http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2009/02/mnml-ssgs-mx20-klimek.html

http://mnmlssg.blogspot.com/2009/02/klimek-ssgmx20-tracklist-and-interview.html


Tell us a little about your musical development: what were you listening to when you were you a child, a teenager, and a university student?

when i was a child i was listening to my father's music, like the rolling stones, beatles, led zeppelin, tangerine dream, kraftwerk, and king crimson. the first record i purchased was a 7....of "heart of glass" by blondie. as a teenager i was into ac/dc, black sabbath but at the same time i was also following the pop charts especially via the early MTV and the german MUSICBOX. later than i was into so called indie music like the smiths, the fall, birthday party, gun club, SST & discord records. after public enemy's "it take a nation of millions to hold us back" hip-hop became important for me (poor righteous teachers, geto boys, brand nubian) and at the same time the early break beat scene from the UK (shut up & dance, silver bullet), and dub: king tubby, i roy, lee perry, the uk-scene, and those like twilight circus and blind idiot god, praxis. techno: early warp, basic channel, underground resistance. later i was doing my jazz lessons, followed by blues and music from the caribbean. right now i listen a lot to music from africa.

How have all of these sounds and styles shaped the development of your musical perspective? And which of these do you think has had the greatest influence on the music you make now?

there has never been one style only, maybe I prioritized a certain style for a period of time. moving on and discovering new music styles kept me excited about music intact. i hope that my mix can answer some questions about the "how's" of my musical development.

When did you decide to start making music, and why?

i started creating sound-jingles on my first PC in 1995 at the same time also, as i was discovering photoshop (and related graphic software) as tools to post-produce pictures. my output kept growing over the years and the development of software, the growth of computer memory and faster CPU's made new things possible. my acquaintance with ekkehard ehlers and achim szepanski of mille plateaux helped me to bring my sound productions to a new level. and having the opportunity to release my output created new encouragements and challenges.

From interviews that I've read with you online I get the impression that you are distinctly uncomfortable with the genre tag "ambient" (particularly as used by the Kompakt label). Could you tell us about your feelings on this?

well, ambient is such an over-used music tag, and in my mind it is rousing clichés connected to the marketing of certain types of music too close to zeitgeist phenomenon's as "wellness" and "esoteric". i find this term also pretty imprecise - same as with the big tags such as rock and pop - they blur more than they can describe. so the title and the album cover of "music to fall asleep" is showing a person falling asleep in the middle of a dirty urban street/environment, without any safety and protection, like a narcoleptic person. the quality of being able to fall asleep with music doesn't necessarily refer for me to so called ambient music. i can fall asleep with drone, heavy doom rock, as well as with dub or techno. so my focus on this album wasn't about if (and to what kind of music genre we are able to fall asleep), but "where".

How would you describe the music you make as Klimek (if not "ambient")?

a soundtrack

Do you feel that there is something subversive about the Klimek project?

my music deals with issues which are challenging me as a person who is living in a specific geographic area, as a participant of specific society, certain economic system. with my thoughts i am reaching for the outside at the same time as i am trying to understand the inside of the society i am living in. in all of my projects i am connecting explicitly those issues/questions with my "aesthetic" output. and since nearly every kind of instrumental music can be redefined in nearly every possible context, i am trying to be as unmistakable as possible about the content and thoughts behind my sound-works. releasing for kompakt i had to compromise to a certain level and to express some things more silently and subtly as i was practicing in on my mille plateaux releases. but i am not the right person to judge the subversiveness of my work.

In the introductory write-up to your mix, I described your work as "intensely political – political in the sense that [your] work seeks to actively engage with, question, and open a discourse on various cultural, social, and historical scenarios." Would you agree with this statement?

yes

What do you feel the role of an artist is in society? And how do you respond to people who say that it's "just about the music"?

plenty. perceive/consume as much different art forms/genres as possible. ask questions. be ready to be refuted. try to say something that you haven't heard before. and finally it's only YOU who decides about where you draw the line between "art" and "the world outside".

Tell us a little about your composition process: (typically) where and how does a track begin, how long do you work on it, and when does it feel finished?

sound generating, sound processing and sampling come first. then organizing your libraries. the next step is a rough sketch/patch (which can be also at the same time a basis for a live-arrangement). exporting the rough sketch into the timeline of a final arrangement. if possible/required: additional recordings with musicians and then the editing of this material and adjusting it into the final arrangement. finishing a track is about learning to make decisions and reflecting on your own expectations and goals. not getting overwhelmed by perfectionism, like some people who work up to 10 years on their phd, their first book or first album. getting lost in music(production) is easy and a very productive part, but then you need to step back or just forget about a composition for awhile and resume with a new perspective. it's also important (for me) to ask for the opinion of as many people as possible (unbiased persons such as my parents included).

