COLLECTION 6
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1<br />
<strong>COLLECTION</strong> 6
THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO<br />
Oryanne Dufour I Aynur Pektas I Dirk-Peter Wiegmann I Anina Brosius I Juan<br />
Ernesto Oliveros Muller I Carina Jahn I Deborah Frey I Fabian Kalker I Erwin<br />
Stranintzky I Birge George I Romain Grandveaud I Anna Willert I Martin Strauss<br />
I Andrea Hoppe I Dana Mikelson I Silke Wilhelm I Valquire I Philipp Bruening I<br />
Franco Erre I Thomas Gastl I Gonny Glass I Georg Szablowski I Charli Howard I<br />
Christine Kreiselmeier I Urban Spree GmbH I Attila Huber I Daisy Walker I Jenna<br />
Lee I Sherion Mullings I Robert Logemann I Jochen Sand I Gabriella Barouch I<br />
Fotis Vazakas I Tussunee Roadjanarungtong I Steve Pletscher I Irmela Schwengler<br />
I The WYE GmbH I Marc Majewski I Fabian Blascke I Fak Yeah Clothing I<br />
Sven Stienen I Vatilis Neufeld I Stefan Nott I Christian Born I Contentement I<br />
Zsuzsanna Majadan I Kristin Lawrenz I Richard Dubieniec I Rosa Morelli I The<br />
Candy Factory Studio I John Morrison I Lucie Le Hir I Michael Woischneck I<br />
Marine Drouan I Jerome Karsenti I Torsten Grewe I Astafyeva Tatiana I Katrin<br />
Cremer I Anthracite I Shantu Bhattacharjee I Frank Wilde I Danielle Shami I<br />
Karsten Schulz I Karl Slater I Peter Wiklund I Robert Sacheli I Birte Meyer I<br />
Robert Kothe I Orestes Hellewegen I Kobald TV I Caroline Burnett I Florian<br />
Mass I Mads Dinesen I Marie Staggat I Sören Münzer I Felipe Torres Basave I<br />
Mario Seyer I Marc Handke I Eva Vorsmann I David Bennett I Arkadij Koscheew<br />
I Chantal Henken I Helge Langensiepen I Karina Schönberger I Anna-Christina<br />
Faust I Lisa Ladke I Voodoo Market I Suzana Holtgrave I Anita Krizanovic<br />
THANK YOU
Spectacular programme with<br />
More then 100 talents from all over the world.<br />
(The Netherlands)<br />
6 th edition of<br />
the international and<br />
interdisciplinary<br />
fashion festival<br />
June<br />
in Maastricht<br />
June<br />
1 15<br />
until<br />
web<br />
fashionclash.nl<br />
fashion shows / exhibition / performances / designer market and more.
photo: hordur ingason
Editor-in-Chief<br />
Fashion Editor<br />
Art Director<br />
Art Editors<br />
Music Editors<br />
Movie Editor<br />
Marcel Schlutt<br />
mschlutt@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Nicolas Simoneau<br />
nsimoneau@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Amanda M. Jansson<br />
ajansson@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Emma E.K. Jones<br />
ejones@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Amy Heaton<br />
amyheaton@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Ange Suprowicz<br />
ange.suprowicz@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Claudio Alavargonzalez Tera<br />
calvargonzaleztera@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
“If death doesn’t kill you, my demons will!”<br />
That could certainly be one way of summarising the past few<br />
weeks we’ve had here. The last months have been a difficult<br />
time for us at KALTBLUT. You could even talk of a cloak of<br />
darkness that was veiled over us. But we wouldn’t be KALT-<br />
BLUT Magazine if we didn’t turn this around into something<br />
positive. We learnt a lot, both in terms of trust and how the<br />
magazine and fashion markets work. It’s not always easy to stay<br />
true to yourself but KALTBLUT Magazine stands for candour,<br />
strength and morality and this will always remain the same<br />
regardless of darker times.<br />
Noire is the theme for this issue. Black in fashion, in art and<br />
in music. Why the fascination with black? It was revealing to<br />
see how artists formed their own version of the theme. This<br />
issue celebrates two years of KALTBLUT Magazine and at<br />
this point of the journey we’d like to thank all our friends and<br />
family, artists and agencies. You continued believing in us, supported<br />
us and never shied away from offering us constructive<br />
criticism. Due to you we managed to grow up.<br />
We are more proud than ever to show our latest issue. A lot has<br />
changed. We’ve deliberately decided to publish the magazine<br />
with 208 pages, meaning we’re able to lower the price from<br />
30 EURO to 14 EURO. We hope you like it and support the<br />
change.<br />
This issue is the most personal one for us all. A lot of tears were<br />
shed, it was a difficult journey but it was certainly worth it.<br />
Yours Marcel and the team<br />
Photo by Lucio Aru & Franco Erre<br />
Fashion Assistant<br />
Brazil Editors<br />
UK Editor<br />
Translation /<br />
Proofreading<br />
www.kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Nico Sutor<br />
nsutor@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Mauricio & Aleesandro Lázaro<br />
brazil@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Karl Slater<br />
karlslater@kaltblut-magazine.com<br />
Amy Heaton, Ange Suprowicz ,<br />
Amanda M.Jansson, Bénédicte Lelong<br />
Pernille Sandberg / Photographer<br />
www.pernillesandberg.com<br />
Pernille is a well-known photographer based in Berlin and Copenhagen. For this issue, Pernille<br />
visited the fashion label Augustin Teboul in their studio and had a chat about the fashion.<br />
Nik Pate / Photographer<br />
www.nikpate.com<br />
Nik is a London-based fashion photographer and digital artist. Mister Pate is an upcoming<br />
artist in the UK and this is our first collaboration with him and we are proud to showcase two<br />
of his works.<br />
Suzana Holtgrave / Photographer<br />
www.suzanaholtgrave.com<br />
Once again, the Berlin-based photography icon has produced 2 amazing editorials for us.<br />
Suzana has been part of our journey from the very beginning. We are sure you’re familiar with<br />
her work.<br />
Agnese Pagliano / Graphic designer<br />
www.agnesepagliano.com<br />
Agnese is a freelance graphic designer. She has already worked with severals magazines and has<br />
made a notable contribution to this issue. She is obsessed with typography and loves to create<br />
new fonts in her free time.<br />
Eileen Rullmann / Photographer<br />
www.art-photographie.com<br />
Eileen is a still life photographer based in Hamburg. She specialises in macro photography,<br />
particularly focussing on insects. Her eye for detail and her aesthetics have allowed her work<br />
to be published in Vogue Italia.<br />
Model: Melanie Gaydos, Photography by Maren Michaelis,<br />
Dress by Augustin Teboul, Postproduction by Florian Hetz<br />
- florian.hetz@me.com -<br />
KALTBLUT Magazine is published by KALTBLUT Media UG,<br />
Nicolas Simoneau & Marcel Schlutt<br />
KALTBLUT MAGAZINE I Grünbergerstrasse 3 I 10243 Berlin I Germany
11<br />
p.12 Dark Travelers<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.20 Darkside<br />
Interview<br />
p.26 Sketch Book<br />
Illustrations by Jean Khalife<br />
p.30 The Last Supper<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.38 Melanie Gaydos<br />
Fashion Story + Interview<br />
p.46<br />
Berlin Faces<br />
You Should Know<br />
p.50 The Widows<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.58 Pins<br />
Interview<br />
p.60 Decode<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.66<br />
Article<br />
Pictures of<br />
The Dead<br />
p.68 Paint It Black<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.77 Joseba Eskubi<br />
Interview<br />
p.80 Nachkriegszeit<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.86 Horror-Shaping Art<br />
Article<br />
p.88 Heraista<br />
Beauty Editorial<br />
p.96 Into Brackets<br />
Interviews<br />
p.100 Black Metal<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.106 Augustin Teboul<br />
Interview<br />
p.112 Marika<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.120 Mehryl Levisse<br />
Interview<br />
p.124 Cunt Cunt Chanel<br />
Interview<br />
p.126 Must Have<br />
p.127 Dear Bad Bed Bug<br />
p.128 Queen of Sorcery<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.134 Gesaffelstein<br />
Portrait<br />
p.136 Lines Of Life<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.142 Eirik Lyster<br />
Interview<br />
p.145 Love & Malice<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.150 Austra<br />
Interview<br />
p.154 Ana Alcazar<br />
Fashion Story + Interview<br />
p.164 c355p001<br />
Interview<br />
p.166 Concrete<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.174 Gustavo Jononovich<br />
Interview<br />
p.178 The X-Insider<br />
Interview with M<br />
p.180 Termites<br />
Photo Story<br />
p.184<br />
Column<br />
What's Left Of<br />
The Noire?<br />
p.186 Trentemøller<br />
Interview<br />
p.190 Susanne Bosslau<br />
Interview + Fashion Story<br />
p.196 Kerby Rosanes<br />
Interview<br />
p.198 Must Wear<br />
p.200 Sorry My Love<br />
Fashion Story<br />
p.206 Humphrey Bogart<br />
Portrait<br />
p.208 CraZay Giveaway<br />
p.209 (End).itorial
12<br />
Jacket: Sadak<br />
Dark Travelers<br />
Photographers: Lucio Aru and Franco Erre www.errearuphotography.com<br />
Stylist: Crystal Birch www.therealcrystalbirch.com<br />
Agency: Glossartistmanagement.co.za<br />
Assistants: Micheal Mosel and Moritz Jasper<br />
Hair and Make-Up artist: Janine Pritschow www.janinepritschow.com<br />
Agency: Glossartistmanagement.co.za<br />
Models: Franz and Nicholai at ultmodels
13<br />
Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Studio Laend Phuengkit, Scarf: Stylist’s own, Cape: Preview5, Trousers: Comme des Garçons, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester<br />
Shirt: Sopopular, Coat: Julia Heuse
Shirt: Sopopular<br />
14<br />
Hat: Mads Dinesen, Shirt: Preview5
15<br />
Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Studio Laend Phuengkit, Scarf: Stylists own, Cape: Preview5, Trousers: Comme des Garçons, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester
17<br />
Franz (left) Top: Sadak, Trousers: Ethel Vaughn, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden, Nicholai (right) Coat: Laend Phuengkit, Knitwear: Tiger of Sweden, Trousers: Bobby Kolade, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester
18<br />
Nicholai (below) Shirt: Sadak, Trousers: Julia Heuse, Boots: Ann Demeulemeester, Franz (above) Jacket: Sadak, Trousers: Sopopular, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden<br />
Trousers: Ethel Vaughn
19<br />
Nicholai (left) Glasses: Kuboraum, Knitwear: Tiger of Sweden, Trousers: Sadak, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden, Franz Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Bobby Kolade, Trousers: Ethel Vaughn, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester
DARKSIDE:<br />
20<br />
A Lesson In Patience<br />
Experimenting with electronic music at the<br />
tender age of 14, making his debut on Wolf<br />
+ Lamb three years later, forming his own<br />
record label and releasing his critically acclaimed<br />
debut album before turning 21 or<br />
graduating: Nicolas Jaar may have gotten off<br />
to an early start, but he’s in no hurry to get<br />
anywhere fast. Disinterested in dwelling on<br />
the past or former glories, he’s invested in<br />
new beginnings and startling collaborations.<br />
The electro wunderkind has paired up with<br />
multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington to<br />
create Darkside; a project that sees Jaar bringing<br />
his raspy baritone to air amongst warmly<br />
played keyboards, tactile electronic textures<br />
and other sundries. Slowhand Dire Strait<br />
leads might be the last thing you’d expect an<br />
electronic producer to bring to his records,<br />
but if there’s anything we’ve learnt from Jaar<br />
in the last years it’s: don’t expect. Subtlety,<br />
strangeness and difference: the precocious<br />
producer is giving listeners what they want.<br />
Nicolas Jaar is invested in developing a singular<br />
style and letting it patiently evolve over<br />
time.<br />
As a producer who’s known for bringing dance<br />
music down to 100 BPM or lower, he’s created<br />
an atmosphere that’s unconventional and<br />
unprecedented. The crowd’s patience is not<br />
left underserving; Jaar delivers in pitches<br />
that persist and peak. In remixing the entirety<br />
of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories<br />
earlier this year and renaming their project<br />
Daftside, Jaar and his musical partner shed<br />
a light on their unequivocal ability to find<br />
something else in the music- their inclination<br />
to take big moments and make them small,<br />
turning them inward – an achievement noted<br />
for its remarkable turnaround rate. In contrast,<br />
the duo’s full-length album took a full<br />
two years to produce and reflects Jaar’s eye<br />
for detail and the care he dedicates into every<br />
aspect he presents. Released on Jaar’s brand<br />
new imprint and subscription service, Other<br />
People, predecessor to his first record label<br />
Clown & Sunset, Psychic beckons the listener<br />
to slow down and move at its pace.<br />
Exploratory, confrontational and wandering,<br />
Psychic is full of characteristically long Jaar<br />
songs, that feeling of “the song has you” for<br />
the seven minutes of its duration; and in a<br />
record that fits an incredible amount of music<br />
into a compact 45 minutes, the silences<br />
themselves are moments of active listening<br />
too, with unintentional things happening between<br />
the beats. The opening track is eleven<br />
minutes long and it takes four full minutes<br />
for the tinkering to do its thing, to dissolve<br />
from a space-radio crackle into a beat that’s<br />
both melodic and methodical as it meanders<br />
and experiments into a heavy-lidded, inebriated<br />
swell. The first single Paper Trails with its<br />
singed blue riffs in the middle of the record<br />
is the album’s one only narrative and Freak,<br />
Go Home encompasses a constant fluidity<br />
between acoustic and digital percussion.<br />
Unhurried yet insistent; the record cogs away<br />
before it can get personal; Jaar and Harrington<br />
tease the concept of scale, the desire to<br />
instil wonder. The record is intimate: it’s a<br />
journey- from start to finish, to the celestial,<br />
to the otherworldly- that beckons you further:<br />
the longer you spend with Psychic, the more<br />
you sink into its depths, speeds, sounds and<br />
findings. Dropping you in from nowhere,<br />
there’s a driving force but don’t try to define<br />
it; it takes its time to coalesce, and as soon<br />
as an ostensible connection is made, it’s gone<br />
again- fleeting and departing as quickly as it<br />
appeared. What grounds the record is Jaar’s<br />
uniquely congested vocals that eke in over a<br />
gentle pulse of synth-dappled drones leaving<br />
the listener engulfed in the realisation that<br />
he has a voice where you never expect him<br />
to mean exactly what he says. Live, the duo<br />
gives a performance that displays both restraint<br />
and a high level of skill- like the feel<br />
of the whole album: the sounds bulge as soon<br />
they burst, never giving away too much. In<br />
conversation, Jaar and Harrington are articulate,<br />
dedicated and gregarious; the former<br />
passionate and insightful- with a careful,<br />
organised sense of self that belies his age.<br />
The pair’s full-length effort spills with sounds<br />
that self-ignite, over take one another, and<br />
combine at imperceptible speeds, whether<br />
solo or layered. Patiently and steadily, the<br />
rhythms, the meaning, the story rises and<br />
reaches a state of euphoria without divulging<br />
that it was up anything at all- which, come<br />
to think of it, is much like the collaboration<br />
itself.
21<br />
Interview by Ange Suprowicz<br />
Photo credit: Other People / Matador
22<br />
“…Sometimes things take their time. It’s sad<br />
sometimes; it’s frustrating sometimes<br />
but it’s also just very real… and I love the<br />
very simple fact when something finally<br />
happens you realise ‘Oh, it couldn’t have ever<br />
happened before. It needed to<br />
happen now.”<br />
KALTBLUT: First of all, huge congratulations on the<br />
album. It’s sensational. The recording process spun over<br />
two years and critics have been quick to comment that<br />
the record reflects that. I like to think you’re teaching listeners<br />
the virtue of patience and deliberation. Does this<br />
ring true?<br />
Nico: That’s nice.<br />
Dave: That is really nice.<br />
Nico: Patience…<br />
Dave: Patience…<br />
Nico: We had a song called ‘Patience’, we haven’t written<br />
yet.<br />
Dave: I think that those things are things that we both value.<br />
We share that in things that we like… and more important<br />
than just things, the experience of music for both of<br />
us has a lot to do with that and that is a very real point of<br />
connection and so if that’s coming through, then it’s very<br />
honest.<br />
Nico: And life takes its time y’know, sometimes things<br />
take their time. It’s sad sometimes; it’s frustrating sometimes<br />
but it’s also just very real and I love the very<br />
simple fact if something just takes two years to happen;<br />
something you’ve been waiting for finally happens then<br />
you realise ‘Oh, it couldn’t have ever happened before. It<br />
needed to happen now.’ Y’know that feeling of in... inevit…<br />
what is it?<br />
Dave: Inevitability.<br />
Nico: Inevita... Inevitability! Boom. That’s very real. We<br />
didn’t necessarily write songs or tracks we just wrote a<br />
fifty minute thing in a way, and so in the light of that we<br />
did want to tell a story that was a little bit more subdued,<br />
that hopefully you could sink into and that maybe the first<br />
time you listen to it you would tell yourself ‘this is an orb<br />
that maybe I want to sink into’. And I’m saying that in the<br />
friendliest way possible… it’s not a challenge at all.<br />
KALTBLUT: It’s interesting, the theme of challenge. When<br />
you first started together you said it was tough, wasn’t<br />
what you expected and it required a lot of work. What was<br />
it that kept you pushing and motivated?<br />
Nico: When did we say that?<br />
Dave: Doesn’t sound like something I’d say.<br />
Nico: Nope, I think that’s probably like a bad German<br />
translation…<br />
KALTBLUT: I was surprised it didn’t seem like something<br />
that would apply to you…<br />
Dave: Maybe you could set the record straight. It’s so easy<br />
and fun and that’s why we kept doing it.<br />
Nico: It came about naturally. The end of anything is much<br />
harder because we needed to actually make some true,<br />
miniscule decisions. But at the beginning, no- that was all<br />
play. That was all fun.<br />
KALTBLUT: Nico, the idea of Darkside came to you to<br />
make a more blues orientated guitar heavy project…<br />
Nico: No, it didn’t really come to me. It was more the combination<br />
of Dave and I sitting down one day and making<br />
music together. It wasn’t a project that I had I in mind and<br />
I’m gonna do this. It was more… Dave and I just met each<br />
other and we decided to make music one day and then it<br />
happened.<br />
KALTBLUT: You started Darkside two years ago in Berlin<br />
and Nico you’ve commented that Berghain is your favourite<br />
place to play. How is it for you both to be back in this<br />
venue and city at the start of your Psychic tour?<br />
Dave: Yeah we made our first song in Berlin.
23<br />
Nico: That’s the only song we made in Berlin. It’s amazing<br />
being back. I can’t wait to play. I actually had Berghain in<br />
mind when I wrote the record. The sad thing about that is<br />
that when you really love a space, there’s few clubs in the<br />
world that I love and that I don’t want to play anywhere<br />
else. I just want to continue playing in this place hopefully<br />
until I’m like old y’know? (laughs) When you don’t have<br />
a show that’s as good as you want it, it’s such a shame<br />
because everything is so perfect. It’s a perfect club. The<br />
pressure is higher in a way because you want to, not live<br />
up, but you want to adhere to the club.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve said before that where you play your<br />
music changes everything. For those unable to experience<br />
you live, what would be the best sitting to listen to the<br />
record in?<br />
Dave: If you’re sticking around for the show you’ll see that<br />
it is and it isn’t like the record, just for the record (laughs)<br />
My answer to this would be: wherever they want to listen<br />
to it, in a meaningful way not like a (distorts his voice)<br />
“listen to it wherever you want to”. I love records where I<br />
feel like I make it my “this-record”, it’s the record I listen<br />
to when I can’t sleep or this is the record I listen to when<br />
it’s a beautiful day out and I’m walking around.<br />
Nico: Or if you’re driving.<br />
Dave: Yeah if you’re driving… things that are very personal.<br />
Hopefully people can be personal with it.<br />
KALTBLUT: It’s been said that there’s a gravitational pull<br />
in the record that only exists in music made by Nicolas<br />
Jaar. What is this pull, this hype that surrounds you and<br />
how do you sustain it?<br />
Nico: Excuse me? I said that?<br />
KALTBLUT: No no, you didn’t… (laughs)<br />
Nico: Oh, thank god. I honestly don’t see how any of the<br />
music that we made as Darkside has that much to do with<br />
me. I think why I decided to make this project, to be in this<br />
position of being in a duo instead of doing my own thing<br />
etcetera etcetera is because I believe in the fact that we’re<br />
creating a different sound than what I do and that whatever…<br />
thing that he’s talking about y’know, maybe that’s his<br />
own subjective way but for me this is a band and a band<br />
that makes songs together and if anything I’m excited to<br />
not be the sole maker of decisions and the sole maker of<br />
the music. I’ve been doing that for five years and now it’s<br />
exciting to not do it.<br />
KALTBLUT: So let me ask you: do you think you establish<br />
connections between genres or pronounce differences?<br />
Something that’s very apparent is that there are no rules<br />
to your work…<br />
Nico: I… I love the idea of no rules by the way. That’s… I’m<br />
happy that at least you can see that because that’s very<br />
exciting to me. One of the most important things about<br />
just talking about genre, which I like talking about… I don’t<br />
hate talking about genre; I actually like talking about it a<br />
lot because it is interesting. I don’t think it’s interesting to<br />
make music in a very specific genre in order to do certain<br />
things… I mean you can use genre, I think that’s the most<br />
exciting thing. But one thing I wanted to say, in the ‘base<br />
form’ there are certain things about music that have been<br />
co-opted by music’s ability to sell. And genre is one of<br />
them and so I get very excited when I see music that can<br />
be appealing but that maybe finds a way out of very, very<br />
specific cultural and musical statements because in my<br />
utopian mind that I still think I have, music that makes you<br />
“The most important thing is to defy<br />
being used, defy being labelled,<br />
defy all these things, maybe create a<br />
tiny space for yourself where you<br />
don’t have rules because rules are the<br />
things that create a lot of the problems<br />
that this time has.”
question it makes you question a lot<br />
of different things if you actually think<br />
about it, not only music. I think that’s<br />
the small role that an artist can have<br />
today because our role is getting<br />
smaller and smaller and we’re getting<br />
used more and more, right? We’re just<br />
getting used more by everyone. Not<br />
me, artists in general so I think the<br />
most important thing is to defy being<br />
used, defy being labelled, defy all these<br />
things, maybe create a tiny space<br />
for yourself where you don’t have rules<br />
because rules are the things that<br />
create a lot of the problems that this<br />
time has.<br />
KALTBLUT: Drawing on the point<br />
about music being co-opted by it’s<br />
ability to sell … you’ve said before<br />
that you hate CDs and you think<br />
the music industry is just out to sell<br />
drinks.<br />
Nico: The CD thing is just a stupid<br />
thing I thought for a while. I don’t<br />
know why I was so against them, I<br />
actually don’t really care. I don’t want<br />
to be mean to your question though;<br />
the truth is I actually don’t care... I’m<br />
not anti- it… in one interview, in the<br />
one stupid interview where I said that,<br />
because I do feel stupid that I talked<br />
about it in that way… what I actually<br />
meant to say is that CDs were invented<br />
with a specific amount of time,<br />
with a weight and with a design that<br />
was easiest to sell and we should<br />
think about that. That’s all I was saying.<br />
The context of that is huge.<br />
KALTBLUT: So you designed The<br />
Prism as a contrast to that?<br />
Nico: Yeah, but that’s also a primitive<br />
idea of hopefully a better idea that I’ll<br />
have at some point, because that’s<br />
still not the answer at all.<br />
24<br />
i<br />
KALTBLUT: It’s been noted that you<br />
have some distinctly old fashioned<br />
ideas about art and integrity. Your<br />
sound and musical tropes reference<br />
things before your time. Simply put,<br />
do you think things were simpler in<br />
the past?<br />
Dave: I wouldn’t really presume to<br />
know (laughs) I mean, the short<br />
answer is no. I think that’s kind of a<br />
binary that relies on facile idea of<br />
history that Nico and I wouldn’t think.<br />
If there are sounds or things that are<br />
feel that they’re from another time<br />
then its because we live in the era of<br />
the über-archive, like the total and<br />
so, what that means is that…what<br />
ends up becoming the fabric of internal<br />
life, one’s creative life is built on<br />
thousands of years of history because<br />
now we’ve fully archived it in a very<br />
intense way. On a fundamental music<br />
level that means you become influenced<br />
by, and this is my impression,<br />
things that aren’t in your city, in your<br />
year… right now I’m reading the biography<br />
of Derek Bailey, a free improviser<br />
guitarist and he talks about growing<br />
up in England before WW1 if you<br />
wanted music, he grew up in a small<br />
industrial town, you had to go see it<br />
at the pub, that’s a real thing. They<br />
couldn’t afford records, if you wanted<br />
to hear music; this was 70 years ago…<br />
Nico: Only…<br />
Dave: Yeah, only 70 years… you’d have<br />
to go down the street or drive to the<br />
next town to hear whoever had taught<br />
themselves whatever it is they were<br />
going to do over there and so now and<br />
we live on the opposite end of that<br />
spectrum. If I’m hungry and I’m curious<br />
about different things, they inevitably<br />
seep into you because you live in<br />
this archive.<br />
KALTBLUT: True to its title, Psychic<br />
is not a heart to heart but an extra<br />
sensory telepathic exchange. How<br />
important was the name giving of both<br />
Darkside and Psychic on a personal<br />
level?<br />
Nico: You mean the actual words? So<br />
the second we finished our first song,<br />
this word ‘dark side’ was in the air<br />
between us. It wasn’t the band name;<br />
we were just using it a lot.<br />
Dave: It became a descriptor of a<br />
feeling or experience, y’know if something<br />
got deep we’d be like ‘dark<br />
side’ or if something was a little bit<br />
crazy…<br />
Nico: So when we finished our first<br />
song, we were like ‘dark side’. And<br />
then we were like, whoa that should<br />
be our name. And that’s it. We never<br />
spoke about it again. It’s a placeholder.<br />
And it’s meant to be that. There’s<br />
no meaning. There’s no meaning. It’s<br />
a placeholder. It’s a colour of a shirt,<br />
right? It’s just a black shirt; it doesn’t<br />
say anything. But it says a little bit…<br />
because it’s black, it’s not white, it’s<br />
not stripy. It’s just a black shirt. Psychic<br />
is…. (hearing music in the background)<br />
Oh, they’re playing Val…the<br />
DJ is.<br />
Dave: Oh, snap!<br />
Nico: Isn’t that so cute?<br />
Dave: That’s amazing.<br />
Nico: That shit blows my mind. What<br />
were talking about?<br />
KALBLUT: The naming of Psychic…<br />
Nico: So Psychic was a little more<br />
deliberate because we did feel like<br />
there were certain things about the<br />
record that we wanted to give to people;<br />
like these were some of the things<br />
we were thinking about. And the idea<br />
of each other’s mind and creating a<br />
telepathic exchange is exciting to us…<br />
that’s so exciting to us.<br />
www.darksideusa.com
FACEBOOK.COM/PHILIPSSOUND<br />
25<br />
TWITTER.COM/YNTHT_DE<br />
PLAY.SPOTIFY.COM/USER/YNTHT<br />
MACHT SCHÖN ...<br />
MACHT LAUT ...<br />
... WEIL DU MIT DEM KOMPAKTEN,<br />
FALTBAREN DESIGN NICHT NUR DEINE<br />
KOPFHÖRER IN DIE TASCHE STECKST.<br />
... WEIL DIR DIE CITISCAPE FRAMES MIT<br />
IHREN WEICHEN ONEAR-POLSTERN<br />
EXZELLENTEN SOUND LIEFERN.<br />
SHL 5705<br />
MACHT SPASS …<br />
... WEIL DU DANK DES INTEGRIERTEN<br />
MIKROFONS JEDERZEIT ZWISCHEN MUSIK<br />
UND TELEFONIE WECHSELN KANNST.<br />
ERLEBE MUSIK WIE NOCH NIE ZUVOR<br />
WWW.YOUNEEDTOHEARTHIS.COM<br />
ENTDECKE DIE KOMPLETTE RANGE UNTER<br />
WWW.PHILIPS.DE/HEADPHONES
26<br />
SKETCH<br />
Almost like an extension of themselves, the sketch book is an indispensable part to every artist. Bursting with<br />
ideas, thoughts and doodles, it’s where the magic begins. Every issue we approach one artist and present them<br />
with a blank page to allow their imagination run wild.<br />
The first guest for this brand new feature is Jean Khalife, product designer of Vans Europe.<br />
Jean can also be found on Instagram via his illustrator name JOHN KAISER KNIGHT.
THE LAST<br />
31<br />
SUPPER<br />
Photographed by Gal Reuveni Styled by Marina Milcheva<br />
Models: Blake Myers, Sofya Titova, Natasha Ramachandran @Next Model Management<br />
Top - Balmain, Rings - Topshop, Belt - Evis, Model: Natasha Ramachandran
33<br />
Leather Biker Jacket - Evis, Skirt - Zara , Belt - Balmain, Sunglasses - Ray Ban, Model: Blake Myers
35<br />
Leather Vest & Leather Biker Jacket – Evis, Models: Natasha Ramachandran & Sofya Titova
37<br />
Jumpsuit - Gucci, Belt - Moschino, Model: Sofya Titova
38<br />
Melanie<br />
Gaydos<br />
The Queen From Outta Space!<br />
Interview by Marcel Schlutt<br />
Photography by Maren Michaelis<br />
www.marenmichaelis.com<br />
Styling: Carrie Bass (alter.ego)<br />
Hair & Make-up: Deniz Mouratoglou (alter.ego)<br />
contact@alterego-art.de<br />
Some human beings are so special,<br />
they must simply be from<br />
outer space, can’t come from<br />
this planet. New York based model<br />
and artist Melanie Gaydos<br />
is one of them. Officially born in<br />
Connecticut, but I am sure this<br />
is a legend, Miss Gaydos is gifted<br />
with the most special looks<br />
and a big heart. She was born<br />
to be a model. During these last<br />
years, we have worked with so<br />
many models but none of them<br />
revealed that much of her own<br />
personality in front of the camera.<br />
She is not afraid of being<br />
naked and so easy to work with,<br />
that I would like to just book her<br />
again and again, right away. Together<br />
with photographer Maren<br />
Michaelis, she has produced<br />
one of the most amazing editorials<br />
for our magazine. Yes, she<br />
is not that typical boring beauty<br />
model. Her beauty is on another<br />
level. I don’t see how any of the<br />
“normal” models could compare<br />
to her. I had the pleasure of interviewing<br />
Melanie and after the<br />
interview I am 100 % sure that<br />
she is not from Earth. She is : The<br />
Queen From Outta Space!
