director, Kristian Håskjold.
Original article: Roskilde University, Papaya Magazine Jan 2012 Issue: www.thepapayamag.com
It’s a dark, dank, decadent December day. I find myself staggering around the streets in Pisserenden, clinging onto my jacket for dear life and wondering why the heck i’m battling the elements to catch up with Kristian Håskjold in Riccos for a chit-chat about his latest project and his work in general. A few minutes later i’m sat face to face with Kristian, a warm cup of cocoa and cheap plastic pen-in hand.
Kristian Håskjold is one of Denmark’s up and coming movie producers who recently founded Flying Films, a company that’s slowly getting into gear and coming up with rather intriguing short films, adverts and other work, including the Gaffa video of the year music video nominee, Sebastien Lind’s “Never Let Go”
So Kristian… Flying films What are you guys all about ?
We’re a film company. I started the company in February this year, that’s when I turned it into a real company, got a CVR number, got registered. I own the company and I have some people attached to it freelancing -an art director, a producer and a composer and an animator.
“We do lots of different things.” “The way to best describe what we do is, well…we do storytelling, this is what’s most important for us.” “It doesn’t really matter that much if we do a commercial or fiction or even animation.” “For us there needs to be a beginning and a development and so on; we don’t just show a product “ Look at this cool shoe and buy it !, no We just want to be creative in the way we do it, that’s important for us.
So we’ve done some work for an insurance company called Codan and for a guy called Sebastien Lind…
Yeah, that’s right for which you’ve been nominated for The Gaffa video of the year prize. How was it working with Sebastien Lind ?
It was awesome, he’s a great kid, very down to earth ! It was lots of fun, we started with a pre-video to the actual music video which got incorporated into the final video. We started filming in a dark appartment where we shot various sequences that were going to be included in the video, lots of shadow a bit of animation, lots of different things and then we went about combing them so they seemed alike.
I read that Sebastien Lind’s “Never Let Go Video” was made with no budget whatsoever. How did you guys stay motivated during the creative process ?
Well it was kind of tough and before making the video I’d decided not to do free work anymore. I’d reached a point where I needed to take a leap-take my work to the next level. A guy called Jonas Woof, Sebastien’s manager sent me the song and I was amazed. I felt that this was the best work Sebastien had ever done
Did you know Sebastien before all this ?
Yeah, I worked on a small music production with him 8 months ago and other small projects including a clothing project with Marianne Gerda about half a year or so ago.
Nice one. I saw this video on your webpage of a guy getting chased through the streets of New York by a pink umbrella which I thought was quite cool. What’s the story or the metaphor if you like, behind it all ?
There are two stories involved here. Writing the script for it, I wanted to convey the idea that everyone has some sort of “umbrella” which we all have to accept at a certain point. When we accept them, the result is a sort of synergy effect, access to another level of life through self-acceptance. The second story is the more down-to-earth one. I had an experience similar to that of the guy in the video when living in London and working as a fundraiser on the streets. One of the conditions of having this job was that we had to bring our umbrellas with us to work, in case it started to rain. So I picked out this really ugly pink umbrella from the pile and used it out on the streets and hated it quite a lot. So one day this French Canadian girl and I swopped umbrellas; she got my ugly pink one and I got her blue one and when we came back to the office someone had stolen all the other umbrellas. They were replaced the next day though, with a new bunch of pink ones !
That’s an interesting story ! Lots of artists struggle to stay motivated in the creative process. How do you maintain your inspiration?
Hmmm…That’s a good question, I guess i’ve always been very ambitious with my work and at some point, well the simple thought of moving forward, the feeling of building something up keeps me going. I’d really like Flying Films to become something big and i’d like a lot more people to get involved with it. This is the more entrepreneurial side of things.
Which is important too, a lot of artists forget this
Yeah, so true. The more creative side of keeping my inspiration comes from my love of being part of creative projects and being around interesting people. I enjoy this a lot.
Are there any particular movie directors you look up to for inspiration ?