What equipment do you use? Is the kind of equipment you use important to you?

actually, talks about gear are really boring me. equipment is equipment, it shapes your sound. and reflects your economic situation. your knowledge & skills about your equipment let you grow as a sound/music producer, from time to time it's good to renew your equipment or to learn something new about it or/and to revise your production techniques.

You've got a new Klimek album coming out on Anticipate in April called 'Movies Is Magic' – from what I've read online it sounds like the album will address movie soundtracks and the relationship between "movie making" and "reality". How will the album address these issues?

film music is applied sociology of culture: collective, deeply entrenched patterns of reception that create precognitive feelings indicate where the music either confirms or confuses. the rewards for the pleasure and pain of this game are a primary part of the cinematic experience. my quest started with my re-discovery of the "orange crate art" album by van dyke parks & brian wilson (especially of the track "movies is magic") and slavoj zizek's analysis of the cinema. "movies is magic (...real life is tragic)" is a sentimental revue formula for the controlled illusion that one is devoting oneself in the movie. which is healthy for our sanity and savvy. who does not know the reality aftershocks of the magnificent experience that cinema provides? the adjustment of swollen intensity to the banality of the entertainment. the magic makes the tragedy bearable. in his "a pervert's guide to cinema," zizek, addresses the vitality, the fictions, fantasies, and fascinations the film provides the audience and through which their reality is confronted and symbolic systems are strengthened. cinema ensures that the shit is flushed down the toilet with hygienic motivation. this is what zizek describes when analyzing the basis of the shower scene in the bates' motel and the scene in "the conversation," in which when gene hackman inspects a toilet. with the rise of the shit there is disgust which must be suppressed. when the film ends and the screen disappears behind the curtain, the pathos softens into the profanity of everyday existence. with my partner hartwig vens i wrote a longer text about this topic which will be included in the booklet of this album.

Can you tell us a little about your Ghetto Ambient and Autokontrast projects? They're both related to your visual art projects, right?

ghetto ambient is an audio-visual project of mine which explores the terminology of "non-places". It is raising questions about how home and exile, identity and urban spaces can be understood and defined today and how those values are created and maintained. I arrange, processed and dismantle my photos taken at various geographic locations into fragments and combine/adjust them to my compositions of an abstract but somehow narrative movie, which is divided into numerous chapters and which is moving slowly from one geographic location to another. autokontrast is my photographic archive.

What's something that you know now (both about music and life in general) that you wish somebody had told you ten years ago?

i think remembering & reviewing what happened in your life so far is a necessary process of self-reflection but i don't want to look back in wistfulness. the same as i never seriously addressed the question to myself how would my life look like, if my parents hadn't left Poland in 1981. i don't regard this hypothetical question as constructive (or enlightening).

What's something that music has taught you about life? And what is something that life has taught you about music?

"music is the healing force of the universe" albert ayler

dear all,


welcome to random industries /// NEWSLETTER # 07

____________________________________________________________________

at the end of this highly productive year i would like to thank all friends & collaborators,
those who supported, those who financed and those who cared.

____________________________________________________________________

for archival and listening pleasures
i have created eight (!) listening-only myspace profiles
of my former and/or still ongoing audio projects:

AUTOKONTRAST - http://www.myspace.com/random670industries
AUTOPOIESES - http://www.myspace.com/random662industries
BIZZ CIRCUITS - http://www.myspace.com/random663industries
GHETTO AMBIENT - http://www.myspace.com/random664industries
HARZ - http://www.myspace.com/random669industries
OPEN SOURCE - http://www.myspace.com/random665industries
RANDOM INC - http://www.myspace.com/random660industries
RANDOM INDUSTRIES - http://www.myspace.com/random661industries

____________________________________________________________________

Thanx to those who made the kLIMEK USA & CANADA shows possible
and those who attended.
a selection of pictures can be see at:

http://www.random-industries.com/HTML/GALLERY/gallery_live.html

____________________________________________________________________

Pictures from my collaboration with KWARTLUDIUM at
The 6th Festival of Dialogue of Four Cultures in Łódz
can be also found at:

http://www.random-industries.com/HTML/GALLERY/gallery_live.html

a video of the rehearsals can be seen on
YOUTUBE - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4Xeek9_TWU
(i am working currently on an edit of the concert).

____________________________________________________________________

Two new kLIMEK tracks:

"True Enemies & False Friends (Yesteryears Suite)"
"The Godfather (For William Basinski & Snoop Dogg)"

will be featured on POP AMBIENT 2009.
Release date: February 16th

The last track was created in collaboration with
Amir Husak http://www.amirhusak.com/video.html
on guitar.