39<br />
KALTBLUT: Hallo Melanie. First at all I<br />
have to say: I adore your photos in our<br />
editorial, and having had a look through<br />
your portfolio. You have some amazing<br />
photographs. On every photo you look<br />
so strong, as if you are born to do this.<br />
Was modelling something you always<br />
wanted to do?<br />
Melanie: Hallo! Thank you so much,<br />
when I was younger I had a dream of<br />
being on a billboard. I never thought<br />
I would be modelling, though I am<br />
sure this is something every little girl<br />
may dream about. I don’t think I ever<br />
thought I could model, but I wanted to<br />
be someone important. I guess in general<br />
I always had a fascination with<br />
something being “larger than life.”<br />
KALTBLUT: You take some amazing<br />
photos in each shot: which story or editorial<br />
is your favourite so far?<br />
Melanie: I really enjoy all of the photo<br />
shoots that I take part in so it is so hard<br />
to choose!! My favourite projects would<br />
have to be (in chronological order) the<br />
Rammstein video shoot for “Mein Herz<br />
Brennt” directed by Eugenio Recuenco<br />
and the current editorial by Maren Michaelis<br />
for your magazine KALTBLUT. I<br />
also really loved one of my last projects<br />
in Germany, a collaboration with photographer<br />
Christian Martin Weiss.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can you tell us something<br />
about your background? All I know is<br />
that you live in New York. Are you born<br />
and raised there? How did little Melanie<br />
grow up?<br />
Melanie: I grew up in Connecticut, a<br />
suburban town an hour or so outside<br />
of NYC. I moved to NYC about<br />
three years ago while transferring art<br />
schools. I had kind of a rough childhood<br />
with my peers and family life, but I always<br />
found solace in artwork and the<br />
outdoors. Since moving to NYC, I miss<br />
living in the forest most of all!<br />
KALTBLUT: What was your dream<br />
growing up? And why?<br />
Melanie: I had always wanted to be an<br />
artist growing up. This really paved the<br />
way for all of my childhood and before<br />
I started modelling, I was a fine artist<br />
and studied in school for a degree.<br />
Being an artist is the complete freedom<br />
to do whatever you wanted to do,<br />
and basically the freedom without any<br />
excuses to just be who you are.<br />
KALTBLUT: You have quite a unique<br />
look: and as I can see in your portfolio<br />
you don’t have any problems with<br />
being nude in front of a camera. Where<br />
is this confidence coming from?<br />
Melanie: Sometimes it surprises me<br />
how comfortable I am with nudity as<br />
well. I think it comes from a variety of<br />
things but I’ve always just been comfortable<br />
with it. I’ve had to endure a lot<br />
physically and psychologically when I<br />
was younger so I think I’ve had to learn<br />
at an early age how to accept and be<br />
comfortable with my own body. Nudity<br />
is our purest form and most natural<br />
state. It doesn’t matter to me if I am<br />
clothed or nude, there is so much our<br />
bodies can say regardless.<br />
KALTBLUT: You have a very good body.<br />
Do you work out a lot in the gym? Or is<br />
it nature? How important do you think<br />
it is for a model to stay in shape?<br />
Melanie: Thank you, no I don’t work<br />
out or go to the gym. I do have a very<br />
high metabolism and am naturally thin.<br />
I used to go to the gym when I was<br />
younger just to stay fit or accompany<br />
friends. I always think it is a good idea<br />
to stay healthy and really enjoy being<br />
active in general. Living in cities or even<br />
the forest really helps, you just walk<br />
everywhere! When I first started modelling,<br />
I worked primarily in the ˝art<br />
nude“ world where the subject’s body<br />
is encouraged to have character and<br />
to really embrace who you are outside<br />
of society’s ideals. As I shoot more on<br />
industry related sets, I definitely see<br />
and can understand the pressure models<br />
have nowadays to maintain their<br />
image. As individuals, we evolve and<br />
our ideals change. I think all people<br />
have the right to be happy and healthy.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you live from modelling?<br />
Or do you have a normal job to<br />
pay the rent?<br />
Melanie: I am a full time model so yes<br />
this is how I live! At times it is difficult,<br />
especially just being a freelancer in<br />
general but I can not think of anything<br />
else I would rather be doing. I’m very<br />
open to creativity and opportunities,<br />
but modelling is by far the most enjoyable<br />
for me.<br />
KALTBLUT: As I said before you live<br />
in New York: capital of all cities in the<br />
world. How does a normal day usually<br />
pan out for you?<br />
Melanie: Haha well it is probably a lot<br />
less exciting or stable than one would<br />
think! My schedule varies day by day. I<br />
also live in Brooklyn which is a borough<br />
separated from Manhattan (”the city”).<br />
Life in Brooklyn is a lot more relaxed<br />
than living right in the heart of New<br />
York. A typical day is waking up and<br />
having breakfast, then taking the subway<br />
into Manhattan or wherever my<br />
shoot may be. The subways are pretty<br />
much amazing here because they<br />
usually pan out anywhere you need to<br />
go. Once I leave my neighborhood, it is<br />
very busy and I just get swept into the<br />
momentum of the city. I love waking up<br />
to go to shoots and then depending on<br />
how much time I have in between shoot<br />
schedules, or how long of a day it was,<br />
I love running errands after and having<br />
dinner.<br />
KALTBLUT: As you know the theme of<br />
our issue is Noire. We just love every<br />
thing dark. What kind of imagery does<br />
this word conjure up for you?<br />
Melanie: Noire to me is like a sexy<br />
smoke screen. There are a lot of layers<br />
and hidden subtleties. It is very mysterious<br />
and elegant in my opinion.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can you share one of your<br />
worst nightmares with us? We all have<br />
bad dreams from time to time. What is<br />
yours?<br />
Melanie: This may sound awful, but as I<br />
get older I can no longer really tell what<br />
would constitute as a bad dream. Sure<br />
I have unpleasant dreams but when I<br />
wake, I have the understanding that it<br />
is my subconscious and I always really<br />
try to learn from those messages: such<br />
as why do I have fear, and how could<br />
I overcome it? When I was younger I<br />
would always have nightmares, now<br />
that I am older I don’t have as many<br />
and I guess in the rarity that they do<br />
occur, it is a visitation to something in<br />
my past. I don’t like to dream about<br />
people that I’ve had negative experiences<br />
with!<br />
KALTBLUT: Where would you say is<br />
the darkest place in New York?<br />
Melanie: I think the darkest place in<br />
New York is the darkest place anywhere<br />
in the world, in the negativity of one’s<br />
own mind.<br />
KALTBLUT: Our shoot was on location<br />
in Berlin. Do you like our hometown?<br />
How many times have you been here?<br />
And where do you hang out when you<br />
are here?<br />
Melanie: I absolutely LOVED Berlin!<br />
Absolutely. I have been to Berlin once<br />
before during a video shoot for the<br />
band Rammstein, but I did not get to<br />
travel around the city or see much as<br />
I was on a tight production schedule.<br />
Even though I was in Germany for<br />
about a month, I was shooting almost<br />
everyday and I had spent a few days<br />
in Munich as well. The times I did get to<br />
hang out in Berlin, I really liked walking<br />
around Mitte, and Kreuzberg for a bit.
40<br />
Dress: Moga E Mago
41<br />
Dress: Augustin Teboul
Blouse: Stylestalker<br />
42
43<br />
Clothing: Immortal by Thomas Hanish
45<br />
KALTBLUT: What makes Berlin a<br />
place to be for you? And what is<br />
different here to New York?<br />
Melanie: I really love Berlin’s energy.<br />
I feel a certain sense of calm and<br />
relaxation. I think I feel most grounded<br />
there, naturally without even<br />
trying :P The air is fresh and crisp,<br />
and really that is the difference<br />
there than in New York! This was<br />
the first time I was able to “live” somewhere<br />
outside of the USA for a<br />
while, and in returning, I see a large<br />
difference in the way people interact<br />
with one another. I think people<br />
are much more friendly and open<br />
than in New York. New York is just<br />
a very busy city, everyone is living<br />
their own lives.<br />
KALTBLUT: I know you have<br />
worked with Rammstein. For the<br />
video “Mein Herz Brennt”. How<br />
was it to work with the international<br />
superstars?<br />
Melanie: It was very, very nice. A<br />
really wonderful experience to be<br />
on a large production set, I had<br />
learned a lot from that shoot and<br />
had only been modelling for about<br />
five months at the time. The band<br />
mates are all very nice and sweet<br />
guys as well.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you know any other<br />
German artists? Are there any<br />
you would particularly like to work<br />
with?<br />
Melanie: I would really love to meet<br />
and shoot with Karl Lagerfeld. I<br />
don’t know of many other German<br />
artists aside from the people<br />
I have met and shot with during my<br />
last trip. They’re all very beautiful<br />
and amazing people, I am so happy<br />
to have met them. I really loved<br />
Germany though, and would visit<br />
again any time!<br />
KALTBLUT: Melanie thank you<br />
very much for the photos, the interview<br />
and your time for KALT-<br />
BLUT. It will be not the last time we<br />
work together. I swear!<br />
Melanie: Xoxo, thank you KALT-<br />
BLUT so much!! I really loved shooting<br />
with you and look forward to<br />
talking with you again!<br />
Dress: Augustin Teboul<br />
Hairpiece: Moga E Mago
46<br />
BERLIN<br />
Faces<br />
By Fleur Helluin<br />
“When it comes to the future,<br />
there are three kinds of people:<br />
those who let it happen, those<br />
who make it happen, and those<br />
who wonder what happened.”<br />
John M. Richardson.<br />
KALTBLUT is here to introduce<br />
you to some of the kind<br />
who make it happen. They are<br />
extraordinary, creative, outstanding,<br />
special, notable and<br />
unique and they will change<br />
the world soon. That’s why we<br />
have to keep an eye on these<br />
three people and you better do<br />
the same.<br />
Photo by Marcel Schlutt
47<br />
concentrated amount of information.<br />
Darkness is needed as counterpoint of<br />
light to give her a sense. Some of my<br />
early work plunges into darkness to<br />
come back with a reflection of the self<br />
concentrated in high symbolic pieces.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is there a light at the end of<br />
the tunnel?<br />
Beatriz: There is even light in the most<br />
absolute of darkness. No tunnel out<br />
there.<br />
KALTBLUT: Some of your projects are<br />
very elaborate and quite complex, like<br />
Interstitial, while some of your pieces<br />
seem to flow naturally. How do you make<br />
a difference and how do you see your<br />
different pieces co-existing?<br />
Beatriz: The different kinds of artistic<br />
expressions are for me like different<br />
languages. My discourse in art is<br />
permanent, it is part from some seed<br />
convictions, I’m questioning myself,<br />
which I try to understand and solve<br />
through art. Depending on what I want<br />
to explore or explain, I decide which<br />
one of it is more interesting. The writing,<br />
the performance, videos or installations,<br />
collaborative and participative<br />
art, drawings or paintings… all of them<br />
flow in a very natural way. Some look<br />
more complex because the questions<br />
were also complex or because the<br />
answers had been very abstract cooking<br />
inside me, and concentrating like<br />
a short poem, in which all the different<br />
meanings of each word are in the<br />
play...<br />
KALTBLUT: What is your favourite black<br />
thing?<br />
Beatriz: Coal with its shimmery hard<br />
surface, and the vegetal charcoal from<br />
willow. It’s like velvet for the eyes. So<br />
delicate and deep in his tone.<br />
Beatriz Crespo is a luminous young woman full of talents. I met her at the<br />
Neukölln gallery EXPO, and was soon surprised by how elegantly she managed<br />
forms and power in her work. I kind of thought she’d be a woman<br />
who wouldn’t get scared in the dark, so I interviewed her to find out.<br />
KALTBLUT: Dear Beatriz, what was your<br />
darkest hour?<br />
Beatriz: I broke my right hand last year<br />
in an accident. The healing time was<br />
long and full of incertitude. I nearly<br />
went crazy… but all this impotence<br />
and energy shouting inside me, ended<br />
flowing through the left hand. Now I’m<br />
ambidextrous!<br />
KALTBLUT: Why do we draw in black so<br />
often?<br />
Beatriz: The act of drawing a black<br />
line over paper or a surface, is determination,<br />
you take a position in which<br />
you divide the space and lead the eye<br />
trough the narrative of your discourse.<br />
Then black lines are incredibly graphic,<br />
I love this characteristic in art.<br />
When you take some black bituminous<br />
colour, or coal or charcoal and you<br />
start to make some Graphism, it has<br />
something quite strong and primitive<br />
about it. I like to think that in this primary<br />
act of tracing a line all this energy<br />
of the human being of past, present<br />
and future eras is conveyed. We are<br />
repeating the same act once and again<br />
and this act takes you to the origins, to<br />
the primitive.<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you cope with dark<br />
times?<br />
Beatriz: You may learn quite quick that<br />
it gets dark at 4pm during the winter<br />
here in Berlin, but that’s already perfect<br />
for me. I‘m a painter of the night, I<br />
work with the low light and during the<br />
slow rumours of the night that I paint<br />
my best. I like to see the darkness as a<br />
KALTBLUT: Is black the new black?<br />
Beatriz: Definitely! (laughs)<br />
KALTBLUT: Where shall we meet in five<br />
years?<br />
Beatriz: Somewhere in the East...<br />
KALTBLUT: 2013 recently came to a<br />
close, what were your last projects of the<br />
year?<br />
Beatriz: I opened another solo show in<br />
Valladolid Spain. It was a show called<br />
“Soul’s Topography” that was selected<br />
by the CreArt European project.<br />
Addressing the human body from unusual<br />
viewpoints, I concluded ethereal<br />
works in which the male’s physiognomy<br />
becomes a rugged landscape<br />
carved by the passage of time. “Topography<br />
of the Soul” is an ode to man<br />
and the beauty implicit in the erosion<br />
caused by the experience. Following<br />
this exhibition, I explored how our<br />
brain attempts to hold images and<br />
memories that are meaningful. I tried<br />
to paint or represent my memories and<br />
tried to deal with the holes that time<br />
created in them.<br />
www.beatrizcrespo.com
48<br />
If you’re an attentive reader of KALTBLUT Magazine, the brand Moga e<br />
Mago is probably not new to your eyes. I met the incredibly talented Elisa<br />
Lindenberg and Tobias Noventa a few years ago and have been following<br />
them very closely ever since. Sometimes, I have this special feeling for<br />
something and the brand fulfils this. That’s a pretty vague description,<br />
so without further ado, let’s introduce their latest SS14 collection “Notturno”,<br />
consiting of chiselled lines, precise fabrics and an innovative vision.<br />
KALTBLUT: “Black is black” or “Paint It<br />
Black”?<br />
Moga e Mago: ‘Black as the dark night<br />
she was...’<br />
KALTBLUT: Seeing black or feeling blue?<br />
Moga e Mago: Seeing black cats in<br />
dreams.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was the most depressing<br />
day of your life?<br />
Moga e Mago: May 7th, 2008.<br />
KALTBLUT: Why are so many fashion<br />
people dressed in black?<br />
Moga e Mago: Black is still the new<br />
black.<br />
KALTBLUT: Did you experience appetite<br />
loss, great fatigue, paranoid ideas or<br />
insomnia in the last months?<br />
Moga e Mago: Yes, the last week before<br />
fashion week (laughs)<br />
KALTBLUT: What’s the perfect piece for<br />
Collection Noire?<br />
Moga e Mago: The perfect black piece<br />
of our NOTTURNO SS14 is a superlight-weight<br />
goat-on-fabric coat.<br />
KALTBLUT: What’s the darkest corner of<br />
Berlin?<br />
Moga e Mago: Berghain’s dark room?<br />
KALTBLUT: Best remedy to feel good?<br />
Moga e Mago: Travel.<br />
www.mogaemago.com
49<br />
Emmanuel Hubaut is a poem of<br />
a man. I was 13 the first time I<br />
saw him; he was on stage with<br />
his infamous band LTNO. He’s<br />
been working on prestigious<br />
projects with Karl Lagerfeld,<br />
ORLAN, Maurice Dantec and<br />
others, and it’s always impressive<br />
how he can maintain<br />
professionalism and be so cool<br />
at the same time. Lately, he’s<br />
been working with David Maars<br />
and Andreas Schwartz to host<br />
“Ich bin Ein Berliner” parties<br />
at SO36 and has been producing<br />
the third album with his band<br />
DEAD SEXY.<br />
KALTBLUT: “Black is black”<br />
or “Paint It Black”?<br />
Emmanuel: Paint it Black. I’m definitely<br />
a Rolling stones fan... I’m<br />
very fascinated by their late 60’s/<br />
early 70’s period when Kenneth<br />
Anger got close to them. And back<br />
when the hippie movement turned<br />
into nightmare at Altamont, or with<br />
Charles Manson families ...<br />
KALTBLUT: Seeing black or feeling<br />
blue?<br />
Emmanuel: Listening to Blue<br />
Velvet.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was the most<br />
depressing day of your life?<br />
Emmanuel: My birthday... people<br />
are mean and want me to<br />
celebrate it every year!<br />
KALTBLUT: Why are so many<br />
rockers dressed in black?<br />
Emmanuel: Baudelaire’s<br />
Fault, he’s also responsible for<br />
green hair !<br />
KALTBLUT: Did you experience<br />
appetite loss, great fatigue, paranoid<br />
ideas or insomnia in the last<br />
months?<br />
Emmanuel: You mean 3 Tage Wach?<br />
KALTBLUT: What’s the perfect music<br />
for our Collection Noire?<br />
Emmanuel: Heresie by The Virgin<br />
Prunes, amazing double album<br />
released in 1982 on “l’Invitation au<br />
Suicide” label.<br />
KALTBLUT: What’s the darkest<br />
corner of Berlin?<br />
Emmanuel: Gustav Meyer Allee<br />
between Brunnenstrasse and<br />
Hussitenstrasse. I regularly passed<br />
this place at different times at night<br />
because it was on my way to a club<br />
I was DJing at. I always had a very<br />
weird, scary feeling when I passed<br />
the hill on the left side in the park. I<br />
eventually found out that it’s a fake<br />
hill made after the WWII to uncover<br />
the Leitturm Bunker Humboldthain.<br />
Berlin is very relaxed and open-minded<br />
city maybe also because of a<br />
very hard and dark and sad history...<br />
KALTBLUT: Best remedy to feel<br />
good?<br />
Emmanuel: Turn off the light.<br />
Photo by Karl Lagerfeld<br />
www.deadsexyinc.com
50<br />
Veil – Rene Walrus<br />
Shirt – Obscure Couture<br />
Ring – Georgia Wiseman<br />
The<br />
Widows<br />
Photography – Nuala Swan<br />
www.nualaswan.com<br />
Fashion – Molly Sheridan<br />
Make Up – Molly Sheridan<br />
Hair – Anna Wade<br />
Models – Jude and Rosie @ Model Team,<br />
Kirstin @ Superior
51<br />
Body Suit – Kirsty Elizabeth MacLennan<br />
Jacket – CuriouScope<br />
Skirt – Obscure Couture<br />
Ring – Georgia Wiseman<br />
Shoes – Model’s Own
Headpiece (worn around the neck) – Rene Walrus<br />
Top – Staysick<br />
Jacket – Obscure Couture<br />
Skirt – Matthew Houston<br />
52
53<br />
Headpiece – Rene Walrus<br />
Shirt – Matthew Houston<br />
Jacket – CuriouScope<br />
Shorts – Obscure Couture<br />
Ring – Georgia Wiseman<br />
Shoes – Stylist’s Own
Necklace – Rene Walrus<br />
Top – Staysick<br />
Jacket – CuriouScope<br />
Trousers – Katy Clark<br />
54
55<br />
Hood – Chouchou/Rene Walrus/MYB Lace<br />
Bodysuit – Obscure Couture
Hood – Chouchou/Rene Walrus/MYB Lace<br />
Shirt – Matthew Houston<br />
56
57 Kirstin<br />
Bodysuit – Kirsty Elizabeth MacLennan<br />
Jacket – CuriouScope<br />
Skirt – Obscure Couture<br />
Rosie<br />
Jacket – CuriouScope
N<br />
PI S<br />
58<br />
There’s a lot of testosterone floating around in<br />
our Noire music section, but something tells me<br />
the PINS girls would kick those boys’ asses, and<br />
then some. Hitting the spot with their lo-fi tinge<br />
of mancunian melancholia and atypical girl<br />
band aesthetic, Faith Holgate (vocals, guitar),<br />
Lois McDonald (guitar), Anna Donigan (bass),<br />
and Sophie Galpin (drums) released their<br />
reverb-soaked debut album “Girls Like Us” this<br />
September on Bella Union. Having been an<br />
avid follower of their velvetine droning since<br />
the release of the single “Eleventh Hour” back<br />
in February, I was chuffed that they didn’t<br />
disappoint with their full length, but what kind<br />
of girls are they exactly? We find out!<br />
Photo taken exclusively for the Noire issue by PINS<br />
Interview by Amy Heaton<br />
KALTBLUT: For our readers who don’t<br />
know you yet, can you tell us a bit about<br />
the name, how did you decide on PINS?<br />
PINS: It was actually suggested to us by<br />
a friend and we thought we’ll keep it for<br />
a while and see if it sticks then Faith and<br />
Anna went to see Dum Dum Girls at the<br />
Deaf Institute in Manchester and spoke<br />
to Dee Dee after the show, we told her we<br />
were starting a band and asked her what<br />
she thought of the name, we said y’know<br />
cos like pins, as in girls legs because<br />
we’re all girls in the band and she said<br />
oh we call them stems in America, so we<br />
considered STEMS for a little while but<br />
eventually settled on PINS. I’m glad, we<br />
like it, it’s a good name.<br />
KALTBLUT: Was it hard to find female<br />
band members in Manchester when you<br />
started in 2010?<br />
PINS: It really was! There was almost a<br />
year between starting the band and completing<br />
the lineup. Prior to meeting Anna,<br />
Faith had been trying to make a band or<br />
join a band for like a year too, so it was<br />
a very long process for them! For Lois it<br />
was also about finding the right people to<br />
work with. We tried lots of different ideas<br />
out and it’s important to be open minded<br />
and try styles that might not be your first<br />
choice, we have a good balance of that as<br />
a group.<br />
KALTBLUT: How did you envision the band<br />
to sound?<br />
PINS: Well, Faith always said heavy toms,<br />
reverb, fuzz, delay..referencing bands<br />
like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Black<br />
Tambourines, The Stooges. Anna was<br />
imagining dark and broody, listening to<br />
Zola Jesus and Lower Dens at the time,<br />
and we all like experimenting, so wouldn’t<br />
say that we have ‚a sound’ or at least not<br />
one that we are sticking too. We like our<br />
sound to develop, at the beginning we all<br />
had very varied music tastes, and we still<br />
do but we’re aware of much more music<br />
from other genres now cos we talk about<br />
it all the time. We wrote Eleventh Hour<br />
pretty early on when it was cold, dark and<br />
miserable in Manchester. As we’ve progressed<br />
as a band we’re definitely up for<br />
a lively pop song to dance to. Our moods<br />
(and the seasons) sometimes have a<br />
strong influence on what songs we write,<br />
but the sound is always developing, it’s a<br />
natural process of maturing as a band.<br />
KALTBLUT: Would you place yourself in the<br />
Riot Grrrl genre?<br />
PINS: It’s a very distinct sound, we’re<br />
definitely inspired by the attitude, and we<br />
liked some Riot Grrl bands, as a teenager<br />
Bikini Kill were one of Faith’s biggest<br />
inspirations so it’s possible that some of<br />
that shines through in the songs or the<br />
lyrics or whatever but we wouldn’t classify<br />
PINS as a Riot Grrrl band, saying that<br />
though we wouldn’t classify our band as<br />
grunge or punk or shoegaze or post punk<br />
or garage rock or any of the other genres<br />
that people attach to us.<br />
KALTBLUT: You all have different musical<br />
backgrounds, what instrument(s) do you<br />
each find most comfortable to use?<br />
PINS: We all come from different musical<br />
backgrounds. The guitar is Faith’s one<br />
true love, “I’m pretty jealous that the other<br />
girls can all play the piano but I’m going<br />
to learn!”. Lois played piano and tried out<br />
clarinet, but on hearing Nirvana taught<br />
herself to play guitar instead, playing piano<br />
and guitar are different experiences<br />
for her, but both cathartic. Anna had never<br />
played the bass guitar until she joined<br />
Pins. “I feel so comfortable on it though<br />
and love the power of it and the solid<br />
backbone it gives to the band with the<br />
drums.” She played the piano and cello
“There<br />
lot of<br />
is still a<br />
sexism<br />
in music”<br />
from when I was young but the piano is more of an instrument, she<br />
enjoys playing to herself rather than in front of an audience. Sophie’s<br />
been playing instruments since she was four, starting on piano, then<br />
took up violin and guitar too, but only started the drums properly back<br />
in February when she joined PINS, “but now I feel like a real drummer<br />
and absolutely love the drums. It’s a whole new experience.”<br />
KALTBLUT: What was the first album you heard that really made you<br />
want to be part of a band?<br />
PINS: Well as a band of four members there’s a few answers to that<br />
one! Faith used to try and make these bands when she was a little kid,<br />
probably most inspired by the Spice Girls or Britney... getting dressed<br />
up with friends and making up dance routines, singing the songs... rehearsing<br />
day after day for the imaginary show we had... “I discovered<br />
Hole when I was about 14 though and that changed everything.” Lois<br />
reckons Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, or Greenday’s “Dookie”. “I remember<br />
hearing it for the first time and thinking, what is this and how can I<br />
make that much noise? I started a band with my friends Beki and<br />
Natalie and we lasted one practice in the garage. I quit.” For Anna it’s<br />
probably Arcade Fire’s “Funeral.” “I loved how many different instruments<br />
they play and how they keep swapping about on stage. I’m keen<br />
to slip a hurdy-gurdy into a PINS song.” Sophie wanted to be in the<br />
Spice Girls, but it was Elvis that inspired her to learn guitar.<br />
59<br />
KALTBLUT: What about when your debut single<br />
release of “Eleventh Hour / Shoot You” sold out?<br />
Amazing! How was that experience for you?<br />
PINS: Exciting! Especially because it was<br />
something we did on our own, we’re grateful for<br />
all the help and all the people we get to work<br />
with now but when that release came out it was<br />
just us doing it for ourselves and it was really<br />
special. The experience of recording a couple of<br />
songs early on then deciding to release them on<br />
(gold) cassette and make a video to then have it<br />
sold out within a couple of hours was amazing!<br />
Until that point we never realised how much<br />
there was going on in the ‚blogosphere’ so to<br />
have people recognising and noticing what we<br />
were doing was very humbling.<br />
KALTBLUT: “Girls Like Us” looks like one hell of<br />
video, but what girls are you exactly?<br />
PINS: [Laughs] It’s difficult to sum yourself up<br />
like that so we’re not going to but what we will<br />
say is that the song “Girls Like Us” isn’t about<br />
being girls like us it’s meant to be about being<br />
yourself and about being happy to be yourself.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is sexuality a prominent topic with<br />
your music? Or is it just a big F.U to anyone who<br />
makes a big deal out of it?<br />
PINS: There is still a lot of sexism in music<br />
just like there is in most industries. We rarely<br />
experience it first hand, it’s usually some sad<br />
troll on the internet or some wannabe journalist,<br />
basically it’s never anyone who’s opinion you<br />
actually value.<br />
KALTBLUT: What made you decide to start your<br />
own label “Haus of PINS”?<br />
PINS: It began as a platform for us to release our<br />
own music, at the time of the “Eleventh<br />
Hour / Shoot You” release we couldn’t settle on a<br />
label, also it felt a little premature to be working<br />
like that so self releasing seemed like the best<br />
option. After that, we thought it’d be fun to work<br />
with bands that we really love who are at a<br />
similar place.<br />
KALTBLUT: I’m a big fan of your all-girl mix for<br />
i-D magazine, it contains some of my favourites<br />
like Bikini Kill and Siouxsie and the Banshees,<br />
are these your main musical inspirations?<br />
PINS: Faith chose Bikini Kill, “I love them... as<br />
for many teenagers they had a huge impact on<br />
me. I was too late for the Riot Grrl movement,<br />
but, getting into Bikini Kill helped me discover<br />
a whole bunch of other music from that time,<br />
and was my first introduction to feminism.” We<br />
have loads of musical inspirations, and if we did<br />
another mix today it’d be different depending on<br />
how we’re feeling and what we’re into. Sophie<br />
adds, “I’ve been getting into bands that we have<br />
been compared to more retrospectively, I never<br />
really actively listened to the Banshees until we<br />
were compared to them.”<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve been touring a lot this summer?<br />
Do you have a favourite gig so far? Or one<br />
coming up maybe?<br />
PINS: We have been touring with our friends<br />
Abjects, September Girls and Post War glamour<br />
Girls and we’ve had so much fun with them.<br />
Brixton Academy next week. Oh. My.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was it like opening for Best<br />
Coast at Manchester’s Ritz?<br />
PINS: It was special because it was our first experience<br />
of a big stage in a venue where we’ve<br />
seen some of our favourite bands, it felt like a<br />
milestone. “I like Best Coast but I don’t think they<br />
were the highlight for me”, Faith comments, “I<br />
have a tendency to over romanticise everything<br />
but it was definitely a night that I won’t forget.”<br />
Sophie was actually in the audience at that gig, “I<br />
thought, I would like to be in this band.” Little did<br />
she know...<br />
KALTBLUT: Are you excited to support Warpaint at<br />
the end of this month?<br />
PINS: It’s safe to say that we are all very excited<br />
to be supporting Warpaint. We hung out at End Of<br />
The Road Festival - they are SUCH babes. Will be<br />
a pleasure.<br />
KALTBLUT: This time our theme is all about the<br />
Noire, the underground, the grime, the downright<br />
dark. I noticed you use black & white imagery a<br />
lot in your work. What is it that draws you to this<br />
aesthetic?<br />
PINS: I think we like a lot of imagery from the<br />
past, sorta 60’s era and it probably comes from<br />
there. It has a classic look. We do work with<br />
colour too, but even then I think the colours<br />
are very specific or of a certain era, the “Stay<br />
True” video for example. Faith comments, “to be<br />
honest, black is my favourite colour, I’ve always<br />
dressed in black, even as a kid, I don’t know<br />
what draws me to it.”<br />
KALTBLUT: How important is your image as a<br />
band, in comparison to the sound...?<br />
PINS: Our music comes first! We don’t really<br />
ever consider our image... it just is what it is. We<br />
love getting involved with all the design, videos<br />
and photoshoots creatively where we can, but<br />
just because we want to make stuff that we like<br />
and are proud of. The image is just an extension<br />
of ourselves. We’re just projecting who we are.<br />
KALTBLUT: If you could shoot a music video with<br />
any director, who would it be?<br />
PINS: Faith - I’d stick with our pal Sing J Lee.<br />
Lois - Stanley Kubrick. Anna - Anton Corbijn.<br />
Sophie - Chris Cunningham - that would be<br />
fuuucked uuup.<br />
wearepins.co.uk
61<br />
DECODE<br />
Photography: Anny CK<br />
www.annyck.com<br />
Model: Anastasia Bresler<br />
Hair & Make-Up: Anne Timper @Nude Agency<br />
Styling: Pablo Patané<br />
Retouching: Aurore de Bettignies<br />
@ One Hundred Berlin<br />
Fashion by Moga e Mago
66<br />
Pictures<br />
the<br />
of DEAD<br />
Text and photos by Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E. K. Jones<br />
Admittedly, the Victorian Age is one of<br />
the strangest and most absurd eras in<br />
world history. One of the weirdest traditions,<br />
amidst covering piano legs and<br />
other absurdities, were post-mortem<br />
photographs, which is not as insane<br />
as it seems at first.<br />
Post-mortem photography, which is<br />
also known as memento mori and consists<br />
of memorial portraits or mourning<br />
portraits, is basically an arranged portrait<br />
of a dead person shortly after the<br />
person’s death and it is often intended<br />
to appear life-like.<br />
When photography was invented and<br />
in its early stages, this specific art was<br />
often used for occult practices and to<br />
capture scientific or paranormal activities,<br />
as well as to document spaces.<br />
With the invention of daguerreotype<br />
in 1839 portraits became less expensive<br />
and easier to set up, gaining them a<br />
great popularity especially among those<br />
who could not afford to sit for a painted<br />
portrait or those who were simply fascinated<br />
with this new invention. Even<br />
though affordable to the middle classes,<br />
portrait photography was still far from<br />
a daily practice. Portraits of beloved<br />
ones remained rare and were supposed<br />
to serve as a form of remembrance.<br />
These are the circumstances that gave<br />
rise to what seems now to be the creepiest<br />
form of photography; of taking<br />
pictures of the deceased. In the nineteenth<br />
century people usually died at<br />
home, and often at a relatively young<br />
age, which meant it was easy to have<br />
someone to take a picture, and often<br />
resulted that this picture would be the<br />
one and only treasured photograph of<br />
the departed and the only means of<br />
keeping their memory alive. As a result,<br />
it was customary to arrange them in<br />
an upright position to allow them to
look as alive as possible and to<br />
have them posed with siblings or<br />
other family members. Infants<br />
were often positioned in cribs as<br />
well, while for adults an arm chair<br />
was more common. In these cases,<br />
eyes were propped open and the<br />
pupil was later enhanced on the<br />
print. Sometimes, cheeks were<br />
tinted pink to give the corpse a<br />
more lively appearance. Of course,<br />
there are also many pictures of the<br />
deceased in flower filled coffins,<br />
peacefully sleeping while surrounded<br />
by mourners, especially in<br />
the earlier days. As it goes with<br />
everything, fashions also came and<br />
went with post-mortem photography,<br />
but the exact composition was<br />
usually up to the photographer<br />
and the family to decide.<br />
When it became possible to reproduce<br />
this photograph of the dead,<br />
it was often sent out to relatives<br />
and other family members as part<br />
of the mourning and remembering<br />
process.<br />
Eventually, by the early 20th century,<br />
this practice ceased as family<br />
photos and all sorts of photos became<br />
a part of every day life with<br />
the arrival of the snapshot and<br />
when personal cameras were made<br />
available to the public.<br />
Initially a part of life, these death<br />
portraits were not viewed as macabre.<br />
In the 20th century they came<br />
to be viewed as creepy, morbid or<br />
unspeakable because of the revulsion,<br />
reject and lack of familiarity<br />
with death that the modern world<br />
brought with it. By now, still<br />
causing shivers, they have become<br />
an accepted method of as keeping<br />
somebody’s image and memory,<br />
rather than being regarded as violation<br />
or lack of respect.<br />
However, in a world stripped of<br />
magic, there is one aspect that is<br />
overlooked today, and it was a<br />
very widespread belief in the 19th<br />
century: people would believe that<br />
the soul of the recently deceased<br />
would linger around the body and<br />
room for several days before the<br />
burial. A portrait made during this<br />
time acquired a special meaning.<br />
As already mentioned, photography<br />
film was often used during<br />
séances or to capture auras and<br />
other supernatural phenomena<br />
and experiments. The sensitivity<br />
of film and the magic of its workings<br />
gave and still gives room<br />
for plenty of speculation. It was<br />
firmly believed, as it still is in many<br />
cultures, that a photograph could<br />
trap or at least depict a person’s<br />
soul. And occasionally this was the<br />
very purpose of such a picture. To<br />
always keep the actual soul of the<br />
depicted dead very much alive.<br />
67
68<br />
Paint It<br />
Black<br />
Photography: Ali Kepenek www.alikepenek.com<br />
Styling: Hakan Bahar www.hakanbahar.com<br />
Hair & Grooming: Daniel Dyer, Aveda Haircare and Shu Umera Skincare<br />
Body Painting: Kai Sued<br />
Photo Asistant: Andre Titcombe<br />
Model: Jasper Harvey @Elite Models London<br />
Raincoat by Alexander Wang
71<br />
Left Page: Trenchcoat by Rodarte, This Page: Pants by Dries Van Noten
Top by Thom Brown<br />
72
Jersey by Elif Cigizoglu<br />
73
This Page: Leather Jacket by Vintage Raberg<br />
75
77<br />
‟DUCTILITY AND ITS ABILITY TO CREATE SHADES”<br />
www.flickr.com/photos/josebaeskubi/<br />
Interview by Emma E. K. Jones & Amanda M. Jansson<br />
Joseba Eskubi’s art has been a real<br />
revelation to us. Living and working<br />
in Bilbao, Spain, he is currently<br />
teaching at the Faculty of Fine<br />
Arts of the University of the Basque<br />
Country. His abstract, yet very<br />
theatrical work often consists of a<br />
stage and one single figure, silhouetted<br />
against the background. This<br />
figure becomes the very definition of<br />
decomposition, through the soft and<br />
amorphous qualities that accentuate<br />
the tactile sense of vision. Highly<br />
suggestive and haunting, difficult<br />
for some and addictive to others,<br />
his imagery is definitely among our<br />
favourite modern classics.<br />
KALTBLUT: When and how did you begin<br />
painting? What were you doing<br />
before that? Any kind of art you<br />
were interested in? Or did paintings<br />
come first?<br />
Joseba: I started painting many years<br />
ago. At first I also drew a lot.<br />
In my early works many similar forms<br />
of the actual painting had already<br />
appeared: organic and oneiric. Later,<br />
I realized some sculptural objects<br />
where I mixed different techniques<br />
but basically, painting has<br />
always been my primary interest.<br />
Many times I create photographs,<br />
digital works, and other kinds of<br />
processes where I find new ways. I<br />
have also made some manipulations<br />
of classical painting reproductions,<br />
altering the forms and original<br />
compositions.
