1. Hey Dirk, thanks for doing this interview, how have you been?

Hey, i am fine, had a good start into 2010, hope you too!

2. Noticing your releases, there is a gap of no releases between 2002-2007, how come there were no releases between those years?

Yes, i know, after the releases “We Bring The Future” and “The Next
Level” i had some problems regarding the exclusiveness of the tracks
that had been signed to Boost Records before. When i was 18 years I
had signed an exclusive artist contract with a guy who let me produce
my early electronic solo tracks in his studio aiming to promote and
sublicense my music to other labels which did not allow me to sign
tracks to other licensees. He had the exclusive rights on my music.
But when i signed this adhesion contract i did not really knew what
kind of problems that could cause in the future, i mean i did not
expect that Markus and me come in first in the raveline remix contest
and that this will get us a record deal. I was juristically trapped
and Boost records and this guy started to negotiate about me but they
did not come to any agreement. So we changed our original name
“Electrosmog” to “Audiowarp” cos the guy did not know about this new
name and Markus became the only official producer of Audiowarp. Time
passed by and i was completing my apreentice ship to be an IT-Merchant
and Markus was studying. When we contacted Claus Pieper from Boost
Records again regarding further releases he told us he quit business
with Boost Records, seemed like he made no assets with the company. It
was in the time when MP3s started spreading all over the internet and
producing expensive vinyls became a risk. So we were labelless then.
Time of frustration but also time of learning for my successful
completion of my apprenticeship followed. But we still played live in
our club we used to go to under the alias “Twisted Tribe” When i
finally earned money in a german steel company i contacted the guy to
finally find an agreement regarding the exclusiveness of the
productions i am involved in. I payed a lot of money to get out of
this contract but i was finally free then. After some time i got in
contact with Fabian Kempe from Sweden known as Ultraform who was a big
fan of our music from the beginning and everything started to develope
because he supported and still supports us and got us loads of
important new contacts!

3. Originally you produced hard trance, how come you switched your style over to techno?

We did not really “switch” to Techno because we have always been
producing what we liked, Techno, Hardtrance, Goatrance or even House
and Brekabeat, it just happened that our first record was a Hardtrance
track but we where always interested in other EDM styles also. But
indeed, a lot of our tracks still have hardtrance elements.

4. How do you guys feel about the hard trance and techno scene at the moment?

What i dislike about the hardtrance scene at the moment is the big
number of remakes of old classic tracks, makes me think people
don’t have ideas anymore and if music listeners are not open minded
enough to engage in new musical stuff. I think there are a lot of
amazing new artists at the moment who make really deep stuff.
Ultraform, Dimesioncrasher, Mauguzun, Sinith, Stana, Trimada, Louk,
Esh to name a few. The Techno scene here in germany is not very
promising to me at the moment. The original definition of Techno more
and more changed over the years and now defines something that hasn’t
got to do much with our definition and the original feeling. Techno
has always been a sound of the maximum, increasing all it’s energy in
endless buildups to explode into a “big bang”. But lately techno more
and more seemed to become a sound of the minimum, the afterhour,
starting to sound “clippy cloppy”, getting slower and loosing all it’s
energy. That’s nothing for me personally, everythings sounds the same
somehow…

5. What equipment and hardware do you guys use to create your tracks?

We use Access Virus B rack (quality trance and goa sounds, excellent
filters!), Clavia Nord Modular (very good for fat new basslines!),
Roland XP-80 Workstation (a big allrounder, very good wavetable
pads!), a dbx 166xl hardware compressor and we trigger and control our
main sequencer software Ableton Live with Evolution UC-33, M-Audio
Triggerfinger, Evolution PCR-80 an Korg Microcontrol. It’s all about
keeping everything live playable and get a real good hardware feeling
and to catch this feeling in live recordings for the productions.

6. What was the main motivation to start Encoded Records?

The main motivation was to release our stuff without anybody telling
what we have to be like and of course also to support other awesome
new artists and build up a label that stands for deep sounds and
innovative quality productions.

7. How come it seems like Dirk does majority of the work? Is there any reason for that and is it true ?

It’s just because of the fact that i have got more time for music at
the moment, Markus is concentrating on completing his apprenticeship
to be a programmer and developer bu the has also got new awesome
tracks in progress that i am going to master and finalize.