____________________________________________________________________

LOST SPACES - a participative project that takes its starting point from the
odd and frequent request from curators to invite Israeli and Palestinian
artists to European cultural events to "stage peace" and at the same time
to stage Europe as the realm of peace. LOST SPACES reverses this common
approach in order to focus on the past and present spaces of conflict within
Europe, be they disguised as religious or not. Artists and musicians from
the so-called Middle East region will be, for a change, invited to work on the
entanglements of race, class and religion in a region of former-Yugoslavia
in Republika Srpska within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

LOST SPACES was launched during this years
Musikprotokoll /// Steirischer Herbst Graz, Austria:

represented by an installation and publication for the Steirischer Herbs Magazin:

german version
http://www.random-industries.com/pdf/LOST_SPACES_musikprotokoll_heft.pdf
+
english version
http://www.random-industries.com/pdf/LOST_SPACES___english_long_B.pdf


In collaboration with Amir Husak LOST SPACES will be also published
as a feature / radio play for
PUBLIC RECORDS.
http://www.ultrared.org/publicrecord/directory.html

____________________________________________________________________

Also on PUBLIC RECORDS - for the series "What is the sound of the war on the poor?"
a new kLIMEK track will be published entitled:
"GHETTO AMBIENT (sketch) aka The Kidney Blues"
which is referring to illegal organ trafficking between the so called
"developing and the developed world".

____________________________________________________________________

Also the release of the new kLIMEK album "MOVIES IS MAGIC" on
Anticipate Records - http://www.anticipaterecordings.com/
has been announced for the end of April 2009.

It will feature - among others - collaborations with:
Hugo Race, Marta Collica, Scott Arford, Steve Heather, Zeitblom, Shelley Hirsch
and Ran Slavin.

____________________________________________________________________

a recent interview in/with the
HATE http://hate.blogsport.de/ magazine
can be found here
(english version starting at page 7):

HATE interview
http://www.random-industries.com/pdf/HATE_klimek.pdf
+
complete HATE issue # 2
http://www.random-industries.com/pdf/hate2.pdf

____________________________________________________________________

www.random-industries.com
+++
www.autokontrast.de
www.ghetto-ambient.com
www.intifada-offspring.org
+++
www.myspace.com/random666industries
+++
www.youtube.com/sebmeiss

____________________________________________________________________

HATE: MAGAZIN FÜR RELEVANZ UND STIL


"I Came To Bring The Pain"
(Method Man)


Melancholy Is Subversion
Sebastian Meissner / Klimek / Random Inc. / Bizz Circuits / Ghetto Ambient