78<br />
KALTBLUT: Your style is very specific<br />
and distinctive. How would you<br />
describe your style?<br />
Joseba: Style becomes something<br />
recognizable in dealings with the<br />
matter, a mechanism that aims to<br />
limit and structure desire. In my<br />
painting the brushstrokes are very<br />
marked, creating collisions, knots,<br />
contrasts. In recent years I have<br />
worked on a type of composition<br />
where a landline appears and generates<br />
a theatrical space.<br />
KALTBLUT: Technically speaking,<br />
what kind of material and colours<br />
work best for you and why?<br />
Joseba: I am interested in enhancing<br />
the colour intensity, so that<br />
the painting has a certain energy<br />
and electricity. I like the colours<br />
to be vivid and vibrant. In<br />
many cases I use very intense reds,<br />
as a first sight of the vision that<br />
weaves the emotions. Black is another<br />
fundamental colour in my work.<br />
Many of the figures are silhouetted<br />
against this indefinite plane. Itʼs<br />
amazing to discover how many shades<br />
of black can exist .... all depends<br />
on small nuances. I love oil<br />
painting, its ductility and ability<br />
to create shades. The technique is<br />
something dynamic, changing during<br />
each process to adapt to new contexts<br />
and transgressing its own rules.<br />
The diversity of media creates<br />
new starting points, to maintain a<br />
certain emotion and encounter with<br />
an unknown image.<br />
KALTBLUT: What colours do you use<br />
most depending on your emotions? Do<br />
certain colours represent certain<br />
emotions for you as a person?<br />
Joseba: Of course. The colour inevitably<br />
determines our emotions<br />
and the perception of the image. I<br />
am interested in the contrast between<br />
dark and cold zones and the<br />
carnality of the central figure. It<br />
is a resource very common in Baroque<br />
painting. The shapes are cut<br />
in front of a vacuum, and the co-
79<br />
lour of the live element acquires<br />
an increased presence. I also like<br />
to emphasize the saturation of certain<br />
colours (red, yellow..), creating<br />
a surreal atmosphere where colour<br />
breaks the logic of a realistic<br />
view.<br />
KALTBLUT: There is something extremely<br />
unique about your work but also<br />
something classic about it. What<br />
are your influences in terms of art?<br />
Joseba: I am interested in combining<br />
different sensations inside<br />
the image, one that unbalances<br />
things and another that arranges<br />
everything in a certain order, a<br />
structure against its ruin. In many<br />
of my works, there are still life<br />
resonances and echoes of Baroque<br />
painting. I also like a lot of actual<br />
artists like Allison Shulnik<br />
for example. There is so much visual<br />
information today that sometimes it<br />
is difficult to digest all this visual<br />
universe that we receive.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where do you get ideas for<br />
a new painting from?<br />
Joseba: There are many inspiring<br />
things. Small residues found in soil<br />
can hold an entire universe of sensations.<br />
Attention is the tool. I<br />
donʼt use natural models. The painting<br />
itself offers many paths and<br />
possibilities.<br />
KALTBLUT: You work a lot with black.<br />
So, NOIRE what comes to mind? What<br />
would you paint to that word?<br />
Joseba: Itʼs a quite suggestive<br />
term. I imagine a bleak and hypnotic<br />
space, where it seems that<br />
everything is occult, submerged in<br />
a deep silence. Noire can be a place<br />
that everyone without revealing<br />
themselves are awaiting our visit.<br />
KALTBLUT: Some people may say your<br />
work is difficult, “hard to take“,<br />
why do you think they might feel<br />
that way? Does it strike a chord<br />
that makes them uneasy?<br />
Joseba: I donʼt see this as a difficult<br />
work. Perhaps the discomfort<br />
can sometimes arise from the difficulty<br />
of identifying the figures<br />
and elements of the image, its ambiguity<br />
creates a certain uneasiness.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your work is haunting.<br />
Colourful but dark at the same time.<br />
What scares you the most?<br />
Joseba: Anything that takes me to<br />
an unpleasant experience. The experience<br />
creates a way of perceiving<br />
reality. Some images may be a kind<br />
of catharsis to this fear.<br />
KALTBLUT: Of all paintings, is there<br />
one painting in which you would<br />
like to live? Touch it, feel it?<br />
Joseba: Wow, itʼs a quite fascinating<br />
question. Perhaps I would<br />
like to experiment the sensation of<br />
being inside of the painting ʼAgnus<br />
Day of Zurbaranʽ, touch the skin of<br />
the animal and feel the silence of<br />
the scene.<br />
KALTBLUT: What do you think attracts<br />
people in horror, darkness,<br />
strangeness? What fascinates us<br />
about things that frighten us?<br />
Joseba: The fascination for something<br />
that is strange but familiar<br />
at the same time. I think that<br />
there is a subtle difference between<br />
the suggestion and the purely explicit<br />
and descriptive way.<br />
KALTBLUT: If you had to sum up your<br />
body of work to 3 themes, what would<br />
you say are the 3 major themes in<br />
your work?<br />
Joseba: Metamorphosis, light, organic.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was the creepiest<br />
dream you ever had? Do you remember?<br />
Joseba: I remember one in which people<br />
were following me to the door of<br />
my house ... I tried to close the<br />
door and couldnʼt, all I wanted was<br />
to catch hands ... it was the end<br />
... a bad dream where the only way<br />
out was to scream!<br />
KALTBLUT: What would your self portrait<br />
look like? What colours represent<br />
you?<br />
Joseba: I donʼt know. I would paint<br />
it in white shades, quite bright.<br />
Perhaps it would start being real,<br />
but surely would change until it<br />
would become something unrecognizable.<br />
Every form leads to another as<br />
a river that always flows.
80<br />
NACHKRIEGSZEIT<br />
Photography: Oliver Blohm www.oliverblohm.com<br />
Stylist: Pablo Patanè<br />
Hair & Make-Up: Theo Schnürer @ Blossom Management<br />
Model: Nala Diagouraga @ M4 Models<br />
Photography Assistant: Mari Inoue<br />
Dress & Stockings by Unrath&Strano, Armour & Shoes by Amélie Jäger
81<br />
Dress & Sleeves by Amélie Jäger, Vintage Fur by Giulia Iovine Collection
Armour by Pablo Patanè<br />
Armour (Stomach + Neck) by Amélie Jäger<br />
Fur Sleeves by Amélie Jäger<br />
Stockings by Unrath&Strano<br />
82
83 Neckpiece by Amélie Jäger<br />
Mask by Guillaume Airiaud<br />
Dress by Unrath&Strano
84<br />
Dress & Stockings by Unrath&Strano, Chestplate, Sleeves, Shoulders by Amélie Jäger, Shoes by Amélie Jäger
85<br />
Neckpiece by Amélie Jäger, Mask by Guillaume Airiaud, Dress by Unrath&Strano
86<br />
Horror-shaping Art<br />
How is it possible that horror films could influence art<br />
in any way? What do they even have in common? If you<br />
think the answer is “nothing”, then you will be quite<br />
surprised to find out that not only do these two share more<br />
than you can imagine, but horror films do indeed influence<br />
entire art movements and actually always have.<br />
Art is the highest form of, well obviously, art, and horror<br />
films are like the lowest form of “art”, if it can be called<br />
so; or at least that’s what most people need to advocate in<br />
order to convince themselves they are artistic and cultivated<br />
enough. Obviously, this is far from true. Horror<br />
in all of its forms, be it film or literature, just like art, is<br />
there to push limits and to experiment, to investigate the<br />
human psyche and its deepest aspects, to give voice to<br />
troubling thoughts, to give expression to human feelings<br />
and emotions, to shape culture. Admittedly, no other genre<br />
has the power to shock us and stir us like horror does, and<br />
the very definition of good art is its potential to shock or<br />
provoke as well.<br />
Proof of all this is in the very beginnings of horror film<br />
history, which goes hand in hand with art. More than those<br />
of any other “serious” kind of film. When moving images<br />
were still in their infant stage, horror became a playground<br />
for emerging artists, who would design sets, costumes,<br />
absurd plots and be in charge of photography. Take Dali<br />
for example, along with ̔Un Chien Andalou̓. So, the first<br />
horror films actually were a firm part of contemporary<br />
art movements and influenced each other greatly. They<br />
did revive an interest in classical paintings and lighting<br />
and explored fears and nightmares, thus giving a huge<br />
boost to Expressionism, Dadaism and Surrealism and allowing<br />
them to literally take off and reach audiences they<br />
wouldn’t have been able to capture otherwise. Even names<br />
such as Francis Bacon, a master of the macabre, have been<br />
inspired by these early nightmarish images.<br />
But what about today? We have come a long way. Art has<br />
been through a lot of movements, some pleasant, others<br />
more unpleasant and vulgar to some, still in touch with<br />
their horror roots. And perhaps, by now, magnificent artists<br />
like Joel-Peter Witkins have made corpses acceptable<br />
as an art object, but that was not before horror directors<br />
made dismemberment, disfigurement and blood widely<br />
acceptable and even expected on screen. The acceptance<br />
of death in art did not come before the familiarity with
death in films that appealed to<br />
the masses; horror shapes and<br />
defines culture like only art<br />
can, and because of their pretty<br />
intimate relationship. It is<br />
necessary to mention the early<br />
Tim Burton imagery, heavily<br />
loaded with Edgar Allan<br />
Poe, German Expressionism<br />
and a Gothic aesthetic, and<br />
to remember how he changed<br />
the art landscape for over a<br />
decade. One can also observe<br />
how the empty and silently<br />
haunted-haunting atmosphere<br />
of Japanese horror influences<br />
so often creep into a brilliant<br />
young photographer’s work.<br />
Lately, it is horror films like<br />
̔Carrie̓, ̔Prom Nights̓,̔ I<br />
Spit on your Grave̓, ̔Poison<br />
Ivy̓, horror films dealing with<br />
teenage girl sexuality, and<br />
young girls’ culture that help<br />
shape an entire movement that<br />
remains to be named. The glitter<br />
and menacing atmosphere<br />
of a teenage world as depicted<br />
in some of these iconic films<br />
are forming a great archive for<br />
photographers willing to deal<br />
with the trauma of entering<br />
adulthood, the maddening burden<br />
of expectation, the mental<br />
inner massacre of being a<br />
girl and symbols for female<br />
sexuality.<br />
There is really no reason why<br />
we should be ashamed to<br />
face up to the fact that horror<br />
films are shaping our taste,<br />
our culture and yes, our art as<br />
well. Art because it is art and<br />
horror because it is so easily<br />
condemnable. These two, set<br />
our imaginations ablaze and<br />
play on our memories and<br />
stories of common experience,<br />
explore human nature and<br />
collective reaction; bring up<br />
issues we want to never have<br />
to deal with, question and<br />
expose. All this they both do<br />
visually. It couldn’t be a more<br />
perfect match.<br />
By Amanda M. Jansson and<br />
Emma E. K. Jones<br />
Photos by Michaela Knizova
88<br />
Foundation: Shiseido, Advanced Hydro Liquid Compact, Nr. 120<br />
Eyes: Benefit, Creaseless Dream Shadow, Bronze Have More Fun I Lips: Lancôme, L’absolut Rouge, Pense a Mio, Nr. 131<br />
Photography: Ulrich Hartmann www.ulrichhartmann.de Stylist: Silvia Naefe @ Basics<br />
Hair & Make Up: Stefan Kehl @ Close Up Model: Nele @ Modelmanagement<br />
Photographer’s Assistant: Patrick Jendrusch
90<br />
Embroidered Top: LUXXUS Berlin<br />
Foundation: Sisley, Skinleÿa, 01, Light Opal<br />
Eyes: Benefit, Creaseless Dream Shadow,<br />
Bronze Have More Fun<br />
Lips: Chanel, Rouge Allure, 99 Pirate
Foundation: Dior, Nude BB Creme Light 001 I Eyes: Écriture de Chanel, Black<br />
Lips: YSL, Rouge Volupté Shine, 05 Fuchsia in Excess
Dress: Comme des Garçons Hat: Traditional costume seen at Comme des Costumes<br />
Foundation: Make Up For Ever, Uplight Face Luminizer Gel, 21 Pearly White I Eyes: Givenchy, Le prisme yeux Mono, No. 03 Hop Grey<br />
Lips: Givenchy, Le Rouge, 307 Grenat Initié
93<br />
Dress: Saint Laurent<br />
Hat: Anna de la Russo for H&M<br />
Rings: Gregory’s Joaillier<br />
Black Panther: 267 Black Diamond<br />
9.42ct, 2 Emeralds 0.14ct. , 18kt. Black Gold<br />
Poisonous Frog: 416 Tasvoriten 5.20ct.,<br />
1.02ct. Black Diamonds, 0.11ct rubin 20g 18kt. Black Gold<br />
Gloves: Stylist’s own<br />
Foundation: Chanel Lift Lumière<br />
Eyes: Armani, Maestro Eye Liner<br />
Lashes: Armani, Eyes To Kill Excels<br />
Lips: Chanel, Rouge Allure Renovation, Nr. 104, Passion<br />
Lip Liner: YSL, Dessin du Regarde Crayon Yeux Haute Tenue,<br />
Velvet Black, No. 1
Link Page<br />
Eyes: RMS Beauty, Seduce<br />
Lips: Chanel, Rouge Coco, Nr. 19 Gabrielle<br />
And Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics,<br />
Lip Tar, Green<br />
This Page<br />
Black sequenced jacket: Giorgio Armani Vintage I Mask: seen at Comme des Costumes<br />
Colors: Make Up For Ever, 12 Color Case. MAC
96<br />
Into<br />
noires<br />
Text and illustrations by Marianne Jacquet, www.wrangelkiez.org<br />
Think positive, just do it, everything is going to be fine, keep calm and carry on, just relax, it is not gonna last forever, tomorrow is another day,<br />
it’s half as bad, trust yourself, smile, it’s all good, don’t you worry, it’s going to work out, cheer up, head up, I got your back, don’t worry, your<br />
work is gonna pay, don’t give up, after the rain comes the sun, don’t be afraid, I believe in you.<br />
Between two ears and behind two eyes, I got caught up in the matière noire, where a rusty dream of a bright future as a musician stands.<br />
Breath in, it is not going to hurt... hum, well maybe a little bit.<br />
FEMALE PRESSURE<br />
has raised its flag for more equality between male and female in the music industry and digital art. They got started in Berlin with the Perspective Festival<br />
at aboutblank and more recently have started hosting a regular party at Tresor. Kritzkom is a french music producer, graphic designer who lives in Berlin<br />
and joined the Female Pressure fight among many others artists. The message is clear: stop the painted black and fade to grey!<br />
KALTBLUT: How did the initiative of female pressure start?<br />
Kritzkom: Female pressure started 15 years ago in Vienna,<br />
founded by the Electric Indigo (Suzanne Kirchmayr).<br />
At first it was a database of female musicians and visuals<br />
artists, to bring them to visibility and encourage collaborations.<br />
Since the 8th of March 2013, the collective started to<br />
count how many women where playing in music festivals.<br />
The facts were then published in a press release: globally<br />
less than 10% of festival performers are women. After this<br />
shocking discovery, we decided to think about how we could<br />
make things better. The aim is mostly to invite promoters,<br />
bookers, and journalists to think about this too. Perspectives<br />
Festival was born, to show that there are women in the<br />
electronic music scene.<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you explain the fact that men and women<br />
are so unbalanced in the cultural field? Did it come as a surprise<br />
as a contrast to the developed countries in Europe?<br />
Kritzkom: First, even for us, who knew that it was quite bad,<br />
the count was a surprise because we didn’t expected such<br />
dramatic results. This became also a motivation. It’s a complex<br />
topic, but of course it starts with centuries of male power<br />
society. Even though it seems that girls are now educated<br />
in the same spirit as boy, in reality it’s very far from this<br />
ideal. Little girls are less encouraged to do whatever they<br />
would like to do, and to believe in themselves. The current<br />
cultural context produces a society where fewer women will<br />
become artists or musicians. Then the majority of bookers,<br />
promoters, organisers, label owners are men and, in turn,<br />
book mostly men.<br />
KALTBLUT: How far do you geographically extend this project?<br />
Kritzkom: Right now, the network is quite central in Europe.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you think that this movement could develop<br />
into a label or other fields such as fine arts?<br />
Kritzkom: Of course it could, our group right now is more focussed<br />
on music, because most of us are musicians. But the<br />
topic is definitely more universal and concerns all women<br />
and men in all artistic fields.<br />
What is most important is that men and women should work<br />
on this together to get to a more balanced society. I don’t<br />
think a man can be proud to consciously exclude women.<br />
The art and music could only get richer.<br />
www.femalepressure.net www.kritzkom.com www.anna-otto.org<br />
KALTBLUT: One number we should all know?<br />
Kritzkom: Let’s remember that only 10% of the musicians<br />
are female and that’s at the festivals we counted around the<br />
world.<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you picture the perfect club scene?<br />
Kritzkom: Kind of balanced, no quota or rate, but a bit more<br />
equal. For now, 30% of women in music would be amazing.
97<br />
ARI BENJAMIN MEYERS<br />
is american composer and conductor who lives in Berlin. His work questions the borders of art and the materiality of music. The recent solo show «Do You<br />
Have Black Thoughts» at the Esther Shippers Gallery, was a performative installation where the spirit of kraut rock meets Erik Satie. Ari Benjamin Meyers who<br />
collaborated with the artists Saâdane Afif, Philippe Parreno or Dominique Gonzales Foerster is giving us a little idea of what is music. Question are you ready<br />
to set yourself free? His ongoing installation «Chamber Music(Vestibule)» is a the Berlinische Galerie from April 27, 2013 - April 28, 2014.<br />
KALTBLUT: How did you slide<br />
from classical composing to contemporary<br />
art?<br />
Ari: I am still a composer. But<br />
the art scene really came about<br />
because of the work I was interesting<br />
in composing and<br />
writing. It started to become<br />
more difficult to realise it in the<br />
music context and to fit into the<br />
music industry and business.<br />
The structures that are available<br />
are very limited for the music<br />
industry, you can give a concert<br />
or you can make a record that is<br />
all the business allows to do. I<br />
was starting to think about doing<br />
work that lasted a very long<br />
time 7 or 8 hours, much longer<br />
that you can do in a concert. I<br />
started making work where I<br />
was thinking more of the audience<br />
like this piece that is<br />
for one performer and one audience<br />
only. Then it started to<br />
break down.<br />
Those kinds of thoughts and<br />
doubts were happening parallel<br />
at a time where I was collaborating<br />
with artists. Bit by bit I<br />
just found myself working exclusively<br />
in the art context and<br />
stopped doing concert. So I<br />
took the next step and worked<br />
with a gallery.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is it the reason why<br />
you came to Berlin?<br />
Ari: No, I have been in Berlin<br />
for 15 years. I came to Berlin<br />
on a full break grant for opera<br />
conducting, which is the ultimate<br />
classical western music.<br />
I have studied composition and<br />
conducting so from the opera,<br />
I was always interested in new<br />
music and I started to do Musiktheater<br />
and experimental<br />
music theatre and experimental<br />
opera. This naturally lead me to<br />
work with more artists.<br />
KALTBLUT: Are you still conducting?<br />
Ari: I still do conduct on certain<br />
specific projects and conducting<br />
in general is a part of<br />
my practice. One of my pieces<br />
is a solo for one conductor, it<br />
is a quite silent composition.<br />
Conducting is very interesting<br />
in that way, you train for years<br />
and years and it is considered<br />
like almost the pinnacle of musical<br />
knowledge or ability. And<br />
yet in a very real way if you take<br />
a step back I started to see<br />
the conductor as a dancer, you<br />
make no sound, you make no<br />
music in that sense. It is quite<br />
fascinating, of all of the job you<br />
could have, conductor certainly<br />
has to be one of the oddest. Basically<br />
you are dancing around<br />
on a little stage, in front of a<br />
hundred people to get them to<br />
do something, it is very bizarre.<br />
I am not an esoteric person but<br />
conducting has a thing, you almost<br />
telepathically, through the<br />
eyes, read the mind of people. I<br />
do explore this in my work. But<br />
for instance in the “Serious Immobilities”<br />
performance I do<br />
not conduct, the performers do.<br />
KALTBLUT: How far can they<br />
change the piece?<br />
Ari: Before every performance,<br />
we sat together and decided on<br />
the order. There are nine modules<br />
and they decided the order,<br />
the length. You can’t say that it’s<br />
improvised because the music<br />
is quite composed and written<br />
out but the structure is totally<br />
up to the performers.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is it more like a pattern?<br />
Do they have to play it all?<br />
Ari: They don’t have to play everything<br />
all the time. They can<br />
play only two modules for six<br />
hours.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was your idea<br />
when you chose the performers?<br />
Ari: In fact the three female<br />
singers are all dancers. The piece<br />
is written for non classical<br />
opera trained female vocals.<br />
The girls of course should have<br />
good voices and be able to sing<br />
but i wanted the piece to sound<br />
as if you sing it, or when someone<br />
ears it that would not feel<br />
intimidated to sing along.The<br />
melodies are quite catchy, the<br />
idea is almost like a strange lullaby<br />
that someone is singing to<br />
you and that you might join in or<br />
clap along. Another aspect of<br />
the piece is about space, movement<br />
through space, arrangement<br />
regards the audience<br />
and I knew the dancers specifically<br />
are working with this. So<br />
it was easier to train them to<br />
sing instead of training a singer<br />
to use the space and body. The<br />
two musicians are professional<br />
rock musicians.<br />
KALTBLUT: You wrote Serious<br />
Immobilities in Berlin, what was<br />
your inspiration besides the Vexations<br />
by Erik Satie?<br />
Ari: I knew I had that show at<br />
Ethers Shippers and I wanted<br />
a big part of the show to be a<br />
live performance and a composition.<br />
The inspiration was not<br />
so much a theme or a person<br />
but rather the situation. The<br />
issues and the questions I was<br />
trying to work on were: how do<br />
you create a composition that<br />
works in an exhibition? It is a<br />
piece that has no middle, beginning<br />
or end? I wanted to make<br />
a piece that could be strong for<br />
5 minutes but if you decided to<br />
stay could also be strong five<br />
hours. A piece you could come<br />
in and out without feeling you<br />
have missed something, like a<br />
sculpture. The people can look<br />
at it from different sides, leave<br />
and go. I was inspired by the<br />
space and I knew I wanted the<br />
piece to last as long as the gallery<br />
was open so it was seven<br />
hours.<br />
KALTBLUT: The audience was<br />
invited to interfere notably while<br />
playing on a grand piano that was<br />
tuned with one note. How did you<br />
incorporate it into the piece? Is it<br />
a reference to constraint writing?<br />
Ari: Like Georges Perec? This<br />
missing tone is not missing<br />
from my piece but from the Erik<br />
Satie’s Vexations but the situation<br />
is right. There was a form<br />
of controlled chaos, sometimes<br />
you would hear some sounds<br />
from the other room that would<br />
bleed into the performance.<br />
And there is also a part where<br />
the performance is going to the<br />
other room. The Serious Immobilities<br />
uses all tones but I understand<br />
about this idea of constraint.<br />
And it is true that the<br />
most constraints you have the<br />
more interesting the outcome<br />
can be.<br />
KALTBLUT: You erased the time<br />
constraint, the stage situation,<br />
the hierarchy, you are rule breaker?<br />
Ari: It is not quite the same as<br />
a constraint but it is similar. A<br />
constraint is where you set up<br />
some boundaries and here I<br />
was trying to get rid of certain<br />
parameters that we use. For<br />
instance time, a pop song or a<br />
rock song is four minutes long,
98<br />
and we use time to tell us if it is<br />
the beginning, the middle, the<br />
end of the song, it is the same<br />
in classical music you have<br />
symphony. Here I really wanted<br />
to remove this element of time<br />
through repetition. It was not<br />
easy to work for performers.<br />
Repeating two or three times is<br />
easy but It gets much more difficult<br />
when you get into a space<br />
where you are repeating so<br />
much that you don’t even have a<br />
feeling anymore. This was a big<br />
part for the audience to reach a<br />
point where they cannot think<br />
about where they are, when it<br />
is going to end. That was about<br />
removing the time dimension<br />
and the spacial dimension.<br />
The people could sit anywhere,<br />
could lay down and the performers<br />
were also all over the<br />
space. So those things are not<br />
so much about constraints but<br />
sort of trying to remove some<br />
various elements to get to something<br />
more essential about<br />
the situation.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is materiality a frustration?<br />
Ari: It is a frustration, especially<br />
as a musician or composer because,<br />
I think we have come<br />
to a point now where music<br />
really is something that we do<br />
not understand. It has become<br />
such a consummable product.<br />
Of course it is a process that<br />
started hundred years ago with<br />
the recording but now everyone<br />
is aware that we have reached<br />
a turning point where music is<br />
fundamentally changed to something<br />
constantly disposable,<br />
you have millions of songs<br />
on your hard drive. Somehow it<br />
gets way down by its materiality.<br />
This units that you store on<br />
your iPad, or even on your record<br />
shelf, the music itself has<br />
lost along the way what it really<br />
is, something about time, space<br />
and being in a certain moment.<br />
The single most property about<br />
music that makes it unique, is<br />
the fact that you cannot pause<br />
it. You cannot reduce it to a<br />
single unit. The smaller you get,<br />
there is always another unit<br />
smaller even down to the sound<br />
wave. A film you can pause but<br />
music is something that exists<br />
purely in time, it is a totally time<br />
based phenomena. Along with<br />
the way we consume music we<br />
got caught up in the surface<br />
of it: the way it sounds. There<br />
is much beyond the way it<br />
sounds and yet I think we tend<br />
to leave it to only this. Maybe<br />
we should take a step back and<br />
understand that the way music<br />
sounds is only one aspect, it<br />
might be an important one but<br />
it is only one out of many.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you tend to work<br />
on a most scientific approach?<br />
Ari: No, this is just my opinions<br />
and thoughts I am not trying<br />
to make a statement. As a<br />
composer I try to understand<br />
more about the essence of music.<br />
And I have the feeling that<br />
music is not found on a cd, on<br />
a concert hall where you sit<br />
down, you are quiet and the<br />
band is on a stage in the dark<br />
and you clap your hands. The<br />
essence is somewhere else, it<br />
is between people, something<br />
very physical, body based and<br />
by its very nature music is a<br />
social phenomena because<br />
it exists in space. If you think<br />
about headphones, I use them<br />
but I don’t particularly like<br />
them, as they are isolating you<br />
from the space. What it does,<br />
it takes the social phenomena<br />
and by putting directly the<br />
music into your brain, it turns it<br />
into something visual. You cannot<br />
help it, when you listen with<br />
headphones, music becomes a<br />
private soundtrack to whatever<br />
you are doing. If this the prime<br />
way you consume music, I think<br />
it cuts out 80% of what music<br />
originally was about.<br />
KALTBLUT: When you read you<br />
hear your voice, do you picture or<br />
visualise the music when you write?<br />
Ari: I sort of do. When I am<br />
writing I am very aware. If I do<br />
have a kind of picture it tends<br />
to be what is the relationship<br />
between what is happening<br />
musically, with the listener, the<br />
audience, their expectations,<br />
how would I play with it, with<br />
the time and what is the situation?<br />
The great thing about composition<br />
and music is that you<br />
can also exist in a very abstract<br />
level. You don’ t have to convert<br />
always into signs that mean something.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can you picture for<br />
me a black thought?<br />
Ari: Sure the funny thing about<br />
the black thought is a sort of<br />
a joke with myself. The title of<br />
the show: «Do you Have Black<br />
Thoughts» really means music.<br />
There was a grand piano in the<br />
show what was black of course,<br />
there was a score I wrote by<br />
hands with that graphite pencil<br />
which is black, the lines of the<br />
music paper are black, printed<br />
notes are black, somehow music<br />
in some ways is a black phenomena.<br />
But also going back<br />
to Satie, it really is a quote of<br />
his and I made the assumption<br />
that it was what he was talking<br />
about. In some ways, music is<br />
the black thought.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can you tell us more<br />
about your piece at the Berlinisches<br />
Gallery?<br />
Ari: That piece is on for a year.<br />
It is a composition for a solo<br />
voice. I worked with an opera<br />
singer from the Deutsche Oper.<br />
It takes place in the foyer before<br />
you enter the museum. It is a<br />
simple idea that leads to interesting<br />
situations because the<br />
piece can be played only when<br />
all the doors are closed. It is a<br />
decision that people have to<br />
make, to stay in this transition<br />
space. They have about five seconds<br />
between the two doors<br />
and if they stay they will hear<br />
the composition but of course<br />
many people don’t notice which<br />
is a part of the process. It is the<br />
opposite of a music box. There<br />
is a bench which is part of the<br />
piece too and of course an absurdity.<br />
I found this space of<br />
the museum very interesting;<br />
it represents the moment between<br />
outside and inside, public<br />
space and private space,<br />
between reality and art and to<br />
have something right there was<br />
quite interesting.<br />
www.aribenjaminmeyers.com<br />
Meet Jack The Box,<br />
the House music duo revealed by the Chicago House legend Tyree Cooper and the talented DJ and<br />
radio host Bobby Starrr! The two Berliners share a passion for fun and music History. Their first album<br />
“Side A“ released on Mood Music records is a punch to get moving and carrying on the beat. Talking<br />
about moving on, theses two hyperactive producers are unstoppable. Among an incredible longevity in<br />
the music industry, they are producing music, hosting a weekly radio show on sweatlodge radio and<br />
organiSing parties with old-school DJs and emerging talents at Tresor! What is their youth therapy?<br />
And how do they pursue the impact of music in our virtual world?<br />
KALTBLUT: Is hip house over?<br />
Tyree Cooper: No,it never ended.<br />
KALTBLUT: What do you think of the hip<br />
hop attitude nowadays?<br />
Tyree Cooper: Since everything is kind<br />
of corporate, they sell you a product they<br />
don’ t sell you music. It has no tangibility,<br />
has no sustainability, it is just a product<br />
like a simile line that keep turning over<br />
and over, just like a car. The way they<br />
feed it to the kids is something new and<br />
the kids don’ t know, they cannot get the<br />
education from the other ones because<br />
the corporations, the video or records<br />
companies have taken control and sell it<br />
a natural thing. At the same time theses<br />
companies say that it is bad but they do<br />
sell a lot of music so there is a lot of hypocrisy.<br />
Bobby Starrr: There are no long term sales<br />
anymore.<br />
Tyree Cooper: Long term sales only determines<br />
how long the records stays in<br />
the chart.<br />
Bobby Starrr: They build artist form an LP.<br />
Tyree Cooper:This is the whole point,<br />
they build artist from singles, they don’<br />
t get an album deal anymore. EDM is<br />
just another way of chasing the music<br />
that we do. To be accepted by the masses.<br />
Instead of calling it house music<br />
they call it electronic dance music so<br />
they compose it all outside of hip hop.<br />
Though everything in hip hop is made<br />
with electronics but they never put the<br />
two together. And as old as I have been<br />
in the early 90‘s the reason why the world<br />
dance music is in our culture is because<br />
they tried again to change house music
99<br />
to dance music, to make it acceptable for<br />
the masses and by the masses equivalent<br />
to white kids.<br />
Bobby Starrr: It is quite funny with the hip<br />
hop scene in Berlin to see especially in<br />
Neukölln and Kreuzberg you have got this<br />
under current quite aggressive scene and<br />
on the other side there is also a lot of international<br />
people here who got more a<br />
love for the jazz side of hip hop, it is a quite<br />
funny mix you see on the street.<br />
KALTBLUT: Regarding the great return of<br />
the 90’s, what is hip and what is deep?<br />
Bobby Starrr: It is funny how people keeps<br />
going about the 90’s into a certain period<br />
of house music, I guess it is good and bad<br />
I suppose.<br />
Tyree Cooper: Eight years ago it was all<br />
about Chicago, again it is the 20 years<br />
cycle. Some of these kids are just finding<br />
out about what this music is. This music<br />
has been going on for so long and some<br />
of them are between 20 and 32 years old<br />
and have never been exposed to any of this<br />
music. So the 80’s return was a few year<br />
ago, now they are going to the 90’s and I<br />
guess they will catch up with themselves<br />
and go to the 2000. And by the time they go<br />
to the 2000’s, I would imagine we will catch<br />
up with each other, but until then, the corporations<br />
are still going to dictate what is<br />
cool and what is not.<br />
KALTBLUT: The techno scene in Detroit<br />
came out as a result of an economical<br />
change. You live in Berlin, the city is known<br />
for its economical and social issues regarding<br />
the rest of Germany. Do you get some inspiration<br />
from that context?<br />
Tyree Cooper: Hell yeah! Just like you said,<br />
generally good music comes out of an oppressed<br />
time. In the 80’s we had hip hop,<br />
house and techno from the urban area.<br />
Bobby Starrr: What about heavy metal?<br />
Tyree Cooper: No, I never put heavy metal<br />
in the mix, because these white guys they<br />
have a chance; these black kids, they had<br />
no chance. That is why you get this music,<br />
it came out of an oppression of the people.<br />
Here in Berlin, it was like that for a while.<br />
Therefore, electro and minimal music was<br />
created because Berlin didn’t have any<br />
money during the early part of the millennium.<br />
They were the ambassadors of something<br />
that already existed but still, they<br />
were able to created out of oppression.<br />
Bobby Starrr: When I came to Berlin the<br />
first time, I felt the whole city was swamped<br />
by a certain sound and I was looking<br />
forward to seeing some love. But there<br />
was not that much love in what was being<br />
played. It was quite intriguing and two or<br />
three years later I have moved in and saw<br />
Daniel Wang play disco. Then I knew there<br />
would be some chance that the scene<br />
would change at some point.<br />
KALTBLUT: House music has never been so<br />
popular and the way of broadcasting have never<br />
been so multiple, you have quite of a record<br />
of longevity in the music scene, though<br />
it is still hard to release a good record?<br />
Tyree Cooper: Hell yeah! Let’s say you release<br />
a record digitally, in the week of your<br />
release there will be probably 70, 000 to 100,<br />
000 of records released that day. Then you<br />
have to compete with the 60, 000 from the<br />
week before etc. So yeah, it is super difficult<br />
nowadays to release a record specifically<br />
digitally. Vinyl has become another<br />
new source but again, when they saturate<br />
that market, it is going to be equally as<br />
hard. So until they come out with another<br />
format, music is going to be rough unless<br />
you have the right tools and place to get<br />
your music exposed.<br />
Bobby Starrr: With digital you are in the instant,<br />
the music is out, people buy it and<br />
after two weeks, it is gone. At least with<br />
vinyl, it is still present in shop for at least<br />
six weeks.<br />
Tyree Cooper: You can also have thousands<br />
of records on a shelf and it is not selling<br />
though you have visibility. The only thing<br />
the digital game did, is to make it easier<br />
for the consumer to get their music, thank<br />
you Napster.<br />
KALTBLUT: What is your vision of the music<br />
Industry in the future?<br />
Tyree Cooper: A flapping bass and a smiling<br />
face (laughs)<br />
Bobby Starrr: The most important thing is<br />
to keep carrying on; you will never know<br />
what is going to happened in the market<br />
space. It is always going to change and<br />
it has been proven. I mean you build something<br />
out of it which is not only making<br />
money by just selling records. Every single<br />
avenue you have to click, from doing your<br />
own party, t-shirt….<br />
Tyree Cooper: Socks, shoes, bra, eyeliner,<br />
ice cream… (laughs)<br />
KALTBLUT: So is art total?<br />
Bobby Starrr: It is getting more in that direction.<br />
Tyree Cooper: It is no longer music, it is the<br />
whole marketing branding, it is a lifestyle.<br />
KALTBLUT: Are we living a fluxus life style<br />
finally?<br />
Tyree Cooper: Well, there is individualism<br />
still. There is not a city unified so capitalism<br />
still plays a big part in this individualism,<br />
so what can you do?<br />
www.moodmusicrecords.com
Black Metal<br />
Photography & Postproduction by Valquire Veljkovic / www.valquire.de<br />
COncept & Production by nicolas simoneau & Nico Sutor
mountain xl ring sabrina dehoff<br />
102
103 chain: humana
sunglasses: ray ban<br />
104
105 wide square stone zebra and leo ring: sabrina dehoff,<br />
originals 1950’s cufflinks: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank
106<br />
BERLIN’S<br />
Best<br />
Text & Atelier photos by Pernille Sandberg www.pernillesandberg.com<br />
Feat. ‘Holy Me SS14 Collection’ photos by Ingrid Pop<br />
I am in Neukölln, Berlin and it is a rainy evening beyond<br />
normality. The hard wind makes everyone on the street<br />
walk fast, trying to avoid getting completely wet, myself<br />
included. Berlin seems completely grey and pale, the overall<br />
atmosphere is gloomy and the air is thick just before it gets<br />
dark. This feeling changes immediately as I step into the<br />
universe of Augustin Teboul, created by the duo Annelie<br />
Augustin and Odély Teboul. Situated on the ground floor<br />
in what looks like an old grocery store with panorama<br />
windows covered on the inside with patterned paper it is<br />
impossible to tell that this is a studio when seeing it from<br />
the outside. Even though it is already 9pm in the evening<br />
the productivity is still high. Young assistants are sewing<br />
hectically on the sewing machines, boxes are constantly<br />
relocated and the styling and fitting are intensely discussed.<br />
This studio has been the base of Augustin Teboul since<br />
December last year. The stylist of Augustin Teboul’s presentation<br />
this season shows me around. In one room people are<br />
working and in the other one the final pieces hang, along<br />
with long racks filled to the brim with exclusive rolls of<br />
different black fabric – and only black fabric.<br />
My interview is held in the small kitchen of the studio.<br />
This is the place for their cigarette break – it also contains<br />
a smaller moodboard. The open window keeps smashing<br />
into the wall because of the cruel weather. Odély Teboul<br />
seems completely calm and professional and she gives me<br />
her full attention even though her time schedule is tight.<br />
Annelie Augustin has gone home as she just had a baby.<br />
What is special about this brand is that they have never<br />
done a runway show. They do presentations. They want to<br />
keep it simple and minimal and give people time to really<br />
explore the pieces that the models are wearing. What is<br />
even more special about them is their brand development –<br />
they started out dramatically by having a presentation during<br />
Paris Fashion Week in cooperation with the fashionable<br />
store L’Éclarieur and have had a presentation at Plazza<br />
Athénée. Now they are based in Berlin although they still<br />
have a showroom and a press agency in Paris. Everything<br />
is now produced in Berlin, all the prototypes made by hand<br />
in-house and then the collections are produced somewhere<br />
else in the city, going through different steps before it hits<br />
the shops...