8. One of your latest releases “The New Generation EP” got a lot of positive feedback. Plus also so many other artists were featured on it. Why did you guys want to create a big EP like that and do you plan on doing something like that again?

For “The New Generation” we originally intended to put Ultraform Remix
and Mauguzun Remix on the EP only which we planned when Fabian Kempe
and Mauricio Unzueta Gubernati visited us in Summer of 2008, But some
friend artists also asked if they can make a remix of this track also
and then we decided to put them on the EP aswell, which was a good
idea because the variations of Remixes were responsible for the
success i think. So this can alo be a good plan for future releases…

9. How do guys prepare for a live act?

We don’t have to do much cos the arrangement of our tracks are always
ready for being played live with midicontollers on laptops, we only
make sure which tracks we are going to play and test the set with our
live setup in the studio

10. Whats your favourite track and who is your favourite producer at
the moment ?

My favourite track at the moment is “The Advent – Sketch Mix 1″, The
Advent is also one of my favourite producers at the moment because is
is still real Techno with energetic and driving sound. Also David
Moleon is one of my personal favourites, who also did a collaboration
with us. “David Moleon & Audiowarp – Porlapolla” which is available on
Toyfriend vinyl.

11. Why did you guys decide to chose the Audiowarp? Any meaning behind that name at all?

As i mentioned we had to find a new name after we were calling
ourselves “Electrosmog”. We just collected words which sound good and
fitted and put them together. And we invented the name “Audiowarp”
before music sofware developer Steinberg integrated their famous
“audio warp” algorhythm for audio data timestreching into their
software Cubase SX!

12. What do you listen to beside electronic music?

Not pretty much to be honest, nearly everything we listen to is
electronic somehow, but i recovered some music from my youth which is
very powerful guitar music: Fear Factory. I can really recommend their
album “Demanufacture”

13. What do you think of the hard trance tracks that have been released in 2009, was it a good year ?

Indeed, i twas a good year i had really good promos in my mailbox.
Especially good stuff has been released by Fools Forest in my opinion,
very deep and full of fantastic new unconvetional sounds!

14. Thanks for the interview Dirk, is there anything you want to add and are there any new gigs/releases upcoming ?

“T3kn1que + Josh Abernethie – Distortion (Audiowarp Remix)” has just
been released on Benefactor and there is “Reaky – Situation 69″ coming
up on Techment Records inluding Audiowarp Tech Mix and Audiowarp Atmo
Mix! And of course there will be Audiowarp Releases beneath the
Remixes, “Experimentaions” and “Sunstorm” on Cosa Nostra vinyl. No
upcoming gigs yet but if any promoter or organizer is up for an
awesome audiowarp liveset don’t hesitate to send a request to
audiowarp@encoded-records.com, we are ready to enter the stage and
rock the house! Cheers!

Hun eigen bericht luidt: Acid Sneeker aka Ultraform aka Fabian Kempe & Liquid Dream aka Sinith aka Bob Olde Hampsink are two producers of various electronic music styles. Under the aliases Acid Sneeker & Liquid Dream they produce (acid)techno and do livesets. This track is a 40 minute liveset recorded 27-01-10 with the following attributes: – Most of the percussion was made with microphone recordings from various stuff we had around in the studio – And not only percussion, also a lot of recordings appear in the set, which makes it very organic – The liveset was sequenced by 2 laptops simultanously – A lot of the sequencing is made up live while recording – 2 authentic Roland TB-303 were used live. There is a little movie included where you can see the setup and where we are listening to the final result. Enjoy!

Live zullen ze binnenkort ook te zien zijn. Check onder andere dit:

Splinter vs Theracords

Vrijdag 26 maart 2010
22:00-03:45
Locatie: De Splinter, Venlo
Gratis Entree!

LINEUP:
Ultraform
Sinith
The Sixth Sense
Acid Sneeker & Liquid Dream LIVE
Geck-O
In-Phase
Freeze

(Partyflock)

De set is weer eens wat anders voor velen, maar zeker de moeite waard!