"I really hated this" was one comment in the discussion concluding one of the first performances of Sebastian Meissner's Ghetto Ambient project. It may come as a surprise that this concert, which was took part in the exhibition "Project Migration" at the "Kölnische Kunstverein" in Cologne in January 2006 in the form of a discursive audiovisual presentation, would cause such dramatic reactions, considering the quiet flow of Ambient-related music that could be heard that evening: slowly progressing soundscapes made out of a warm background of floating bass, distant echoes of pop and subtle field recording noises. The calm and concentrated sounds were connected and contrasted with pictures showing urban settings of inclusion and exclusion, construction and decay, social life, isolation and loneliness. But the ostensibly harsh commentary was not unwelcome to Meissner's concerns. One of his main aspirations as artist and electronic musician is to withstand the ever-present quietening of discussions to a consensus of the smallest common denominator, just to avoid any deeper infliction with its contents. He likes to argue and to push his listeners to think on, to dig deeper – even if he polarises and puts himself and others into a less comfortable position. The propositions, hypotheses and objections he tries to raise, however, do not come in the form of provoking criticality and verbal or visual radicalism. He is not in the business of the obtuse or inane. To the contrary: what's at stake is art's criticality, political and emancipative positions. Meissner does not try to place himself into these issues as an opinion leader or solitary art personality, but, much more subtle, as a kind of knot point in a network of discussions, a place that art, music and discourse may pass through and during the contact may change, get a new direction or fresh impulse. This reluctant, yet sophisticated way of positioning himself in the art world can be found throughout his work: it is in the restrained beauty of the photographs of empty, often decaying and desolate urban spaces and situations he is doing under his alias Autokontrast. It can be found within the abstract video animations of his collaboration project Tiny Little Elements as well as in the sample-based electronic sounds that he has released for the last ten years under a load of different pseudonyms, starting with the project Autopoiesis (with Ekkehard Ehlers), where he reflected his growing up with music and being influenced by music from chain gang blues to modernist composition in a sampledelic, hypercomplex way. After a somewhat unpleasant split with Ekkehard Ehlers, he had a growing interest in the history and present state of Israel and Palestine, a more than complicated topic he approached in a kind of "close-up" perspective: starting with the gaze from the plane approaching the airport (Random Inc. „Jerusalem: Tales Outside the Framework of Orthodoxicity", Ritornell 2001), down to the streets (Random Inc. "Walking in Jerusalem", Mille Plateaux 2002), and into the living rooms and studios of the local musicians and artists (Bizz Circuits play Initifada Offspring Volume 1: Nishbar Li Ha'Zayin", Mille Plateaux 2004, a DVD and Mix-CD, which shows the bandwidth of current electronic and more music in Israel, which is accompanied and supported by a website intended to be a communication platform and medium for artistic exchange). His concern with Jewish culture in western Europe and Israel, which at least partly is motivated by his biography and family history, reached his preliminary point of culmination in the cooperative project „Into The Void" (Sub Rosa 2006), which found Meissner together with Tel Aviv and Jerusalem based video-artists and musicians Ran Slavin and Eran Sachs, following the traces of former and new Jewish culture and virtual jewishness in present-day Poland. Traces of memory found in music, speech and field recordings. Apart from his Israel/Palestine centred projects there was and is his "pure" music project Klimek, named after the family of his Polish grandmother Zofia. The questions and topics that haunt all the other projects of Meissner are still present in Klimek's music, though as if filtered through a minutely pored membrane, which leaves behind distant echoes of music. Music that is calm, yet driven by a subliminal tension, music that is inherited from silence, that slows down to the extreme, yet has a distinct flow, music that is just plain beautiful. The beauty of the music however always is embedded into context, which enriches and shifts its meaning, thus holding the seed of beauties negation in its core. Love and hate, despair and hope. All this happens within a fine mesh of background and framework, thus giving new connotations to the fundamental emotions. On the latest release under his Klimek moniker („Dedications", Anticipate 2007), Meissner connects different people in the titles of his tracks, thus tying together worlds that probably would never have peaceful contact or even mutual awareness (e.g. Steven Spielberg and Palestine independent filmmaker Azza El-Hassan) thus unfolding some kind of "organic" dialectics. All of Meissner's numerous stage names have a common bases of thoughtfulness and deepness, which can handle complexities, misunderstandings and contradictions in a slow but sure pace. Communication is the key, although any communication can be ill-suited or misleading, as became quite clear when Klimek's "Milk & Honey" was released on Techno label Kompakt. In the reception of this release the context of the album was scarcely (or closer to the truth: not at all) noted, even though it was overtly present in the cover photo (the separating wall between Israel and Palestine), in the track titles (ancient Palestine, the land where milk and honey flow) and in the CD-booklet. Or similarly failed to be noticed by critics, the EP "Listen the Snow is Falling", while elegantly echoing Yoko Ono's premature mocking lyrics on globalisation, shows snowflakes made of hand grenades, tanks and guns on it's cover, depicting what may be expected to fall out of the sky around the globe nowadays. Rarely critics or consumers have been irritated by the content far enough to connect the obvious beauty of the music with the not less obvious pain and violence of the topics that lie at the heart of the music. Yet, it is this openness of the music that allows you to just enjoy its serenity and beauty without ignoring the deeper and possibly disturbing positions it carries. This and Meissner's refusal to retreat to simple positions makes his works so rare and admirable. Sebastian Meissner was born in Czenstochowa and grew up in Bytom in upper Silesia, Poland, he lived in Frankfurt, Germany, New York and in Vienna, Austria, and moved to Berlin two years ago.

A conversation about the state of things.


The "Ghetto Ambient" project seems to be the new centre that your work evolves around. Can you explain your motivation to progress to this special kind of presentation of your music with photos and video projections?

I always wanted to do that. Before I made music, I was a photographer – and I still am one. To me, what I do is abstract and meditative cinema. This kind of presentation developed out of the critique of "Laptop-Performance": After the initial novelty aspect faded away and its conquest of galleries and art spaces had succeeded, laptop-music as performance was over. Neither it is possible for me to see the staging of pre-computed sound files as a proper musical concert performance in the classical definition. All you see is this guy bend over his laptop. You can not comprehend or evaluate what he is doing. Ultimately it is not even interesting what he doing. So I had two possibilities: Either I could have tried to turn into an entertainer (just like Lawrence, the singer of Felt put it "Maybe I should entertain, the very fact that I'm insane") or act out in a different context – and with photography it already was at hand. The visuals try to tell stories in a non-representational way, they try to make a point and ask questions.

"Ghetto Ambient" - two quite strong and overdetermined words. Ghetto in the sense of inclusion, as in the historical Jewish ghetto, ghetto as scenario of exclusion, as described by Mike Davis for South Central Los Angeles. What do you connect with these expressions?