107
“I don’t really miss Paris but life is different here than<br />
in Paris. There is a lot of good energy and creative feeling<br />
here. It’s very inspiring. It’s dynamic here in a way<br />
because the city is still under construction. Paris is more<br />
established, especially in fashion.”<br />
Through time the duo has learned how to work together as a<br />
team.<br />
“It’s very interesting, because we have very different<br />
personalities and on the other hand it’s like a fusion, a<br />
creative fusion of two people sharing creativity. We’re<br />
very different from each other, but we complement each<br />
other. The more you work together the more you learn<br />
how to make it quick. I think when you don’t have an ego<br />
that is too strong and you’re interested in working as a<br />
team it’s more interesting than fighting. It depends on<br />
how you want to work.”<br />
The two women come from different backgrounds, but both<br />
expenrienced handicraft as a part of their childhood homes.<br />
Odély comes from France and Annelie from Germany. Odély<br />
tells us how she never has and never will sew her own clothes,<br />
but likes to work with the cloth.<br />
“I’ve done handicraft since I was a kid. I have always<br />
known that because my mom taught me how. Skills develop<br />
through time I guess. I think that’s important. When<br />
you know your techniques you can transform it into design.”<br />
Odély and Annelie met at Esmod (international fashion and<br />
business school in Paris since 1841) but this was not the place<br />
of birth for their brand that has only existed since 2009.<br />
Within these few years they have managed to achieve the<br />
highest prized German fashion award SYFB (Start Your<br />
Fashion Business), not to mention the three awards their first<br />
collection “Cadavre Exquis” received – along with the ability<br />
to sell worldwide.<br />
“I was working for Jean-Paul Gaultier in Germany. In<br />
2009 I had a job interview in London. Annelie was living<br />
in London while she was working for Y3 Yohji Yamamoto<br />
for Adidas. I needed a couch to sleep on and got her phone<br />
number. It turned out we were in the same personal<br />
situation, looking for something creative and the desire<br />
to build something new. It just worked out and one thing<br />
leaded to another and it somehow turned into a brand. We<br />
won a few awards and with a small amount of money we<br />
started slowly. It’s a young brand but very luxurious. It<br />
still has a creative touch and a lot of handmade elements<br />
to it. It’s placed on the expensive market. Basically it’s<br />
ready-to-wear in the sense that all the clothes that you<br />
see you can buy in a shop. Our way of working is not by<br />
measurements. We don’t see our clients and make clothes<br />
especially for them, but create a collection that can<br />
be bought in a shop. In the sense of craftsmanship and<br />
techniques it’s a lot of couture. There is so much embroidery<br />
and handmade details.”<br />
Their courage to take a risk combined with hard work has<br />
leaded them into the position they stand in today. Back then<br />
they worked on a very basic level. Every morning they woke<br />
up and started working with their hands in a complete mess of<br />
30 square meters, both sleeping in the same room, producing<br />
everything by hand. Things started to fit into place and magic<br />
started to happen.<br />
“It’s difficult. Nothing is easy. We started with nothing. I<br />
lived in a one-room flat of thirty square meters and that’s<br />
how we began. Slowly, slowly, you know...”<br />
Their brand and working conditions have obviously changed<br />
since then, but it is important for them to be able to monitor<br />
every step of the process in the making of their clothes.<br />
“It’s not our aim to create a big mass production. It will<br />
be interesting to enlarge the collection with more accessible<br />
pieces, once the label grows. For now we produce in<br />
Germany, and are focused on a production made in Europe.<br />
I think it’s important to be conscious with what you<br />
are doing when you’re involved in business. Nowadays<br />
there are so many brands; there is so much you can buy.<br />
It’s important for us to just concentrate on the quality of<br />
the pieces and all the finishing. That is where we want to<br />
put our energy.”<br />
Maybe that is the reason why every single piece in their<br />
collections is black. There is then room for complete focus and<br />
attention to the crafting, the embroidery and the details that<br />
makes the whole aesthetic. It is not a choice they have made to<br />
exclude a certain kind of woman – they design for every age<br />
and every style.
109
110<br />
“It came by coincidence more or<br />
less. The first product we did together<br />
was created out of this game<br />
we played. You know this game where<br />
you draw something, fold the paper<br />
and then the next one has to draw<br />
something? We are two fashion designers<br />
so of course it became very<br />
fashionable drawings. It was really<br />
interesting because it was so unrealistic<br />
in a way. We decided to make<br />
an interpretation of this drawing, all<br />
in black with details and texture. It<br />
was a good base to start with cause<br />
I was working with a lot of colours<br />
and Annelie was very minimal when<br />
we met. It was a good base for combining<br />
our different universes. Black<br />
was our only restriction. We did these<br />
drawings and it was a very good<br />
way of starting working together.<br />
We wouldn’t make one of shoulders<br />
if one of us didn’t liked it. It became<br />
our first mini-collection of six looks<br />
and we decided to develop it. That’s<br />
why we only design in black cause<br />
we wanted to explore all the fields in<br />
only one colour.”<br />
Something that hits me again and<br />
again while I talk to Odély is her charming<br />
kind of humility, it runs through<br />
every word that comes out of her mouth.<br />
She knows what her and her business<br />
partner Annelie have achieved, but she<br />
knows the importance of staying calm<br />
and safe with both feet on the ground.<br />
The adventure will continue. The last<br />
thing she tells me is this:<br />
“I don’t have something specific I’m<br />
proud of but I have moments where I<br />
can manage to look at some stuff we<br />
did and think ’wow, we achieved that,<br />
that’s cool’ and I feel… I don’t know<br />
if it’s pride or fulfilment. I think it’s<br />
important not to be too proud in life.<br />
When you manage to have a distance<br />
when looking at what you managed<br />
to do it’s difficult. Everytime I finish<br />
a creation I’m tired and feel that it’s<br />
disgusting. Then I look at it after a<br />
few months and think it’s good. Now<br />
when I wake up and come to the studio<br />
I realize that it’s such a big step<br />
from starting in one room, only two<br />
people working together.”<br />
www.augustin-teboul.com
THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT<br />
AND A COMMUNITY<br />
We at Design Hotels are celebrating our 20th year of curating the most expressive and unique<br />
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Blouse - Zara / Headband - H&M / Necklace - Asos<br />
112
113<br />
Photography – Julia Blank www.juliablank.com<br />
Model – Marika @ MegaModels www.megamodels.com<br />
Styling – Jeanna www.jeannastyling.com<br />
Make-up & Hair – Suzana Santalab www.suzanasantalab.com
114<br />
Cap - Pinko / Jacket - Krew / Shirt - Monki / Skirt - Glamorous / Tights - Falke / Overknees - Sensual Latex / Necklace & Bracelet - H&M
Shirt - Asos / Necklace - Limited Edition<br />
115
116<br />
Jacket, Skirt & Gloves - Sensual Latex<br />
Pullover - Freak of Nature<br />
Bra - H&M<br />
Leggings - Asos<br />
Shoes - Zara<br />
Earrings - Vintage<br />
Bracelet - Hermès
117<br />
Shirt - Moschino / Skirt - Sensual Latex / Tights - Falke / Shoes - Pleaser / Necklace - Asos / Ring - H&M
118<br />
Bathing Suit & Earrings - Asos<br />
Cap - Stylist's own<br />
Bag - Monki
119<br />
Pullover - H&M<br />
Shirt - Asos<br />
Skirt - Freak of Nature<br />
Necklaces - Limited Edition<br />
Headphones - Softwear<br />
Shoes - Buffalo
120<br />
MEHRYL<br />
LEVISSE<br />
Merhyl Lévisse is a sculptor and a photographer. He is also artist, an “Artiste plasticien”, one might say. The<br />
body takes a notable role in Merhyl’s work, perhaps because of Lévisse’s dance education. It was a real pleasure<br />
for me to discover his work; the beautiful pictures that he creates make me feel like a child peering in through<br />
the Christmas windows. There is so much going on; a whole world captured by a camera. To further showcase<br />
his work, I chatted to him about his passion, his inspirations and his meticulous way of crafting his art.<br />
Merhyl’s work is exhibited at his official gallery www.coullaudkoulinsky.com<br />
Interview by Nicolas Simoneau<br />
KALTBLUT: Hi Mehryl, How are you<br />
doing?<br />
Mehryl: Hi KALTBLUT! I think I’m fine…<br />
if I don’t sleep, if I’m stressed, if I have<br />
many ideas for my work, it’s normal I’m<br />
fine.<br />
KALTBLUT: Could you maybe tell us a<br />
bit more about your artistic background?<br />
Mehryl: I have one “bac+5” in contemporary<br />
art, I was the assistant of several<br />
artists, I have a formation in dance<br />
and in contemporary dance, and I lived<br />
in Morocco two years to work in artistic<br />
structures, I returned to France in<br />
January. I’m represented by the French<br />
Gallery Coullaud & Koulinsky.<br />
KALTBLUT: I’m totally in love with your<br />
“Captations Photographiques”. How do<br />
you choose themes for your pictures?<br />
Mehryl: It’s really complicated, I work<br />
in two different ways. Once per year,<br />
I choose a theme and I work on this<br />
theme (for example; “ton sur ton”,<br />
“sciences occults”, “pornographie”)<br />
because at different months of the<br />
year and with the time past my ideas<br />
change and I don’t think about any<br />
more similar theme. For the other “captations<br />
photographiques” I choose the<br />
theme with my desires, my material,<br />
the object, the wallpaper, the carpets<br />
and the body that I want to work. I<br />
never create more than one captation<br />
photographique by day, a lot of time is<br />
needed to built a photographic environment<br />
and I need to reflect and test my<br />
thoughts. When I sit and I don’t speak<br />
or I seem to make nothing in reality it’s<br />
there that I work most because I imagine<br />
in the slightest detail what will be<br />
my next images.<br />
KALTBLUT: What’s the process like<br />
when you work on a series? Do you<br />
have a clear idea before you start to<br />
shoot?<br />
Mehryl: My process is always similar. I<br />
work in a closed space, without daylight,<br />
and always artificial light. I begin<br />
in a room and I make the photographic<br />
space, I imagine the body, build the<br />
suit, accessory and I fit out the space.<br />
Usually, I have a specific idea for my<br />
photo, I think about the picture before<br />
starting to work and after I create<br />
the photographic space. Sometimes<br />
I forget this work method and I make<br />
the photo and think the body piece by<br />
piece, and then I forget the constraints,<br />
my code and at this moment I have<br />
absurd pictures (some are the ones I<br />
prefer in my work).<br />
KALTBLUT: Your finished work looks like<br />
a piece of theatre: there’s real direction<br />
in it. Every single picture you create<br />
looks like a different universe. Do you<br />
create all the set design on your own?<br />
Mehryl: I’m creating everything.<br />
I work alone, I don’t have assistants<br />
and it’s me who imagines and realises<br />
everything. It’s a lot of work. I choose<br />
to work alone, because I know<br />
where I’m going, when I speak with<br />
other artists they say, “I could have<br />
made that” and for me it’s really<br />
difficult to discuss that. Artists forget<br />
they aren’t me, I have a personal story,<br />
personal route they don’t know and<br />
they me and I think differently.<br />
Fortunately!<br />
KALTBLUT: Is there story behind each of<br />
your series, or is it more open to interpretation?<br />
Mehryl: Both, behind every pictures<br />
there is a story but I have chosen not<br />
to tell it to leave free to interpretation.<br />
It’s very important that every spectator<br />
imagine their own story. Each<br />
person imagines their own story,<br />
because we don’t have same<br />
real-life experience, the same<br />
memories, the same education,<br />
the same parents, the same family, the<br />
same route and my work calls on to all<br />
this, to the life of each person.<br />
KALTBLUT: As an artist, who are your<br />
main references?
This Page: BAUHAUSporn #5: Le monde des perversions.<br />
121
122<br />
This Page Up: BAUHAUSporn #4: Ornementation géométrique, This Page Middle: Epiphragme,<br />
This Page Down: Le dernier Jeu.<br />
Mehryl: I have a great deal of references<br />
for the painting, in the sculpture,<br />
by way music, cinema, literature,<br />
opera, dance etc… Dance is<br />
very important to me, I studied the<br />
dance and I hesitate to become a<br />
dancer in a company. I love Maguy<br />
Marin, each of the plays causes an<br />
artistic explosion in my guts.<br />
Of course I love Pina Bausch it’s<br />
obvious, but I was born too late to<br />
meet her. The Spanish choreographer<br />
Olga Mesa that I met in Morocco<br />
and with whom I was lucky enough<br />
to think the body, the Moroccan<br />
choreographer Meryem Jazouli<br />
inspires me enormously, with whom<br />
I worked in casablanca during two<br />
years also deserves metion.<br />
There is also Josef Nadj, Steven<br />
Cohen, Raimund Hoghe, Benoît<br />
Lachambre, Sasha Waltz… The movie<br />
that I prefer is “The Rocky Horror<br />
Picture Show”, that was an obvious<br />
fact and a revelation when I saw it<br />
as a child. I read Jean Giono, Jules<br />
Verne, Gilles Deleuze, Charles Baudelaire,<br />
Ionesco, Oscar Wilde and I<br />
listen to some electronic music, new<br />
wave and experimental and I’m into<br />
“Fan death”.<br />
KALTBLUT: What is the over-arching<br />
inspiration for your work?<br />
Mehryl: Life.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your shots look totally<br />
realistic. Does any postproduction<br />
take place in your photography work?<br />
Mehryl: Yes they are realistic, there<br />
is no post-production in my shots.<br />
My work isn’t retouched by computer.<br />
Special effects are realised<br />
during the photography used the<br />
lightings, make-up, false grounds,<br />
prostheses as in the theatre.<br />
I never use postproduction it’s really<br />
important to me that my pictures are<br />
true.<br />
KALTBLUT: Are you working with a<br />
digital or an analog camera?<br />
and why?<br />
Mehryl: I work with a digital camera,<br />
because for make one picture,<br />
sometimes I realise three hundred or<br />
four hundred photographs to obtain<br />
THE photograph which I imagine.<br />
The tool is not important, I’m not a<br />
photographer I’m an artist. My work<br />
isn’t the photography, the photography<br />
is a documentary track.<br />
My work is the construction of the<br />
space, the thought of the body, the<br />
suits, before the photography and<br />
not the photography itself.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve worked on a few<br />
collaborations, how was it for you<br />
sharing project space with another<br />
artist? What were you hoping to gain<br />
by collaborating?
123<br />
Mehryl: Actually I work on three new<br />
collaborations, an installation, a<br />
series picture and a movie. In collaboration<br />
I don’t share the space. We<br />
share the ideas, the thoughts and<br />
we work together on the project, but<br />
the photographic work is my work<br />
and nobody goes into the space.<br />
My associate works alone and then<br />
I work with his productions in the<br />
photographic space. I only think the<br />
space and it’s important to me. I<br />
love collaborations because our universes<br />
mix and takes me differently<br />
but the work is shared, the photography<br />
part is me.<br />
KALTBLUT: You also work in 3D. How<br />
does it compare working with photography<br />
and working with installations?<br />
Mehryl: The installations are the 3D<br />
of my photos. Both are connected<br />
and complement each other. These<br />
works are not comparable but additional,<br />
I both consider them as very<br />
important, but it’s true I realise less<br />
work in 3D and more photos.<br />
This Page Up: Joyeuses fêtes, This Page Middle: L’étude des figures,<br />
This Page Down: L’oisivore.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can you tell us a bit more<br />
about the piece “Le Dernier Jeu”.<br />
I love the dark humour of it.<br />
Mehryl: It’s about a very personal<br />
work on which I worked several years,<br />
and connected to my life and a<br />
lego’s series of the photo. There are<br />
two coffins, one white one in colour<br />
and it’s unique piece. A arrangement<br />
box, a note of 900 pages and<br />
two volumes, four days to build and<br />
more of 3900 scrub each.<br />
KALTBLUT: A lot of artists use their<br />
work as a way to purge their souls,<br />
would you say it’s the same in your<br />
case? If so, what do your demons<br />
look like?<br />
Mehryl: It’s really true!! I’m so neurotic…<br />
I work on me, I try to make<br />
efforts for the everyday life, it’s really<br />
difficult. I’m very stressed, I have<br />
many demons but I keep it for me.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you also work by demand<br />
or do you decide the time scale<br />
for all of your projects?<br />
Mehryl: I obey to nobody except my<br />
own creative drives. I have some<br />
projects in command but I’m free in<br />
my creation.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your pictures are everything<br />
but simple. The patterns,<br />
colours, repetition, bodies; our eyes<br />
are really “served” with your work. Are<br />
you a fan of “abondance” in general?<br />
Mehryl: I work a lot. I destroy a lot!<br />
I work on the everyday life, on the<br />
objects which surrounds us and to<br />
whom we give an mystic way.<br />
www.mehryllevisse.fr
INTRODUCING:<br />
124<br />
CUNT CUNT CHANEL<br />
Searching for the soul in the very atmosphere itself Markus Nikolaus Büttner is currently<br />
producing his very first Solo-LP “The Monster Inside Of Me” (Suena Hermosa, Berlin), getting<br />
lost around Europe in search of hope through pleasure and pain, to overcome loneliness,<br />
weariness, hollowness and absurdity. Played between static contrasts, the songs are mostly<br />
minimalistic in structure with dreamy features, factory-like beats, distorted organ, deep<br />
bass, dental drills. His works are not so much arrangements or compositions, but simply<br />
pure expression. Let us introduce you to the sound of CUNT CUNT CHANEL.<br />
Photo by Bobby Anders I Interview: Amy Heaton<br />
KALTBLUT: For our readers who don’t know you, can you tell<br />
us a little summary of your project in your own words?<br />
C C C: Hello, my name is Markus Nikolaus. I am a live-act<br />
performing mostly solo under the name “Cunt Cunt Chanel”. If<br />
I’m asked to describe the music I make, I always feel like describing<br />
what a cake tastes like. You can never fully explain it<br />
to the person if they haven’t tried it themselves but for a little<br />
introduction. I play mostly digital with my computer, various<br />
midi-controls, a master-keyboard and use sound-pedals<br />
with the focus on the voice. Especially in a club I like to play<br />
with my drummer, who plays a Roland V-Drumkit on pads,<br />
instead of my own. My intention is to bring more profound<br />
diversity into the club scene, that I like very much myself,<br />
and to function in a way that’s both artistic and aesthetic but<br />
also poetic and soulful.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you usually find yourself writing a text, and<br />
adding the music, or the other way around? Or is the whole<br />
process more organic?<br />
C C C: Usually I try to produce a lot before even thinking about<br />
making a song. When I do, I simply intend to find an interesting<br />
sound. I don’t think about the arrangement, if it is played<br />
right or about the harmony too much. I don’t produce, I actually<br />
just prepare and try to make something happen. I experiment<br />
with what I have. Sometimes I have a lot of equipment<br />
sometimes I only have my computer. For me, the piano is the<br />
only failsafe set-up. The digital equipment I use is always<br />
vague and destined to fail one day. Returning to the keys of<br />
the piano, i realise, it can only be me failin’.<br />
KALTBLUT: For me, music making is always at it’s most intense<br />
when it’s a solitary affair. Would you agree?<br />
C C C: I just try to prepare for a situation to pop-up. But I<br />
would agree that it is a solitary affair. Most of my strongest<br />
songs were made when I was on my own. Another person in<br />
the room steals your concentration. Either everyone goes into<br />
the same direction or it won’t work. The best way is to nicely<br />
ask the thieves of your creativity to leave. If that doesn’t seem<br />
to work. Get yourself a gun.<br />
KALTBLUT: I’m sure everyone asks you about the name, it’s<br />
brilliant. Where did you get the idea for it?<br />
C C C: To be honest, I didn’t have the idea, at the time I couldn’t<br />
think of one. It was a friend of mine, Matea. She came up<br />
with the name and I trust her opinion. She writes for the SPEX<br />
Music Magazine and in a pure moment of brainstorming she<br />
hit the spot. The word CUNT is not meant to be provocative but<br />
it seemed necessary to have a distance between the combination<br />
of words. I wanted to involve the huge opposites of<br />
FRANKFURT. The city has almost no middle-class. The huge<br />
skyscrapers and the poor and homeless sitting at the bottom<br />
You can hear the wistful tones of CUNT CUNT CHANEL over at www.soundcloud.com/bobbyblueisamusiclover<br />
of it. I can’t think of any other place in Germany where<br />
people are so far away from each other, divided into<br />
the class-of-finance and the class-of-poverty but on<br />
the other hand, you see bankers and bank-robbers sitting<br />
in the same bar, café or club. When Matea said the<br />
name CUNT CUNT CHANEL it just hit me. In my head was<br />
this picture of a woman sitting at Goethestraße, Frankfurt<br />
($$$) in front of the Chanel-boutique injecting, like<br />
she’s trying to reach somehow a moment of happiness<br />
which the rich and beautiful praise with their extraordinary<br />
lifestyle. It is mass-madness. The rich live in<br />
complete illusion of money and the poor are completely<br />
disillusioned in life by having none.<br />
KALTBLUT: Are you into fashion? How do you construct<br />
your image as an artist?<br />
C C C: I like fashion but I can’t afford it. I try to dress<br />
rather decent and I like to mix a more old-fashioned<br />
style with something that was clearly not made for me<br />
to wear. Peacocking in an Oscar Wilde’ish way. When I<br />
play live I try to only wear black, oftentimes because of<br />
the black light I use to paint things like the microphone<br />
or myself during the show. But what the hell is my<br />
image? My image as a construct is maybe to be seen as<br />
someone who clearly escapes his habitus, his surroundings,<br />
hometown and family in a way to free himself<br />
whatever the cost, at all cost. The place where I grew<br />
up definitely influences my projection on the audience<br />
as for example a working class-kid; half-orphan growing<br />
up at my mothers butchers shop, ADHD, son of a<br />
butcher and so forth. I try to let all these pieces take<br />
somehow part in what I do. But I didn’t do blood yet on<br />
stage, I leave this to Hermann Nitsch for now.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your music is inspired by the electro scene<br />
in Frankfurt, how do you find it compares to Berlin?<br />
Which scene do you prefer?<br />
C C C: I use Frankfurt to create anything but the usual<br />
and I use Berlin to step back from the far outs. Frankfurt<br />
has a very common sound. In Berlin everybody just<br />
tries to be so very different, they are so far out that it<br />
almost scares me. I use both to seek and find inspiration<br />
and to come back to what I’ve learned. I like both<br />
and prefer none.<br />
KALTBLUT: From the clips I’ve heard and the live show
125<br />
experience you put a lot of yourself into your music... gutwrenching,<br />
soul searching, atmospheric: would you say<br />
this is true of your work?<br />
C C C: I would say so because it is a part of me writing<br />
these songs and it is a part of me performing but since<br />
individualism became mainstream I see myself as a part<br />
coming shaped out of the same big thing and the same<br />
reasons trying to speak to the ones who think and feel<br />
likewise. I don’t want to be different, I want to place myself<br />
in the warmth of a circle of friends and with my music I am<br />
able to find these.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’re producing your L.P at the moment “The<br />
Monster Inside Of Me”, can you tell us a bit more about<br />
that monster?<br />
C C C: Confused in a moment, grey in grey, like a prophet,<br />
take the nearest exit or at him another hit, heartbeating<br />
piece of meat, once there was a time to carry truth out<br />
on the street, hard voices, widow, doubt, skin, unfaithful,<br />
sweat, panic attack, summer dress, blurred faces, main<br />
station, someone I know that is now someone random,<br />
glory, words, most likely somewhere out of reach, one<br />
single night a thousand feet deep, details, devils, save my<br />
soul, journey, pilgrim, sightless view, body presence, soul<br />
absence, muse breathing, out-loving, pictures, weakness,<br />
losing suitcase, the injuries that to myself I do, loss is fortune<br />
ever fixed, fleeting year, one shot revolver, have years<br />
told, now it is over, chance or nature’s changing course,<br />
well as long as man can breathe, bring me life approaching<br />
death, of this, our time, it’s worth to sing, have eyes<br />
to wonder, french kiss, black tongue, as long as ocean’s<br />
open, muscle works, one way I go, such is my love.<br />
KALTBLUT: Although your lyrical content is deep, imbued<br />
with layers of meaning, there’s a gentle dreamlike quality<br />
to your sound. Is this juxtaposition intentional?<br />
C C C: It is the dreamlike sound that gives the listener the<br />
biggest space for imagination. After minutes of atmospheric<br />
sounds it only needs a word or a line to get hooked on<br />
a thought. I don’t think it is my lyrics that are deep. I think<br />
it is the listener who creates this deepness in a moment of<br />
thinking when listening to my songs.<br />
KALTBLUT: The otherworldliness of your tracks is almost<br />
cinematic. Do you include any visuals when you play live?<br />
Or have you collaborated with any film makers?<br />
C C C: Truth is I’ve been experimenting with some people<br />
so far but for the visualisation of the show, I’ve not found<br />
the right person yet. For videomaterial I always like to take<br />
a filmer with me on the road or lock us up in my cottage<br />
nearby the forest. For the cut I have only one guy, Max<br />
Sternkopf, he’s got the right eye for it plus he’s magnificent<br />
in a way because he grows with the challenge. Whenever<br />
we have too little material he finds a way to cut 10 minutes<br />
material even better than a 3 day shot production. I don’t<br />
need rocket-scientists to make decent movies but what<br />
you need is a handful of very fine minds that have a sense<br />
of your own imagination.<br />
KALTBLUT: Which other artists in the music scene are most<br />
exciting for you right now?<br />
C C C: Julien Bracht (Cocoon) and Rouge Mecanique (Rekids).<br />
Both of these live-acts combine rock elements with<br />
club music and play solo, this is what made it interesting<br />
for me to learn because usually the club is not prepared<br />
for live-acts to that extend. Julien for example plays techno<br />
with very intense live drums. He is one of my closest but<br />
everytime I see his songs live, he leaves me with amazement.<br />
Romain, Rouge Mecanique, plays guitar throughout<br />
his show and the first time I heard him live at Heideglühen<br />
in Berlin, I knew it was something new. Both are very special<br />
artists and go into directions where I imagine to be.<br />
The perfect crossover of club-culture and concert music.<br />
When it comes to good pop music I think Ballet School<br />
(Bella Union, UK) is one band to keep an eye on. Rosalind<br />
Blair’s soprano voice brings my ear to frequencies I hardly<br />
heard live. Plus, Louis McGuire is a machine on the drums.<br />
A very fine one.<br />
KALTBLUT: Thanks so much for the cool photograph you<br />
made especially for us, what kinds of things did you think<br />
about when I told you about our theme: Noire?<br />
C C C: Of course first thing that comes to one’s mind is<br />
the night. Not very imaginative. After I thought about it for<br />
a while, I felt like going on one red thread most people<br />
would run on. The well trodden path, so to say. So, what<br />
I did was that I jumped into one of Berlins Photoautomat<br />
boxes at Kottbusser Tor and it was one out of four shots. I<br />
gave it to an acquaintance, Ludwig Kempf, he made it look<br />
like a bit more special. Noire is also a ¼ note in music.<br />
Take four of them and a bass drum and you have a club<br />
beat. So, NOIRE, for me is a artistic expression on music<br />
for the uncontrolled and spontaneous mind.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where would be your favourite location to play<br />
a gig in Berlin? Maybe you already have played there…or<br />
somewhere on your watchlist?<br />
C C C: Most people would probably answer Panorama Bar<br />
but Berlin is full of beautiful off-locations, rooftops, cellars,<br />
basements, outside places along the Spree. I could<br />
imagine though to play in the attic of the CHALET just as<br />
much as I would like to give a show at a lakeside or at<br />
an off-location somewhere in the nature of this town. This<br />
year I enjoyed to play outside in the yard of the Kater Holzig.<br />
Burning trash cans under the wide open sky, people<br />
from all over the world screaming my lyrics back into my<br />
face. I was very interactive.<br />
KALTBLUT: If I saw you in a cafe, book in hand, you would<br />
be reading…?<br />
C C C: It was very likely to see me with the book of gaelic<br />
wisdom called ANAM CARA by John O’Donoghue. Translated<br />
from the gaelic it means “soul-friend”. I treated it like<br />
my bible but since I gave it to a friend because I got it from<br />
a friend and wisdom is there to share, I would probably be<br />
reading one of Rilke’s book. I know I should at some point<br />
start to read something out of the 21st Century. Maybe better<br />
not care.<br />
KALTBLUT: What about your plans for the coming year, will<br />
you be touring outside of Europe at all?<br />
C C C: Europe is a small continent but with a lot of very<br />
diverse nations living on it. It takes some time to explore<br />
all the nooks and crannies of this continent. This is what I’d<br />
like to do before I start thinking about spreading my wings<br />
to overcome the huge swimming pool of an ocean. Though<br />
a friend of mine, the brazilian writer Ricardo Domeneck<br />
and I have started working together this year combining<br />
poetry and music and we intend to play a few shows in Rio<br />
and Sao Paolo and hopefully some nice, little extraordinary<br />
places. Brazil is a very tough but interesting country<br />
that offers huge possibilities and space for art in general.<br />
I definitely want to be there someday.<br />
KALTBLUT: If you could live and create anywhere outside of<br />
Germany, where would it be?<br />
C C C: To really create songs I think I would only need a<br />
place in the mountains and my dog. But think it’s a relief to<br />
be able to work anywhere just with a pair of headphones.<br />
It’s different with the singing. It doesn’t always work to<br />
improvise on a rather high emotional level. For that I need<br />
to be absent from people. As an artist I cut out stencils on<br />
my own. If I like one I can recreate it unlimited in front of<br />
every audience without hesitation or the feeling of shame.<br />
Then the stencil is like carved wood in my head.<br />
KALTBLUT: You mentioned you’ve retreated to the countryside<br />
to work on your recordings, what is it about peaceful<br />
surrounds that you prefer as a base (as opposed to the<br />
hustle and bustle of the inner city)<br />
C C C: I don’t like silence very much but absence from<br />
everything that is not existential is very important. I start<br />
to hear more clearly and to overcome the deadly silence I<br />
instinctively start to sing. I am always surprised how this<br />
seems to work for me. The voice is my most important instrument<br />
and whatever happens, I always have it with me.<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you feel about music in the digital age?<br />
On the one hand it frees musicians from the shackles of<br />
traditional constructs, on the flip side of that it does make<br />
it harder to earn a living from being a musician these<br />
days...<br />
C C C: Musicians shouldn’t earn anything from their music<br />
if they put it online themselves. Nowadays most music is<br />
given out like flyers, its only the commercial for the actual<br />
product. I really (try to avoid the word “hate”) don’t like<br />
that especially if your songs come from deep down of your<br />
heart, it makes you feel like the music one makes is cheap<br />
but it is not. I want the people to download music illegally,<br />
put it up again for everyone to spread. I want the people<br />
to steal it and let them guess its actual value themselves.<br />
Nothing is expensive or cheap when you steal it but one<br />
has to discover what it’s worth. The audience should be<br />
forced to find it, if they adore it, overcome borders, break<br />
the law and literally rip it out of the hands of the industry.<br />
That is pure admiration for the artist. The artist doesn’t<br />
need the industry but the industry needs the artist. People<br />
need to be excited. Excitement is important. Boredom a<br />
killer.<br />
KALTBLUT: When can we expect to hear the new album?<br />
C C C: Never. there will always be a “new album” I don’t<br />
ever want to retire from this. I want this to be my profession<br />
and the start of making music is always my destination.<br />
However, there will be a techno-release this year with<br />
Florian Meindl, in which I did sing and my long awaited<br />
“Monster Inside Of Me” will be released on the berlinbased<br />
label Suena Hermosa end of this year.