Yeah there’s a guy called Steven Sotherberg; there are some of his films I really love. He did a film called the informant, with Matt Damon. It’s a really quirky film about a stupid man who tries to become a detective. I’d say the film is underplayed and very…. European in some way. I like the way he makes a commercial movie to get people’s attention so that the next movie he makes can be all about his own thing, where he does whatever he wants to. It’s quite similar to the way I see the world as I feel there needs to be balance in movie making, as we talked about before; the need for entrepreneurship and creativity at the same time. Some artists are purely artists and there’s no entrepreneurship, so most of the time they never get anywhere because they don’t get into their work and then there are the entrepreneurs who create lots of things but it’s purely about the money. So there needs to be a balance and Steven Sotherberg seems to have this.
And what are you up to at the moment ?
I’m writing a script for a film called “Reception” and i’ve just applied for funding for it through the Danish Film Institute. We’ll know in late December if we get the funding. One other project i’m working on is a documentary film about a guy called Troy Davis, who was falsely accussed of murdering a policeman in Georgia 20 years ago. So we’ll be going to the states to shoot next year if we get the funding in February.
House is feeling, not a music genre: Papaya Exclusive with Tim Andresen (original article: Roskilde University, Papaya Magazine, January 2012 edition: www.thepapayamag.com)
When mention of House music comes up in everyday parlance most people will instantly think of the likes of David Guetta or The Swedish House Mafia, artists who have skyrocketed to global fame over the last couple of years or so, cutting through the echelons of mainstream music like a hot knife through butter.
Truth be told, the pop-induced “House” wave that’s dominating airplay on most teenager’s mobiles today could not be further from the definition of true house music, a genre that kicked off in Chicago in the early 80’s before becoming a worldwide phenomenon through it’s popularisation as Acid House in the U.K at the end of the 80’s.
This viral metamorphosis counterweighted the economic hardships and disillusions of a nation bored beyond tolerance by the conservative Thatcher politics of the time and as such, the second summer of love, Woodstock’s successor was born. House music was, at the time, an instrumental-rich form of electronic music that borrowed from the disco culture of the late seventies / early eighties, the result being a more minimalistic series of drum machine produced beats accompanied by everything from poignant synth stabs to Motown-esque vocals.
Fast-forward two decades or so and House has branched off into commercial pop-heavy Electro house a La Guetta, whilst retaining its former dignity through its identity as deep and tech house.
I caught up with Culture Box resident and co-booker Tim Andresen for a quick chat about the state of the current house scene and his work as a Deejay one rainy day in the post New Year’s eve state quietude that the streets tend to blossom with in early January.
From humble Beginnings to global success
Tim Andresen started spinning vinyl way back in 1986 (that’s before I was even born ! ) Part of a mobile disco group of newly-made friends, Tim started as most Deejays do, learning the tricks of the trade by saving up for his own pair of decks and honing his skills on them in his free time.
Back then, he had not yet been bitten by the house bug, and as such, commercial music du jour and a fair bit of old school Hip Hop was what he spun albeit commercial music fused with choice, hard-to-come-by 12 inch imports from record shops such as Fredgård and the legendary Street Dance Records.
The switch to House came in 1997, when Tim played a gig with a friend of his and got hooked by it. Since then he slowly built a name for himself, specialising in playing a witty blend of “good quality House music with an uplifting edge to it”.
House music in those days was nowhere near as well-known in Denmark as it is today and as such, a lot of work went into promoting and hosting gigs, as no specific venues existed to serve the needs of the electronic music market niche.
Further along the line, the jump from Deejay to producer saw Tim venture into making his own productions in 2002 with literally no professional music training whatsoever.
Since then, his releases have been featured on the likes of Fatboy Slim’s label “Southern Fried,” Mark Knight’s “Toolroom ” imprint and on the mighty “Azuli,” The UK’s longest running House label.
His forays into the world of music production elevated Tim to the highest level of Deejaying, as he backed his studio creations with hectic tour schedules that saw him play in over 40 countries, headlining for brands such as theMinistry Of Sound Tour, Godskitchen and Azuli and playing some of the finest clubs on the planet such as Space, Pacha and Privelegé Ibiza, Fabric, Ministry of Sound, the impeccable Turnmills in and dozens of others.