Initially I felt the urge to mock the term and musical genre Pop Ambient as it is promoted by German Kompakt label. This is a typical example of product branding, which obviously was and still is disturbingly efficient as a means to sell music. Then, of course, the Geto Boys "The world is a ghetto". And Mike Davis, evidently. „City of Quartz" was very important for me. It has left enduring impressions. My main question was: where is the ghetto today? What does it mean? Didn't actor Klaus Kinski say: if you lift your head over the walls of a ghetto you already ended up in the next one? I would like to insist that nowadays the phrase ghetto should and can not be reduced to a particular predetermined definition. The origins in the Venice ghetto should be obvious. Clearly also the years 1933-1945 left a strong imprint on the phrase. It is just that I believe that the ghetto as phenomenon should be tied exclusively to the detainment of European Jews in Nazi-Germany. I am searching for these places. If I travel by tourist bus through the outskirts of Algiers, as a part of a French-German exchange group, and feel that much comfortable and safe inside this bus that I forget and don't want to know about the world outside - this for me is a ghetto. Ghetto can be the virtual world of the internet, it can be ghettos of consent, like squats or Nazi-enclaves. It can be the "Fortress Europe", the consumer ghettos of shopping malls, and, of course, the "Ghetto Israel", which is one of the leading issues of the Israelite anarchistic "Grateful Dead" type hippie-collective band Yisrael, which also are featured prominently on the LP version of the Intifada Offspring release. They ask from which side Israel is the ghetto. Is it because it excludes, or because it is excluded? I think that the term ghetto has a very strong discursive content that is well suited to observe, grasp and think about certain phenomena that are virulent in our society. I'm pissed by making taboos of catchphrases in such stagnant and deeply illiberal and uninformed ways, serving the only purpose of making sure that you don't have to deal with them any more in a critical and questioning way.

Is there a danger that such dominant contexts may degrade the music to background?

Not in my opinion. The moving pictures I was producing, they actually do leave a strong imprint on the music, they propose certain readings. But that is what I wanted. Looking at the perception of my Klimek releases I realized how resistant the average consumer of electronic music is, when it comes to the issues that are worked at. So I wanted to present the topics that are important to me in way that a balance is achieved with the pure and abstract aesthetics of the music. It is interesting to observe just how strongly this polarises my audience. However if I had to resume this, I would say that these strong reaction were a phenomenon almost exclusive to concerts in Germany. There the "somewhat leftish" audience reacts very sensitive when it comes to symbols, that have a strong predetermined meaning but at the same time are not fully understood. After getting these reactions I changed my presentations and started to include explanations about the places seen into the slides of my video presentation.

How do see the possibilities of performing such slow and silent music like yours before an audience? Music that affords intense perception and thus can be quite challenging to the listener. Is the art context the space left for such music?

The ideal performing space to me is the movie theatre. It is the space where I can expect a maximum of attention. People know how it works at the movies: come in, sit still, grab your food & beverage and if you are discontent with what is happening, leave quietly. My work for film has been intensified in the last months. I did soundtracks for Ivan Stanev's "Moonlake", and for Barbara Cupisti's "Forbidden Childhood". In addition, the central theme of the next Klimek album will be the use of music in film, in terms of the representation of the real and the source of tragedy. The situation „white cube" art space plus bar is very frustrating for a performing musician. If you work with contemplative music that relies on quiet passages you have to work against a conversation-hungry audience. Speaking of places and situations and how they influence sensitivity: you have to be aware how powerfully certain spaces can inflict a sense of deference and awe-inspiring in the consumer of the culture presented there. Sorry for being a snob: but performing in a renowned symphony hall with all the right namedropping on the invitation card sends shivers down the spine of the audience almost automatically, just out of worship for the "culture" – no matter how irrelevant the music and visuals that are presented may be in fact.

Do you see the cinema as a retreat for instrumental music? The one place where it is still possible to address people with interesting or even challenging "listening" stuff?

It is of vital interest, at least to me. I want to tell stories with my music, which also is a strong link to the cinema. It is more important to me than the harmonic-psychological aspect that you are teached in composition classes at the conservatory and that are essential for the classically trained filmscore composers. To use a certain "appropriate" minor key for a certain situation seen on screen is far away from my concerns. If ever, I do this from intuition.

Did you ever consider, instead of approaching the art galleries, to step aside to the clubs, into electronic dance music, into Techno/House?

Sure. I would like to make dance music. I already started a little bit with my DJ sets under the moniker Ambient Pimp, and I started to produce some old-school Techno with a certain Industrial vibe by the name of Harz. But all of this proved to be difficult. DJ cabins are quite fervently fought over, especially in Berlin. Moreover, I tend to mix up things and put myself into an awkward position by not playing a coherent Minimal-Techno set, but throwing together lots of things from old-school Hip Hop to Hardcore, which is not that well appreciated by the audience in some cases.

Would you agree that urbanism and urban studies are somehow at the core of what you are doing? It's what unifies visuals and sound?

Yeah, totally. As in psychogeography. However, I have to add that my approach to psychogeography is non-academic and intuitive.

Do you conceive psychogeography as applied on music in a similar way people like Christian von Borries of Masse und Macht label do it: as a particular practice of performing music at particular places. Stepping out of the intimidating spaces of classical music performance, such as opera and symphony hall towards open spaces and situations, in a way Borries did it with his Wagner concert in the vacant former-GDR "Palace of Republic" ?

