James Stinson 2001 phone interview

I just got the file of the 1999 phone interview between James Stinson and Andrew Duke and have shared it on YouTube in the hope it gets to reach a much wider audience overtime.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGqDuYJhpWU

I remember there used to be a deadlink to this audio file from Andrews own site so I guess he was the one who originally circulated it. It is a very important and revealing interview to hear after all this time. His text version can still be read here. I'm surprised that someone else hadn't uploaded it to YouTube by now but there you go. Just in time to celebrate the release of Drexciya's Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller compilation on Clone Classic Cuts too. This release is already shipping and can be bought at most places online and in the real world.
http://clone.nl/item21961.html

Zerkalo have a new and very aquatic video up for Warning You. I like it and if you like the visuals too you might be interested in checking out another video which Marie Athenaïs also did for These Times Are Gone by Vita, a Victoria Lukas solo project, to see the similarities.

Warning You
http://youtu.be/rIaaoV6Gzxo
Vita - These Times Are Gone

http://youtu.be/xD715AGPJaU

While we're on the subject there are two new Vita videos up as well. The first by Anaïs Boudot and the other by Virginie Von Virou. Expect a full Vita album on Frustrated Funk soon.

On Screens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NQ-B-NWcVgw

The Ending

http://vimeo.com/33029225

Drexciya - Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller

Clone has begun to release details of the first in their series of Drexciya reissues. Surprisingly they have chosen to combine tracks from Deep Sea Dweller, Bubble Metropolis, Unknown Aquazone, Aquatic Invasion, The Journey Home, The Return of Drexciya and The Quest for this first release. It is due to appear in late December on 2LP and CD as Journey of the Deep Sea Dweller on Clone Classic Cuts. The tracks will be the same on both formats, 13 in all, with the only small difference being that the order of them on the vinyl is slightly different to the CD, probably due to getting the most from the vinyl, track length wise. A few days ago a screen shot from the mastering was put up by Adlen Tyrell on his Facebook so I’m guessing he did the remastering job. There is no question that since James Stinson’s death interest in Drexciya has been steadily growing and now that this first volume of their earlier music is now easily available again on vinyl and CD this should only continue and increase as new generations discover and interpret it into their lives.

Clone say the following about their choice of tracks, “Since the original releases have such a strong character, appeal and stand on their own, this re-issue can never re-create the magic of those originals. So instead we stirred up the catalogue taking the tracks out of their original context, giving the 'in the know' listener a fresh experience and the new listener a document that is the best possible introduction to the aquatic world of Drexciya.” I can go along with that but it's also a great way to get people to buy it all again. The inclusion of an unreleased track, 'Unknown Journey' also won’t do any harm to sales. I guess if they continue on in this manner we could be here for sometime but I am glad this stuff is coming out again in any form, especially remastered on vinyl and CD. We’ll never know for sure what James Stinson would have made of this but I did find this quote from his Muzik magazine interview in 1997 which may imply he would have appreciated these new patterns for his music to take. “Too many records just go from point A to point A. Our material zig-zags. We want to take you from point A to infinity. The music is there to implant in your imagination and let your psyche take over and run wild.” Guided by imagination there are certainly infinite and wild new patterns the catalogue can now go in and I guess this and the original are only two of those possibilities. I have already listened to the new order on YouTube (and if you follow the links below you can too) and it’s wild, primitive and fun but once you have all the tracks you could just programme them anyway you want, including the original way, and maybe that is what is important. More details at http://clone.nl/artist/drexciya

CD Tracklist
1. Welcome to Drexciya (Bubble Metropolis 12" 1993)

2. Wave Jumper (Aquatic Invasion 12" 1995)

3. Lardossen Funk (The Unknown Aquazone dbl 12" 1994)

4. Bubble Metropolis (Bubble Metropolis 12" 1993)

5. Hydro Theory (The Journey Home 12" 1995)

6. Beyond the Abyss (Bubble Metropolis 12" 1993)

7. Unknown Journey (unreleased)
8. Aquarazorda (The Unknown Aquazone 12" 1994)

9. Rublick’s Cube (The Return of Drexciya 12" 1996)

10. Sea Quake (Deep Sea Dweller 12" 1992)

11. Take Your Mind (The Unknown Aquazone dbl 12" 1994)

12. Darthouven Fish Men (The Journey Home 12" 1996)

13. Dehydration (The Quest compilation 1997)

For the record here is the full Clone text...
First part of the Drexciya re-issue series! Drexciya might need an introduction for some, for others it is the most influential techno project ever. Part of the heritage of Detroit's Underground Resistance, Drexciya explored techno music like no-one else before. Raw and uncompromising music that reflects the harsh environment of the city where Drexciya was conceived. The aesthetics and the mythical approach combined with the unique music made this one of the biggest cult projects in techno music. Drexciya arguably stands for the darker side of techno and electro, music not only made for the club scene, but a further development of the music as an expression and extension of the mind. 20 years after the release of ''Deep Sea Dweller'' (their first release), and 10 years after ''Grava 4'' (their last), we present ''Journey Of The Deep Sea Dweller''. This series is an almost complete collection of their early works, and is remastered from the original master tapes. Since the original releases have such a strong character, appeal and stand on their own, this re-issue can never re-create the magic of those originals. So instead we stirred up the catalogue taking the tracks out of their original context, giving the 'in the know' listener a fresh experience and the new listener a document that is the best possible introduction to the aquatic world of Drexciya.

Dopplereffekt live/Zerkalo video

Dopplereffekt are supposed to be playing live in Gothenburg, Sweden on November 5th 2011. I can’t find any official info online for this one so best to check local press or send me a link if you know of any. One of their recent shows which did pass me by, of which there may well be many, was 9/9/2011 in MAK in Vienna, Austria. There is a video of part if it up below. I also came across the colour version of this iconic image of them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMl2Zyy4rnU

Dopplereffekt wil be playing live on 24th Nov 2011 in Madrid, Spain as part of the Red Bull Music Academy. More details here.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?303085

There is a very fine new video up for Zerkalo’s In The Middle from their Stoi Storoni Zerkala part 2 12”. It was made by a new video collaborator, Virginie von Virou. I look forward to more of her work with them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ju3n4ILw6n8

Neuroleptica

The full length version of Tardive Dyskinesia by Neuroleptica is up on a new YouTube channel now. This track first appeared on Heinrich Mueller’s Resident Advisor 250 mix of music by him and his collaborators. This version is almost 8 minutes long and does sound very Muellerish to me. There is another track on this channel called Dies Irae which is another similarly lengthy track that is said to be the “soundtrack from upcoming album The Wrong Side of the Mind.” I wouldn’t want to commit myself to this being a new project or another collaboration of his yet but it could be. So far the profile which was set up on 19/9/11 lists a 31 year old from Belgium but usually if it’s official Mueller will put his name to it. Going by the titles the music is suitably disturbing. The second track is the puzzler, what do you think?