Tim also founded his “What Happens” label a good 5 years ago, and has enjoyed a fair deal of success through it, with upcoming names such as “Tiva” and “Dennis Horvat” using it as a base for their productions
Fast-forward and press play
Tim’s decorated past in the annals of house music folklore lives on today through his label What Happens and his residency at Copenhagen’s Culture Box who he also co-books for. He jets around a lot less than he used to but he’s certainly not any less busier as a result.
In fact, Tim’s dedication to the scene means that he’s in his own words “listening to music for up to 12 hours a day” and as such, if he listens to anything else, it’s usually Chillout music, to unwind and kick back from the hectic everyday life of a producer.
The scene today
The music industry in one that is in constant flux. Despite being a vinyl lover, Tim admits that Deejaying with vinyl is an artform that’s history. He doesn’t miss carrying around a bag full of 12 inch records and he appreciates the mod cons of mixing using CD’s.
Like many other players in the music industry, Tim also believes that the influx of new artists on the scene due to technological advancements that have made making and producing music something that can be done in a bedroom as opposed to a studio has made it more difficult for one to find good electronic music.
He maintains that creativity needs to stand out, and a sense of imperfection and even difference in music production has to exist in the process of making electronic music. As such, an otherwise optimistic Tim feels that focus on already established artists and labels has created a sort of music hegemony that locks out many newcomers to the scene who aren’t part of the most favourited and highest rated charts that electronic music sites such as Beatport popularise.
So With so much to do all the time, where’s the fun in it all ?
Despite the strains of producing, running a label, Deejaying, promoting and co-booking Tim still enjoys his everyday life and is content with being able to get paid to practice his hobby on a full-time basis.
His new single, the aptly named “New Era” has rocketed to number 37 on the Traxsource.com listings and with the likes of Trentemøller, Nic Fianciuli and James Blake all booked to play at the venue, things are definitely looking up in 2012. The house scene in Denmark is continuing to grow and Tim feels that there’s a lot of passion and indeed a lot of love and open-mindedness within it that is heartening to take note of.
The massively hyped Swedish electropop trio Niki & The Dove have got off to a sprinting start in 2012. Having finished fifth in the prestigious BBC Sound of 2012 award, the pop-inclined Swedes brought their cheeky blend of music to Lille Vega January 6 in a concert that turned out be quite an endearing affair.
With the frenzy of the festive period still hanging heavily in the frosty January air, Niki & The Dove were the perfect cure for the Christmas and New Year’s Eve hangover that many of us found ourselves caught up in. The trio were energetic, enterprising and at times even enigmatic in a performance that saw them predominantly play tracks off their charismatic debut album, The Drummer.
The instrumental number ‘Sundog’ got things going with its enchanting peculiarity, before last year’s single ‘The Fox’ gave lead singer Malin Dahlström an opportunity to showcase her sharp vocals, aided by a heavy-set vocoder that cut through Lille Vega like a knife through butter.
Signature tune ‘The Drummer’ was next in line and got a few feet moving with its heavy Depeche Mode-esque synth stabs alongside clear vocals. The cut provided a welcome break to the more lackadaisical sounds of the band. This witty shift was something of a constant throughout the concert, yielding a fusion that sounded like a daring blend of vintage synth poppers The Knife and British diva Kate Bush.
As things progressed, however, awkward lengthy silences between tracks and a rather unenthused crowd put a bit of a damper on the proceedings. And whilst the charming Malin Dahlström did her bit to warm quite a few hearts with her poetic interjections in between songs, one was ultimately left with a sense of unfulfilled expectation and a longing for some missing ingredient in the performance. Whether this was due to the blasé crowd or to Niki & The Dove’s performance is hard to tell. What is certain though is that this is definitely a band to watch out for in 2012, a year that may well see the group join the Scandinavian pop offensive as they follow in the footsteps of the likes of The Knife, Robyn and Fever Ray.