Yes, but not exclusively. I think it is very nice and a good thing to do, what Borries is exercising as a classical musician. Such an understanding of psychogeography in terms of performing practice is what comes natural to me. It is always present. But I would not want to restrict myself to this. Another fine example of psychogeography in practice was the concert of Chris Watson, performing his filed recordings of polar storm winds at the coast of the northern sea. The way he arranged his otherwise unmodified field recordings, he was able to vividly stage a quite dramatic story about a very special place on the edge of the world, where the rough weather determines all life.

Do you understand your work in terms of the art concept of "site specificity" - to be on location, to try and get in touch with the local people and circumstances, and use it in ones work?

To actually feel the places and talk to the people is very important for my work. I always seek the direct interaction with people, places and things. As a conventional audio-artist with CD releases, your possibilities of interaction with the recipient are awfully limited. I tried this with the booklets and artwork of my Random Inc. CD's. But people just don't read it, just don't see it. As I said before, the level of neglect that you have as a consumer of music is incredible.

You always distanced yourself from creating any kind of "wellness"-type music. How does the extended contextualisation by means of pictures, videos and site specific installations play into this?

I want to create beauty that gets stuck in your throat. Maybe it is the beauty that truly reveals the subversive character of my tracks. What I want to achieve is to question and to shatter pure, classical beauty. But I do not want to do this with clamour and malice, but instead with longing and melancholy. I want to achieve something that goes back to Dürer's early 16th century picture of the allegory of melancholy, the "Melencolia I". He was trying to redefine the character of melancholy, which was seen as gloomy, passive and self-inflicted at that time, into something productive and positive. In a similar way I see tranquillity and beauty as subversion: not "in your face" but yet very clear and unmistakeable.

Do you conceive your work as political, in the sense of pointing at certain issues in a critical way, or to offer discussion points and knowledge, in a emancipative way? Or is it more of kind of "artists critique" you are doing: providing a work that stands for itself in the first place, but may have other functions too (like being a channel for the start of discussions)?

Ah well, I want to perform critique, including critique of what I am doing. So, yes, I believe that art should be emancipative. But emancipative in a way Warsaw artist Artur Zmijewski is practicing art, not the way Santiago Sierra does it. I want art to challenge me and make me think. But most of all I want to discuss – and unfortunately this is something that people hardly ever want to do. It is so rare that someone wants to claim something that is appropriate and courageous. In the art world I sense a growing tendency to aestheticise all substantial issues. Even though a lot of art claims to be critical and discursive, when it comes to the substance, to the issues that are at the heart of this art all you get is silence. And if issues are presented in an open not predetermined way, they simply are ignored. I got the impression that increasingly art is successful if it stages itself as opaque and vague, so that you as recipient are able to interpret in a private and almost arbitrary way.

You have claimed to be a context artists and a networking artist, who works with and benefits from interaction with other art and music, with other artists and musicians. Is this a kind of "appropriation art", an emancipative project of making your own other artworks, is it homage, tracing back and presenting beloved past and present in a personal context?

I wouldn't have put it that way, but I understand what you mean. Well, yes, but not exactly. To me sampling is modern folklore. To pass on a certain sound element within musical history. In ancient times there was this guy sitting on the hill, fiddling his tune and eventually a traveller passed by, heard the melody, took it with him, as far as he could remember and played his version on his own hill home. This way sampling is contemporary tradition. I sample out of deep respect, but not out of nostalgia. It does not need to be the past that is sampled, but it should be something that challenges the boundaries of the ghetto of electronic music. Music and sound are free. You can not own them. You just can try and interpret them, over and over, each time anew.

In your recent projects, the networking aspect seems to have been shifted a little: the interaction seems to have taken place more with artwork than with artists?

It's a fact that artists, middle-class artist in particular, tend to isolate. Collaborations aren't that easy, even though I wished differently. Probably, part of the problem is my overtly spontaneous temper. A considerate artist character may be bothered by this and thus reacts a bit reluctant. Another issue is communication. All the different sensations and conceptions people may get from each other.

Did your focus on Israel/Palestine and Jewish culture change over the years. Did it come to a preliminary end with „Into the Void"?

There is no end. Not for me. After death, probably. Israel and Palestine will always play a role for me and my work, exactly at the point where I can point out something new to it. Thus the project for this year's "Steirischer Herbst" was conceived (Lost Spaces, which takes place at the art festival Steirischer Herbst, October 2-26, 2008 in Graz, Austria). I did not want to just invite a few Israel-based musician friends to bring their laptops and perform in order to relief the consciousness of some "culture"-Europeans, in having dealt with "the conflict" this way. I wanted to reverse the viewpoint.

What's next?

The release of sound objects. This is a collaboration with designer Jan Rohlf, who did the cover for Klimek's "Dedications". In addition, there will be a new album on Anticipate Records...