Het concept
Na lang uitdenken is Fools Forest opgezet tegen het eind van 2008. Dit veelzijdige label is 1 januari 2009 open gegaan en schopt tegen de gevestigde orde van de muziekindustrie door alles digitaal en gratis uit te geven. Echter is het materiaal zeker de moeite waard! Het idee van Fools Forest is als volgt:

“The music of Fools Forest can be classified as a very emotional both hard and light yet deep sound. It also varies alot in the genres as it can go from the hardest trance to the deepest wobbling drum n bass basslines or into the magical delightfull sound of ambient.
Anything is possible and we want our fans to never know what to expect, that is truly the rule for Fools Forest.”

In deze tijd van gratis downloaden via het internet moet men zich aanpassen aan zijn omgeving. Door alles digitaal en gratis uit te geven gaat Fools Forest met zijn tijd mee en via het internet wordt maximaal gebruik gemaakt van alle moderne middelen (ook door middel van Facebook, Myspace en dergelijke). Door tijd en geld te besparen aan het drukken van cd´s of vinyls is het niet nodig winst te maken op de releases, dus deze zijn niet gericht op zo veel mogelijk verkoop. De laagdrempelige manier van luisteren en downloaden via de Fools Forest website zorgen ervoor dat het bereiken van mensen nog makkelijker wordt.

De artiesten
De lijst met artiesten is op het eerste gezicht eentje met vele onbekenden. Naast Ultraform, bekend om zijn stevige hardtrance en zijn optredens op Trance Energy en Q-Base zou je qua naam alleen Jonas Stenberg waarschijnlijk echt wat zeggen en op dit label is hij zelfs onder een andere naam bekend. Toch weet Fabian zijn artiesten wel uit te zoeken en heeft hij het voor elkaar gekregen een zeer divers scala aan genre’s bij elkaar te stoppen. Deze genre’s zijn onderverdeeld in vier sublabels:

X (Hardtrance / Techtrance),
Y (Drum n Bass, Dubstep),
Z (Minimalism / Downtempo) en
V (Ambient, IDM).

De complete lijst van de artiesten kun je op de facebook pagina vinden van Fools Forest.

de releases
Zoals de omschrijving al zegt poogt Fabian hiermee een zeer brede muzieksmaak uit te stallen en aan te spreken, en mogen we naar de releases luisteren dan is dit al aardig gelukt.  In de korte tijd dat Fools Forest nu bezig is zijn er vier releases uitgekomen en zit de vijfde release (FOFOX002: Dimensioncrasher – Reborn / Collapse) eraan te komen.De andere vier zijn:

FOFOX001: Ultraform – What i Saw / Snap my fingers
FOFOY001: Cathedral of Failure – From the Abyss /Transcendental Object
FOFOZ001:  Per Westerberg – Axiom / Genetik / Gliese 581
FOFOV001: Tarek Mansur – Hidden Sounds / Destined
(klik op de releases voor de previews en downloadpagina).

Door de non-commerciele insteek is het duidelijk dat het hier gaat om releases die niet zijn gemaakt om er geld mee te verdienen maar eerder om de naam van de artiesten beter te verspreiden. Hierdoor heeft de muziek zelf een serieuze ondertoon en een underground tintje, wat het een unieke stijl geeft. Dit is hetgene wat alle releases gezamenlijk als overeenkomst hebben want qua muziek is Per Westerberg totaal niet te vergelijken met Cathedral of Failure en zou je kunnen zeggen dat het hardere sublabel X  gezien de focus op de bass  niet echt in de lijst past. Dit is geen punt van kritiek maar geeft Fools Forest juist zijn charme. Door deze grote variatie is er voor ieder wat wils en door over de grenzen van genre’s heen te stappen kunnen er hele interessante dingen uitkomen. Leuke bijkomstigheid: de cover van elke release bevat een nieuw kunstwerk van Marcus Cambindo (a.k.a. Sour)

Wat mogen we verwachten?
De toekomst zal uitmaken hoe ver Fools Forest zal doordringen in de huidige muziekindustrie, maar we verwachten dat het zeker een label zal worden om rekening mee te houden in de genre’s waar het zich bevind. We raden je in ieder geval zeker aan deze releases te checken. Het kost je immers niets, alleen een klein beetje tijd (handige bijkomstigheid: geen wachttijden voor de download, en ook nog eens supersnel).

Voor meer informatie, check ook:

www.foolsforest.com
www.myspace.com/foolsforestlabel
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=63336402094
http://www.discogs.com/label/Fools+Forest
info@foolsforest.com