Neuroleptica is a general condition caused by antipsychotic drugs which produces a state of apathy, lack of initiative, and limited range of emotion and in psychotic patients causes a reduction in confusion and agitation and normalization of psychomotor activity. Tardive Dyskinesia is a condition which is characterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements, such as grimacing, tongue protrusion, lip smacking, puckering and pursing of the lips, and rapid eye blinking. Dies Irae means day of wrath (end of the world) and comes from a 13th century Latin hymn.
http://www.youtube.com/user/neurolepticamusic

HAUNTINGS

Dopplereffekt played live on a bill with Leyland Kirby in Graz, Austria on 7/10/11. It’s not clear how this pairing came about, they may have been suggested by Kirby or picked by the curators. Incidently The Otolith Group’s Drexciya inspired film, Hydra Decapita, was included in the connected exhibition. It was at a series of concerts run in conjunction to an art exhibition called HAUNTINGS. Described as an interdisciplinary project - exhibition, series of concerts and an evening of film – it examined secret and uncanny presences in media, art and pop. It was curated by Thomas Edlinger and Christian Höller. Hauntology in other words, an interesting topic in relation to Dopplereffekt. Kirby was behind the V/VM Test label and currently makes music under his own name and The Caretaker. He recently did the soundtrack to Patience (After Sebald), a film by Grant Gee. You can check out his website for more information on him and sample some of his great music there. Their blurb is as follows, more info at below links.

7. 10. Leyland Kirby, Dopplereffekt

Going by the name of The Caretaker (named after the main character of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining), the Berlin-based Brit assembles piano motifs to ethereal soundscapes while priming them with vinyl needles whose clicking and scratching express a promise of intimacy. And as Leyland Kirby he revels in the conviction that “sadly, the future is no longer what it was” and illustrates his unhinged melancholy with plaintive sound paintings: “Live for the future, long for the past.” The American/German electronic act Dopplereffekt, which rarely performs in public, references the predecessors of Detroit techno like Kraftwerk with more than just its technophilic name. The musicians’ German pseudonyms, like that of Dopplereffekt founder and ex-member of the techno-mystics Drexciya, Gerald Donald aka Heinrich Mueller aka Rudolf Klorzeiger, likewise evince a strong connection to retro-futurist tradition.
http://medienturm.at/mt.php?id=2&sid=361&k=full&_pid=943&sp=EN
Leyland Kirby
http://www.brainwashed.com/vvm/index.html

Drexciya

Nice mention of James Stinson from the legendary himself Anthony ‘Shake’ Shakir when speaking with Dazed Digital recently. That would have been some collaboration alright. He did collaborate to some unknown degree with Gerald Donald though on the first Der Zyklus 12" in about 1997 or 98. Full interview with Shake at link below.

DD: Collaborations are often a spontaneous thing, but in your dream world, is there anyone you'd wish to work with musically (dead or alive)?
Anthony Shake Shakir: I wanted to work with a lot of my peers but was afraid to ask because I would be found to be a fraud of some sort because I can not actually play an instrument. Since I stumbled through most of what I was doing, I keep on stumbling. I was looking forward to working with James Stinson as he had asked to do some collaborations with me. I was surprised and shocked by him asking me to do that, but he passed before that could happen. I have a little more confidence nowadays.
http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/11314/1/anthony-shake-shakir

Lengthy Drexciya post on the blog of the prestigious Liberator magazine. A sign that maybe someday they will include them in their print edition? The quotes come from my Drexciya Speaks article, well worth putting them all together all those years ago.
http://weblog.liberatormagazine.com/2011/09/drexciya-audios.html

I think this artist, Jason deCaires, would appreciate the Drexciya mythos and could easily create it underwater too. Amazing underwater sculpture work.
http://www.underwatersculpture.com/

Neutrino

On the Futurity Works SoundCloud (which has loads of other cool DRL related stuff too) there is an almost 20 minute segment of the Dopplereffekt Neutrino show, which is all new material. Also short segments of the lectures are there as well. two The below text can also be read there. I'm told it was professionally filmed and a website will be built to tie in with all of this soon. For now they have put up a Facebook page for what they call, Neutrino Programme, some text from it below. Some fan videos of it are up now too. I guess we can expect more of these shows then, maybe an album?
http://www.youtube.com/user/jarman808

Futurity SoundCloud text
This is a segment from the premiere performance of the Neutrino project at AND Festival, Liverpool on September 30th, 2011.

Neutrino is Dopplereffekt, Albert van Abbe (visual artist), Zazralt Magic (scientist) and Katarina Markovic (scientist).

CONCEPT:
Astrophysics event presentation, a synthesis of music/visual data modes and natural philosophy. The program consists of 2 modules:

Module 1 is academic in nature in the form of lecturers (scientists) expounding on specific topics related to stellar and galaxy
formations and properties. These are designed to give the audience an entry level insight into astrophysical concepts.

Module 2 is a music/visual data presentation relative to the theme, performed by Dopplereffekt. Music data will be experimental in nature.
In module 1 the lecturers will also be performers in the sense that they will be immersed sonically as well as optically/visually. The lecture presentationsaims to escape classical methods of presenting ideas and concepts. It will be accompanied by music data and visual data in real time synchronization with the lecturer.

DURATION:
The lecture component will allow each presenter 45 minutes to present their respective concept.
There will be 1 music/visual data presentation (by Dopplereffekt). The music/visual data set will be 60 minutes in length.

http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks/neutrino-zazralt-magic

Neutrino Programme Facebook Text

The Neutrino Programme's aim is to display astrophysical content in an audio-visual artistic framework, in order to combine the approaches of scientific and artistic expression.

The neutrino programme is a collaboration of art and science.

Description Technical Design Group:
- Albert Van Abbe
- Katarina Markovic
- Zazralt Magic
- Heinrich Mueller
- To Nhan

Mission Neutrino is a project designed to combine the transfer of astrophysical knowledge with audio-visual creations into a combined scientific and artistic expression. Its aim is to immerse the observer sonically, visually and intellectually in the physics of the Universe.

Email dataphysix at scientist.com

Heinrich Mueller Remix of DJ Stingray

There is a new Heinrich Mueller remix of a DJ Stingray track upcoming on a 12” from the Unknown to the Unknown label. They also promoted the June Dopplereffekt show in London this year. I was sent a preview of it and it’s a fast paced number with loads of Mueller signatures all over it. Not sure when it’s out but should be very soon (will be 24th October). This is the second time he has remixed/reworked the music of DJ Stingray (one time Drexiyan DJ), the first was 'Drone FX' on the Drexciyan Connection 12" on WeMe Records in 2009. In the picture is that supposed to be Mueller maybe on second from right? Here’s their blurb.