We’re descending towards Kastrup and the sky is a wonderfully enlightening shade of misty crimson that seems to dance on into all eternity. IF I could choose a moment to be stuck in for all of time, it would probably be this one, high above the curious white patchwork of clouds a few hundred feet below me looking at the glistening aluminum wings of the plane on the first day after the winter solstice. I don’t care about what lies beneath the clouds but still it interests me as I sit here feeling the force of the plane descending, that beautiful feeling of free fall that is so wholeheartedly unfamiliar yet so indescribably elating. It seems as if we’re flying into the pink / crimson horizon, as if in a flash we’ll be on the other side of a new and utterly different world of warmth and colour. And even as the crimson fades and its beauty is relegated to static vibrations that linger ever so daintily, I still love this place, and these fleeting colours before me, and I wish that everyone around me could feel what I feel, for all eternity
Some of our picks for the year’s most memorable shows
Allan Mutuku-Kortbæk’s Picks:
1. Reptile & Retard (Junior Pavilion, Roskilde, June 26)
Reptile & Retard’s concert at Roskilde’s junior Pavilion takes the crown for the best concert of the year purely on account of the manner in which the audience were flung into a roller-coasting two hours of sheer mayhem that culminated in the lead singer clambering onto the pylons supporting the stage before hurling himself into the crowd below. It’s seldom one sees a concert of such proportions and if it’s anything to go by, Reptile & Retard are definitely a name to watch out for in 2012.
2. Yann Tiersen (Rust, May 29)
French artiste Yann Tiersen was at his best at his performance at Rust back in May. The concert featured an intriguing blend of instrumentation that saw him showcase his penchant for multi-instrumentation, leaving the audience in a state of star-struck euphoria as they were treated to a blend of his older work combined with tasty snippets off his latest album, Skyline, which hit the shelves towards the end of the year.
3. When Saints Go Machine (Store Vega, November 5)
WSGM’s catchy fusion of the chaotic and the dreamy was executed with perfection and panache at their concert in Vega in November. Lead singer Jonas Kenton had the crowd in the palm of his hand as his falsetto vocals connived synonymously with layer upon layer of decadent drumbeats and roaring riffs.
4. Charles Bradley (Odeon, Roskilde, July 1)
The 62-year-old ‘Screaming Eagle of Soul’ gave one of the best Roskilde performances of the year, a soulful journey that saw him leave the stage in tears of elation and raw emotion. Bradley’s life story, a rags to riches fairytale that’ll touch most people’s hearts forever, shines through at his gigs, and at Roskilde, this was no exception.
5. The Strokes (Orange Scene, Roskilde, July 2)
In a festival in which the Orange Scene was something of a stranger to the spotlight, Julian Cassablancas and company were one of the few acts that played at the venue to truly set it alight. Their fourth studio album, Angles, is a pearl in itself and featured quite prominently in the course of the concert, a show that stitched the old and the new seamlessly together.
Indie darlings the Raveonettes gave an unstoppable, unforgettable show at Store Vega on Saturday in a performance that saw the enigmatic Danish shoegazing duo cement their well-established reputation as one of the best local acts on the current scene.
With the memories of a decent Roskilde Festival performance still lingering in the minds of many present at Saturday’s show, and the rising success of their latest album Raven In The Grave, the New York City based Raveonettes had plenty to live up to on the night.
Sharin Foo and Sune Wagner straddled the fine line between the more sentimental sound of their Everly-brothers inspired lyricism and the wittier, more-upbeat dimension of their music with a sophisticated sense of perfection that was as spellbinding as it was entertaining.
The show was anything but a bombastic, stadium-filing affair, but rather a more intimate, well-woven two hours of dreamy adventures into the surreal and spacey sounds of alternative rock, delicately capped with a personal touch from the group’s distinguishable sound.
The switch between the captivating, nomadic sounds of the band – epitomised by the likes of ‘War in Heaven’ and more abstracted numbers such as ‘Apparitions’ – was typical of the duo’s eloquent juxtaposition of contrasting influences and styles and gave a refreshing sense of variation to a concert that compelled and mystified all at once.
This creative exchange left one feeling lost and evanesced at times and at others compelled to sway from side to side in collective appreciation with an almost-sold out audience.
And whilst the Raveonettes were on top of their game almost throughout, one may arguably have been left thirsting for a bit more engagement on their part, if for nothing else to break the monotony of the introspective, non-confrontational shoegazing style that dominated the better part of the concert.
This didn’t stop the audience calling them back not once but twice, for a grand finale that ebbed off elegantly with the appropriately placed, well-delivered ‘The Christmas Song’, a tune that summarised all that was good about the night. Ultimately, Saturday’s show will be remembered most for the unique chemistry between Foo and Wagner, stark and palpable at times, and at others consigned to the background by the overpowering drone of upbeat guitar arrangements and colourful cacophonies.
