7585xDBD

This music project was without a doubt a new area for me. Developing a soundtrack to a sustainable fashion event in Berlin, in the midst of a lockdown! On 20th August 2020 at the Dream Baby Dream bar, I was virtually in Berlin:

“7585 collaborated with Dream Baby Dream Bar and developed a special capsule collection for all dreamers and lovers of the bar and those who are on the right path to change the game, supporting ethical fashion, individuality and independence. Founded in 2018 in a short period of time DBD became a hotspot for Berlin and international artists. The collaboration was a celebration of the craftsmanship, use of honest materials and support of each other on a local scene. Inspired by visitors of the bar and berliners, the collection was designed for women and men as unisex seasonless pieces underlighning genderfluidity. The collection was produced and manufactured by 7585 at their current studio in Berlin at a concept store and event space for fashion, design and art The Publisher Berlin. The journey from idea to garment is minimised to 10 km and the entire process operates from one studio in Berlin.”

Of course, I didn’t travel to Berlin at the time – this was a remote collaboration. I had met 7585 during the space.zero event I curated for the UK-Russia Year of Music. Alla was from Kaliningrad where we held space.zero but was living in Berlin. We struck up a good friendship and talked about how we might collaborate together in the future and I guess here is the result!

To delve briefly into the technicals of this piece, I used VCV Rack which is virtual modular software which allows you to create music in a Eurorack style worklow. Eurorack is really about the physicality of making and breaking connections and twiddling knobs, so I made sure that I’d mapped my 64 rotary controller (a Faderfox PC12) onto all of the controls that I’d need regualr access to. Composing the piece was a case of building moods and feelings whilst making use of a set of complementary generative patches that made up 3 voices of the modular instrument. What I had in mind when building the patches was an instrument that almost had a mind of its own, something that purred and mubled when left alone and roared when it was encouraged. Using VCV Rack as opposed to an hardware set-up has given me the freedom to compose on devices that I could only dream of having physically due to the huge cost. Composiing on semi-generative systems takes away that daunting feeling that a blank page can give you.

I look forward to developing this partnership further, not least with 7585 but also The Brvtalist, who was very kind to include music in his curated line-up. With Berlin being at the centre of a lot of the thing’s that inspire’s my work – from its Techno scene, to ground-breaking mastering engineer Rashad Becker, and its fearless embracing of the radical and avant-garde – I feel in some small way closer to that scene now. Hopefully you’ll catch me in person at Dream Baby Dream sometime soon, once we’re safe to be mixing again!