Unknown To The Unknown have put together their new release, Stingray Enters The Unknown a collaboration between Detroit’s DJ Stingray & London’s DJ Haus. Entitled The Sadist Pts 1 and 2 – the release is backed with remixes from the legendary Heinrich Mueller (Dopplereffekt) and Cestrian (Ali Renault, Heartbreak). It's also already on You Tube I found out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4Ij0Ovi3bs
http://www.chemical-records.co.uk/sc/servlet/Info?Track=UTTU005
http://unknowntotheunknown.com/

Zerkalo previewed a new track on their SoundCloud recently too. It’s called, ‘You, Whose Sleep is Without Awakening’ which is the opening line of a poem by the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva (1892-1941). This is the second time she has been referenced by them, 'I Can Speak'. The full poem is as follows.

You, whose sleep is without awakening,
Who does still quietly move,
Go to the Three-Pond alley
If you my poems love.

O, how sunny and how starry
It's to start the life's first tome
I pray - while it is not too late yet -
Come and take a look at our home!

Soon that world will be snuffed out,
In a secret of the night look at it,
While the poplar is not cut down
And our home is not sold yet.

This our poplar! Our childhood's evenings
Underneath it nestle and thrash.
This our poplar among acacias
Is the color of silver and ash.

Hurry on, you will find this world
Unforgettably wonderful!
Go to the Three-Pond Alley
To this soul of my soul.

http://soundcloud.com/zerkalo_data
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marina_Tsvetaeva

Any pictures or reviews from Dopplereffekt Neutrino last night in Liverpool, please send my way. Some videos of it here in 6 parts.
http://www.youtube.com/user/jarman808

Dopplereffekt - Neutrino

Dopplereffekt will be performing what appears to be a one-off event, entitled Neutrino, at the Scandinavian Seaman’s Church, Liverpool, UK on 30th September 2011. It will be part of the AND festival and is in conjunction with the Max Plank Institute. I got an email from Albert van Abbe, whose No Comment 12” featured a Heinrich Mueller remix, which states he will produce and perform the visuals for it. He also states it is a complete new project with complete new sounds for Dopplereffekt. His website repeats some of this. The blurb on the AND site reads, “…Continuing this interest in the further reaches of science, Neutrino is a new project from the group that will use astrophysics lectures as the basis for a dense, involving audio visual performance.” I've now heard they will also be joined by the physicist Katarina Markovic who will deliver a lecture to their music and a Phd student, Zazralt Magic, will be involved too.

This interest in the neutrino first surfaced on the 2003 Linear Accelerator album with a track called Myon-Neutrino. A neutrino is an electrically neutral and weakly interacting elementary subatomic particle. It means "small neutral one", is an elementary particle that usually travels close to the speed of light, is electrically neutral and is able to pass through ordinary matter almost unaffected, "like a bullet passing through a bank of fog”. Neutrinos have a very small, but nonzero mass.

http://andfestival.org.uk/event/neutrino
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutrino
http://www.albertvanabbe.nl/
http://www.mpg.de/en

Drexciya Reissues on Clone Classic Cuts

That ‘Clone to reissue some Drexciya releases’ story which I mentioned in my last post just got very interesting. According to a more detailed Facebook post, “We will re-issue the early Drexciya catalogue on Clone. We are currently busy restoring the original master tapes, and hopefully we have the first one ready before the end of the year! Of course we will keep you updated on the process.” They also reveal they will be released on their Clone Classic Cuts sublabel which reissued Dopplereffekt’s Gesamtkunswerk album in fine style back in 2007. Their message also implies the tracks will be remastered as well. In some follow up comments they also talk about perhaps releasing The Quest as well, “We’ll see what’s possible”.

Clone and their sublabels have already sensitively and lovingly reissued L.A.M., Glass Domain, Der Zyklus; have some later period Drexciya (inc the Lab Rat XL album and an The Other People Place 12”) in their catalogue which they have always been good at keeping in press; not to mention Zerkalo, so this is a perfect marriage. This could mean that the UR/Submerge material must either be up for fresh licensing from Stinson’s estate and Gerald Donald or else they are licensing it to Clone. Whatever the case it has been some time since this material was available to buy on vinyl or CD. It’s never easy to know when a new pressing happens but the UR coloured vinyl tribute to James Stinson editions of their 12”’s in 2003 might have been the last time some of this material saw the light of record shop day. It has also been a long time since The Quest has been available on any format, you will currently pay at least 100 US dollars for this on CD and the 12”’s go for big bucks too. Even trying to find a legal and therefore good quality download of this stuff has always been pretty difficult as well so this situation may be remedied too. By now there must be a huge unsatisfied demand from new and old fans alike. The Drexciya story continues and the legacy grows.

They have yet to announce what the releases will be and while I don’t expect The Journey Home to be included, although that would be amazing some day, everything else on this list could be. Might I suggest The Unknown Aquazone double pack being released on CD as well, surely enough material here to make it worthy, could always have been seen as an album and is already listed as so on Discogs.

'Deep Sea Dweller' 12" (Shockwave 1993/UR 2003)
'Drexciya 2' 12” aka ‘Bubble Metropolis‘ (UR 1993/2003)
‘Drexciya 3’ 12” aka ‘Molecular Enhancement’ (Rephlex 1994/Submerge 1995/2003)
‘Drexciya 4’ dbl 12” aka ‘The Unknown Aquazone’ (Submerge 1994/2003)
‘Drexciya 5’ 12” aka ‘The Journey Home’ (Warp 1995)
‘Aquatic Invasion’ 12” (UR 1995/2003)
'The Return of Drexciya' 12" (UR 1996/2003)
‘Uncharted’ 12” (S.I.D. 1997)
‘The Quest’ (Submerge 1997/2002)

https://www.facebook.com/CloneRecords?sk=info

Dopplereffekt live set +

The entire Dopplereffekt live set from Bloc 2011 is currently up on their mixcloud page in perfect sound-desk quality.
http://i.mixcloud.com/ChKyq

Also you can look forward to some Drexciya reissues by the end of the year from Clone. They tweeted the following message about this, "We will have the first in a small series of Drexciya re-releases albums by the end of 2011".

Nice tribute track to Drexciya by djotomi here
http://soundcloud.com/djotomi/otomi_drexciyan_mix-3

Drexciya and Gerald Donald podcast mix from 2006 on Bleep43
http://www.bleep43.com/podcast/2006/2/19/podcast-17-james-stinson-and-gerald-donald-special.html

Heinrich Mueller remix's part 1 update

It’s been three years almost to the day since I did part 1 of my Heinrich Mueller remix posts and back then hardly any of these tracks were archived on YouTube so I’ve just updated the original post to include these links to each remix. In fact I noticed that two which had been listed in those (long ago) days have since been removed for copyright reasons so I’ve located other still working (for now) links for these as well. You can still read the original article here and part 2 here or just get clicking from the list below. Great to hear the full length Scan X mixes at last and the Air remix is still a favourite of mine.