126<br />
MUST<br />
You certainly can live without these ITEMS, but life is so much More Beautiful with THEM.<br />
Selected by Marcel Schlutt<br />
The Son by<br />
Jo Nesbo<br />
I love reading crime and mystic<br />
books. One of my favorite is<br />
The Son by Jo Nesbo. A<br />
thriller from no 1 bestselling<br />
crime author,<br />
Jo Nesbo, which sees<br />
a charismatic young<br />
prisoner escaping<br />
jail to find out the truth about his father's<br />
death. He listens to the confessions of other<br />
inmates at Oslo jail, and absolves them of<br />
their sins. Some people even whisper that<br />
Sonny is serving time for someone else:<br />
that he doesn't just listen, he confesses to<br />
their crimes. A book you should own.<br />
DOCKERS Bomber Jacket<br />
Bomber jackets are this year an<br />
absolute must-have for every fashion<br />
boy out there. This Quilted Bomber<br />
Jacket by Dockers makes any look<br />
more comfortable and modern.<br />
Their lightweight nylon with<br />
quilted detail looks casual and<br />
keeps you warm.<br />
www.dockers.com<br />
Philips M1X<br />
Dj System<br />
Mix like a DJ with Philips M1X-Dj , give your music through any device, and share it with<br />
others. Create incredible sets that will delight your friends, and stream the songs on the<br />
Lightning-Anschluss/Bluetooth. And take your music with you wherever you are for a big<br />
party at any location.<br />
www.philips.de<br />
The Walking Dead Monopoly<br />
The last thing you want to do, when the zombies hit the fan<br />
(so to speak), is to worry about real estate deals. What you DO<br />
want to be doing is making sure the property you own is well<br />
protected and ready to withstand the advancing zombie menace.<br />
Let this be your mindset when you play The Walking Dead<br />
Monopoly. It's Monopoly mashed up with Robert Kirkman's The<br />
Walking Dead. Don't just buy properties - fortify them!<br />
www.thinkgeek.com<br />
HANIWA NO. 1<br />
The label JEONGA CHOI BERLIN was founded in 2012 and provides unique<br />
and sophisticated hats and accessories. Each piece is lovingly handmade<br />
with the highest quality materials. The HANIWA NO. 1 hat is one of our<br />
favorite items from the young Berlin<br />
based label. And girls if you want<br />
something unique and special just<br />
have a look at their webpage. You<br />
surely will find the right thing<br />
for you.<br />
www.jeonga-choi-berlin.com<br />
Nike Air Max Ice<br />
The next Nike lightweight in Hyperfuse mode! The Air Max 90 ICE<br />
stands out not only because of its color and geometric pattern on the<br />
outside, it has also got an Ice sole. Red, seamless, Hyperfuse upper with<br />
a clear 'ICE' midsole, a red 'ICE' Air<br />
unit and bold color airbag and<br />
outsole. Absolute eye catcher<br />
and very comfortable!<br />
www.nike.com<br />
Forever 21<br />
The colorful Forever<br />
21 rain coat finally<br />
brings color to<br />
the gray everyday<br />
life. The 90s style<br />
of the print should<br />
be in every<br />
wardrobe of<br />
a hip girl.<br />
It fits in a<br />
backpack.<br />
Is easy to<br />
clean and<br />
goes with<br />
any outfit.<br />
www.forever21.com<br />
Straw Duffle Backpack<br />
Straw Duffle Backpack<br />
We have seen this wonderful green Straw<br />
Duffle Backpack at Topshop.com and<br />
we love. Spring is coming and yes<br />
we all have to buy new stuff for<br />
our spring wardrobe. Topshop is<br />
offering always some great items for<br />
those who like to spend their money<br />
for more than just clothing.<br />
www.topshop.com<br />
Zweena Pure Argan Oil<br />
Argan Oil is the new big thing for your skin. Argan oil is a rich<br />
source of antioxidants and Vitamins E, A, and F, containing 80<br />
percent unsaturated essential fatty acids including Omega 6 and<br />
Omega 9. Referred to as “liquid gold,” organic argan oil is<br />
produced from the kernels of the rare and ancient Moroccan argan<br />
tree. It has been valued for its abundant cosmetic and medicinal<br />
substances for centuries by the Moroccan people. Many consider<br />
argan oil a “superfood” for the skin due to its healing,<br />
moisturizing, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties.<br />
www.zweenabodycare.com<br />
DRMTM Cap<br />
The Duesseldorf-based street wear label<br />
DRMTM has the right thing for the<br />
coming spring and summer:<br />
the most beautiful Cap to<br />
forget winter once and<br />
for all. We are very<br />
excited about Roses<br />
Cap. And hope to<br />
see you all in it this<br />
summer, on<br />
the street or<br />
at parties.<br />
www.drmtm.com
127<br />
DEAR BAD BED BUG<br />
By Amanda M. Jansson & Emma E. K. Jones
128<br />
Clothing : Harue Nagamoto<br />
Queen of<br />
Sorcery<br />
Photography: Tomokazu Hamada<br />
Styling: Linda Brwnlee<br />
Hair: Yoko Sato (AVGVST)<br />
Make Up: Yuka Hirata (A.K.A)<br />
Model: Symone<br />
Postproduction: Chaos
129 Clothing : Yuya Nakata
Clothing : Harue Nagamoto<br />
130
131<br />
Clothing : Harue Nagamoto
Clothing : Harue Nagamoto<br />
132
133 Clothing : Harue Nagamoto
134<br />
Gesaffelstein:<br />
Prince of<br />
Darkness<br />
There’s something undeniably terrifying<br />
about music that has the power to rip your<br />
head clean off: contort, cajole and crystallise<br />
your movements as if you were suddenly<br />
transported outside of yourself helplessly<br />
looking in. Everyone has a fearless<br />
beast living inside of them, and Gesaffelstein<br />
is the man who knows just the way to<br />
set it free. Naming himself after two of the<br />
most confident and unwavering concepts<br />
in human history is a pretty demonstrative<br />
start. Gesamtkunstwerk: the German ideal<br />
of the total or universal artwork, bringing<br />
together music, the visual arts and narrative<br />
into a single intoxicating vision. Albert<br />
Einstein: the ultimate example of human<br />
intellect, the man who explained the universe.<br />
When Mike Levy, the Paris-based DJ-producer,<br />
was asked how this name came to<br />
be he explains, “Gesaffelstein is an ambitious<br />
name, but I want my music to be art,<br />
with something to say. Einstein is about<br />
quantum physics too, that means the small<br />
things, the tiny things that change everything,<br />
the detail. He always kept questioning<br />
and refining his ideas. That’s what I<br />
strive towards.” Perhaps it was setting the<br />
bar so high from day one that pushed Levy<br />
on to develop something so distinctive, and<br />
unfaltering.<br />
Born in Lyon, France in 1985, Levy discovered<br />
techno music in his teenage years.<br />
“This was my first contact with electronic<br />
music and I was obsessed with it,” he recalls.<br />
“I was almost too shy to admit that I<br />
liked this music. It was primitive, but in a<br />
serious way and I really liked that. I kept it<br />
to myself for years.” After playing around<br />
with his neighbour’s collection of synthesisers<br />
he began to realise it was not so much<br />
music he wanted to create, but pure sound.<br />
“I was intrigued by white noise and analogue<br />
sound,” he says. At 18 he moved to<br />
Paris and began what he now describes as<br />
‘research’. You would think coming from<br />
a long line of tortured intellectual types<br />
his heritage and homeland must have something<br />
to do with it, but is his music at<br />
all French? “It’s hard to say” he comments,<br />
“We live in a digital world where all frontiers<br />
have broken down. A kid in the South<br />
of France can be making Detroit techno that<br />
sounds indistinguishable from the “real”<br />
thing. Who would know where it came<br />
from? Does it matter?” He has a point, but<br />
as he steps out on stage sharply dressed and<br />
coiffed to perfection, it’s hard to believe<br />
that the sound about to be unleashed from<br />
such a man can be so anarchistic, so visceral.<br />
“I had to work again and again to find<br />
my proper sound,” he says. “The revelation<br />
came when I did the first EP ‘Variation’ on<br />
Turbo in 2010. When I finished that I knew<br />
it was the sound I was searching for.”<br />
This is the ear-shattering revelation that<br />
has he has been building on ever since, and<br />
to fully experience the extent of it is to let<br />
go of any preconceived notions you once<br />
had about what techno should be, one taste<br />
of the piercing complexity behind his sonic<br />
explosions, and you’ll soon be converted.<br />
Building a fanbase amongst dance music<br />
fiends since the middle of the Noughties,<br />
his ominous combination of hard techno<br />
and industrial primal drive is more commercially<br />
acknowledged by way of his collaboration<br />
with Kanye West on two standout<br />
tracks on 2013’s ‘Yeezus’ album, the<br />
abrasive ‘Send It Up’ and the glam-punk<br />
rap riot ‘Black Skinhead’, a co-production<br />
with Daft Punk and Levy’s friend Brodinski.<br />
Releases on the OD, Zone and Bromance<br />
labels showcased an ever-developing<br />
individual style whilst his remixes for<br />
Lana del Rey, Justice, The Hacker, Laurent<br />
Garnier and heroes Depeche Mode put his<br />
unique sound on the mainstream map.<br />
It’s only this year that the full extent of<br />
Levy’s musical intensity has been released<br />
in his debut album ‘Aleph’, wantonly bludgeoning<br />
us with a musical exploration that<br />
isn’t for the faint of heart. His pounding<br />
yet melodic tracks awaken some dark, uncomfortably<br />
human impulses: perversion<br />
drives each beat, pounding on the inside of<br />
your skull looking for a way out. His structures<br />
are brutal yet calculated—connecting<br />
the clashes of our modern era with expert<br />
precision.<br />
The first release from the album, the insistent<br />
and acidic ‘Pursuit’, was accompanied<br />
by a sinister controversial video created by<br />
director duo Fleur & Manu. As the camera<br />
pans out clinical images of war and machinery<br />
are juxtaposed with the elegance<br />
of neo-classical existence, disturbing as it<br />
is enthralling Gesaffelstein’s unrelenting<br />
beats and electronic wails provide the perfect<br />
backdrop for this world of decadence,<br />
technology and sex. His second release,<br />
the powerful ‘Hate or Glory’ also directed<br />
by the filmmaking duo, is a contemporary<br />
take on the cautionary tale of King Midas,<br />
pushing even harder and deeper with a more<br />
powerful drive. “I don’t know why I’m so<br />
drawn to dark sounds,” Levy admits. “It’s<br />
like when you make a movie about love,”<br />
he explains, “that’s not your life, it’s the art<br />
you have made. It’s a fiction. The music is<br />
exactly the same. Although there is nothing<br />
dark in my life, I have a facility to understand<br />
dark emotion.” These two tracks turned<br />
out to be just a taster for the sinister<br />
pleasures that lie within the album: refreshing<br />
a stale techno scene with the disturbing<br />
flavours that ran through pre-pop Human<br />
League, Throbbing Gristle and early<br />
Kraftwerk. On several tracks London singer<br />
Chloe Raunet—formerly of lo-fi electro<br />
band Battant on the Kill The DJ label,<br />
now working on her solo project C.A.R.—<br />
provides lyrics and vocals to compound the<br />
seductive atmosphere: a fierce female presence<br />
in a wicked storm of sound.
135<br />
Although his electrifying DJ-sets have earned him acclaim from<br />
Boiler Room Berlin to Electric Zoo in NYC, Sonár in Barcelona<br />
and Bestival in the UK as a self-confessed introvert Levy admits<br />
that he isn’t by nature an outgoing clubbing type, “If the music is<br />
really good I have to sit down on my own and listen...when I go out<br />
I have to forget the<br />
technical side of the<br />
music,” he admits,<br />
“DJ-ing can be fun,<br />
especially if I‘m doing<br />
it with Brodinski.<br />
We’re friends and it’s<br />
exciting to work together.<br />
But in the end,<br />
you are playing mostly<br />
other people’s records.<br />
I prefer to play<br />
live.” Indeed, the Gesaffelstein<br />
show is the<br />
best way to experience<br />
his decadent vision:<br />
a classicist form<br />
of electronic music<br />
that aspires to high<br />
art. His approach to<br />
each live exposition<br />
is with meticulous attention<br />
to detail, performing<br />
from within<br />
a giant custom-made<br />
marble altar where<br />
he can control everything<br />
from the frequencies<br />
to the lights.<br />
“I can have a response<br />
directly with the<br />
audience,” he says. “I<br />
can take the pressure<br />
up and down, build<br />
tension and release<br />
it, and take people<br />
deeply into the music.<br />
I have much more<br />
pleasure this way.”<br />
As far as the visual<br />
is concerned this is<br />
an entirely different<br />
matter, and he frequently<br />
collaborates<br />
with fellow artists, directors<br />
and designers<br />
to help better express<br />
the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’<br />
element of the<br />
project. Inspired by<br />
artworks that range<br />
from the contemporary<br />
abstract paintings<br />
of Pierre Soulages to<br />
the severity of 18th century neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David—infamous<br />
for his depiction of Napoleon on horseback—it’s<br />
no wonder that the visual is just as important to Levy as the music<br />
itself. Take the album cover for the album for example, the design<br />
was created with Manu Cossu. “He has the hands to make it happen,<br />
and I have the words,” Levy explains. “The cover is pure and<br />
complex at the same time and everything relates to the idea of the<br />
Aleph, which is both the beginning and the return to the beginning.<br />
It’s a beautiful object.” Similarly his music video archive is<br />
a black hole of visual exploration. The first video that grabbed me<br />
was the monochrome film project for “Viol” entitled “Ghostrider”,<br />
filmed in the darkened<br />
streets of Paris<br />
the directors Jérémy<br />
and Anto, aka, Les<br />
Darons, twinned their<br />
passion for fixies and<br />
film-making capturing<br />
a dark spirit of<br />
the discipline on camera.<br />
As they ride<br />
like hell without a<br />
flicker of fear in their<br />
eyes the cyclists push<br />
on in time to the oppressive<br />
beats of Gesaffelstein<br />
creating<br />
an addictive visual<br />
reality that is instantly<br />
seductive. This is<br />
the kind of visual that<br />
fits perfectly to his<br />
music, and the powerful<br />
imagery it can<br />
inspire.<br />
Photo by Emmanuel Cossu<br />
Text by Amy Heaton.<br />
www.gesaffelstein.net<br />
Without a doubt Levy<br />
is a master of exposing<br />
the Noire that<br />
hides in all of us.<br />
His sound encapsulates<br />
the madness,<br />
the melancholy and<br />
the darkness that’s<br />
somehow striving<br />
to get out. Working<br />
at the intersection<br />
between solace and<br />
aggression there are<br />
themes to which Gesaffelstein<br />
will always<br />
return: raw, and unending,<br />
ecstatic, yet<br />
deeply concentrated<br />
and controlled. When<br />
asked to comment on<br />
the meaning behind<br />
the title of the album,<br />
‘Aleph’, he explains<br />
that it’s a word which<br />
can have many meanings.<br />
The first character<br />
of the Hebrew<br />
alphabet. The computer<br />
that contains<br />
a complete reality<br />
in Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel ‘Snow Crash’. The letter<br />
which brings a clay Golem to life in Jewish legend…and whatever<br />
other interpretation you as the listener wish to bestow upon it. “I<br />
have the key to my music,” says Levy, “and I keep it for me. But<br />
I’m really excited to witness other people discovering it.” Now it’s<br />
your turn.
136<br />
PHOTO<br />
KOTY 2<br />
WWW.KOTY2.COM<br />
MODEL<br />
ALICJA KOSIBA @VOX<br />
STYLISTS<br />
DOBROCHNA RAWICKA & JUSTYNA MICHALCZAK<br />
STYLISTS ASSISTANTS<br />
MAŁGORZATA EJMOCKA<br />
MAKE UP<br />
EEVI MAKEUP STUDIO<br />
HAIR<br />
AGNIESZKA STENKA<br />
LOCATION<br />
STUDIO IP<br />
OVERALLS<br />
DIVA NGUYEN<br />
BAND<br />
ANNA BLAUTH
OVERALLS<br />
ANNA CICHOSZ<br />
NECKLACE<br />
DIFRIPERI<br />
JACKET<br />
QUITENORMAL<br />
137
SKIRT<br />
HENRY&VINCE<br />
DRESS<br />
EDYTA PIETRZYK<br />
SHOES<br />
MODELS’S OWN<br />
138
NECKLACE<br />
ADA KORDYS<br />
BLOUSE<br />
INGA BUCZYNSKA<br />
PANTS<br />
NOLOGO<br />
SHOES<br />
STYLIST‘S OWN<br />
139
BAND<br />
KOTO BIZUTERIA// PAKAMERA.PL<br />
SWEATER<br />
ROBOTY RECZNE<br />
BOOTS<br />
STYLIST‘S OWN<br />
140
BLOUSE<br />
HENRY&VINCE<br />
NECKLACE<br />
ADA KORDYS<br />
BLOUSE<br />
INGA BUCZYNSKA<br />
141
142<br />
Eirik Lyster<br />
KALTBLUT: Hi Eirik, how are you?<br />
This Page: “Floral Brutal” 2013, 42x59,4 cm, Drawing with pen.<br />
Next Page: “Sleepwalker” 2013, 42x59,4 cm, Drawing with pen.<br />
Based in Oslo, Eirik Lyster is such a<br />
creative individual that we’re going to<br />
have problems listing all his achievements.<br />
But we’ll try: he’s a stylist, he’s<br />
a performer, he’s also a sculptor and last<br />
but certainly not least, he also draws.<br />
Not just any old drawings, one’s in which<br />
the characters he creates seem to have a<br />
full wonderland imagination going on.<br />
It’s half magic, half gore. We meet and<br />
chat to him, and in the end Eirik creates<br />
two brand new pieces exclusively for<br />
KALTBLUT, which we’re rather proud<br />
to present.<br />
www.eirik-lyster.com<br />
Eirik: Hello! I’m fine, thank you.<br />
KALTBLUT: You only work with pens, where does your love of pens<br />
come from?<br />
Eirik: I’ve tried a lot of different expensive pens, but the pen I always end<br />
up with is a regular pen. It is kind of dry and has these shades of dark blue<br />
almost. Looks really good when I draw hair, which I do a lot.<br />
I was thinking about pens and drawing the other day… we live in a world<br />
where everything is so digital, so I think it’s good to stop up and actually<br />
create something with a pen. You cant just push a button and it will magical<br />
appear.<br />
KALTBLUT: So tell us a bit more about the characters you draw.<br />
Some of them sort of look like hybrid creatures. What are they<br />
exactly?<br />
Eirik: The main character is actually a rubber duck. But most of the time<br />
you can only see the face of it with closed eyes, dressed up in different<br />
layers of animals. A pop icon walking in a cold landscape.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where do they come from, what’s their story?<br />
What does their world look like?<br />
Eirik: It’s a world in between dreams and reality. Each drawing holds a<br />
different story and emotion.
143<br />
KALTBLUT: Your drawings bring to the surface a mixture of very<br />
different emotions : cuteness, childlike innocence, and yet there is a<br />
lot of blood and gore. Cute but not so cute?<br />
Eirik: It is uninteresting for me to show something pure good or bad. I like<br />
to show both sides. If you look at nature, it is so beautiful but so grotesque<br />
at the same time. I think we live somewhere between those things.<br />
KALTBLUT: All of your pieces are pretty big. Are you more comfortable<br />
working on large canvases?<br />
Eirik: Yes I really enjoying making big drawings. It’s kind of how it has to<br />
be… fair to my work in a way. Not every drawing suits being small. I’ve<br />
made some huge drawings straight on wall also (laughs) In my hometown<br />
there is a hairdresser that has a big piece of my work on their wall, but the<br />
ones you’ve seen is on paper. Google it!<br />
KALTBLUT: How did you come to do illustration?<br />
Eirik: I have been drawing my whole life. I can’t remember a time without<br />
it. It comes naturally to me. When I was a kid I could sit and draw animals<br />
and characters and make up stories for hours and hours. I always knew I<br />
was gonna be an artist. I’ve always felt like one. I also so badly wanted to<br />
feel the things that all the icons I admired had felt. Even the bad stuff. Lonliness,<br />
struggle and the endless dreaming.<br />
KALTBLUT: The contrast between the black and the bright pinks,<br />
reds and yellows is quite strong…. why these clashing colours?<br />
KALTBLUT: Where do you draw inspiration from?<br />
Eirik: I get inspired by everything in my life. Identity, fame, pop culture,<br />
death, nature. I’m fascinated that beauty and life are fragile; something<br />
that is slowly fading away. Its like I draw beauty that is aware of its own death<br />
in a way. When I’m going through something, good or bad, my first reaction<br />
is how can I translate this in the most beautiful way I know. My art is poetic<br />
but also very pop. I tell stories in a metaphoric way, but at the same time it is<br />
branding itself. I like to repeat things over and over again.<br />
I also like the idea of making things that will live longer than I will. We so<br />
often tend to think life is a promise, when it’s not at all. If life is not a promise,<br />
then at least I will promise myself to live forever through art.<br />
KALTBLUT: There obviously is a dark side to all of your drawings.<br />
What are your demons?<br />
Eirik: I am a person that listens to my dark times as much as my bright times.<br />
Regardless of how much it hurts I stay in it for as long as it takes for an<br />
answer to come. I embrace darkness and struggle as much as happiness and<br />
success. I think you have to accept both sides if you’re an artist to survive in a<br />
way.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you use your art as an outlet?<br />
Eirik: Yes, its the way I express myself. Without art, life would have no meaning<br />
to me. Its a luxury to get to be private in public in an artistic way.<br />
KALTBLUT: You live in Olso, how does your city influence your work?<br />
Eirik: I’ve always said that drawings come to me. I see drawings. I have<br />
visions. When I’m feeling something out of nowhere I get drawings in my<br />
head. When I’m going through something, if the feeling is strong enough,<br />
drawings come up really clearly. It almost feels like an instinct. And then as<br />
I work I see that I can add certain metaphors to highlight what I’m telling.<br />
I want the art to look like something that is easy on the eye, but when you<br />
look closer you can see layers of poetic undertones, which is maybe different<br />
to the image that you first saw.<br />
KALTBLUT: Any artists you look up to in the illustration world?<br />
Eirik: There are many talented artists out there, but I have to say Theodor<br />
Kittelsen. He has this cold Scandinavian feel to his work ,which I’m fascinated<br />
by. His drawings and paintings are just beautiful. I don’t think you<br />
can necessarily compare us, but he has a soul in is work I can really relate<br />
to. Beautiful but dark.<br />
Eirik: The city is bigger than the one I’m from so there’s a lot more opportunities.<br />
I’ve lived here for over a year now and many dreams have come true.<br />
It’s all about hard work and discipline. I got to show my work in the Astrup<br />
Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. I meet a lot of interesting artists and<br />
musicians all the time so Oslo makes me feel like home. As often as I can I try<br />
to make time for a walk before I go to sleep, under the stars or into the city<br />
lights. Thats also inspiring to me: to walk, think and listen to music and watch<br />
the city neon lights popping up in the sky. Magical.<br />
KALTBLUT: Any other cities where you’d love to go to, to visit or to<br />
live in?<br />
Eirik: New York and Iceland. Maybe L.A. and Hollywood also. Ive always<br />
pictured myself in the future living or at least staying in NYC for a while.<br />
Or living in a house by the sea in Iceland. Time will show. But right now, I’m<br />
really happy to be working in Oslo.
