01 Experiment Musik
02 Prophetic Dreams
03 The Bells Of Jericho
[audio:http://www.hmwl.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/03-The-Bells-of-Jericho.mp3|titles=Axel Bartsch – The Bells of Jericho]
04 Morgengebet
05 Sparkling Energy
06 Keep That Feeling
07 Femme Fatale
08 Assistance From Beyond
09 The 13th Sign
10 Wir Tanzen
11 Mental Trainer
12 Yeahwoodya (digital only bonus)
Axel Bartsch have been producing for over 10 year with EPs, remixes, full lengthers and collaborations on Ostwind, Soul, Kompakt and Harthouse. Now he’s back ready to fire off his second album, a dark one yet full of deep melodic grooves. A few tunes are made for the dance floor, like Bells of Jericho being one of our favourite of the 12 tracks. Notice how Axel works with breaks making tha audienc to skream more.
Some tracks are for the afterparty and some are more of an experimental type to be enjoyed on your ipod doing whatever you do when you got your headphones on 🙂 All in all the whole piece is very well produced and got some outstanding percussion programming We grabbed Axel for a quick talk about Experiment Musik.
HMWL: Please tell us a bit about your new album. Did you have a idea when you started the project? Did it turn out as you planed it?
AXEL: My idea of an album was that I wanted to produce something that you could listen to at home, in the car or in a club as well. I also like to do classic techno or house that is not trying to jump on something thats popular a the moment. In best case it should be timeless. That´s why I didn´t use bongo or conga loops, white noise break supports and usual house sounds of today which
I received tons of at that time. That was all about the concept, nothing to specific or an all combining theme. Concerning these ideas it turned out like I planned, yes. But I just went from song to song. I need variations when I´m producing, I can´t just do pumping house stuff for the dance floor all the time and that´s also the difference to producing 12“s, you can do different stuff. So the album developed step by step and I like it.
HMWL: The album is quite dark and minimal to what you have released before. Is this a direction you wanna take or is it just an experimental phase?
AXEL: Hmm, I´m doing hard in describing the music I do. I can see that it is minimal and dark but at the same time somebody said that I produced more minimal music in the past and that my album or the last releases show more of an melodic side. So it must lay in the eye or better ear of the listener. It´s nothing I do on purpose.
When I produce I just do what comes out, maybe I have an basic idea at the beginning but it can develop to something totally different during the process. So whatever it is or it sounds like I didn´t plan it. I like to see music as an experiment, always trying to do something special and touching, an attempt and never perfect.
HMWL. My favourite on the album is “the bells of Jericho”. Please tell us about the production of it. How did you do i it? Is it a Björk Human Behaviour Sample or just a similar sound?
AXEL: Oh ha, I really do not remember exactly but I didn´t sample Björk and I even don´t know which sound you mean. I think it started with the guitar that I had already recorded on the hard disc. From that on I put more and more sounds to it, sub bass, some enviromental background noises, hi hats, woods, clap/snare layered and then I played this bell melody on top of it. That´s roughly it but the devil is in the detail as we say and very important are the effects.
HMWL. The album is called Experiment Musik. What’s the “Experiment” of the album?
AXEL: The whole album is the experiment, making music is the experiment. You take different elements and put them together trying to make music, something that´s touching or working with you and others but you never know what the result will be and you never reach completeness. Maybe some people who have no access to electronic music would even say that this is not music though I tried hard 🙂
HMWL: Tech Info – you won’t escape this one 🙂
1. What is your Setup (programs, Gear)?
Oh god, we pimped up our main computer several times but I´m not sure about the current processor. It´s an pc with 2 Creamware dsp cards,Cubase and tons of plug-inns and other software, mixer is Yamaha 02r96, Nord Modular, Hartmann Neuron, Elektron Machinedrum, Joe Meek EQ Compressor, Mindprint Tube compressor, Virus C, 909, 303, 2nd pc, Genelec1032A monitors, Rode NTK microphone and some more gear laying around somewhere.
2 .Your work flow in short? (finding the bassline and hook first? arranging? etc
Usually I have a basic idea of what kind of song I would like to make, sometimes I write down ideas I have in the kitchen or bathroom or something. Then it´s the kick drum first, followed by bassline or a sample if the song is based on a sample. From there on it´s pretty open. Sometimes I feel like doing percussion first and get into effects already, sometimes I add synth and vocals and carry on with adding something till everything is there. I do eqing during this process but go over everything again after I collected all elements and check effects again. After that I arrange it and record controller data for filters and effect changes etc. At the end I listen to it again and again if everything is at it’s place and if I need to do some little gimmicks or change the arrangement. During the whole process I change and do the mixing. Save and record!
3. The Top Plugins you are using?
Minimoog
Lexicon Reverbs
4. I wish I had a……..
I wish I had a personal assistant 🙂
by Jesper Aubin of House Music With Love
