alternativmusic

Fondateur de l'illustre label Scape, musicien et producteur dévoué à la cause elctronica dub, Stefan Betke aka Pole nous a accordé une interview pour la sortie de son nouvel album Steingarten qui marque un véritable tournant dans sa carrière.

What is the evolution of Scape since its beginnings ?

Scape has moved from a label interested in urban dub and minimal elctronic to an open platform for diverse music. Main idea behind scape is, and now a days even more than ever befor, to represent unique styles in music and work with artists who are original in their work. Scape is a platform and home for divers music and different artists.

In my opinion, there is a logical progression in my musical development. It is right that i began with very clear dub influenced music, but these dub influences, which are one strong leg in my music, are still there and seeable.

But from record to record the visability of this method can differ. Means for the album "Steingarten" i concentrated more on the element of distortion and feedback than dubby Snaresounds. I never used Dub as a musical Genre only, but intensivly as a method to create room and space.

What do you search to express through your music today ? Are the same things compare with your older works ?

I would say that i still search for the best Sounds and Structure in the cosmos of pole. I do not have any message or political idea behind my work. It is a search for a musical language and a reflection of my daily life. The way how i see things and the feeling i have while i am listening to my environments.

This timethe artwork of "Steingarten" is a photography andnot a simple colour, what represents this photography for you and what is the correlation with thealbum ?

I wanted to use an Artwork that is unusual and different compared to other electronic Music Coverarts.

I was bored of using the typical one colour/or grafic design Artworks.

I think I wanted to have an eye catcher, i wanted to polarize the Audience. I am aware that some people will hate the art, but others will love it. To take risks is important for me and in my opinion, taking risks and going beyond Limits ( in this case, artwork limits) makes life interesting. At least my life.

As well as it fits my music, it is cold and warm, it is nice but a bit overdesigned, it opens a reference to japanese rockgarden ( steingarten means rockgarden) and it is a very intimite world King Ludwig of Bayern designed there in his castle.

How do you see and feel the evolution of electronic musicsince ten years ?

It is becoming more and more one dimensional. Means electronic music is not that diverse any more than it was 10 Years ago. Maybe it is getting a bit more diverse at the moment again, since Dubstep is very interesting at the moment.

But in generell i would say that most of the Music i hear in electronic worlds is either the repetition of what i heard 10 years ago ( but not a revival yet) or it is very cheaply made and people overflow the market with music they made on their pc because they have the technical facilities to do so, but they do not have the musical talent that they should do so.

Is there a new musical philosophy in productions today ?

What do you mean? In my production or in Generell? I think that there is no new basic idea ( you call it philosophy ) in music seeable at the moment. But it is as well very difficult to define one.

I think the last new idea behind Music was this clicks and cuts thing, which is already a long time ago. After this there was nothing really new coming.

But it will, soon. We just have to be patient and open minded than it will happen. This is not the musical end at the moment.

Did your work differently for Steinegarten ? And why the use of guitar sounds ?

I always try to evolve my musical language and define new styles inside my music. So i really hope that it is different compared to what i did befor.

This is extremly intended. I cannot stick with the same sound again and again, i have to go further on. Why the use of sounds that sound like guitars but are no guitars? Why the use of bass? It is a new element in my work and so it is interesting and i thinks it makes my music a bit harder/agressiv and a bit more intense on a different level than using deep basslines only. It is one more Letter in my musical Alphabet.

How do you see your future albums and do you imagine tocompose an album with collaborations ?

Well, at the moment i do work on my Mini Album together with my Band. And as a soloartist i see for the future a few other musical steps which i cannot talk about at the moment. It is a bit to early. But i work on new Music already.

Collaborations yes, i did a 12" for "Echochord" together with "Deadbeat" last year under the name "DP- The Krakau EP".

And we maybe continou working together, as well as i did an improvised show together with "Mapstation" last year too, which we would like to redo for a release on scape this year.

Why you don't use voices on your works ?

On my last Album "pole/pole", I worked with Fat Jon because we both thought that he could add something interesting to the tracks. When I wrote the tracks I personally had the feeling that there is something missing. They needed the final "kick".

And when Jon did his emceeing, I was really impressed. I liked it a lot since he added this final "Kick" to my Music.

But this time there was no single piece on the Album missing anything. The Tracks were finished. So, there was indeed no need to add a Vocalist or anything else to them.

Generally, with the time people makemusic more and more softbut for you it's the contrary, are you angry ?

Do they, why ? Is it because they become older and they need nicer sounds ? I am not sure.  I am definetly not angry at all, but i wanted to make harder music and add something to my Style which i never used befor.

Maybe this is a development which is inspired by the work with my Band a bit.

The Band project is very loud and dynamic. I think i am not making angry music, but dynamic and weird sounding music.

Thank you very much for the interview.  I liked it very much.

Roland Torres vs Stefan Betke aka Pole

Chronique:  http://alternativmusic.blog4ever.com/blog/lirarticle-69130-229936.html