144<br />
Sam wears<br />
Bra – DKNY<br />
Suspenders – Maison Kiss Kiss<br />
Stockings – Maison Kiss Kiss<br />
Knickers – Maison Kiss Kiss<br />
Shoes – Missoni<br />
Matthew wears<br />
Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz<br />
Love & Malice<br />
Photography: Nik Pate - www.nikpate.com Make Up: Mark Bowles<br />
Hair: Paul Jones Styling: Justin & Andre @ a+c:studio<br />
Models: Matthew Riches & Samantha Jackson @ S.O.S
Dress – Lee Paton<br />
Cuff’s and Neckbrace – Maison Kiss Kiss<br />
145
Sam wears<br />
Leather Bodice/ Top – Tamzin Lillywhite<br />
Jacket – Katie Eary<br />
Trousers – Heohawn<br />
Shoes – Pretty Little Things<br />
Ring – Only Child<br />
Earrings – Finchittida Finch<br />
Matthew wears<br />
Trousers – Sopopular<br />
146
147<br />
Sam wears<br />
Bra – Tamzin Lillywhite<br />
Leather-Pleated Skirt – AMEN Couture<br />
Fishnet Stockings – Maison Kiss Kiss<br />
Fur Boots – Robert Cligerie<br />
Necklace – Mirabelle<br />
Matthew wears<br />
Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz
Sam wears<br />
Dress – AMEN Couture<br />
Head Piece – Jay Briggz<br />
Bracelet – Eshvi<br />
Earrings – Finchittida Finch<br />
Matthew wears<br />
Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz<br />
Trousers – Sopopular<br />
148
149<br />
Dress – AMEN Couture
AUSTRA<br />
AND THE DESIRE TO BE CANDID<br />
In the words of Marina Abramovic, “Performance is<br />
about being in the present; it’s about creating a luminous<br />
state of being.” Luminous indeed, Katie Stelmanis<br />
shares her middle name with the Latvian goddess of<br />
light. It’s also the name she chose for her solo-project<br />
some five years ago. Classically trained, Stelmanis’<br />
musical career came to life in her early teens amidst<br />
the Canadian opera scene and flourished into the now<br />
critically acclaimed synth-pop band Austra when she<br />
began experimenting with electronic music in 2009.<br />
Fast forward to 2013: she released her second fulllength<br />
album, Olympia, which reaches deep into the<br />
history of dance music and early house. Indeed, the<br />
album’s single Home features a serious old-school<br />
Chicago house thump, with Stelmanis stating, “the<br />
main intention of this record was to make electronic<br />
music acoustically.“ Ridding herself from the rigidity<br />
of classical music, she’s unequivocally explored the<br />
flowing and numerous possibilities made available to<br />
her by way of Olympia.<br />
The main shift from the debut, Feel It Break, and<br />
Olympia isn’t just adding more beats, but adding more<br />
overall: introducing more involved members and transforming<br />
the bedroom project into a full six-piece live<br />
band, bringing more layers to Katie’s lyrics by acquiring<br />
Sari Lightman as her ghost-writer and pushing the<br />
entire feel of it from orchestrally imbued gothic impulses<br />
to house-inspired, synth-pop. But it’s not cluttered.<br />
It’s not over-thought, it’s not strategic, and it’s not<br />
calculative. It’s progressive, and organic, it came about<br />
naturally and it’s authentic. From the intimate lyrics<br />
and the erupting beats to the pristine production and<br />
the emotions conveyed, it’s candidly created. Olympia<br />
is more lyric-based than its predecessors and as a<br />
result it’s persuasively personal and, at times, political.<br />
Stelmanis’ voice shines as she weaves tales of lovers’<br />
plight and same sex-marriages (“We don’t have to marry….<br />
in this town we’ll bury all the minds that clench<br />
too tight”) addressing bigotry and the patriarchal<br />
over gothic-leaning synths. The sounds are loud and<br />
omnipresent but the intent is serene and the message<br />
subtle: enough to cause a stir but not frenzy.<br />
Live, Katie’s energetic, passionate and in the moment.<br />
She’s having fun. Stood in front of the hand-painted<br />
mountain scene that adorns Olympia’s cover and<br />
surrounded by glowing parasols, she sways and swings<br />
amidst four sultry band members. Like that of an opera<br />
singer, her performance is theatrical. She might have<br />
strayed away from the classical in her music, but her<br />
movement, her persona; her energy belongs very much<br />
on stage. The emotional power and the aesthetic interest<br />
of all her work- from her performance and videos<br />
to the lyrics and album cover- reside in the comfort and<br />
allure of authenticity; reminding and enlightening us<br />
that being straightforward is that which always come<br />
naturally. Subtly changing the air in the room Austra is<br />
played, Katie shall sing and you shall listen.
151<br />
“…Marina’s The Artist<br />
is Present did play a role<br />
in the desire<br />
to be candid<br />
on this album…”<br />
KALTBLUT: When you first started the<br />
project people weren’t really getting it<br />
and said you should be playing acoustically<br />
with instruments. What encouraged<br />
you to push through and stick to<br />
what you felt was right and what you<br />
wanted to create?<br />
Katie: I guess I just loved working with<br />
electronic instruments. At the time,<br />
it was different to what everyone else<br />
was doing in Toronto and I preferred the<br />
sounds and I enjoyed that I felt like I was<br />
doing something unique. Of course, in<br />
the rest of the world it wasn’t anything<br />
special but in the city that I came from it<br />
felt like I was doing something different.<br />
KALTBLUT: You started Austra as a<br />
“solo project” would you say its now as<br />
collaborative as it’s ever been?<br />
Katie: Yeah, it’s definitely very collaborative<br />
now. Well I mean, the first record<br />
Feel It Break was essentially a solo record<br />
for the most part and then we kind<br />
of formed this six person live band while<br />
we were touring Feel It Break for a few<br />
years. For the next record we kind of<br />
wanted everybody to be involved in it,<br />
so actually all six of us kind of played a<br />
role. We made that album…even though<br />
we’re currently touring Olympia; we’re<br />
touring as a four piece. It was kind of in<br />
that moment that we wanted to do that.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve said you brought a<br />
certain energy to the record from playing<br />
live. Can you expand on this?<br />
Katie: Well, the songs felt completely<br />
different after touring with them for<br />
two years than they did when I listened<br />
to them on the album. When I listen to<br />
Feel It Break right now it sounds a little<br />
foreign to me in some ways. I definitely<br />
think that playing them live we improved<br />
on songs a lot …they gained a lot<br />
of depth and a more interesting sound<br />
palette. So we wanted to bring all those<br />
characteristics forward in the new<br />
record.<br />
KALTBLUT: How does Olympia compare<br />
to Feel It Break personally? How<br />
does it feel looking back and seeing<br />
where you are now?<br />
Katie: Well for me, the biggest difference<br />
is in the production. It went from<br />
being a bedroom project to being a real<br />
band project in a studio. There were so<br />
many more people involved in the making<br />
of Olympia than there were for Feel<br />
It Break. We had lots of band members<br />
who were contributing; we worked with<br />
a lot of different engineers and my friend<br />
Mike from the band Fucked Up had<br />
some co-production credits on songs<br />
so it just felt like a group effort whereas<br />
Feel It Break felt like a much more personal<br />
effort.<br />
KALTBLUT: You have a background in<br />
classical music and were previously an<br />
opera singer. What elements from your<br />
classical training have you brought to<br />
Austra and specifically to this record?<br />
Katie: I mean to be honest I try and<br />
move away from the classical training<br />
as much as I can. I haven’t really studied<br />
classical music in like ten years but I’m<br />
sure there’s lingering habits…it took a<br />
while to move away from the classical<br />
style of singing and to learn music in<br />
a different way because classical music<br />
has such a rigid way of playing and<br />
understanding music and I find when<br />
you’re writing music it kind of helps to<br />
just ignore that. A lot of people who are<br />
classical musicians if they are told to improvise<br />
they just won’t know what to do,<br />
and so I think it’s kind of dangerous to go<br />
really far down that path.<br />
KALTBLUT: You picked Owen Pallett<br />
as an example of an artist cutting<br />
through genre. Do you like to label<br />
yourself as a crossover band?<br />
Katie: Its really hard to label and identity<br />
your own music. I think about us being<br />
a crossover band and then I think there<br />
are a lot of people listen to us who think<br />
that we’re straight up electro (laughs)<br />
Y’know, I don’t really have a proper perspective.<br />
I mean I listen to certain songs<br />
on the record and for me, the influences<br />
are glaringly obvious and other people<br />
would have no idea really. It’s hard to say.<br />
KALTBLUT: The lyrics for both Home<br />
and Forgive Me are blunt both lyrically<br />
and musically. Obsessive, tense and<br />
desperate for closure: they’re almost<br />
like a plea to a lover. You’ve said before<br />
you weren’t very good at writing lyrics<br />
or didn’t use to be the focal point of<br />
your creativity. How has it changed for<br />
Olympia?<br />
Katie: With Olympia I had the desire to<br />
write more personal and more meaningful<br />
lyrics. I really think the reason behind<br />
that being… y’know after performing for
152<br />
a few years, I just wanted to kind of identify with the audience<br />
in a new way, or a different way. I’ve always loved doing covers<br />
of songs that are very lyric-based… a crying, choking natural<br />
woman and I kind of wanted that story behind the songs I was<br />
making. I tried to do that with Olympia and also worked on<br />
the lyrics with one of the back-up singers at the time.<br />
KALTBLUT: Am I correct in thinking that the video for Home<br />
was inspired by Marina Abramovic’s The Artist Is Present?<br />
Katie: Um, a little bit, I guess. It was difficult because I wanted<br />
that video to really embody the sentiment behind that song,<br />
but its really hard not to do it in a cheesy way, because the<br />
lyrics are so… obviously it could go really wrong…keeping<br />
it as simple as possible was the best way to go. We worked<br />
with a director and he had this concept of pretending it was<br />
a dressing room and I think it worked really. It was really nice<br />
we only had to perform it like four times and we had a video.<br />
With so much weight off our shoulders, we were able to capture<br />
the sentiment perfectly.<br />
connect with it. And even the role I was playing in the opera, I<br />
didn’t connect with that. Obviously I think in the music industry<br />
there are some difficulties being a woman in music but<br />
ultimately feel lucky that I can do my own thing and make a<br />
career out of it.<br />
KALTBLUT: So you’re from Toronto, what does the city’s<br />
music scene mean to you?<br />
Katie: I feel like… I mean the Toronto music scene is a huge<br />
part of me developing as a musician, as an artist. When I was<br />
in my early twenties there was a lot of stuff happening, there<br />
was Blocks Recording Club and there were a lot of important<br />
parties that were happening at the time. Right now I feel kind<br />
of disconnected to it essentially because I’ve been touring for<br />
three years straight but aside from that I feel lucky that I was<br />
raised in a really strong music scene.<br />
KALTBLUT: Aside from the musical, are there any creative<br />
influences that you can list?<br />
KALTBLUT: I Don’t Care, I’m a Man is a short but powerful<br />
interlude on the record. What was the thought process behind<br />
it?<br />
Katie: Well I guess that song originally came to life… my way<br />
of writing lyrics is generally me writing all the music and then<br />
I’ll sing on top of it and I’ll kind of say anything and often what<br />
I’m saying kind of makes sense and I make it to real lyrics<br />
later. But in the case of this song, the words that stuck for<br />
me, that I kind of worded were I Don’t Care, I’m a Man. I appreciated<br />
those words because I enjoyed the anti-patriarchal<br />
vibe around them. Then I put Sari with the song and I think<br />
she kind of interpreted it to be more of a direct relationship<br />
between a man and a woman, maybe an abusive relationship.<br />
Really, there are a lot of meanings and interpretations around<br />
it.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve said before began by making music; you<br />
weren’t a band with a message. It feels that with Olympia<br />
you’re making more of a stand - is that true?<br />
Katie: I think we’ve always had the same… I’ve never really<br />
written political lyrics, well actually that’s not true, I have in<br />
the past, but I’ve always been pretty vocal about my politics<br />
and my position on feminist issues and queer issues and I<br />
think Olympia maybe because its more lyrically driven has<br />
more of an effect.<br />
KALTBLUT: The reason I ask is because you’ve commented<br />
before that one of the reasons you left the opera world is<br />
because you felt uncomfortable as a lesbian in a predominantly<br />
male hetero world. How does the music industry you<br />
find yourself in now compare?<br />
Katie: Well its not that its predominantly male because I<br />
don’t think that’s true but I think…I guess it just embodies a<br />
very traditional way of performing where the women would<br />
literally have to be wearing ball gowns to be taken seriously.<br />
On an on-stage competition or performance, I just wasn’t fitting<br />
into that ideal of what an opera singer should be. I didn’t<br />
Katie: I don’t know I mean we’re always influenced by a lot of<br />
things, I feel like during the process of writing Olympia, while<br />
we were working with Sarah and Romy, they were introducing<br />
me to a lot of things I didn’t know before, for example the<br />
film The Red Shoes ended up being a big influence and how<br />
we presented Olympia visually. Again, Marina’s The Artist is<br />
Present did play a role in the desire to be candid on this album<br />
as well.<br />
KALTBLUT: Can I ask the reason behind the title of the record?<br />
Katie: Well I mean in actuality, it was named after a baby that<br />
was born… the family was really close to us during the recording<br />
process. It felt like we wanted commemorate the idea of<br />
new life, and the new album. Aside from that I think the name<br />
also holds a lot of alternative meanings, its kind of slight homage<br />
to the nineties riot girl and then of course, the Manet<br />
painting exhibits the prostitute staring into the eye of the viewer<br />
in a very candid way. We appreciated all the references<br />
that the name had behind it.<br />
KALTBLUT: It’s been noted that your music feels emotional<br />
and is also electronic dance music. Where do you think music-<br />
both yours and in general- is headed?<br />
Katie: I don’t know that’s kind of difficult question. I don’t<br />
know I try not to really follow where the general, mainstream<br />
ideas of music are going because I think that could be dangerous.<br />
I definitely know where our intentions behind this album<br />
were- to create an electronic album basically because I felt<br />
the market was becoming oversaturated with musicians who<br />
were just making albums on their laptops and that particular<br />
sound was just becoming over-used in my opinion and we<br />
wanted to do something different. And then of course Daft<br />
Punk also had that idea (laughs) and they made the whole<br />
electronic album acoustically. I thought that lots more people<br />
would want to do that, maybe they will eventually. But I don’t<br />
know it seems that people are still really into the idea of making<br />
laptop music.<br />
Interview by Ange Suprowicz<br />
Photos by Norman Wong<br />
www.austramusic.com
153
154<br />
ANA ALCAZAR<br />
Between Daylight and Dreams<br />
Photography: Federica Roncaldier www.federicaroncaldier.com<br />
Interview & Concept: Marcel Schlutt and Nico Sutor<br />
Styling: Christina van Zon www.christinavanzon.com<br />
Hair & Make-Up: Pascale Jean-Louis<br />
Models are Lex Olsén @ Seeds Management and Jules Wiegemann @ M+P Models London<br />
Production: Nico Sutor<br />
Special thanks to Halil Erbek and Vögelchen Bar, Berlin<br />
www.a-n-a.com
155<br />
Lex wears<br />
Jumpsuit: Ana Alcazar<br />
Necklace: Zofie Angelic<br />
Bracelet: Antique & Vintage Jewellery<br />
Oliver Rheinfrank<br />
Earrings: Six<br />
Jules wears<br />
Dress: Ana Alcazar<br />
Earrings: Akkesoir<br />
Collar: Rita in Palma<br />
Tights: Burlington
156<br />
When it comes to fashion in Germany there are only a few labels that are really making it into<br />
the international market. The Munich based fashion label is one of them. Founded some years<br />
ago by the two sisters Beate and Jutta Ilzhöfer, Ana Alcazar is one of the most successful labels<br />
here in Germany. I had the pleasure of having a chat with the two creative minds behind<br />
the label. About their long journey into the fashion world, the new collection, and their love<br />
for fashion design. Also, I wanna thank Federica, Christina, Pascale and Nico for producing this<br />
great editorial for our new issue. Fashion designed for strong women.<br />
KALTBLUT: Beate and Jutta, a<br />
warm welcome to KALTBLUT.<br />
We are big fans of your label Ana<br />
Alcazar. Tells us something about<br />
your background. What made <br />
you get into fashion?<br />
Be: Hello Marcel, this really<br />
pleased us very much! We are<br />
also very big fans of your magazine<br />
and find it great to see how<br />
successful you are internationally<br />
as well. Sometimes we feel a bit<br />
reminiscent of ourselves back in<br />
time; a private label, or in your<br />
case to bring your own magazine<br />
new on the market, that takes a<br />
lot of energy, stamina and courage.<br />
Respect!<br />
Ju: True, it was not always easy,<br />
but if you stay true to yourself<br />
and believe in your work then<br />
that's a big step already. My sister<br />
and I come from Swabia and<br />
wanted to get out and discover<br />
something new. During our time<br />
in Milan and Paris we kept ourselves<br />
afloat with modeling jobs.<br />
Be: Right. It hasn't always been<br />
very easy. To get modeling jobs<br />
you have to go to this or that<br />
party in the evening - it was not<br />
about fun but only to find new<br />
jobs. This was in the long run too<br />
stressful for us. We did not want<br />
to go back home. Munich, we<br />
always found so exciting, even<br />
as little girls traveling through on<br />
the way to Italy vacations. The<br />
fashion scene at that time was<br />
more open and more exciting<br />
- there were no mono-stores.<br />
While Ju continued modeling, I<br />
earned some money as a graphic<br />
designer to add to the pot.<br />
Ju: At that time we used to go<br />
out a lot and started to sew our<br />
nightlife outfits for ourselves. This<br />
was well received and we had a<br />
lot of fun with it. Well, there were<br />
already the wildest creations<br />
forming - we wanted to stand<br />
out, and so we didn't remain<br />
undetected. The first requests<br />
came and we started tailoring<br />
outfits for our friends. Yet it never<br />
crossed our minds that we would<br />
someday start a company.<br />
Be: That we could live on this? I<br />
never would have thought. We<br />
were brave and had of course<br />
also tried to sell our clothes<br />
in stores. Our first attempt, I<br />
will never forget: We went to<br />
the Ludwig Beck in Munich, a<br />
renowned shop, and had our<br />
tailored clothes with us. Edler<br />
jersey from the fifties, with coarse<br />
sacking that we stole from some<br />
scaffolding at night.<br />
Ju: Our pulse was beating like<br />
crazy, but the buyer was more<br />
than impressed and bought the<br />
goods immediately. The next day<br />
we got a call that all outfits were<br />
sold and he had rarely experienced<br />
such a thing. We could<br />
be certain of a second order.<br />
So things went on little by little<br />
and today we serve nearly 1,000<br />
retailers in Europe, Australia and<br />
Russia.<br />
KALTBLUT: Both of you have<br />
been involved in the fashion<br />
world for over 20 years now. Is it<br />
easier to go this route as a team?<br />
Or can it also be a hindrance<br />
working together as sisters and<br />
having a daily business to maintain?<br />
Be: It is not easy, certainly not.<br />
The fashion industry and the<br />
market makes no difference<br />
whether one designs alone or<br />
whether it's two or three people<br />
working together. But it is beautiful.<br />
The close familiarity and<br />
being able to completely rely<br />
on each other, those things offer<br />
security. This gives you a certain<br />
earthiness. There are also clear<br />
separations, which is extremely<br />
important in teamwork. We cannot<br />
each of us do everything at<br />
once, which would bring unnecessary<br />
confusion and waste time.<br />
And obviously: we do also not<br />
always agree - but with us there<br />
is no fighting or bickering. We<br />
are sisters, but also reliable business<br />
partners.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you still remember<br />
the first piece of clothing you<br />
designed?<br />
Be: No, I do not know now.<br />
Ju: No, I do not know what the<br />
first model was. But I can remember<br />
moments connected to a<br />
certain style.<br />
KALTBLUT: You are based in<br />
Munich, this is where you are at<br />
home with your label. Why just<br />
there and not in Milan, Paris or<br />
London like many other labels?<br />
Ju: We have lived for years in<br />
Milan and Paris. Both wonderful<br />
cities, but we had fallen in love<br />
with Munich at that time. Our<br />
friends and our families are at<br />
home here. Here we feel comfortable.<br />
KALTBLUT: You are also big Berlin<br />
fans, though. Why is that? Do<br />
you show your collections here at<br />
Fashion Week as well?<br />
Be: Berlin is absolutely breathtaking,<br />
no question about that!<br />
During Fashion Week in Berlin,<br />
we are showing at Show & Order,<br />
every year, and then in the evening<br />
we go on great discovery<br />
trips. It is always exciting and the<br />
city is changing so rapidly, almost<br />
too quickly. Hopefully Berlin can<br />
preserve its charm. Who knows,<br />
maybe you'll find us in your<br />
neighborhood in Berlin soon.<br />
KALTBLUT: When I look at all<br />
your previous collections, I would<br />
say you do not own a typical<br />
trend-oriented fashion label.<br />
You've got your own personal<br />
style. Can you describe the Ana<br />
Alcazar woman in a few words<br />
for us?<br />
Ju: Self-confident, fashion-conscious,<br />
bold, feminine and no interest<br />
in mass-produced goods.<br />
KALTBLUT: The collection that<br />
we photographed for the Noire<br />
theme is almost completely in<br />
black. What is your inspiration for<br />
this collection?<br />
Be: We design 4 collections<br />
each year. We are very pleased<br />
and happy that you have photographed<br />
exclusive parts of<br />
our first Ana Alcazar Black Label<br />
Collection. With the first Black<br />
Label line, we have focused on
157<br />
Lex<br />
Dress: Vintage<br />
Earrings: Zofie Angelic
158<br />
Lex<br />
Dress: Vintage<br />
Earrings: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank<br />
Shoes: Varese seen at Roland<br />
Bag: Selected Femme<br />
Jules<br />
Dress: Ana Alcazar<br />
Necklace: Dawid Tomaszewski<br />
Shoes: Vagabond<br />
Stockings: Augustin Teboul
159<br />
timeless classics. This is the<br />
reason why black plays a major<br />
role. The Black Label is an<br />
experiment, so in the future<br />
we want to clearly set this line<br />
apart from the main line.<br />
Ju: Ana Alcazar Black Label<br />
is intended to be innovative,<br />
avant-garde and yet unmistakably<br />
Ana Alcazar. The<br />
development is exciting and<br />
we are very glad about that.<br />
KALTBLUT: You also experiment<br />
with colours and prints,<br />
few designers incorporate<br />
those so well. Question to<br />
Beate: Can this be traced<br />
back to your time as a graphic<br />
designer?<br />
Be: It has certainly trained my<br />
eye. I think that the skilled<br />
use of patterns in a dress<br />
has mostly to do with the<br />
sense of female silhouettes.<br />
If a pattern is placed incorrectly,<br />
it can quickly become<br />
a disadvantage, but there are<br />
no rules - the fabric has to<br />
be adjusted individually each<br />
time.<br />
Ju: Clearly this is our strength.<br />
That is what our Ana Alcazar<br />
customers love and always<br />
expect from us.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your Ana Alcazar<br />
woman is very sexy but also<br />
very strong and independent.<br />
Is this your form of feminism,<br />
but on beautiful legs?<br />
Be: Absolutely. Sexy and<br />
strong are not opposites. The<br />
woman of today is not “Miss<br />
Oversensitive” but lives her<br />
own life and shows that with<br />
full passion. Just magnificent!<br />
The beautiful legs do not<br />
matter really.<br />
group of course, like I said.<br />
The majority found the campaign<br />
exciting and interesting<br />
in terms of sexism - just this<br />
time reversed.<br />
KALTBLUT: How was it for<br />
you to become established<br />
in the fashion world? How do<br />
you deal with criticism from<br />
the outside?<br />
Ju: The biggest critic is ourselves.<br />
Fashion is an ongoing<br />
process. That's what captivates<br />
us, that's what we love<br />
and what drives us forward.<br />
Be: It was not always easy,<br />
that's for sure. For a long time<br />
German fashion hadn't been<br />
taken seriously. This has luckily<br />
changed. Nevertheless,<br />
it is fashion and Germany or<br />
actually fashion in Germany<br />
that is not easy. Our provocative<br />
pieces we sell exclusively<br />
abroad, where here are<br />
obviously more courageous<br />
women willing to wear them.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your fashion<br />
exudes a particular strength.<br />
It has that special Rock Star<br />
touch. Where does this come<br />
from? And what would be the<br />
perfect rock band for you?<br />
Be: Rock Star Touch? [laughs]<br />
that's a very interesting approach.<br />
During the collection<br />
design we take great care<br />
that the pieces do not kill the<br />
person wearing them. The<br />
wearer is always at the forefront.<br />
Dresses are to support<br />
and transport the person and<br />
her own character to the outside.<br />
There is nothing sadder<br />
than clad women. Always stay<br />
true to yourself, authenticity is<br />
important.<br />
Jules<br />
Dress: Ana Alcazar<br />
Shoulderpiece: Zofie Angelic<br />
Tights: Falke<br />
KALTBLUT: The fashion<br />
industry is often accused of<br />
degrading women to sex<br />
objects just because men<br />
design the stuff. Do you have<br />
to face nasty allegations such<br />
as these even though you are<br />
both women?<br />
Ju: No. Fashion thrives on<br />
freedom, tolerance and creativity.<br />
Our woman is represented<br />
in our campaigns as a<br />
self-confident, strong person.<br />
Be: In our last shoot we have<br />
our Ana Alcazar model posing<br />
with a naked man. We<br />
were amazed at how many<br />
women were upset about the<br />
naked man. We had actually<br />
expected more protests<br />
from men - but there was not<br />
a single negative comment.<br />
This was only a very small<br />
KALTBLUT: You sell your fashion<br />
on the internet a lot. Is<br />
this more and more the future<br />
for the designer in the form of<br />
direct sales and communication<br />
with the target group?<br />
How important is the whole<br />
social media trend for you as<br />
a designer?<br />
Ju: The internet is great: for<br />
the first time, as a manufacturer<br />
and designer we<br />
can stay in touch with the<br />
consumer. Now real, direct<br />
communication takes place.<br />
Incredibly great! Bonding<br />
with the customer is thus<br />
much more intense; customer<br />
needs and habits can be<br />
directly taken up and considered<br />
in our collections. This<br />
creates trust and a bond.<br />
Be: Absolutely! And the
160
161<br />
Lex<br />
Top: Ana Alcazar<br />
Skirt: Dawid Tomaszewski<br />
Hat: Lierys<br />
Jules<br />
Dress: Ana Alcazar<br />
Garter Belt: Hunkemöller<br />
Stockings: Aubade<br />
Hat: Seeberger
many emails and messages of Ana Alcazar fans, that's<br />
something we always look forward to very much. It's<br />
just nice to see that customers get married in an Ana<br />
Alcazar or spend a wonderful holiday in it. At this<br />
point we want to thank all our loyal fans!<br />
KALTBLUT: How important are fashion fairs and fashion<br />
weeks still for a fashion label? Or does the Internet<br />
make these events actually unnecessary?<br />
Ju: Clearly! No. We see the Internet as a complement,<br />
not a substitute. Virtually, information is exchanged<br />
every millisecond, but reality can also be a great feeling,<br />
an enthusiasm that can't be replaced. In real life I<br />
have the opportunity to look to the left and right, and<br />
not only what the camera captures. Feel fabrics, sense<br />
them, this is possible only on the fashion fairs. The<br />
internet can attract attention though, arouse curiosity<br />
and inform. A symbiosis of feeling and information -<br />
that's how it works.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your label Ana Alcazar has a daring history<br />
in terms of its name. In the beginning it was called<br />
CCCP: Capitalistic Culture Control Program. What I<br />
personally find very captivating. Then switching to Ana<br />
Alcazar; Ana stands for “anarchistic neurotic alien.” Is<br />
that also equal to a warning? And what does Alcazar<br />
mean?<br />
Be: Oh yes, that's right [laughs]. Life, the people,<br />
society - everything is in constant upheaval. Everything<br />
around you is in constant motion - standing still<br />
is dangerous. Yet, being able to rest can be something<br />
nice and in my opinion the true essence of creativity.<br />
We have tried many things, in fact, and it's still incredibly<br />
fun to try new things, such as our Black Label<br />
experiment.<br />
Ju: We wanted to be provocative, but not politically<br />
- we did not do ourselves a favour with our first label<br />
CCCP. In the mid-80s, the name wasn't welcomed<br />
by the authorities and the international market. We<br />
sensed this really fast and renamed our label and our<br />
company to Tricia Jones - a purely fictitious name<br />
- just like Ana Alcazar, which we then launched mid<br />
90s. Besides the Tricia Jones line that was extremely<br />
avant-garde, progressive and high-priced, we wanted<br />
to establish a young, portable and affordable label.<br />
The name Ana Alcazar sounds very feminine, yet mysterious,<br />
spirited and strong - just like the collections.<br />
It is not Ana Alcazar that means "anarchistic neurotic<br />
alien" - this has been misinterpreted by a newspaper<br />
- but our menswear line, that we had to give up on<br />
after five years, due to lack of time. The menswear<br />
label was an exciting mix of sporty chic and provocative<br />
style. We still get emails and inquiries from guys,<br />
whether we do not want to continue the label - and<br />
we find this amazing class! So dear men: we have<br />
heard you and we'll see, perhaps there is something<br />
for you in the near future. I also think the guys from<br />
KALTBLUT would have loved the anarchistic neurotic<br />
alien collection very much.<br />
KALTBLUT: Thank you for having taken the time to<br />
collaborate with us. I am very pleased. We wish you<br />
much success for the years to come.<br />
Be: Thank you so much, I wish you and the entire<br />
KALTBLUT team every success.<br />
Ju: Thank you, Marcel. Continued success with your<br />
great magazine!<br />
162<br />
Lex<br />
Dress Ana Alcazar<br />
Earrings: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank<br />
Gloves: Roeckl<br />
Hat: Mayser<br />
Bag: Ystrdy
163
164<br />
c355p001<br />
If you look up c355p001 online, you won’t find much. A few illustrations,<br />
sure, but unless you speak Japanese you’ll encounter<br />
a fair few obstacles trying to navigate the website. But this<br />
is the year 2013 and there’s a whole world out there full<br />
of technology and tools to help us. We used a mighty<br />
translation engine to decipher an interview with her,<br />
and we’re honoured to be able to present you a bit<br />
more of the mysterious c355p001.<br />
KALTBLUT: My first question will be a fairly basic<br />
one, but as I couldn’t find much about you<br />
on the web, who are you? Who’s hiding behind<br />
c355p001?<br />
c355p001: My name is Fumiko. I was born in<br />
Kyoto Japan in 1984. When you will see my<br />
works, a presence of me will disturb. So you<br />
might want to forget who I am.<br />
KALTBLUT: Tell us about the name “c355p001”.<br />
What’s the story behind it and where does it<br />
come from?<br />
c355p001: The beginning is a personal reason.<br />
I made myself a place of pardon: for my illustration<br />
and my own world. The cesspool which<br />
I can throw in anything. That was “c355p001”.<br />
Now I use this symbol as name.<br />
KALTBLUT: How did you get started in illustration?<br />
c355p001: There was pen and paper. This is<br />
a difficult question, like asking how to have<br />
mastered the native language.<br />
KALTBLUT: There is something dark and obscure<br />
about your work, some very disturbing<br />
elements. What inspires you and gets you<br />
going as an artist?<br />
c355p001: The feeling inside a dream: somatosensory.<br />
Wonder and beauty of the body.<br />
KALTBLUT: Most of your drawings are made<br />
with simple lines. What’s your medium of<br />
choice?
165<br />
c355p001: A pen-and-ink drawing. My favourite<br />
is “Isograph” 0,13 MM by Rotring.<br />
KALTBLUT: There are a lot of human bodies in<br />
your work, bodies that are deformed, transformed,<br />
cut, separated or even destroyed… Why is<br />
the human body so central to your work?<br />
c355p001: Because I am human. I have a doubts<br />
about the body. Have you seen the dream in<br />
which your skin melts or your limbs are torn to<br />
pieces? I fear and expect simultaneously that it<br />
actually happens.<br />
KALTBLUT: You do not work with colours, if we<br />
consider black and white as non-colours. Why?<br />
c355p001: If necessary for a illustration, I will<br />
use colours. I choose suitable means / colours<br />
and tools. My only rule, is “Optimisation”.<br />
KALTBLUT: Each of your drawings seems to work<br />
as its own little story. Is that that the case in your<br />
creative process?<br />
c355p001: They have own little stories or the feel,<br />
like a seed secretly paused, waiting to grow. I<br />
wait for them to be watered people I see.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where is this blackness of yours<br />
coming from?<br />
c355p001: Blackness comes from people who<br />
found blackness.<br />
KALTBLUT: Nature is another very important<br />
element of your work. Or at least some aspects<br />
of it, like the fusion between men and nature, am<br />
I right?<br />
c355p001: Petal is also the flesh or the skin.<br />
Stalk is also the blood vessel or the nerve. All<br />
living things are on the same line. Sometimes<br />
fusing, sometimes punishing.<br />
Interview by Nicolas Simoneau<br />
www.c355p001.net
166<br />
Skirt - American Apparel<br />
Turtle Neck - American Apparel<br />
Ring - GoGo Phillip<br />
Earring - Bill Skinner<br />
Necklace - Top Shop<br />
C o n c r e t e<br />
Photography NIK PATE www.nikpate.com<br />
grooming sophie anderson<br />
styling justin & andre @ A+C: studio<br />
model danny blake @ D1
167<br />
Jacket - Jessica Walsh<br />
Skirt - American Apparel<br />
Bandana - Stylist's Own<br />
Trousers - American Apparel<br />
Shoes - Nike<br />
Ring - Claudia Ligari<br />
Bracelet - Go Go Phillip<br />
Necklace - Stylist's Own
Top - Benjamin Bertram<br />
Trousers - Clio Peppiatt<br />
Bandana - Stylist's Own<br />
Shoes - Nike<br />
168
169<br />
Jacket - Lucy Offen
Meggings - Top Man<br />
Skirt - American Apparel<br />
Turtle Neck - American Apparel<br />
Ring - GoGo Phillip<br />
Earring - Bill Skinner<br />
Necklace - Top Shop<br />
Shoes - Nike<br />
170
Headpiece - Jay Briggz<br />
T-Shirt - Hardware LDN<br />
Shorts - American Apparel<br />
Watch - Triwa<br />
171
Headpiece - Jay Briggz<br />
T-Shirt - Hardware LDN<br />
Jacket - Parka<br />
Shorts - American Apparel<br />
Socks - Stylist's Own<br />
Shoes - Nike<br />
Watch - Triwa<br />
172
173<br />
himmelspach-berlin.com<br />
Let<br />
the games<br />
begin<br />
bitte-bitte.com
174<br />
GUSTAVO JONONOVICH<br />
The beauty of Gustavo’s<br />
work in incontestable. His<br />
images are so pure, and so<br />
full of emotion. His work<br />
“RICHLAND” is particularly<br />
touching. All the people<br />
I’ve met in Buenos Aires<br />
so far are all concerned<br />
with what is happening in<br />
their country, and once<br />
again, Gustavo Jononovich<br />
is one of these photographers<br />
that want to use his<br />
work to pass a message and<br />
not only to show the beauty<br />
of some random landscape.<br />
The Argentinan photographer<br />
accepted to share a little<br />
chat with us.<br />
Interview by Nicolas Simoneau<br />
KALTBLUT: Hi Gustavo, my first question<br />
will be really basic, how did<br />
you get into photography?<br />
GUSTAVO: After finishing high school,<br />
I started studying engineering, over<br />
time, I realized that I was on a path<br />
that was not mine. I decided to drop<br />
out of university; I had no idea what<br />
to do next or what I really wanted<br />
out of life. I spent the following<br />
year without any direction trying<br />
to untie some of my ‟inner knots”;<br />
social beliefs, family expectations,<br />
fears... I liked photography but I<br />
had never set out myself to do it seriously.<br />
At that time, I just needed<br />
to do things that I like, without<br />
too many pretensions or expectations,<br />
just the fact that something caught<br />
my attention was enough to try it. So<br />
in 2003 I began studying photography<br />
and became more interested in documentary<br />
photography.<br />
KALTBLUT: One of the first things we<br />
noticed when looking at your work<br />
is the fact that you are only using<br />
black and white. Why is that?<br />
GUSTAVO: I also use color sometimes.<br />
The decision of using black and white<br />
or color depends of the projects I’m<br />
working on<br />
KALTBLUT: Some of your shots seem<br />
also to be taken at night, am I<br />
right?<br />
GUSTAVO: Yes, you are. Night is part<br />
of the day...<br />
KALTBLUT: I also notice, especially<br />
in your work ‟YUMA” that you are working<br />
a lot with multiplicity. Multiplicity<br />
of objects, animals… Does<br />
that have a special significance for<br />
you?<br />
GUSTAVO: It is not a conscious decision<br />
but yes. Multiplicity could be<br />
a tool, like geometry, shapes, contrast,<br />
light, etc, etc.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was your original idea<br />
when you started working on ‟YUMA”.<br />
What did you want to say/show with<br />
this series?