Scan X – Wasteland (Prototype 1)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YtW3lajW3NE

Scan X – Wasteland (Prototype 2)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xxWj_SR9oc

Hell – Suicide Commando (Heinrich Mueller remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmWB7A0vNO8

Le Car - ‘Cinematic-Automatic’ (Heinrich Muller Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QMMlQ9m2Tc

The Hacker - ‘Fadin' away’ (Heinrich Müeller Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bpdxmAFBpA

Station Rose - ‘Dave’ (Heinrich Mueller: Stanley Kubricks Vision Mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YujAdut7ms

Tuxedomoon - ‘What Use’ (Heinrich Mueller Technik Mix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhK_1xZdWgw

Air - ‘Le Soleil Est Près De Moi’ (Dopplereffekt Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SuiaDrw5n4

Takbam - Takbam (Photon Mix) by Heinrich Mueller.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2yIuqjFznI

The Advent - Untitled (Heinrich Mueller Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFOVla2j5M8

Duplex - P.O.M. (Time Dilation) by Heinrich Mueller
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfaJnFZ0IXo

Kavinsky - Testarossa Autodrive (Arpanet Nightdrive Rework)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlgkFeFzpZA

Duplex - Autosug (Heinrich Mueller rmx)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14OL52uekGo

Cisco Ferreira - Womans Scent (Heinrich Mueller Remix)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-HHBSPt2UM

Bochum Welt - Saint (Heinrich Mueller - Z Version)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrK1yu569BE

Victoria Lukas/Drexciyan Statue?

There is a beautiful new video by Marie Athenaïs for ’These Times are Gone’ by VITA, a Victoria Lukas solo project, on her YouTube channel. There will be an album by VITA released on Frustrated Funk soon. She has also launched a new website, link below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD715AGPJaU
http://victoria-lukas.com/

I was sent this picture of what looks like a statue of a Drexciyan in a fountain in the middle of Brussels, Belgium. I tried to do some research on this but found nothing, anyone know more about who did it, what it’s all about etc. Turns out it is called "The Man From Atlantis" and was made by the artist Luk van Soom in 2003. Unsurprisingly it has nothing to do with Drexciya unless the artist is a fan? Thanks to one of my readers for this info.


Nice mix here featuring Drexciya, Dopplereffekt, Der Zyklus.
http://soundcloud.com/captain-johnson/capt-j-drexciya-der-zyklus-dopplereffekt-mix-07#

New Zerkalo track and video

There is an exclusive new track, Snova (снова), by Zerkalo on the Elektro Domesticos compilation on Fundamental. Alek Stark appears to be behind this exciting sounding project, link below. Zerkalo also have a suitably eerie new video for the track too by Marie Athénaïs. It has a sonic similarity to Roche Limit by Der Zyklus but is much darker.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pthIzwxyifo
http://soundcloud.com/alekstark/elektro-domesticos-3-vinyl

Zerkalo also play live on 6th August 2011 in Brussels, Belgium.
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=128048400616521

Dopplereffekt at FON +

Dopplereffekt will be playing at the FON festival in Cumbria, UK on 5th August 2011. They are also in Paris on 9th July and Sweden at the end of July. See previous posts for these links. http://www.fonfestival.org/home.html

Zerkalo are also playing live soon too in Paris on 22nd July 2011.

http://www.facebook.com/zerkalo.zerkalo?ref=ts#!/event.php?eid=159412420798720

Not that I expect too many who read this to be there but I am playing what is being billed as a ‘Drexciya Research Lab DJ set’ at a benefit night for a local man that has been out of work for sometime due to an accident. It’s the first time I’ve done this and it will feature only music by Drexciya and related groups, same as DRL. The venue will be Millrace, Drumshanbo, Ireland on Saturday 9th July from 9pm. I’m loving the process of picking this particular set out and still occasionally DJ but used to do it more regularly, being on the same bill as Vitalic was probably my biggest show. In fact I would be well up for doing something like this around the world if any fans or promoters ever want to take the risk and try organising it. It could be a Drexciya and related themed event and a way for local fans to meet up, maybe get to DJ their music themselves, project visuals they have designed, ask me questions, attract a bigger name that’s a fan to join the bill, whatever. Taking the research to you, could be fun. Just a thought or you could always just do the events yourselves, email me.

Rare 1995 Drexciya interview

I just got sent these scans from an issue of Surreal Sound, a Dutch fanzine which I'm told was run by Joost De Leyser in the early 90's. I think it might be from 1995 as Elecktroids are mentioned. Many thanks for sending it, nice unexpected surprise to find in my inbox this morning! In case the page won't enlarge for you I have the typed out the Q & A at base of post as well. Interesting to see the speculation of the names involved and that it's correct! It's always brilliant when something rare and unknown to many turns up and can be archived and shared here. Anything else any of you have like it please send it to me.
Q: Where are you from/who are you?

A: The hydrosphere/Aquamen

Q: What are your musical influences?

A: Cosmos

Q: Are you religious?

A: E=MC2

Q: How would you define your music?

A: Aquatechnical

Q: When did you release your first record?

A: Arose from the I age and found mus(ic)

(Hard to read so not 100% sure on this one)

Q: Why was your music released on so many different labels?

A: Labels not important, it's the music.

Q: When will you release your next project?

A: When the time is correct to release.

Zwischenwelt interview

There is a pretty good interview with both Heinrich Mueller and Beta Evers about Zwischenwelt at this link. It's in French and English.
http://www.hartzine.com/interviews/zwischenwelt-linterview

On the FUTURITY SoundCloud you can hear most of the tracks from the Zwischenwelt album.
http://soundcloud.com/futurityworks

Also, according to their Facebook page, Zerkalo are said to be composing a new album. You might be glad to know that one of their tracks which has been missing for awhile, 'Photon Photino', is currently up on the Victoria Lukas SoundCloud under the name 'Superpartners (Phonon Photino)' by her solo INKAMERA project. Another new track up there now called,
'смерть не существует (DEATH DOESN'T EXIST)'.
http://soundcloud.com/victoria-lukas

Dopplereffekt live videos

This image is the pretty cool flyer for the next Dopplereffekt live show happening in Paris on 9th July.

I've done my best to grade and list some of the latest Dopplereffekt live videos to be posted YouTube for you. Loads more out there, not hard to find. Dopplereffekt appear to go mysterious on the new tracks at Bloc, some great stuff. When will there be a new album?