________________________________________________________

new KLIMEK video has been uploaded to
YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fye2oN7kBTs

KLIMEK " for Azza El-Hassan & Steven Spielberg "
from the album "Dedications"
Anticipate Recordings, NYC, 2007
: : :
In January 2007, B'Tselem - the Israeli Information
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories -
launched "Shooting Back", a video advocacy project.
Providing Palestinians living in high-conflict areas
with video cameras, with the goal of bringing the reality
of their lives under occupation to the attention of the
Israeli and international public. The footage used in
this clip is showing children living in the settlement
Tel Rumeida, Hebron as documented by Raja'a and
Fida' Abu 'Ayesha.

www.btselem.org
www.heb2.tv

________________________________________________________

MOONLAKE trailer
@
YOUTUBE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AUIiNzenbE

a movie by Ivan Stanev
the movie features extensively material from
Klimek's "Dedications" album.

________________________________________________________

KLIMEK track "Kingdoms Here We Come"
from the album "Music To Fall Asleep" on Kompakt
is featured on the compilation
BEATERBLOCKER
http://www.beaterblocker.com/

________________________________________________________

September 7th 2008

SEBASTIAN MEISSNER & KWARTLUDIUM
@
The 6th Festival of Dialogue of Four Cultures in Łodz

http://www.4kultury.pl/pe/en/57/115/_Kwartludium_and_Sebastian_Meissner.html
________________________________________________________

September 27th 2008

SEBASTIAN MEISSNER
@
INTERFACE III: BEYROUTH The Beirut of Education, Berlin

http://www.x-tract-production.de/pages/deutsch-/interface/interface-08.php

________________________________________________________

USA / CAN dates:

KLIMEK live
@
The Bunker / Galapagos --- New York City --- October 17th
Le Poisson Rouge --- New York City --- October 21st
The Music Gallery --- Toronto --- October 23rd
tba --- Windsor --- October 24th
tba --- Detroit --- October 25th
tba --- Chicago --- October 30th

________________________________________________________

October 9th - 26th

an installation by
SEBASTIAN MEISSNER & SERHAT KARAKAYALI
"Lost Spaces"
@
Steirischer Herbst /// Musikprotokoll Graz

http://www.steirischerherbst.at/
http://sendungen.orf.at/musikprotokoll/

________________________________________________________

____________________________________________

The track
"Random Inc Meets Tim Hecker in Musrara"
from the "Walking in Jerusalem" album
will be featured in a new dance theater peace by
Yasmeen Godder entitled "Singular Sensation".

____________________________________________

RANDOM INDUSTRIES @ LAST.FM

please check out:
for long out of print and classic tracks
and yet unreleased material
:::
http://www.last.fm/music/Autopoieses
http://www.last.fm/music/Bizz+Circuits
http://www.last.fm/music/Klimek
http://www.last.fm/music/Meissner%2B%252F%2BSlavin%2B%252F%2BSachs
http://www.last.fm/music/Open+Source
http://www.last.fm/music/Random+Inc
http://www.last.fm/music/Random+Industries

____________________________________________

a Random Industries
sound production was featured
in a video installation by Dariusz Blaszczyk
@
Crakow Theatrical Reminiscences
entitled
"Bóg, Honor, Ojczyzna"
("God, Pride, Fatherland")
____________________________________________

Mai 14h
KLIMEK presents GHETTO AMBIENT
live @ Jazzga, Lodz / Poland
+++
a free improv session
with
Pawel Cieslak
www.myspace.com/pabou
and
Bartek Kujawski aka 8rolek
www.myspace.com/bartekkujawski

____________________________________________

Mai 15h
KLIMEK presents MOVIES IS MAGIC
live @ Studio, Poznan / Poland
with
Christian Fennesz
William Basinski
David Toop

www.last.fm/event/536004

____________________________________________

June 7th
KLIMEK live @ Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels / Belgium
with Donnacha Costello

____________________________________________

July 15th
KLIMEK & JAN ROHLF
present their new work
"IMPLANTS"
a graphic sound installation
@
www.visitematente.com

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

April 28th
KLIMEK live @ Whelands, Dublin / Ireland

____________________________________________

KLIMEK "back against the sea" will be featured in
the movie "Die Lichtung" by Lucas Tietjen,
a short story about small town claustrophobia and hunting trophies.

____________________________________________

KLIMEK "expo park, sevilla (parts 1-5)" - a remix of "Solo Swim"
by The Notwist - has been re-released on the soundtrack DVD edition
of "Kanalschwimmer" by Jörg Adolph .

____________________________________________

KLIMEK "... in Katamon" - a rework of the "Walking in Jerusalem"
track " ... in Katamon" by Random Inc - will be featured at
"Urban Jealousy" -
the 1st International Roaming Biennial of Tehran / Iran

Mai 30th - July 6th 2008
____________________________________________

Accompagning a research visit for
the The Festival of Dialogue of Four Cultures in Lodz / Poland
KLIMEK will perform at Jazzga on Mai 14th.