175<br />
GUSTAVO: I traveled to Cuba because<br />
my wife decided to do an<br />
internship in a hospital in La<br />
Havana, she’s a Doctor. Until<br />
then, I had always made photographs<br />
guided by a specific<br />
theme, trying to tell something<br />
about other people’s misfortunes.<br />
I decided to experience photography<br />
in a different way this time.<br />
I wasn’t interested in telling<br />
or describing anything about the<br />
well-known political and historical<br />
characteristics of the Cuban<br />
system. I didn’t want to need to<br />
look for ‟useful situations”. I<br />
tried to forget that I was there.<br />
Liberating myself of having to<br />
tell something about Cuba allowed<br />
me to connect in a more authentic<br />
way with the place. Photographing<br />
using only my instinct allowed me<br />
to discover what I was feeling.<br />
My method was to walk the same<br />
streets over and over again, in<br />
silence, just focusing in contemplating.<br />
I sometimes felt attracted<br />
to the expression of the<br />
shapes and textures and to the<br />
simple beauty of nature. Other<br />
times I felt I was just photographing<br />
my own sense of calmness or<br />
the mystery that Cuba inspired<br />
me.<br />
KALTBLUT: There is also a lot of<br />
nature in your work. Is this a<br />
theme that you particularly like?<br />
GUSTAVO: I live in Buenos Aires<br />
surrounded by concrete and asphalt<br />
therefore my direct contact<br />
with nature is sporadic, but necessary.<br />
During the recent years<br />
my relationship with nature increased<br />
notoriously, I’ve been in<br />
the jungle, in the desert, in the<br />
mountains, in lakes, rivers and<br />
the sea. I like to imagine our<br />
planet without our intervention,<br />
without the human civilization,<br />
just like it’s been for about<br />
5 billion years. Only stones,<br />
water, land, sand, air, trees,<br />
plants, insects... It feels good<br />
to see no artificiality at the<br />
horizon sometimes.<br />
KALTBLUT: Why did you decide to<br />
to create the series ‟RICHLAND”?<br />
What was your motto behind it?<br />
GUSTAVO: RICHLAND is a project<br />
about the exploitation of the natural<br />
resources in Latin America<br />
and the resulting long-term negative<br />
effects. Rather than benefit<br />
from natural resources abundance<br />
and wealth, local people living
176<br />
in areas of exploitation have experienced<br />
loss of livelihoods, health<br />
problems, human rights violations and<br />
environmental degradation. This body<br />
of work was made between 2008 and<br />
2012 in Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador,<br />
Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.<br />
Our history has transformed us into a<br />
civilization which functioning depends<br />
on consume. The engine of our<br />
economic structure is fed by generating<br />
new needs, invented needs.<br />
Something that did not exist a month<br />
ago can be indispensable tomorrow and<br />
become a useless thing a year later.<br />
Our lifestyle and the so-called ‟comfort”<br />
set up a huge contradiction.<br />
Some companies extract natural resources<br />
which are used by other companies<br />
to manufacture products that<br />
will be purchased by all of us. The<br />
more things we consume, more natural<br />
resources must be extracted. There’s<br />
no other way. Always a new laptop,<br />
a new cell phone, a new car, a new<br />
blender, more clothes, always more<br />
and more, it seems like it’s never<br />
enough for us.<br />
Business is more important than any<br />
other thing. In the name of ‟progress”<br />
we can transform a forest into<br />
a desert and a desert into a city.<br />
We can move mountains or make them<br />
disappear and we can drill the soil<br />
for miles to extract what is down<br />
there. We can also disrupt mighty<br />
rivers to convert them into inert<br />
lakes. Among the millions of species<br />
that exist and existed, the human is<br />
the only one capable to do that sort<br />
of things, to modify an ecosystem for<br />
their own benefit. Such ability means<br />
a big responsibility for us.<br />
I wonder why we consider that the<br />
earth belong to us, why we consider<br />
it as our property like any other<br />
material good.<br />
KALTBLUT: Would you consider yourself<br />
as an engaged Artist? What do except<br />
from the people who see your work?<br />
GUSTAVO: I prefer not to label myself.<br />
I make pictures that tell something<br />
about my thoughts or the way<br />
I see our world, what happen next it<br />
is out of my range.<br />
KALTBLUT: Are you working on any<br />
other projects right now?<br />
GUSTAVO: Now I’m looking for a publisher<br />
to make the book of Richland.<br />
I’m also making new pictures, I would<br />
say that I’m into a transitional<br />
moment of changing my approach to<br />
photography.<br />
www.jononovich.com
177
The<br />
178<br />
Insider<br />
Text by Aude Gouaux-Langlois<br />
Un portrait en noir<br />
Illustration by Nicolas Simoneau<br />
Black is a colour that can<br />
be found in others, but searching<br />
for its nuances, and<br />
shimmering glimpses inside<br />
the unexpected, is no mean<br />
feat. An oblique perspective<br />
which allows another meaning<br />
to shine.<br />
Matthieu Chedid has been<br />
sewing his joyful yet deep<br />
musical message together<br />
with his alter ego -M- for<br />
the last 15 years, and it is<br />
with a frank smile that he<br />
started to play around with<br />
the idea of “Noire”: as a<br />
symbol, a colour, an idea.<br />
Our afternoon conversation<br />
takes place in his XVIIth<br />
century hôtel particulier<br />
in the heart of Paris, and<br />
a selection of simple drawings<br />
around the theme of<br />
“Noire” are going to lead it.<br />
Matthieu Chédid in 5 dates<br />
1971 : Born in Boulogne-Billancourt<br />
(France)<br />
1997: Creation of the character-Mand<br />
first album release Le Baptême<br />
2009 : 4th album Mister Mystère<br />
2012 : 5th album Îl<br />
2013 : Live album Îl(s)<br />
-Depiction ONE: The image of a French<br />
musical icon dressed in black-<br />
“Edith Piaf…? This is very strange. I<br />
connected with her for the first time<br />
when I watched a documentary about<br />
her love life two weeks ago. Since<br />
then, I have been listening to all her<br />
records with a new ear, because I understood<br />
the importance of a certain<br />
truth: she is not in the form, she is in<br />
the substance (=essence) meaning<br />
that she can repeat 8 times the same<br />
sentence, and it doesn’t matter, the<br />
intention flows. She gives us a lesson<br />
of authenticity, strength and interpretation.<br />
A wonderful energy…”<br />
Your musical influences are taken<br />
from a English speaking background<br />
but your texts are anchored in the<br />
French language. Do you consider<br />
French Chanson a heritage for you?<br />
“After Piaf came a new wave of French<br />
singers (my father Louis Chédid, Alain<br />
Souchon, Michel Jonasz, Laurent<br />
Voulzy..) and musically they were the<br />
children of the Beatles. I am from the<br />
2nd generation of this original wave<br />
and my aim is to merge the two cultures<br />
closer together. Even if it belongs<br />
to the period, I feel more son of<br />
an Hendrix or Led Zeppelin. And today<br />
we see a 3rd generation that connects<br />
with electronic music…”<br />
In your last album “Îl”, there is a deeper poetry in the French language<br />
that appears in your texts. How do you manage to stand in front of a nonfrancophone<br />
audience?<br />
“Just like Edith Piaf gives an interpretation that goes beyond words, I<br />
would focus on the energy of the sound so that the sound itself is the meaning.<br />
This record gives the literacy, this resonance given to the words<br />
as well as a sound is sufficient in itself. Unconsciously, I am trying to get<br />
to the point where the sound is a language. I think that it can be enough,<br />
that the melody and the intensity behind the words are meaningful. I<br />
have been touched by English speaking songs without understanding the<br />
meaning so often...I assume it works the other way round! Also, I like to<br />
let the imagination doors open and let everyone build their own story.<br />
This is a bit my intention, not to write realistic texts : to remain onirique.”<br />
-Depiction TWO: “Noire” as a record, the swirling black of a vinyl-<br />
Throughout your career you’ve worked with other artists from different<br />
backgrounds. Even though, a certain poetry comes out of every association.<br />
How do you choose your musical collaborations?<br />
“These are meetings of life: if I were a carpenter, I would meet people<br />
that inspire me in this particular field. As a musician, I always liked to<br />
accompany other musicians, enter another universe, be open and regenerated.<br />
It is very natural to me to exchange, to share. It can be a singer, a<br />
film director, a photographer, for instance, I will be lucky enough to meet<br />
Martin Parr, an iconic English photographer. I really like his universe: it is<br />
very aesthetic yet raw. I like artists, poetry and how we can contribute to<br />
make things poetic by sounds or images. When I meet people with whom<br />
I have a common language I want to build something like a hand worker.<br />
Poetry or building an object, the aim doesn’t matter.”<br />
-Depiction THREE: A black curtain: being exposed or hidden.
179<br />
Stage time seems very important for you. I<br />
have the impression that you are going back<br />
to the essential with the new electronic “power<br />
trio” you create together with Brad Thomas<br />
Ackley and Dorion Fiszel.<br />
“Every change of line-up is a new experience.<br />
I started on my own with a kick drum<br />
and samples 15 years ago then joined by the<br />
cellist Vincent Segal and the drummer Cyril<br />
Atef to create this unconventional trio. A<br />
second tour has been done with Alain Gaudi<br />
on drums and Sébastien Martel on guitars,<br />
we stayed 10 years this way. The Mister<br />
Mystère tour has been a cut as I did it with<br />
my family with Cyril Atef and other young<br />
musicians. I am now drowned to the power<br />
of the trio. Brad is playing an instrument<br />
called basstar with 2 bass strings and 4<br />
guitar strings. We build this instrument<br />
here adding a midi controller connected<br />
to his computer which can add samples<br />
and filters. It is very challenging! And I<br />
already have in mind the story I will tell<br />
in the next album and live situation!”<br />
-Depiction FOUR: A blues progression,<br />
the influences of<br />
“Noire” in music..<br />
“Blues is the root of everything<br />
as we find it in funk,<br />
reggae, modern African<br />
music. These 5 notes are<br />
a base for lots of things.<br />
I more and more experience<br />
that I sing like<br />
my guitar and my guitar<br />
plays like I sing. The link<br />
between them too is very<br />
close: it is simply the expression of the same<br />
soul.”<br />
You claim a strong inspiration of the blues in<br />
this album which is so musically sunny. This<br />
is quite of paradox don’t you think?<br />
“This is all what -M- is about: it is a romantic<br />
soul in a playful universe. It can also be<br />
the opposite. I really like the A-minor tonality<br />
for instance. Melancholy is more or less<br />
perceptible but there is always one or two<br />
sad songs in my albums like “Délivre”, “Oualé”...<br />
It is part of me. Moreover I am fond of<br />
contrasts, alchemies, the mix of opposites.<br />
When I started my career, someone did a<br />
street-interview asking “why do you<br />
like -M-?” A girl answered “because<br />
it is the mix of Coluche and Prince”<br />
and I thought it was quite on<br />
point (smiles). Anyway, life is<br />
made of contradictions and<br />
I like my music to reflect<br />
this. For me it is totally<br />
normal to have a<br />
sad text on<br />
a joyful music or the other way round. It creates a 3D of perception.<br />
As musicians, composers or artists, we are chemists<br />
and inventors.”<br />
Using the term chemist makes me think of mixing. Are you active<br />
in the post-production process?<br />
“Yes, I have my home studio here where we recorded and mixed<br />
the whole album. I sometimes mix the songs I really like the<br />
laboratory side of it, it is part of -M- aesthetic.”<br />
-Depiction FIVE: A map of Africa…. we talk about roots and<br />
travels-<br />
“Îl” is an album where you travel a lot: India, Africa, Egypt,<br />
China, USA... Is travelling an important source of<br />
inspiration for you?<br />
“Yes, travelling is very inspiring. When I am not busy with<br />
music, I just travel. Îl contains one song totally made for a<br />
place that touched me a lot, La Réunion. This island has a<br />
nickname and this is how I called the song : “L’île intense”.<br />
Lyrics can be seen as fragments of a tale, using the island’s<br />
particular vocabulary. And when I am with Saraï (the sister<br />
of Dorion Fiszel in Los Angeles), we threw a party and it lead<br />
to the song “La maison de Saraï”. Every place inspires<br />
a song or more. For instance,<br />
Mali is a country<br />
that moved me a lot.”<br />
Serge Gainsbourg was also inspired<br />
by Mali.<br />
“Yes, Gainsbourg released “Gainsbourg Percussions”<br />
including “Couleur Café” in 1965. Even though<br />
it is 99% inspired from African songs, it is always turned<br />
his way and it is magic! He is a genius of geniuses! (smiles)<br />
I also take part in the festival “Fiesta des Suds” in Marseille.<br />
The line up mix African and European musicians. Four years<br />
ago, I found myself on stage with Ayo singing, Flee (Red Hot<br />
Chili Peppers) playing bass, Tony Allen on drums... It was<br />
very unexpected and intense moment…”<br />
-Depiction SIX: -M- shaped black sunglasses, hiding in the<br />
dark-<br />
It’s difficult to draw your portrait without speaking of the<br />
link between -M- and Matthieu Chédid, shadow, light, nor<br />
the accessories can describe… did you ever feel like hiding<br />
yourself behind a character?<br />
“Black sunglasses drown me to the mask, the wolf. I took<br />
this sentence from Nietzsche saying ’Everything that is deep<br />
loves the mask’. Perhaps I reinterpreted its original sense<br />
but I think that you are deeper when you hide yourself because<br />
you are disinhibited and go searching further away.<br />
It is like going to a masquerade, being dressed up allows<br />
you to let go. For me, it is obvious that you reveal your true<br />
self being someone else in the form, you are closer to your<br />
true self. Unconsciously, -M- comes from this approach: to<br />
reveal your soul behind, or because of a mask.”<br />
Then you could also appropriate this sentence of Oscar Wilde<br />
‚Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth’?<br />
“Yes sure. (smiles)”<br />
This truth may also lie in the cycle you draw through<br />
your career. In contrast to David Bowie who radically<br />
changes character with each album, I have<br />
the feeling that you moved -M- away in “Mister<br />
Mystère” to let it evolve, and consider -M- and<br />
Matthieu Chédid as the same person in “Îl”. Do you<br />
agree?<br />
“All things considered, I never locked myself in one character.<br />
This is more like a game. I really enjoy playing, there<br />
is space for freedom. To be honest, I would compose and play<br />
exactly the same music with or without the look of -M-. This<br />
is not what changes my music. My music is very instinctive;<br />
it reflects periods of my life. The colours can change from an<br />
album to another but the content would stay the same. Like a<br />
painter, I really like the idea of ‚period’. I am very much in the<br />
present as well as aware of the timelessness: I always have<br />
a long vision of things and like to make things coherent.”<br />
The sounds of Matthieu Chédid can be heard at : www.labo-m-music.com
Termites<br />
180<br />
Photography by Eileen Rullmann<br />
www.art-photographie.com<br />
I Heteropteryx dilatata I
181<br />
I Xylotrupes gideon I<br />
I Zanna nobilis I
182<br />
I Leopa sikkima javanica I<br />
I Lasiocampa quercus I
183<br />
I Prioneris thestylis I<br />
I Samia cyrithia I
184<br />
COL<br />
What’s Left O<br />
by Amy<br />
Frustration, stalling us at every<br />
turn. Amongst the crowd of<br />
vacant eyes you can feel its grip<br />
tighten. Suffocating, yet familiar,<br />
constricting, yet comforting. The<br />
Noire is all your darkest doubts,<br />
your enemies, and your fear of<br />
being alone. It’s a locked door, a<br />
sealed hatch in the floor, a darkened<br />
room: that contains all the<br />
secrets about your true self, but<br />
you’ve never dared open it to look<br />
inside. Everyone has something<br />
hidden, something mysterious,<br />
magical and precious: just meant<br />
for themselves, kept from others,<br />
it’s how we were intended<br />
to be. We have the capacity to<br />
keep a secret. Yet in an attempt<br />
to establish total control, for the<br />
so-called good of our society, we<br />
began to clean up, renovate, and<br />
demolish the walls behind which<br />
we hid such secrets for so many<br />
eternities. The places where<br />
we could once go to express<br />
our innermost desires and our<br />
distresses, suddenly engulfed by<br />
cleanliness: a sheen of musty dirt<br />
aggressively purified by something<br />
mechanical, chemical—no<br />
regard for the poetic beauty that<br />
may once have been festering<br />
within.<br />
Fear of the mysterious is ordinarily<br />
ingrained within us from an<br />
early age, so deeply ingrained in<br />
fact, that lines have been drawn<br />
that we are so inherently petrified<br />
to cross, for our own protection:<br />
or for the greater good. As soon<br />
as the darkness becomes just a<br />
little too inviting—welcoming,<br />
even. The adrenaline inside of us,<br />
the fight or flight signal, switches<br />
the light from off to on, revealing<br />
the reality of a harmless empty<br />
room. This isn’t to say that we<br />
don’t fabricate these environments,<br />
we still love to be terrified<br />
for the sake of it, to explore our<br />
dark fetishes, our perverse fantasies,<br />
but only if a panic button<br />
lies just within reach: we build<br />
something that can be quickly<br />
erased, forgotten or buried. Noire<br />
is not a way of life for the average<br />
human being, just something<br />
to be played with, teased,<br />
and used as entertainment. If<br />
anything gets too out of hand,<br />
well—it’s only our imagination.<br />
How powerful can that be? It was<br />
all just a dream. Pinch yourself<br />
to check for sure. This isn’t to<br />
say that every mind should have<br />
been unlocked, and plenty of<br />
depraved, psychotic a-lid in this<br />
world should have undoubtedly<br />
been left shut, but still there’s<br />
no way to know exactly how our<br />
world would look had these and<br />
other such tools of control—the<br />
gatekeepers of the Noire–never<br />
been known.<br />
Perhaps the most intense criticism<br />
surrounds the network we<br />
know as the world wide web,<br />
innumerable factors, strings<br />
of thought and oppositions are<br />
open to consideration in regards<br />
to this. However, one thing is<br />
certainly clear, that we no longer<br />
understand the importance of the<br />
phrase, “some things are better<br />
left unsaid”—suddenly we<br />
are all knowing, all telling, and<br />
all masters of our own online<br />
universes, as tiny robotic devices<br />
surround us and ‘enrich’ our daily<br />
lives. No question left unanswered,<br />
no stone left unturned,<br />
no dark, mysterious passageway<br />
left unexplored. Yet we are all<br />
still fascinated by a story without<br />
an end, an adventure: a tail,<br />
only visible to the naked eye, but<br />
to what kind of creature can it<br />
possibly belong? For fear of the<br />
answer we constantly construct<br />
rational thought to somehow<br />
disband these once so revered<br />
myths: webpages, forums, selfhelp<br />
websites, all answering the<br />
unanswerable questions of the<br />
world, that were once so wonderfully<br />
abstract, suddenly now<br />
seeming so concrete, our doubts<br />
sent scattering.<br />
As soon as we switch on and<br />
log in, accept the terms, check<br />
the box, something we never<br />
even knew we had is inextricably<br />
ripped from us: a foetus of<br />
unknowable energy, curiosity<br />
and depth. Should we have the<br />
opportunity to look outside of our<br />
assumed blinkers, even just for<br />
the briefest of moments, and live<br />
our own lives, instead of focusing<br />
on the experiences lived by one<br />
thousand million others?<br />
Through media, music, video,<br />
sound and film, we can experience<br />
the cultures, lives, emotions,<br />
existences and imagery of<br />
every area of the earth, witness<br />
the most horrific sights of war,<br />
famine, depravity, and death—<br />
but have the majority of us ever<br />
really seen anything at all?<br />
Something with our own eyes, to<br />
the point that it shakes us to the<br />
very bones, shakes us into action,<br />
outside of the safety of our living<br />
rooms, our cosy, comfortable<br />
nests. How much of your life is<br />
lived within a virtual reality, that<br />
separates you from your fellow<br />
human, a virtual reality, that has<br />
really become your cage.
UMN<br />
185<br />
f The Noire?<br />
Heaton<br />
Anonymity and privacy are<br />
things of the past: our emotions,<br />
everyday and otherwise,<br />
shamelessly spattered across<br />
pages, even the most hardened<br />
critic has their price. Nothing<br />
is sacred anymore. Existence,<br />
once so wonderfully fragile and<br />
unfathomable is now tirelessly<br />
analysed and finally, explained<br />
away: there is no mystery. How<br />
can there possibly be when every<br />
moment, feeling, living, waking<br />
day is captured through the eyes<br />
of a camera lens, how much of<br />
your life do you even live through<br />
your own eyes? Let’s appreciate<br />
the irony in all of this interconnectedness,<br />
if only for a fleeting<br />
moment. Each time we find<br />
ourselves afraid, and isolated,<br />
within moments we are able to<br />
network to our nearest and dearest<br />
in a heartbeat. Slide open the<br />
iPhone screen to reveal a world<br />
of human contact within, but if<br />
we were ever forced to face our<br />
own most twisted fears head on,<br />
how quickly would a cry for help<br />
really be answered? How many<br />
of those so-called friends would<br />
come to your rescue when you<br />
truly needed them most? Have we<br />
somehow become so lost in our<br />
own world of imagined security<br />
that in fact, when we finally look<br />
back: no one’s there. Instead of<br />
staring, sharing, tweeting and<br />
liking our way through life, copy/<br />
pasting our personalities into<br />
the endless white space, why<br />
not step outside and take a walk,<br />
down a darkened street, down<br />
a road without an end, and see<br />
what’s really possible? How far<br />
are we really able to defend ourselves<br />
and cross the line into the<br />
place without an exit? To discover<br />
all the sordid delights that may<br />
well lie within.<br />
Yet it is irreversibly so, that the<br />
beauty in the unknown has been<br />
long since forgotten. In a world<br />
full of endless safety features,<br />
soft cushions and user-friendly<br />
bullshit, how is it even possible<br />
to find the Noire? Let alone live<br />
a life inside it. To really crawl<br />
into its cavernous mouth, teeth<br />
glinting, tempting as they are<br />
destructive. Those who even hope<br />
to find a way must live on the<br />
fringes, outcast, the only ones<br />
who dare to go where others<br />
dare not, living life to the full,<br />
travelling further, pushing themselves<br />
harder to the very edges.<br />
As more and more mysteries of<br />
the world are seemingly solved,<br />
unmasked, excavated, where<br />
do we find that last place that<br />
is truly—underground. Ignorance<br />
may be bliss for a while,<br />
but somewhere there’s a feeling<br />
deep inside that’s niggling<br />
away, yearning for something<br />
more than just the world that is<br />
tailored for us by the choices we<br />
already made. Who we know,<br />
why we know them, where we go,<br />
what we do there, what we buy,<br />
where we work, where we went<br />
once, twice, three times. Perhaps<br />
without this constant observation<br />
of our every movement we might<br />
feel free to explore some of those<br />
secret corners of the world, those<br />
hidden places you can’t read up<br />
about on Lonely Planet, leaving<br />
your review from 1–5 stars. No<br />
photo app filter can blur the reality<br />
of what was really there. No<br />
edit button, no retouching tools.<br />
As we become ever more intertwined<br />
I start to wonder what will<br />
become of us in the end, what<br />
will be left of the Noire, in us,<br />
in the things that surround us,<br />
perhaps it was never even there<br />
in the first place, or perhaps we<br />
simply don’t care what happens<br />
when all the mysteries are<br />
solved. Concepts are researched<br />
and researched into nothing.<br />
References quoted, captions<br />
explaining, clarifying, criticising.<br />
Whatever happened to just<br />
letting things be? Leave notes<br />
hanging—artfully mounted in the<br />
mid-air. When the rush of excitement<br />
of simply not knowing, is<br />
a feeling that humans can no<br />
longer ever experience. Background<br />
checks, google searches,<br />
facebook pages: telling us all we<br />
really need to know. Why would<br />
you bother looking anywhere<br />
else? As a lack of empathy, and<br />
disconnectedness overwhelms<br />
and consumes you, are you really<br />
in a position to stand up and<br />
fight? Drugged, subdued, and<br />
vacuous, tapping away into the<br />
abyss.<br />
As we disband the external socalled<br />
threats that surround us,<br />
will we start to destroy ourselves<br />
from the inside out, our minds<br />
so constricted that they slowly<br />
coil in on themselves, tighter and<br />
tighter around our consciousness<br />
until the last drop of curiosity is<br />
unravelled. What hope is there for<br />
the Noire—half-dead already–<br />
taking it’s last gulps of air in a<br />
world where anything that once<br />
waited patiently in the shadows,<br />
is now mercilessly exposed<br />
beneath the unblinking chill, of<br />
inextinguishable neon lights.
186<br />
TRENTEMØLLER<br />
Not all who<br />
wander are<br />
LOST<br />
Interview: Ange Suprowicz & Amy Heaton<br />
Photo Credit: Alastair Philip Wiper<br />
“ I wrote all the songs<br />
with certain vocalists<br />
in mind but without<br />
their knowing. So<br />
Luckily everyone said<br />
yes actually, if not<br />
these songs would not<br />
have been on the album.<br />
Each track was<br />
specifically written<br />
for the vocalist who<br />
recorded it in the end.”
187<br />
Composing at the intersection between indie and electronica, Copenhagen-based musician Anders Trentemøller<br />
released his debut album ‘The Last Resort’ in 2006. Since then he has been exploring a penchant for emotional<br />
melodic moments and experimental production methods, touring with his live band of multi-instrumentalists<br />
and remixing every well respected artist in the electronic music scene from Moby to The Knife. After starting up<br />
his own record imprint, In My Room, Trentemøller’s second album Into The Great Wide Yonder was released<br />
four years later, it was a move into a more analogue sound influenced heavily by indie and post punk incorporating<br />
even more live instrumentation and vocals. This autumn he released his third full-length album Lost,<br />
drawing inspiration from his extensive live touring stint, is a record defined by Trentemøller’s grunting reverb,<br />
psychedelic grooves and a jumpy synth pattern that pushes us into the album’s dark, emotive context. Lost is<br />
Trentemøller’s most collaborative effort yet, pairing him with a vibrant cast of vocal features— the legendary<br />
duo Low, Jonny Pierce from The Drums, Marie Fisker, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Jana Hunter of Lower<br />
Dens, Ghost Society and Sune Wagner of The Raveonettes.<br />
Live, Anders is accompanied by a band made up of three guys dressed in black and two girls on his right adorned<br />
in floaty white chiffon. Together, they create a musical journey that twists and turns; it peaks in pitches high<br />
and low, it rattles and tattles. As the drums build from a tribal romp to a panicked bubbling, the atmosphere<br />
is rife with a feverish buzz. Haunted by past endeavours and a droning EKG pulse, the entirety of Lost may<br />
exist in the bliss of the intermediate, neither here nor there; the disparate state of wandering and intentionally<br />
finding oneself lost. The members on stage take turns to stand in the foreground, as if taking turns to navigate<br />
through the unknown. Equipped with shakers, tambourines, cymbals, a xylophone and other tinkling sundries,<br />
the group noisily makes it way into the dark void ahead. On stage, three pieces of art installation appear,<br />
obstacles in their path, and there’s a gloomy moment of uncertainty. Classic horror movie sounds eke in, and it<br />
seems the end is nigh. Slowly, Anders’ gnarled, bass heavy synth style moves into the foreground and he begins<br />
clapping, exciting the audience and encouraging his band to push on. The straight instrumental sheds a light on<br />
Anders’ technical finesse and he raises his hand as if to exclaim “It’s this way, follow me!” The band follows; having<br />
found a fork in the road, they see an open stretch of opportunity. Marie Fisker’s uncanny voice is silky and<br />
sultry and oddly comforting, it grounds both audience and band, and together we find our way out of the abyss.<br />
The performance’s closing moments recapitulate the album’s theme: it progresses from a wide-eyed sensual understanding<br />
to disorientated wanderings to a profound feeling of escape. Anders has chosen and acted wisely: if<br />
you’re going to get lost, it’s best to have five virtuosos by your side.<br />
KALTBLUT: On your website it says that the album is a “fuck-you to<br />
whatever genre” your followers had boxed you into. What kind of progression<br />
brought you to this definitive point?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Thankfully it’s not all my ‘followers” who like to<br />
put me into a box, but yeah, it has sometimes been a bit frustrating<br />
for me that people seem to find it difficult to accept that I keep on<br />
developing my sound. I still think there’s a red line connecting the<br />
music I did in my past up to now, but my life also naturally developed.<br />
That should hopefully be something you could hear in the<br />
music too. Of course I don’t make the same music as I did eight years<br />
ago but I don’t think in genres to be honest, so it’s sometimes a<br />
bit fun to see, especially music-journalists, who try to put my music<br />
into different kinds of weird boxes. Why not just judge the music<br />
for the music itself ? I sometimes like to think...<br />
KALTBLUT: How important do you think is it for musicians to break<br />
out of their genre?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t like to think too much in genres, I think<br />
it’s all about making personal music that reflects your moods and<br />
feelings, then if it breaks the genre or not at all, that does not matter<br />
to me as long as the music touches me. A band like Mazzy Star<br />
sounds totally the same on their new album as they did when they<br />
released their last 17 years ago…and I’m glad about that! They are<br />
amazing and Hope’s vocal is so unique, I don’t need them to break<br />
genres, I need to hear them write fantastic songs and they did not<br />
disappoint me this time either!<br />
KALTBLUT: How much of your work is done with the intention to surprise<br />
and shock?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Not much at all! That’s not my purpose in making<br />
music. I make music out of a personal passion. Music is for me,<br />
one of the best ways to describe my feelings and I try to only be in<br />
the now and not thinking about music in a ‘music marketing’ or<br />
business kind of way! I don’t care about target groups either.<br />
KALTBLUT: In 2008 you won an award for Best Chillout Artist and<br />
later stated you never thought your music would be categorized as<br />
“chillout”. How would you describe it then?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I won’t try to squeeze the music into a specific<br />
genre, but I would say it’s melodic and kind of dramatic music with<br />
a lot of contrasts and dynamic. All in all I actually just try to make<br />
good quality music! That’s the most important thing for me as an<br />
artist.<br />
KALTBLUT: What was the recording process like for you this time?<br />
Did you have continuity with your studio set up?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah, pretty much! I have a nice studio in<br />
Copenhagen with a recording room for drums, guitars, piano, amps<br />
and other stuff and then my working/producing room next door,<br />
where most of the time is spent. This time I began the writing of the<br />
tunes often at my upright piano. I like to focus on the melodies and<br />
chord progressions first and for that the piano is the natural choice.<br />
I don’t have the music graphically in front of me on the computer<br />
monitor but I am using only my ears and I like that fact, it makes it<br />
easier for me to write music that way.<br />
Then later I turn to my studio and arrange those ideas and parts<br />
I have written for the different instruments and work on them<br />
again on the computer.