Bloc Weekender, England 12/3/11
Lovely new track with good audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWhwJAPv73Y
New track and visuals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr18pY3eKHA
Half way through this video the footage of Dopplereffekt starts, really good.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGAWZ8MyMkM
Good footage
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFReiW06cbw

Live at X0Y0, London 3/6/11 (Loads of bad audio on many of these I’m afraid)
New track, ok audio
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bhfGmfRKNi8
Random stuff, audio is poor mostly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hU_eCYr1TMI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8vfJysA5Pk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L2C1cx7-7c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvCVX-SAvjM

Akosua Adoma Owusu film

The artist and filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu has released a film called Drexciya, but don’t get too excited as it’s not a documentary about them (which some smart person should totally get onto making) but a newly released 12 minute art film. Her website describes it as, ‘A portrait of an abandoned public swimming facility located in Accra, Ghana. The Riviera was once known as Ghana's first "pleasure" beach. A one-time extravagant Ambassador Hotel of post-colonial - early Kwame Nkrumah era, the Riviera Beach Club thrived until the mid-1970's. The Olympic sized pool, now in a dilapidated state, is used for locals for things other than swimming. Inspired by the myth of Detroit electronic band, Drexciya.’ I’d love to see this as it looks and sounds intriguing. Drexciya’s influence certainly continues to mutate and grow. You can see a trailer, find out where its currently showing and read more about the film and artist at this link.
http://www.akosuaadoma.com/projects/drexciya/

Dopplereffekt live +

Dopplereffekt now confirmed as playing live for the lucky people of Paris on 9th July 2011.
http://www.digitick.com/dopplereffekt-concert-electro-la-machine-paris-09-juillet-2011-css4-digitick-pg101-ri815169.html

Fact magazine will be doing a live broadcast of Dopplereffekt’s upcoming show in London on 3rd June on their website. More at this link.
http://www.factmag.com/2011/05/16/fact-streaming-dopplereffekt-live-on-june-3/

There is an overview of Gerald Donald’s many projects to date on this Spanish language website. http://www.conceptoradio.net/2011/05/09/focus-gerald-donald/

Please now indulge my own plugging. One Minute Residency by Stephen Rennicks came out of the Trade Residency programme 2011 which is run jointly by Leitrim and Roscommon Co. Co, Ireland. This year it is being led by New York based artist David Michalek. One Minute Residency acknowledges us all as creative beings, artist and non-artist alike, who could benefit from using an artist in residence model. It has been designed to provide a way to experience a residence in your own life and the everyday, to be instant, free to everyone and to be whatever you want it to be. Please share if you like it.
http://oneminuteresidency.wordpress.com/
http://stephenrennicks.webs.com/
http://www.davidmichalek.net/

Dopplereffekt Swedish interview/show

Dopplereffekt will be playing at the end of July 2011 at a Swedish music festival called Norberg.
http://www.norbergfestival.com/2011/artists/dopplereffekt.html

Quite possibly to publicise this appearance there was a Swedish radio interview with Gerald Donald on 23rd March 2011 which I’m guessing you may still be available to listen to on the stations archive but maybe only if your IP is Swedish as I couldn’t play it. If anyone is able to figure it out please let me know. Here is some badly translated text from their site via GoogleTranslate. I include it partly because at the very end they tell us two answers to questions they had to take out (and that they had to distort his voice). One was about what it was like to be in Drexciya and the other was certainly news to me. He doesn’t want us to know about a character in a fictional novel by Thomas Meinecke which could be based on him. I found a link to a 2005 movie treatment for this novel, Light Blue, which does indeed mention a certain character called Heinrich. Maybe it’s a rumour the interviewer heard and wanted to follow up and quite possibly Meinecke; who is also a member of the group NSK, and Donald do know each other. Go deeper into this more personal material if you want at link below. It’s my intention to stick with his more public face but due to this info leaking into the public domain like this I don’t want to completely ignore it either.
http://www.inpetto-filmproduktion.de/projects/hellblau.htm

Swedish Radio interview
http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=2479&artikel=4402571

The Man Behind the Mask - Gerald Donald
Secretive Gerald Donald is behind the legendary groups such as Drexciya and Doppler effect. He has only set up two interviews ever - and then his career about 20 years long. In a very unique interview he talks about, among other things, all the various groups he was involved in and why he is so incredibly fascinated by particle physics. Contributors: Gerald Donald, Beta Evers from Zwischenwelt, Victoria Lukas from Zerkalo, others.
Though he really has been a member of Drexciya are unclear - he has never commented on it myself. On the whole surrounding himself happy with a mysterious aura, where the important thing is not the person behind the machines. The picture he launches by itself is rather that of the scientist in the studio. There are synth is the result of technological development and research and where he carries out sound experiments that take the music forward. In the few interviews he has refused to comment much about himself. In fact, he almost never sets - which, combined with his fascinating and spellbinding electro music made that media interest around him is enormous. But mostly, he says no. It is therefore with great pride that the current in P2 presents a unique interview with Gerald Donald. However, we were forced to promise to distort his voice. Otherwise, he had not pulled their weight. In the program we talk with other who work with or have written about Gerald Donald. And their voices, we did not distort. Victoria Lukas is one half of the duo Zerkalo. This project inspired her and Gerald Donald of the film director Andrei Tarkovsky. We also call up the Beta Evers - who sings in the band Zwischenwelt, where Gerald Donald is also included. In spring, the question with a new album whose theme is paranormal state. Ten years ago, the German writer Thomas Meinecke out with his novel "light blue" which Gerald Donald is with the fictitious person. Why it was so we take out. And so, we, of course, the question of what it was like to be a member of Drexciya. Gerald Donald's reaction, you take part of the program.

Victoria Lukas/Zerkalo +

Victoria Lukas has two more collaborations to her credit you might be interested in. The first is with Alek Stark on his new album which can be heard here. In case your confused, this is the second track they have collaborated on recently.
http://soundcloud.com/alekstark/4-memories-feat-victoria-lukas

The other is what might turn out to be a more permanent arrangement, a project called Lukas&Popstar, which is between her and Yeti Popstar which is worth hearing at the following links. I've also put extra links in the side bar for many of the side projects etc of Heinrich Muellers collaborators.
http://www.myspace.com/lukasnpopstar

http://www.reverbnation.com/lukasnpopstar#

One of her solo projects, vita, also has a load of new tracks on her SoundCloud page.

http://soundcloud.com/victoria-lukas

A new version of the Zerkalo track, King("Одни на целом свете" Mix), has emerged with what I think is a semi official video. The title of the remix is a line from a poem and translates I think as ‘One in the whole world’. It is set to the opening sequence of Andrei Tarkovsky’s movie Mirror (1975) and features Julia Pello reciting verses by Arseny Tarkovsky from his poem "First Meetings". Arseny Alexandrovich Tarkovsky (1907 - 1989) was a prominent Soviet and Russian poet and translator. He is considered one of the great 20th century Russian poets. He was also the father of influential film director Andrei Tarkovsky whose film Mirror contains readings of his fathers poetry. As you know by now I never miss a chance to publish poetry on DRL, usually in connection with Zerkalo, so I have included the full translation in english below. I love the last line. be sure to scroll down for more on Zwischenwelt and Black Replica in this post.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-02nGNt2s7Q
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arseny_Tarkovsky

FIRST MEETINGS

We celebrated every moment
Of our meetings as epiphanies,
Just we two in all the world.
Bolder, lighter than a bird's wing,
You hurtled like vertigo
Down the stairs, leading
Through moist lilac to your realm
Beyond the mirror.

When night fell, grace was given me,
The sanctuary gates were opened,
Shining in the darkness
Nakedness bowed slowly;
Waking up, I said:
'God bless you!', knowing it
To be daring: you slept,
The lilac leaned towards you from the table
To touch your eyelids with its universal blue,
Those eyelids brushed with blue
Were peaceful, and your hand was warm.

