IS 147 – Audio Atlas [Mathematics Recordings]

Nous n’avons jamais rencontré Audio Atlas. C’est pourquoi vous ne lirez aucune description de l’Aéroport International d’Athènes, ni même de la ville dans laquelle ils ont grandi (Thélassonike) : nous n’y sommes pas allés, et cet article n’est pas un reportage. Assis sur l’autoroute de nos fils électriques, nous attendions patiemment que le monde s’aplatisse.

Et nous n’avons pas attendu longtemps. Après les avoir contactés sur internet, nous apprenons leur histoire. Celle, banale, de deux « faceless techno bollocks », qui ont déjà passé plus de 10 ans dans l’underground à mixer (début des années 90) puis à composer (fin des années 90) lorsqu’ils se réunissent en 2006 pour produire quelques morceaux ensemble. Les deux amis sont alors repérés sur leur myspace par Jamal Moss lui-même, et sortent leur premier track sur un various de Mathematics Recordings en 2009. S’en suivent quelques contributions à des EPs dispersés et un premier album en 2013, Windows 2 The World, sur lequel les jams analogiques sales et râpeux qui ont fait la réputation du label cohabitent avec des ouvertures deep et planantes.

Comme son titre l’indique, cet album est une invitation au voyage, et chaque morceau porte le nom d’un pays ou d’une région. « Tout a commencé avec le track Italy, pour lequel on cherchait à reproduire le son moelleux des premiers tracks de house italienne qu’on écoutait sur des mixtapes », nous expliquent-ils. « Ensuite, c’est devenu un projet plus ou moins systématique, mais il s’agit moins d’un voyage au sens géographique du terme que d’un passage à travers tous les différents styles de musique que nous avons aimés au cours des années. D’où tous les différents genres sur cet album : house, acid, acid house, ambient, Balearic, etc. ».

Et de fait, l’album est extrêmement varié. Son ouverture nous amène du « Luxembourg » au « Denmerk » ; elle est particulièrement réussie. Le groupe y incorpore des éléments acides bien raw, qu’enveloppent des jeux de synthés maîtrisés. Une nouveauté ? « On ne pense pas que l’acide soit un élément nouveau dans notre musique, on a toujours été des fans de musique acid, de Phuture et Trax Records jusqu’à Rephlex », nous confient-ils. Ils continuent : « On n’arrive pas à se détacher de la version old school de l’acid. Même si les approches les plus récentes sont intéressantes – on pense toujours que l’acid, c’est une 303 et une drum machine ».

Nous survolons alors « Eastern Islands » – un morceau à la beauté discrète et puissante : ressac des synthétiseurs, solo mélancolique et groovy de la boite à rythme – pour entrer, à la suite de « Taiwan », dans le deuxième volet de notre voyage qui, de « Haiti » au « Chile », nous amène dans des territoires davantage connotés NYC-House, plus exotiques, plus rétros, parfois cheap, en tout cas moins convaincants. L’atterrissage s’effectue quelques instants plus tard sur le tarmac de l’« Italy » et du « Canada », deux morceaux atmosphériques dans la veine de leurs premiers various. Je soulève le bras de mon tourne-disque, en retire le second vinyle et le range dans sa pochette en carton ; il est plat comme une carte, rond comme la terre. Phileas Fogg aurait dû s’acheter un 33 tours : les vrais voyages sont intérieurs.

Interview

Hello Audio Atlas ! Can you introduce yourselves and tell us a little bit about what you do?

Hello! We are a duo from Greece we were born and raised in Thessaloniki (Greece) and have been friends since the early 90’s. We started separately our journey into electronic music with dj’ing around 91-92 and then later around 97 with our first home studio recordings. We joined forces in 2006 and started to make tracks just for fun. We prefer not to put out more details about us because we are kind of « faceless techno bollocks »

How did Greek, NYC-inspired musician happen to be signed into a Chicago label like Mathematics Recordings?

We didn’t had in mind to release the tracks that we made, but just wanted to be listened by people. So we used to upload them in myspace just to get feedback from our friends. It just happened that Jamal Moss bumped in to our page and asked if we could send him more tracks .

So it happened.

Which side of Mathematics are you the most attracted by?

We trull can’t choose a favorite side of label!

We like A and B side

There’s something quite new in your album, as compared to your first tracks: the acid element…

We don’t feel that the acid element is new to our music we always have been fans of acid music (from the likes at future, trax records, to rephlex stuff). In 2009 we got hold of a 303-606 combo and we were twiddling the knobs all day!!!

In the last two years, acid has been on everybody’s lips. While some artists try to catch the original spirit of the founding fathers, others experiment new and interesting mixtures. How would you qualify your own version of it, and what’s your opinion on these evolutions?

We cannot get away from the old school sound of acid. So while the new approach on acid is quite interesting – we still think that acid is pure 303 and a drum machine.

What kind of instrument do you use? Are you an “analog only” kind of project ?

In the software vs hardware debate we could say that we use both worlds.

We record on Ableton Live and we use software effects, but at the same time in are hardware gear nuts !!

We love to use our juno 106 or 60 for pads strings and basses, and the tr 707 – sh 101 combo is always instant fun for us!! So it doesn’t matter what you use, but what you do with it.

What do you think of the Greek musical scene? Who are your favourite artists from there?

The last few years the greek edm scene is growing with very interesting people like Andid, June, Alex Tsiridis who are making international career with very nice music.

The journey has always been an essential part of the music pleasure, but you kind of “systematize” it by giving each of your track a country’s name. Can you present us your project, its origin and its signification?

It all started with the track « Italy » on which we tried to achieve a specific mellow house sound that reminded us of the early Italian house we used to listen from mixed tapes. Then it became a kind of project, but in reality we think that this « journey » is not really a journey per se but our passage from all the music we enjoyed through the years, thus all the different genres on the album (house, acid, acid house, ambient, Balearic, etc)

Would you like your titles to influence’s the way somebody listens to your track?

That is up to the listener, but we definitely would like to happen.

Can you explain us the naming process of a track like “France”? Like, did you come with the desire to make a track about France, and then produced it, or did it happen in the end, like “we want to put this track on wax, which country can we link that track to”?

France is one of the countries that we like for its culture and people, but also we felt that it should be a track called France on the album, in tribute to the French artists that we like over the years ( Jean Michel Jarre, Laurent garnier, Fnac Recs) and have been great influence for us.

What are your tracks inspired by: the true essence of countries (based on history, economy, politics etc.), their poetical essence (music and books from this country), their “globalized, standardized” one (the “standardized one” you would find on a travel agency, with French drinking wine and eating baguette, Greeks eating Feta and olives), or their phonic structure?

It has more to do with phonic structure, but as we said there isn’t a pure match between the track and the countries, is kind of a blend of all things.

Did the Greek political situation have any impact on your musical journeys?

In Greece we go through a very difficult economic and political situation, in which every aspect of our lives changes every single day, unfortunately for the worst. So in this dark situation we try to adopt and in our spare time to be creative and express ourselves through music and hope that in the coming years we will see a better day

We would like to thank everyone who support us , and hope that this album is just the beginning of our journey.