Roskilde festival 2010 Orange stage openers “When Saints Go Machine” showcased their latest studio album, “Konkylie,” at Store Vega on Saturday in front of a partisan sell-out crowd. The album is one of two studio works that have seen the Danish electro-pop quartet achieve quite the following domestically as well as abroad. Saturday’s concert in a nutshell was the unstoppable sound of a band that’s going places very quickly indeed.
“The Saints” got the ball rolling with the “Kelly,” a flagship number off their new album, Konkylie, a dreamy rendition that set the stage for what was to come by creating a sense of collective impatience enhanced by piercing flashes of green light rays slashing through the mist.
Three songs in and the misty, mysterious mood that the concert started with was all but gone, replaced instead by bombastic synth sounds overridden by lead singer Jonas Kenton’s poignant falsetto vocals alongside gnarling riffs and well-timed drumbeats. Jonas Kenton and drummer Silas Moldenhawer are in fact equally well-known for their outings with their side-project, “Kenton Slash Demon,” a rhythmic, more buoyant blend of electro fused with heavier drumbeats and less vocals.
It was this very influence that frequently interjected the more soulful sounds of the night, and with great effect.
From Dreamy to Chaotic
In fact, the switch between some of the band’s more dreamy sounds and their explosive, upbeat forays was what made the concert as endearing as it turned out to be. When Saints Go Machine sounded not too different to Baroque pop English band Anthony & The Johnson’s at times, whilst at others they were astoundingly akin to the edgy NU disco sounds of New York project Hercules and Love Affair.
Jonas Kenton looked delighted to be on stage as he pranced back and forth in the midst of his high-pitched , stooping over the lead keyboard to chip in with input of his own at times. This sense of playfulness peaked as the memorable “ Parix” tune was played towards the apex of the show, creating widespread smiles and hearty claps of approval amongst the audience.
If “Paris” set the stage, then “Fail Forever,” The band’s most well-known song set it alight, encapsulating everything that was good and grand about the evening.
Store Vega, October 2011 : Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Digital Havoc
Expectations were high right from the start as the Hamburg based electro-rock band, Digitalism took to the stage at Vega on Saturday. The duo, consisting of Jens “Jence” Moelle and İsmail “Isi” Tüfekçi first rocketed to popularity back in 2007 with their debut album, “Idealism,” a work that catapulted the then unknown musicians into the limelight. As emblematic an album as this may be, Saturday’s concert will no doubt be remembered by most for the tunes off Digitalism’s latest piece of studio genius, the recently released “I love You Dude EP.” The driven percussion fused with occasional high pitch vocal punctuations on the album blended seamlessly with their visual effects setup on the night. Jence and Isi looked confident, sharp and content behind their macbook pros and analogue gadgetry.
Digitalism were all smiles as they took to the stage and proceeded to set things alight with several scorching openers. As the show proceeded, the occasional vocal input from Moelle helped add depth to the performance even though his voice was frequently drowned by the overlying din of synth stabs and hefty percussive sequences.
Vega sounded like it was playing host to an orchestra of pipe-bangers that masterfully ravaged the darkness before them at times and at others the venue resembled your average rock concert. The fusion between rock and electro that’s made Digitalism as accessible a band as they are was abundantly evident throughout.
And whilst things were rowdy and gloriously shambolic at times, at others there seemed to be an awkward stillness lingering in the air, due no doubt in part to the fact that Vega was not nearly as packed as it could have been.
Midway through the proceedings, one felt as if Digitalism had lashed out all their grand-slam numbers as a more sombre and uninspiring mood became the order of the day. Whilst the poisonous synth burts and hissing hi-hats of marquee numbers, “Zdarlight” and the rollicking indie-esque “Pogo” towards the end did their bit to redeem things, ultimately one was left thirsting for some missing ingredient.
The best example of this came at the end of the show when the curtain dropped without warning, ending things in a rather unceremonious fashion. This notwithstanding, Saturday’s concert did indeed have its share of poignant moments which will no doubt be remembered for a while to come.
Kortbæk_Travels 