And in the crystal I saw pulsing rivers,
Smoke-wreathed hills, and glimmering seas;
Holding in your palm that crystal sphere,
You slumbered on the throne,
And - God be praised! - you belonged to me.
Awaking, you transformed
The humdrum dictionary of humans
Till speech was full and running over
With resounding strength, and the word you
Revealed its new meaning: it meant king.
Everything in the world was different,
Even the simplest things - the jug, the basin -
When stratified and solid water
Stood between us, like a guard.

We were led to who knows where.
Before us opened up, in mirage,
Towns constructed out of wonder,
Mint leaves spread themselves beneath our feet,
Birds came on the journey with us,
Fish leapt in greeting from the river,
And the sky unfurled above...

While behind us all the time went fate,
A madman brandishing a razor.

Beta Evers has put up a Zwischenwelt page on her own website.
http://www.betaevers.de/zwischenwelt/

When I did my main article on Black Replica in 2008 I gave a link to an Alan Moore documentary at the end, which has since been taken down. In case you missed it someone has put it back up at this link. Does it tie in, quite possibly not outside my subjective opinion. I also found a rare live picture of Black Replica too for the archives.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rvcPVxzhTLQ

Drexciya Interviews Still Online

I went looking to see which of the original online interviews with James Stinson are still available to read and thanks to fans and improved archiving I found they all are! In no order, the first is with Andrew Duke in December 1999, I’m not sure what website he was writing for originally but it’s currently hosted on his own website; second is by Tim Pratt for Detroit Free Times in September 2002; third was by Derek Beere for FutureBPM in June 2002 and finally John Osselaer for TechnoTourist in February 2002. If these links don't work, copy and paste the address it's trying to load into the WaybackMachine.

Some print edition interviews with him can also be read online now too. Melody Maker’s 1995 interview has been transcribed and archived; a short interview from Muzik in 1995 can be read here, a 1995 Q&A from the Dutch zine, Surreal Sound, the Tim Barr interview for Muzik in 1997, The Richard Brophy interview for Clubbing Dot Com in 2002 can be read here, the 2000 and 2002 De:Bug interviews with James Stinson can be read here, the Drexciya sections of the 1999 Straight No Chaser article about UR can be read here and lastly Nick Phillips for Groovesmag in 2001 can as well. These were more or less the interviews I cut up into sections and collected as one of the very first posts on DRL, Drexciya Speaks. There was also a very short Q&A with Stinson in Energy Flash zine from 1996.

Of course the most heard interview James Stinson did must be his appearance on Liz Copeland's show on Detroit Radio in 2002. You can also hear the audio of Andrew Dukes' interview with him here. Most of these interviews have been compiled in the Drexciya Speaks post. It should go without saying that if you do have any other interviews I would appreciate the info. There may be another one by Tim Barr in 1994 out there somewhere, Dan Sicko in early 90s and one from 1999 by Richard Brophy for the online zine Etronik.

Internet Archive was very useful in finding some of this stuff and it has also managed to save Stinson's own primitive Drexciya website from 2002, Ride Dimensional Waves, worth a look.

James Stinson Appreciation

One of you just sent me some very useful links which thanks to the WaybackMachine at Internet Archive I can now share again with you all. This moving appreciation was written by Tamara Warren about James Stinson for Detroit Free Press. They also ran a second smaller piece of quotes from associates which I’ve included as well. I think it’s good to archive this stuff when it surfaces and to remember as well, almost 10 years now. I also noticed that at the time the family suggested donations to the American Heart Association and I have now included their link permanetly in the side bar.

James Stinson: Stealthy artist invigorated techno
September 13, 2002
BY TAMARA WARREN
FREE PRESS SPECIAL WRITER

James Marcel Stinson was an intensely private figure in the Detroit techno scene, but he was revered by electronic music fans in his hometown and around the world for his musical foresight and vivid imagination -- though most of them didn't even know who he was.
Mr. Stinson, 32, who grew up on Detroit's east side and graduated from Kettering in 1989, died Sept. 3 of heart complications in Newnan, Georgia, where he had moved earlier this year. He would have turned 33 Saturday.
Drexciya, the group he belonged to, was so secretive, its records didn't reveal the names of its players. Its members gave only a handful of interviews over a 10-year career, and even Mr. Stinson's mother didn't know how well-received his work was.
Nonetheless, the group's aquatic-themed music -- which featured lush, analog synthesizers offset by cold, crisp beats and metallic textures -- was hailed in techno circles for its experimental vision. It also was credited with helping initiate the current revival of an electronic subgenre known as electro.
By day, Mr. Stinson was a truck driver and the father of seven children. His mother, Helen Stinson, knew that he made music in her basement for many years but Stinson downplayed his success. "There's so many people telling me things about my child," Helen Stinson said. "You had to pull his teeth to find out what was going on. That's how he was. When he wanted you to know, you found out."
Mike Banks, one of Detroit's best-known electronic music producers, said Mr. Stinson was a close friend, and that his love of electro was inspirational.
"Now there's a whole resurgence of electro, and he was the life force of it," said Banks, who heads the label Underground Resistance, for which Drexciya recorded much of its work. "He had a fascination with the ocean, and aquatic things, and African-American history and the voyage African people had to make. He was fascinated with the strength and endurance you have to have to make a voyage."
Banks said Mr. Stinson's best feature was "that 'good enough' wasn't enough. He always pushed the envelope. Even at UR, where pushing the envelope is the norm, he pushed it harder than any artist on the label. He would expect us to keep living on the edge."
Detroit-based producer Dennis Richardson was affiliated with Drexciya, and said Mr. Stinson was "ultra low-key." "You see him on the street, he's an everyday guy," Richardson said. "You get him in the music studio and he's a maestro."
In addition to his mother, survivors include his father, James Allen Stinson; wife, Andrea Clementson Stinson; children, Chantell, Martiz, Bobbie IV, James Jr., Bobbie V, Kayanne and Kannada, and a brother.

A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday at the James H. Cole Funeral Home, 2624 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit.
--------------------------------------------

Reaction to the passing of James Stinson
September 13, 2002

"I just want to say that James was the epitome of 'being yourself.' He was an amazingly talented producer. But he was just as amazing as a regular person who loved what he loved and not what people thought he should." Eric Dulan, (a.k.a. DJ Bone)

"He is one of my brothers, a really good guy who was also very close to the underground. James will always have a special place in my heart. He was always keeping it real. He's definitely going to be missed." Mike Clark (a.k.a. Agent X)

"James came into our camp and was really high on electro. He liked some of my electro and gave me the mind to release 'Final Frontier.' Based on 'Final Frontier's' success, we saw that electro wasn't dead at all, not in the city or abroad." Mike Banks of Underground Resistance

The family suggests donations to the American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/

Drexciya at MOCA Detroit

This weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit there will be a showing of Hydra Decapita by The Otolith Group which could be seen as major hometown recognition for Drexciya. This blurb is circulating online about them in relation to it, “Not nearly as well known as the Belleville Three (Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson), or the second wave of Detroit techno talent (Mike Banks, Jeff Mills, Rob Hood) the mysterious duo calling itself Drexciya might be best known for introducing a theoretical thread to electronic dance music called Afro-futurism. The group, made up of the late James Stinson and Gerald Donald, created a fictional waterworld populated by descendants of African slaves drowned during the Middle Passage on their way to North America.”