Featuring jam sessions with Pawel Cieslak & Bartek Kujawski .

____________________________________________

Mai 15th
KLIMEK live @ Studio, Poznan / Poland

with Fennesz, William Basinski, David Toop

____________________________________________

June 7th
KLIMEK live @ Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels / Belgium

____________________________________________

... still few copies left.

you can order via:
www.random-industries.com

____________________________________________

you can listen / download the set
BIZZ CIRCUITS play INTIFADA OFFSPRING
www.erkmerk.de/random-industries/RI/BCplayIO_gallery_zero.mp3
recorded at Gallery Zero during the opening of
an exhibition by Nitsan David Hamerman -
March 1st
www.zero-project.org/nitsan_hammerman.html

please contact if you would like to receive details about
original compositions used for this set.

____________________________________________

"Forbidden Childhood" by Barbara Cupisti featuring
released and unreleased compositions by
KLIMEK + GHETTO AMBIENT
was screened on February 27th
at the EU Parliament , Brussels / Belgium.

____________________________________________

A collaboration between Sebastian Meissner and the polish
contemporary music ensemble Kwartludium has been announced
by The Festival of Dialogue of Four Cultures which will consist
of a site specific installation and a concert on September 6th

____________________________________________

April 28th
KLIMEK live @ Whelands, Dublin / Ireland

____________________________________________

Mai 15th
KLIMEK live @ Studio, Poznan / Poland

with Fennesz, William Basinski, David Toop

____________________________________________


www.random-industries.com
+++
www.autokontrast.de
www.ghetto-ambient.com
www.intifada-offspring.org
+++
www.myspace.com/random666industries
+++
www.youtube.com/sebmeiss

____________________________________________

____________________________________________


At the planetarium concert on January 30th during CTM08
copies of a handmade / to 55 pieces limited / numbered
CD were distributed, featuring the Klimek track "The Ice Storm",
which by mistake didn't appeared on POP AMBIENT 2008.

____________________________________________

Klimek is about finish his score for a RAI Cinema production
of Barbara Cupisti's "Children of Jerusalem"

www.imdb.com/name/nm0192556
www.filmitalia.org/film.asp?lang=ing&documentID=41769

____________________________________________

Klimek's appearance at Dictionary Of War in Novi Sad, Serbia
is available for download / streaming at:

http://www.dictionaryofwar.org/en-dict/v2v/Ghetto_Ambient__-_Sebastian_Meissner

+++

a preview of the picture series
AUTOKONTRAST in NOVI SAD
can be viewed here:

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=151833949&albumId=1707106

____________________________________________

KLIMEK under COVER
at
http://umanuvem.blogspot.com/2008/02/your-noise-37.html

you can listen to Klimek's selection of his favorite 7 artist
covering songs their foregoing generation.

____________________________________________


www.random-industries.com
+++
www.autokontrast.de
www.ghetto-ambient.com
www.intifada-offspring.org
+++
www.myspace.com/random666industries
+++
www.youtube.com/sebmeiss

____________________________________________

____________________________________________

1st pressing of "Dedications" is sold out
and a new one is on the way.

____________________________________________

KLIMEK's "Dedications" will be extensively featured
in the movie MOON LAKE by Ivan Stanev
www.ivanstanev.com
a Orpheus & Euridice story re-told
and as shot in beautiful bulgarian rural landscapes.
CINEMA DELUXE !

____________________________________________

a new KLIMEK feature/interview can be found at
www.berlinista.com
www.berlinista.com/en/article/klimek-interview-with-the-sound-researcher/4188

and an older one at
http://serialconsign.com/node/132

____________________________________________

reviews of "Dedications" can be found at
www.random-industries.com/HTML/READ/rev/read_reviews_klimek.html

____________________________________________


January 25/26 2008

KLIMEK presents GHETTO AMBIENT
at New Media Center /// www.kuda.org
in Novi Sad, Serbia
as part of DICTIONARY OF WAR
http://dictionaryofwar.org

____________________________________________

January 30th 2008

KLIMEK will present new material entitled
MOVIES IS MAGIC
at
CARL ZEISS PLANETARIUM in Berlin
during CTM08 - Unpredictable
www.clubtransmediale.de/club-transmediale/program/30/cosmos.html

sharing the atmospheric interior with
MURCOF
and
Evelina Domnitch / Dimitri Gelfand / Andrei Smirnov

early show which starts on time
beginning: 7:30 pm
____________________________________________

www.random-industries.com
+++
www.autokontrast.de
www.ghetto-ambient.com
www.intifada-offspring.org
+++
www.myspace.com/random666industries
+++
www.youtube.com/sebmeiss

____________________________________________