From the MOCA Detroit website
Hydra Decapita (2010) 32 min.
Dir. by The Otolith Group
From 1993 to 2002, the Detroit-based electronic music duo Drexciya released an influential series of recordings that imagined a fictional world system entitled Drexciya, populated by the subaquatic descendants of Africans drowned by slavers during the Middle Passage. The fabulation of Drexciya provides the point of departure for Hydra Decapita, the new work by The Otolith Group that summons a series of spectres of capital in order to convene a seance that immerses audiences within an affective evocation of contemporary economic abstraction.
Showing on Saturday, March 19th at 7PM, free.
http://www.metromodemedia.com/filterd/drexciya311.aspx
http://www.mocadetroit.org/
http://otolithgroup.org/

Dopplereffekt Live 2011

Three posts in two days, well there’s a bunch of Dopplereffekt live dates coming up now!

18th March 2011 Frankfurt, Germany (Be sure to check details at link)
The Otolith Group: A Sunken Trembling, Recalled Dimly
Guests:
Lise Autogena & Joshua Portway (Newcastle/Bristol)
Rayya Badran (Beirut)
Justin Barton (London)
Dopplereffekt (München)
Mark Fisher (London)
Brian W. Rogers (Santa Cruz)
http://e-flux.com/shows/view/9337

9th April 2011 Offenbach, Germany
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?239529

3rd June London, England
http://www.xoyo.co.uk/events/gigdetails/3-jun-11-dopplereffekt-live-xoyo/

If you don’t want to register with RA to listen to the Heinrich Mueller mix you can listen to it here
http://grooveconnection.tumblr.com/post/3876144009/heinrich-mueller-resident-adviser-ra-250

Just a few new videos you might like

Drexciya – Black Sea
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI4u57F7JaQ
Dopplereffekt - Unknown Vs. Destination Moonbase Alpha
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nueydgDUyyA
Elecktroids – Midnight Drive
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzMSwTvWzE8
Mysterious Der Zyklus live clip from who knows where, Michaela solo on the 2004 Hand Geometry tour?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iupIv50uH10

Heinrich Mueller RA mix

Just noticed this after I put up previous post a short while ago! Heinrich Mueller and various members of Zwischenwelt have done a mix for Resident Advisor. There is also a short text interview with him and Penelope Martin which you can read in full there too at same link. When asked what he has been up to recently Mueller states, “Investigating new technologies and developing concepts for future works.” Something to look forward to there then. Tracklist below, you can see it includes not only Mueller tracks but also material from the Zwischenwelt collective and his wider associates. Vocal samples from the 2006 relativity and time-shifting lecture series made to promote Arpanet’s Inertial Frame album are used throughout. Most surprisingly the mix goes right back to mid 90’s Dopplereffekt material. All in all a very interesting and revealing mix made in what they refer to as the “Interworld”. You will have to join RA to download the mix.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=250

For archival purposes here’s the question and answer only part of their piece, see full article at link above.

What have you been up to recently?

Mueller: Investigating new technologies and developing concepts for future works, all these things functions in a unified manner. They feedback to one another.

Martin: Zwischenwelt's album production. We all worked really hard for this project, can't wait to see the album out. Also I have been concentrated on ArD2, a project I share with the Spanish producer Ekis. We just finished a new EP and shot a video for one of the tracks of the new EP. Nowadays I'm researching a lot, building the concept for a new project I want to start very soon.

How and where was the mix recorded?

Martin: My lips are sealed on this one; all I can tell you is that the mix was created in the "Interworld."

Mueller: Unsealing lips slightly. The assembly of this data was really a universal effort; building and exchanging ideas on its production. So there was no particular point in space/time where it was recorded, it was a theory and practice situation. It was truly a group and universal effort. We all were working toward the "Interworld" concept.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the idea behind the mix?

Mueller: The primary purpose of this music data assembly is to demonstrate the latest musical developments I'm involved with in addition to other musical workers. So in summary, it is a promotional demonstrator of music technologies.

Martin: The idea was to demonstrate various new music concepts. We brought together music from other projects of Zwischenwelt's members and mixed it with some of the tracks we will find on the Paranormale Aktivitat album.

Can you tell us about the production process behind the Paranormale Aktivitat. We understand it was mostly created via the Internet?

Martin: Yes, we used the internet to organize the work; a lot of conferences where we all four shared new tracks, ideas and made the concept stronger. The Zwischenwelt LP took quite a long time to complete. I got involved in the project in May 2007. Along those years I had to travel to Germany twice, for real time sessions—a great experience where we all share ideas under the same ceiling.

What are you up to next?

Mueller: At this time as stated previously, looking forward to new technologies and concepts, maybe some possible interactivity with other musical scientists to share ideas.

Martin: I'm setting up the foundations for new projects, researching and preparing rhythms and ideas. We are working on a live set for ArD2 as well as new tracks. Also I am looking forward to a more personal with no collaborations, just me as Penélope Martin.

Mix Tracklist
Voice of Relativity
Dopplereffekt - Mirror Symmetry
ArD2 - Sabotage
Beta Evers - Confusion
ArD2 - Utopia
Gedankenexperiment - Conclusion
Urban Tribe - Carbon 14
Paka - Solitude:
Dopplereffekt - Myon Neutrino
Dopplereffekt - Sterilization
Der Zyklus - Polar Coordinates
Dopplereffekt - Scientist
Zwischenwelt - Remote Viewer
Dopplereffekt - Plastiphilia
Zwischenwelt - Shadow Being
Der Zyklus - Formenverwandler
Zwischenwelt - Telemetric
Dopplereffekt - Speak and Spell
Dopplereffekt - Satellites
Der Zyklus - Biometric Systems
Urban Tribe - Amygdala
ArD2 - Drug of a Nation
Zwischenwelt - Premonition
Der Zyklus - Biometric ID
Zwischenwelt - Enigmata
Zwischenwelt - Multiplexsistence
Arpanet - Universe Oscillation
Beta Evers - Only for My Satisfaction
Dopplereffekt - Non Vanishing Harmonic Spinor
Zwischenwelt - Clairvoyant
Neuroleptica - Tardive Dyskinesia
Zwischenwelt - Shadow Being
Dopplereffekt - Anti Neutrino
Zerkalo - I Know More
Arpanet - Grossvater Paradoxen
Dopplereffekt - Z^0 Boson

Download at
http://www.residentadvisor.net/podcast-episode.aspx?id=250

Drexciya & Detroit

A little piece of information came my way from a reliable source about Drexciya’s background concept. Take it for what you think it’s worth but once I did some research I found some interesting things. When they were at some presumably very early point in their train of conceptual thought or even all along, they were said to be thinking of what unique life might be lurking down in the Detroit sewer system. To me this could be seen to tie in more with their first project together, L.A.M. (Life after Mutation) which was of course just pre-Drexciya in 1992. Although its track titles etc seem to refer to mutation brought on by pollution of a nuclear variety, if you read the below excerpt from Wikipedia the stuff being dumped into those sewers in the recent past and ending up in Lake Erie was fairly toxic. As I’ve said in previous posts they would soon come up with a far more sophisticated concept but maybe here’s some evidence of an environmental conscience or whatever as well. I love that there is also a link to the sea from Lake Erie as well, there’s still so many interpretations you can take from this material. James Stinson only said it was their music which had nothing to do with their home city or techno but this toxic sewer mutation thing if true does to a degree put Detroit at the centre of their concept. Interestingly, when speaking with Andrew Duke of Cognition Audioworks in 1999 Stinson said when asked where and whether he would perform live, "Yeah-anywhere. In a sewer, underwater, in a swimming pool, in the middle of a swamp, in a back alley somewhere, it doesn't make a difference, we'll appear anywhere, it all depends." and more substantially in the sleeve notes for UR’s Interstellar Fugitives (1998) it states for Drexciya, 'Whereabouts: Last Sighting Eastside Sewer System 7 Mile and Van Dyke Area – Eastside Detroit Sector.'

(From Wikipedia)Much of the land surrounding the Detroit River is urbanised and, in some places, heavily industrialised. This has resulted in excessive water pollution from the unregulated dumping of chemicals and industrial waste for many decades. Much of the garbage and sewage from Detroit's rapid industrialisation found its way into the river. Much of the Detroit River and its shoreline were heavily polluted and unsafe for recreational use. Large quantities of this pollution collected around the mouth of the Detroit River at Lake Erie. The pollutants were so high after the spring thaw that thousands of migrating birds were killed by oil slicks and contaminated water every year. Oxygen levels in the river were depleted to the point where fish were unable to inhabit its waters. Because much of this pollution drained into and affected Lake Erie, portions of the lake itself were considered “dead” and unable to support aquatic life. Swimming in the water or consuming any of its remaining fish were considered health risks.

Thankfully since 2001 there has been a very successful effort to clean up this area and wildlife is returning to Lake Erie and the local river systems, link below. I also found a link for you to watch Julien Temple’s amazing Requiem for Detroit film which shows and puts in context the ruins of modern day Detroit. Watching this film really made me appreciate how Drexciya could have wanted to escape in their minds from this place and dreamt of potential alternate realities just under the surface of things. I also have a link for more photos of the ruins of Detroit, which includes the below image of the Bagley-Clifford Office of the National Bank of Detroit. It’s not all bad, I found a positive news story about a growing urban farming movement that is happening in the city now as well. I never thought I’d get to include a link to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department but there is a history page there that is worth a read in this context. The main page on Detroit in Wikipedia is far more upbeat and of course there is a whole other side to the urban decay found there too. DRL, going deeper into the sewers!

Julien Temple’s Requiem for Detroit film
http://rutube.ru/tracks/3971045.html?v=b291fb1f625e36b9863c25366e7bbda8

Ruins of Detroit Photos

http://www.marchandmeffre.com/detroit/
Urban Farming in Detroit video
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/11/detroit-urban-renewal-city-farms-paul-harris
Detroit River International Wildlife Refuge
http://www.fws.gov/midwest/detroitriver/
Detroit Water and Sewerage Department
http://www.dwsd.org/history/sewerage_brief.html
Detroit at Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit

Zwischenwelt Interview +

Catch the cold wave. Just thought I’d add to all the hype surrounding the upcoming Zwischenwelt album, which has supposedly already been describd as ‘something like Nico meets Fad Gadget’ or even ‘cold wave for zola jesus fans’!), with some more preview information for you. Said to be out now on 28th Feb on Rephlex.

Firstly and of most interest, there is an interview with Beta Evers about it all at MNML SSGS
http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2011/02/zwischenwelt-transmission-2q-with-beta.html

Samples of all the tracks from it over at Norman Records, nice.
http://www.normanrecords.com/vinyl/122960-zwischenwelt-paranormale-aktivitat
and Juno
http://www.juno.co.uk/miniflashplayer/SF417361-01-01-01.mp3

Some positive reviews already filed here (any chance of a copy being sent my way?)

The Arts Desk
Spannered
Alt Sounds

Also some nice new pictures of Zerkalo live at DNA club from 5th Feb 2011.
http://zerkalo.tumblr.com/post/3179412739/zerkalo-live-dna-brussels-02-05-11
An interview with Victoria Lukas and an interesting mix can be heard at this French radio website.

For the DRL archive here’s the Rephlex Press Release in full.
FEATURED IN FACT MAGAZINE'S TOP 10 ACTS TO MAKE A SPLASH IN 2011! : “An international trio of female artists making icy techno-pop inspired by parapsychology, aided and abetted by Heinrich Mueller of Drexciya and Dopplereffekt. What's not to like?”

Rephlex's biggest crossover album for some time, this record will find favour as much amongst fans of the current crop of cold wave and nu-goths such as Zola Jesus etc, old goth chanteuses such as Nico, as well as Detroit Electro heads and fans of early Mute Records electronics.

Zwischenwelt explore the field of parapsychology with a dark and twisted vision of cold wave electronics. Parapsychology investigates paranormal psychic abilities using scientific methods, such as used in traditional psychology (observation, survey etc.) and quantitative empirical methodologies such as used in sociology, psychology and pedagogy. Parapsychological phenomenon are often also called Psi-Phenomenon. The two main fields of parapsychological research are Psychokinesis, the ability of the mind to influence objects without involvement of currently known physical energies and without physical contact between the acting subject and the reacting object (for example telekinesis and psychic healing) and Extrasensory Perception (ESP), the ability to acquire information by (psychic) sources currently unexplained by science (best known examples are clairvoyance, precognition and telepathy).

It is this field that the group Zwischenwelt (German for ‘in-between world’) look to discover. Combining the talents of former Drexciya member Heinrich Mueller, New York DJ/producer Susana Correia, Spanish producer Penelope Lopez and vocalist Beta Evers (who operates a number of German labels, including Kommando 6), Zwischenwelt’s ‘Paranormale Aktivitat’ was created largely through the passing of parts back and forth across the web.

The opening ‘Apparition’ starts with an ethereal, ghost-like feel that permeates this haunting electronic encounter whilst ‘Clairvoyant’ pairs a stripped down electro beat to distant echoes of melody in a half-remembered state. Tracks such as ‘Enigmata’ and ‘Telekinesis’ add a strange swing to the avant-garde approach whilst ‘Diapsiquia’ and ‘Materialization’ are eerie cinematic moodscapes that push the groups experimental reach. Finally the pulsating rhythm of ‘Telemetric’ is perhaps the most obvious electro-power surge for the dancefloor.