188<br />
KALTBLUT: This album has, indeed, a far more song-structured style–-compositionally<br />
speaking—and not only because of the vocals<br />
from collaborating artists. Was this a calculated attempt to spend<br />
more time working with other people? Do you think the album is<br />
more commercial than your previous work?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think about being commercial or not,<br />
so it’s hard for me to say, but maybe it’s a bit easier for people to<br />
connect to because there are more vocal tracks on the album. It<br />
was very much just how the tunes I wrote ended up progressing,<br />
I did not plan to do an album with more vocals on than before,<br />
but the songs somehow really fitted vocals as I went along, it<br />
wasn’t my intention to create something more commercial at all,<br />
but simply because the tunes I wrote kind of ‘demanded’ vocals it<br />
seemed natural to follow the flow.<br />
KALTBLUT: You’ve been quoted as saying, “For me, making music is<br />
quite a lonely process.” Does this ever bother you? Or do you embrace<br />
it?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I really love the process of writing and producing<br />
all on my own, that’s what works best for me. I don’t incorporate<br />
the musicians when I’m in the studio, I like to have<br />
100% control over the music at this point. So often we make quite<br />
different versions of the same song, and then when we finally<br />
get together we share our ideas. I can offer my experience as a<br />
musician, because I know what it’s possible to actually play on<br />
the different instruments and often that is a big help, and the<br />
musicians give me a lot of feedback on the music and often come<br />
up with other ideas how to play the different parts, and at this<br />
point it becomes more of a collaborative process. I didn’t really<br />
want the album to be a ‘feature’ album actually, that was very<br />
important for me. So I really hope the album works as a whole<br />
album even if there are several different vocalists on it. There are<br />
also several instrumental tracks and that is something that I still<br />
really love to do. Next album could maybe be a pure instrumental<br />
album, who knows…<br />
KALTBLUT: How do your collaborations usually come about?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: For me it’s actually not the main thing to collaborate<br />
with vocalists, but since I really sing quite badly myself<br />
I need someone to sing my songs! When I started writing for this<br />
album these songs just materialised when I sat at the piano, and<br />
I instantly knew that they would fit specific vocalists, so I actually<br />
wrote all the songs with certain vocalists in mind but without<br />
their knowing. So it was quite nerve-wracking finally after<br />
the songs were kind of finished from my side to begin to contact<br />
these vocalists and hope that they would want to work with me!<br />
Luckily everyone said yes actually, if not these songs would not<br />
have been on the album. Each track was specifically written for<br />
the vocalist who recorded it in the end.<br />
KALTBLUT: Was there any one particular artist with whom you<br />
had a special musical chemistry, where you just immediately clicked?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah! The song I did with Mimi Parker of<br />
Low. It was so easy to work together and the result turned out so<br />
well I think. I’m a HUGE fan of their music and they have been<br />
a constant inspiration for me the last 15 years, so for me it was a<br />
fantastic thing to have them on my album. When I started working<br />
on the chord progression of the song I had Mimi Parker’s<br />
beautiful voice in mind, so it was a great, great pleasure and a<br />
big honour that she actually really liked the music I sent to her<br />
and made this magical melody and lyrics to put with my music.<br />
So that’s also one of the reasons that the song ‘The Dream’ is the<br />
opening track on the album. From there you can go everywhere…<br />
it’s quite open and I like that!<br />
KALTBLUT: The collaboration with Jonny Pierce from The Drums is<br />
the one that surprised us the most. What’s the feedback on that been<br />
like? Did it open up a new audience for your sound?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I had a really good feedback on that track, especially<br />
when we are playing it live. We play it in a quite different<br />
more uptempo version that sounds a bit like The Cure. It’s Marie<br />
Fisker, who also appears on the album, that sings it live. So to<br />
make the song adapt to her we change it quite a lot actually, but<br />
it works.<br />
KALTBLUT: Do you feel like you’ve collaborated with almost all the<br />
people you’d like to? Or is there anyone that seems out of reach for<br />
you—a dream collaboration, perhaps?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: If I had to choose one artist that I really respect<br />
and love it would be Nick Cave. To work with him on a song<br />
would be out of this world! Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds played<br />
just before us at a festival, and we watched the whole concert<br />
from the stage. It was mind blowing, nearly a bit scary how well<br />
they played and how good Nick Cave was on stage.
189<br />
KALTBLUT: Who’s your favourite artist that has remixed one of your<br />
tracks so far?<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you think the electronic music scene has evolved<br />
since you’ve been apart of it?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think that I have ever got a remix that<br />
I really liked...but for the first time I really got a fantastic remix of<br />
the track Gravity (feat. Jana Hunter from Lower Dens) from the<br />
new album from danish band Pinkunoizu. It’s a brilliant remix and<br />
it will be out soon! I’m so happy about it!<br />
KALTBLUT: How was it working with Dorit Chrysler? We’re big fans<br />
of her unique experimentation with the theremin sound.<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Dorit is a good friend and she supported us on<br />
our US tour two years ago. She is also married to the Danish video<br />
artist Jesper Just who did the music video for Sycamore Feeling<br />
from my last studio album and it’s through Jesper that I got to<br />
know Dorit and her music. She’s so talented and a great performer.<br />
She’s a real diva (in a good way) so that was also why I produced<br />
and released her latest EP on my own label In My Room.<br />
KALTBLUT: What do you see in the future of recording and sharing<br />
music? Especially in regards to GEMA on our Berlin backs.<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: As regards file sharing music, I really think<br />
it’s rude and with no respect for the artist when people upload a<br />
WHOLE album with graphics and everything for people to download<br />
for free. It’s really hard to make a living as an artist now, because<br />
the physical sales have been minimised so much, so one of<br />
the only ways we can have the time and freedom to make music<br />
is if the people using our music also pay for it! I don’t mind if one<br />
of my tracks is on a blog or another place on the net, but a whole<br />
album for people to download for free is too much disrespect for<br />
the artist and I hate that I can find my new album as a .zip file free<br />
to download on the internet quite easily, but at the end of the day<br />
it’s really hard to fight that.<br />
KALTBLUT: You once said in an interview Berlin doesn’t do it for you<br />
quite in the same way as Copenhagen. What does the Danish capital<br />
have on the German one? Are there any other cities you would you<br />
consider moving to?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I just like Copenhagen and the vibe here. So<br />
much interesting music has come out of Copenhagen and Denmark<br />
these past years I think. Maybe because we started to trust<br />
our own sound and do not try to copy what is coming out of for<br />
example US and UK, but we try to define a certain Scandinavian<br />
way of writing music, often with a more melancholic touch.<br />
KALTBLUT: Let’s talk about your imprint ‘In My Room’. When did<br />
you start this up, and why?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I simply wanted my own platform from where<br />
I could release my albums and sometimes other artists that I find<br />
interesting, but so far the only other artist I have had the time to<br />
release is Dorit Chrysler. Hopefully I can sign another new artist<br />
soon that has that special thing that I’m looking for. But right now<br />
I’m really busy touring so when the touring stops next year I will<br />
definitely start searching for more artists to work with. It basically<br />
just means that I have 100% artistic freedom and that is of course<br />
very important to me!<br />
KALTBLUT: What does it mean to you that electronic musicians appear<br />
to be taking a darker, more industrial and atmospheric turn? Do<br />
you have any thoughts on the influences behind this progression?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I can’t talk on behalf of other artists, especially<br />
not electronic artists so I don’t know if the overall music style has<br />
taken a darker twist. I don’t see music as a whole scene or a whole<br />
sound or style, but what I certainly miss in a lot of electronic music<br />
is melodies! It’s too often only atmospheres, beats and sound design<br />
and too less melody, but that’s just my opinion…maybe I’m wrong?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: To be honest I don’t really follow it so much because<br />
when I was doing more pure electronic music l did not feel<br />
any connection to the scene actually. So I’m not at all up to date<br />
with what is happening, and it was the same thing back then. I<br />
tried not to focus so much on a genre or scene but just to make music,<br />
and back then what came out from me had a more electronic<br />
sound but I never felt that I belonged to the electronic scene.<br />
KALTBLUT: How important is the relationship between the visual<br />
and the auditory for you?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: Quite important! I work very closely with the<br />
Danish artist and fashion designer Henrik Vibskov on the visual<br />
side of the show. Henrik actually used to play drums in the band<br />
too but these days he’s too busy for that because he’s using all his<br />
time on his own stuff. But Henrik is designing and building the<br />
whole stage set-design that we always bring with us when we play<br />
live. There is no video projections, it’s all build up and then we use<br />
a lot the light to make these set ups work even stronger.<br />
KALTBLUT: A lot of musicians are starting to turn towards working<br />
on film soundtracks. Does this appeal to you at all?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: No. Not really! I worked on a Danish movie<br />
once but then I realised that it takes a lot of time and energy, it’s<br />
nearly the same as making a studio album and I would rather use<br />
that time on touring or making new music. I do like the fact that<br />
other directors use my music in their movies though, for example<br />
Pedro Almodóvar used one of the tracks on my earlier album Into<br />
The Great Wide Yonder for his movie, ‘The Skin I Live In’. It’s a key<br />
scene about two minutes in with no dialogue, only the music, and<br />
then he actually also used that track for all the trailers for the movie.<br />
He also asked to have the different parts in the music separately<br />
so he could mix up for example the guitars so they fitted what<br />
happened in the scene which was a long chase scene with Antonio<br />
Banderas on a motorbike. Also Oliver Stone used my surf track<br />
‘Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!’ in his latest movie, and the french<br />
director Jacques Audiard used a mix I did with Bruce Springsteen<br />
in a key scene in Rust And Bone. So the fact that other artists that<br />
I also admire a lot can use my music in a creative way is fantastic.<br />
I’m very grateful for that!<br />
KALTBLUT: How do you approach your Dj-ing versus your tour<br />
shows? Where do you like to let your creativity and risk-taking run<br />
wild?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t really play as a DJ anymore, my focus<br />
is playing my own music live rather than playing other peoples<br />
tracks as a DJ, so it’s also mainly with the band that I use my creativity!<br />
KALTBLUT: You started out presenting your work as a solo artist and<br />
then began touring with a live band. Did it take a lot of work to transform<br />
the set up?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think really think about it in advance,<br />
like about if or how the music I make will work in a live situation,<br />
but It’s really nice after all these months isolated in the studio and<br />
the album is finished to meet with the band and start to rearrange<br />
the song and rehearse them together. It’s a totally different process<br />
and a nice contrast for me!<br />
KALTBLUT: What are you currently listening to when you’re not working?<br />
TRENTEMØLLER: The Soft Moon, The Smiths, Dirty Beaches, Flaming<br />
Lips, Moon Duo, The Warlocks….<br />
www.anderstrentemoller.com
190<br />
Susann Bosslau<br />
LENTICUL[I]AR<br />
Objects in mirror are further than they appear<br />
A fashion star is born! May I<br />
introduce you to my friend and<br />
fashion designer Susann Bosslau?<br />
I've known her for some years<br />
now, and we used to curate the<br />
fashion element of our project<br />
HONK! Magazine together<br />
two years ago. She is a model,<br />
fashion editor and just finished<br />
studying at the Akademie Mode<br />
& Design (AMD) fashion school<br />
in Berlin. If someone is truly<br />
gifted with talent then it is Susann.<br />
This blond-haired German<br />
girl is an all-rounder and just<br />
moved to London to enter the<br />
fashion world from there. I am<br />
proud to present her first Spring/<br />
Summer Collection for 2014:<br />
"LENTICUL[I]AR - Objects<br />
in mirror are further than they<br />
appear"<br />
Together with photographer<br />
Suzanna Holtgrave she has<br />
produced this great editorial for<br />
our Collection Noire. Her designs<br />
are fashion-forward, exactly<br />
what I expect when I think of<br />
avant-garde fashion. The woman<br />
Susann is designing for must be a<br />
strong character—a woman with<br />
style, sexy and edgy—because<br />
she herself is that kind of woman.<br />
To be honest I hate the fact that<br />
she is designing womenswear. I<br />
would love to see, and perhaps<br />
one day wear, some amazing<br />
menswear pieces from her.<br />
Susann do you hear me?
191<br />
Interview by Marcel Schlutt<br />
Concept and Photography by Suzana Holtgrave<br />
www.suzanaholtgrave.tumblr.com<br />
Styling and Designs by Susann Bosslau<br />
Hair & Make-Up by Timo Blum<br />
www.timoblum.blogspot.de<br />
Assistant: Stella Semmerling<br />
Models: Kassandra and Pepa<br />
M4 Model Management<br />
Special THX Kiko Dionisio and Nero the dog
192<br />
“The<br />
‘Twin<br />
Peaks’<br />
character<br />
Josie<br />
Packard<br />
would be<br />
the perfect<br />
model for<br />
my<br />
clothes”
193<br />
KALTBLUT: Hello Susann. Welcome to our<br />
magazine. We've known each other personally for a long time<br />
now, but please tell our readers something about your background?<br />
How did you get into fashion design?<br />
Susann: Hey KALTBLUT. Thank you for<br />
having me. It’s been a while since we last worked together,<br />
before I started working on my Bachelor Degree collection<br />
at AMD Berlin. I had to leave the Fashion Editor<br />
part at HONK! (which has now become KALTBLUT)<br />
in order to focus on my B.A. From a very young age I<br />
was involved in the arts. I was dancing a lot, jazz, modern<br />
dance and ballet, and I actually always wanted to become<br />
a ballerina because I had this obsession with those painful<br />
but beautiful ‘pointe’ shoes. I was always so keen about designing<br />
the outfits or at least having a say about the costumes<br />
and looks my dance group wore for performances and<br />
competitions. I guess this is when designing started to take<br />
over my life. My mum always made the clothes I designed.<br />
She was unbelievably patient with me. Her mum was<br />
a tailor and she learned it from her and I learned part of<br />
that from my mum.<br />
KALTBLUT: You just finished your studies at the AMD Berlin.<br />
For how long did you study fashion there? Do you have the feeling<br />
that it was time well spent?<br />
Susann: I finished my B.A. in February 2013. Studying<br />
there definitely made a change to my life. Not only was I<br />
studying with very good teachers and professors for 3 and<br />
a half years but also extremely talented students who are<br />
now very good friends. It was a tough time but I am happy<br />
that I chose to study there.<br />
KALTBLUT: We are presenting your first collection for Spring/<br />
Summer 2014 entitled "LENTICUL[I]AR - Objects in mirror<br />
are further than they appear". Could you explain your inspiration<br />
for this collection? And what does the name mean?<br />
Susann: Visualize a liar. Someone who hides his weaknesses<br />
behind a fabricated facade. There will always be people<br />
who create a fake character in order to hide their not so<br />
cool self. LENTICUL[I]AR actually refers to physics. A<br />
lenticular lens is an array of magnifying lenses. It is a lens<br />
specially designed in a way that when you look at it from<br />
different angles different images are magnified. You might<br />
know this effect from pictures where lenticular printing<br />
was used. As a child I had this card with butterflies on it.<br />
When I held in my hand I could see the butterflies with<br />
their wings either closed or opened but when I moved it<br />
they looked like they were flying. I used it because just<br />
like my collection this lens shows you an illusion, a lie. It’s<br />
like a different reality or how I call it a parallel universe<br />
of yourself. This is where those metal corsets, pants and<br />
gloves come into the picture. That would be the inspirational<br />
negative part of this collection. The positive part<br />
is that you should always look at something from different<br />
angles before you judge, the picture can change on<br />
a second or third look. When you see my clothes from<br />
the front they will lead you in a certain direction but this<br />
direction will turn completely when you see the back.<br />
I think faking is self-torture. However that torture was<br />
inspirational enough to make metal corsets, pants, latches<br />
and gloves.<br />
KALTBLUT: I love the shapes of your designs. How would you<br />
describe the aesthetic of your work?<br />
Susann: It’s a neo 50’s/60’s mix with a hint of Han Solo’s<br />
‘Millennium Falcon’. Elegant, straight-forward, laced up<br />
but at the same time sexy.<br />
KALTBLUT: Also your choice of different materials in the collection<br />
is amazing. From fake leather to multicoloured brocade.<br />
Why those different materials? Was it easy to work with them?<br />
And what else can we find in your collection?
Susann: I wanted the materials to clash. I wanted<br />
to draw attention to the fabrics and show<br />
that this mix can work. Whilst researching for<br />
fabrics I focused on what sort of association a<br />
certain material recalled in me. The multicoloured<br />
woven brocade reminded me of a stuck<br />
up English tea party with rich middle-aged wives.<br />
The polyvinyl chloride on the other hand<br />
reminded me of wrapped up meat that you get<br />
in supermarket with a hint of fetish.<br />
194<br />
KALTBLUT: For how long have you been working<br />
on the collection? And how many nervous breakdowns<br />
did you have during that time?<br />
Susann: 3 Months. Breakdowns: enough.<br />
KALTBLUT: I love that your collection features a<br />
lot of black pieces but also some yellow. Is it a risk<br />
to create a mainly black collection for the upcoming<br />
season? Or do you see your woman wearing a lot of<br />
black?<br />
Susann: Black is timeless and doesn’t depend<br />
on certain seasons. So no, not risky. And yes<br />
there is always a good time to wear black.<br />
KALTBLUT: The theme of our issue is NOIRE.<br />
Do you have an idea why black is the perfect colour<br />
for fashion? Which are your favourite colours?<br />
Susann: To me black is a colour that leaves<br />
questions open. So it challenges you. Black can<br />
be strong, fierce, elegant, menacing anything<br />
really. Black has many faces and a person wearing<br />
black is not easy to judge. I like strong and<br />
heavy colours but I might go with pastel when<br />
the fabric to that is strong and heavy. I have an<br />
affinity for collisions..<br />
KALTBLUT: For what kind of woman do you<br />
design your clothes for?<br />
Susann: The ‘Twin Peaks’ character Josie<br />
Packard would be the perfect model for my<br />
clothes. A passionate, straight-forward and<br />
inconspicuously sexy woman who doesn’t want<br />
to be overlooked.<br />
KALTBLUT: You also created some amazing shoes.<br />
I know you love to make accessories. Are there any<br />
plans to come out with an accessories line one day as<br />
well?<br />
Susann: The shoes are all handmade with aluminum.<br />
My brother was crazy enough to help<br />
me make them. Marty Mcfly’s ‘Back To The<br />
Future’ Deloreaon (I LOVE THAT CAR) was<br />
an inspiration. If Josie Packerd would travel<br />
through time in that car I would love her to<br />
wear my shoes. Accessories are important because<br />
they transport the message of your look<br />
and can lead it in a very different direction.<br />
Plans for an accessories line are in the making.<br />
KALTBLUT: Your current collection is only for<br />
girls. What a pity, because I think you would dress<br />
the guys quite well. Why have you decided to go for<br />
womenswear?<br />
Susann: There are so many details of menswear<br />
in womenswear that I think I am already<br />
satisfied. For now I will focus more on designing<br />
for women but I wouldn’t say I will never<br />
design for men. After all I am actually wearing<br />
my boyfriend's clothes every now and then.
195 KALTBLUT: As a young fashion designer in<br />
Germany it is not so easy to survive. Germans<br />
are not so into fashion like our friends in London<br />
or Paris. How much of your cultural background,<br />
especially Berlin, can we see in your designs?<br />
Susann: The fascination for metal must<br />
come from my families background of blacksmithing.<br />
Once it was about smithing horse<br />
shoes and now it's about forging women shoes<br />
and accessories. The accessories are actually<br />
made of these old metal construction kits my<br />
brother played with as a kid. You are supposed<br />
to build cars and trains out of it. I thought<br />
why not make some pants, gloves and glasses.<br />
So I took my brother's old metal kits and<br />
started to play dress up. I’m not sure if you<br />
can see anything of Berlin in my collection.<br />
You probably see a culture clash though. To<br />
support myself and to finance my studies I fly<br />
around the globe as a flight attendant every<br />
now and then. That enables me to explore<br />
different parts, traditions and people of this<br />
wonderful planet. Japan fascinates me. Tokyo<br />
is the most inspiring city I’ve ever been to.<br />
Whenever I’m there I feel like a child who<br />
tastes candy for the first time. Mind blowing.<br />
KALTBLUT: Is there any designer you look up<br />
to and why? Do you have some kind of a fashion<br />
icon?<br />
Susann: Rei Kawakobu. She is brilliant.<br />
Nothing more to say to that.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where do you create your designs?<br />
Do you have your own studio?<br />
Susann: I designed and made the collection in<br />
my 56 square meter apartment in Berlin. That<br />
was a challenge but a successful one.<br />
KALTBLUT: Some may not know it but you also<br />
worked as a model, fashion editor for HONK!<br />
Magazine back in 2011 and as a double for Cate<br />
Blanchet. Now you are a fashion designer. I have<br />
the feeling you are still on a private journey<br />
through life. Where do you see yourself let’s say in<br />
20 years?<br />
Susann: Good memories come back to my<br />
mind when I think about that. I had such a<br />
good time doing all this. Being a designer<br />
you’ve got to be open for everything and<br />
multitasking in a way. Otherwise, how are you<br />
supposed to create something new?<br />
KALTBLUT: Let’s play a little game. If you could<br />
dress a famous person out of these two who would it<br />
be and why!? Marilyn Mason or Justin<br />
Timberlake?<br />
Susann: Marilyn Manson because he is a<br />
crazy genius, I love his music and because<br />
there is always a little bit of Manson in my<br />
mood boards.<br />
KALTBLUT: Thank you very much for your time<br />
and the amazing editorial you and Suzana<br />
Holtgrave have produced for our Noire theme.<br />
Come back to see us soon when you have a new<br />
collection to show!<br />
Susann: Thanks to you<br />
KALTBLUT!
196<br />
KERBY<br />
Rosanes<br />
Kerby Rosanes is a freelance illustrator. The things that occupy him the most? Sketching and doodling, of course.<br />
Hailing from the Philippines, he spends every bit of free time he has clutching his notebook, armed with his<br />
beloved pens. He’ll fill up blank pages with thousands of little details; put those details together and creates an<br />
extraordinary piece of art. For Kerby, these doodles are much more than just “unfocused drawing.”<br />
This is his passion, it’s his way of life.<br />
KALTBLUT: Hi Kerby, can you please tell us what are your<br />
influences and what inspires you?<br />
Kerby: A lot of things inspire me. Nature, music, anime, cartoons, scifi<br />
movies, personal experiences and anything interesting I encounter<br />
everyday. My greatest influences include other ink artists like Mattias<br />
Adolfsson and Johanna Basford, film characters of Hayao Miyazaki<br />
and my mom for teaching me how to be creative at all times.<br />
KALTBLUT: There is a lot of detail in your illustrations. How<br />
did you start working this way?<br />
Kerby: I love putting details in my work. I think that characteristic<br />
alone makes my work unique from other artists. Without it, any of my<br />
pieces will not come alive knowing that I don’t usually colour them. I<br />
started working that way when I decided to drop my pastels and coloured<br />
pencils, when I lose the patience of colouring my work.<br />
KALTBLUT: How long does it take you to finish one of your<br />
illustrations? What does it depend on?<br />
Kerby: It depends on the size and what purpose it will be used for. Most<br />
commissioned pieces would take me a couple of weeks to finish since<br />
research is being made. For personal doodles, I do it in two days most<br />
likely every night after a busy day at the office.<br />
KALTBLUT: How has your work changed as you evolved?<br />
Kerby: My work has changed from the ordinary scribbles in my class<br />
notebooks, to more detailed and conceptual illustrations that are well
197<br />
recognized across the globe. I still<br />
have a long way to go when it comes<br />
to “evolving” my craft and that’s<br />
what I am more excited about!<br />
KALTBLUT: What kind of<br />
things scare you the most? What<br />
do you fear?<br />
Kerby: Many things actually. I’m<br />
afraid of heights, paranormal activity<br />
and losing my beloved pens!<br />
KALTBLUT: If you would make<br />
an illustration of yourself, what<br />
would it look like? What kind of<br />
things would it involve?<br />
Kerby: Hmm.. tough question. But<br />
I think I’ll just include things I love<br />
and best represent me. It can be so<br />
random without any art direction<br />
at all. Just like my other drawings,<br />
I want it to be just plainly spontaneous<br />
leaving the viewer to figure<br />
out the stories behind them.<br />
KALTBLUT: You often include<br />
animals in your work, can you<br />
tell us a little about it? What do<br />
they symbolize?<br />
Kerby: They don’t symbolize<br />
anything at all. I just love to explore<br />
the wild and natural elements<br />
as a major theme of the artwork.<br />
Animals are good subjects when you<br />
want to reach a wide audience, appealing<br />
to kids, adults, art professionals,<br />
tattoo artists, nature lovers,<br />
etc.<br />
KALTBLUT: Each one of your<br />
illustrations seems to be a whole<br />
world. If you could bring one to<br />
life, which one would it be and<br />
why?<br />
Kerby: It would be the doodle called<br />
“CROW-DED”. It might sound<br />
weird but I love crows!<br />
KALTBLUT: There is a lot of<br />
black and white in your work.<br />
What makes you choose black<br />
and white over colour?<br />
Kerby: I just don’t have the patience<br />
to colour in my work.<br />
KALTBLUT: Where do you see<br />
yourself in 10 years from now?<br />
Kerby: Still doing what I love. Travelling<br />
the world for more inspiration.<br />
And teaching kids about my<br />
art.<br />
Interview by Amanda M. Jansson,<br />
Emma E. K. Jones and Nicolas Simoneau<br />
www.kerbyrosanes.com
MUST<br />
198<br />
Selected by Marcel Schlutt<br />
TECIDOFINO X MARC STONE<br />
"There is no luxury in the world a man can be closer to!"<br />
The label tecidofino has presented itself on the catwalk for the first time during the last Berlin Fashion Week together with the Swiss designer<br />
Marc Stone's underwear. And it was the perfect combination. Marc Stone is known for his classic men's fashion. But due to his athletic<br />
new collection he sent models in underwear from tecidofino on the catwalk . And guys , we all know how important the perfect pants are for<br />
us. Founded in 2013 the Berlin Label tecidofino has got high quality materials combined with the latest design ideas and so produced the<br />
finest underwear for men in the world. Tecidofino makes a name for itself, because the fine fabric represents design, quality, luxury and wellbeing.<br />
The natural , luxurious comfort is not only special because of the fashionable design but also because of the use of environmentally<br />
friendly raw materials . All fabrics are primarily made from renewable resources. The proverbial red thread which runs not only through the<br />
entire collection , is rather subtle and yet signal red, is found on any of the tecidofino designs. The classic aesthetics of Marc Stone's man<br />
fits perfectly to the really high quality underpants of tecidofino.<br />
www.tecidofino.com<br />
www.marc-stone.ch<br />
Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images
www.aureliapaumelle.com<br />
Bürknerstr. 5 - 12047 Berlin
Sorry My<br />
200<br />
Love<br />
Concept & Photography: Suzana Holtgrave<br />
Model: Amanda at Satory Models<br />
Hair and make up: Anna Kürner at Basics<br />
Styling: Anita Krizanovic<br />
Production: Marcel Schlutt<br />
Dress & Skirt: Who’s That Girl
201<br />
Dress & Cardigan: Who’s That Girl, Scarf: Illith, Earrings: Stylists Own
Dress, Skirt & Cardigan: Who’s That Girl, Pinafore: Illith, Earrings: Stylists Own, 202 Gloves: Très Bonjour
Dress: Who’s That Girl, Pinafore: Illith, Scarf: Illith, Shoes: Gianni<br />
203
Dress: Who’s That Girl, Stockings & Body: Très Bonjour, Shoes: Gucci<br />
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205 Dress & Cardigan: Who’s That Girl, Scarf: Illith
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HUMPHREY BOGART<br />
Text by Claudio Alvargonzález Tera<br />
Illustration by Emma E. K. Jones<br />
THE KING OF<br />
F I L M N O I R
207<br />
If you think of classic Film Noir, one<br />
of the first images that comes to<br />
mind is a black and white picture<br />
of a gangster, a private detective<br />
or a drunk journalist with a hat, a<br />
raincoat, a cigarette and a glass of<br />
bourbon. If you try to put a face on<br />
that image I bet that it belongs to<br />
Humphrey Bogart.<br />
If you are born on Christmas Day,<br />
I guess you are destined to do<br />
something special with your life.<br />
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born<br />
in New York City on that special day<br />
in 1899. His father was a wealthy<br />
Manhattan surgeon and his mother<br />
was a famed magazine illustrator<br />
and photographer. Bogart’s parents<br />
wanted him to be a doctor, probably<br />
dreaming about studying at<br />
Yale University like the rest of posh<br />
kids from New York City. However<br />
destiny had prepared something<br />
completely different for him. Since<br />
the beginning, his marks at Trinity<br />
School and Phillips Academy were<br />
pretty low and he was eventually<br />
kicked out. Yale University was<br />
out of the picture, and his parents’<br />
dream was broken. Bogie, like many<br />
young guys in those days, joined the<br />
United States Navy during the spring<br />
of 1918. Those were the times of<br />
First World War and the young<br />
Bogart was sent to service during<br />
the conflict. That was the time he got<br />
injured by the impact of shrapnel<br />
leaving him with that famous scar<br />
on his lip.<br />
After leaving the navy he found a<br />
job at the World Film Corporation<br />
and some time later he finally got a<br />
role in a theatre play called Drifting<br />
(1922). It was his first role. Soon he<br />
became quite popular on Broadway,<br />
working in one play after another<br />
until 1929, when he decided to move<br />
to Hollywood. The truth is he wasn’t<br />
too lucky at the start. Broadway is<br />
one thing, but Hollywood is a much<br />
bigger playing field. The year 1935<br />
came along and he finally got a role<br />
in The Petrified Forest with two bigger<br />
stars, Leslie Howard and Bette<br />
Davis. The film was a success and<br />
Bogie signed a contract with Warner<br />
Brothers, but it wasn’t until 1941<br />
when he met his friend John Huston<br />
(probably the most influential man<br />
in his life) during the shooting of<br />
their first film together The Maltese<br />
Falcon.<br />
The film became an instant Film Noir<br />
classic (you can find a small review<br />
of the film in our TOP 5) and Bogart<br />
simply jumped into a higher Hollywood<br />
status. They made seven films<br />
together, including The Treasure of<br />
the Sierra Madre, Key Largo (with<br />
his last wife Lauren Bacall) and The<br />
African Queen with Katherine Hepburn.<br />
This last role of a gin-swilling<br />
riverboat captain finally gave him<br />
the Oscar he was waiting for in<br />
1952. He defeated Marlon Brando<br />
and his amazing role in A Streetcar<br />
Named Desire, and then came<br />
Casablanca. Of course, I won’t forget<br />
the film which is ranked as the best<br />
one ever made in cinema history<br />
(according to audiences). I would’t<br />
say that much. I just think it’s simply<br />
impossible to choose just one but<br />
I agree the film is indeed at least<br />
one of the Top 10 in history. Anyway,<br />
Casablanca is a masterpiece and<br />
Bogie became a worldwide star<br />
with his Rick Blane (an American<br />
expatriate during World War II).<br />
There is not too much to say about<br />
Casablanca as you already know<br />
the story. The script is one of the<br />
best ever written, Ingrid Bergman<br />
never looked better and the director<br />
Michael Curtiz gave us some of the<br />
most memorable images in cinema<br />
history. For example, we all know<br />
the melody of “As Time Goes By” and<br />
think about how many times you<br />
have used the quote: “We’ll always<br />
have Paris”. See?? That is what<br />
makes cinema and this film eternal:<br />
the collective imaginary.<br />
The film only won three Oscars<br />
(including ‘Best Film’) but it deserved<br />
many more. Bogart’s love life<br />
was as difficult as it was depicted<br />
in many of the roles he played. He<br />
got married four times. He became<br />
a drunk, probably because his third<br />
wife (actress Mayo Methot) was a<br />
compulsive one, and like some of<br />
the gangsters or private detectives<br />
he played, he was looking for some<br />
kind of redemption. It came in 1944<br />
while shooting To Have and Have Not<br />
when he met a young model called<br />
Lauren Bacall (Dame Lauren Bacall<br />
in my opinion). They got married<br />
a year later and had two children.<br />
Their love story continued until<br />
Bogie, too ill with cancer, died in<br />
January 1957. The Harder They Fall<br />
(1956) was his last movie. His face<br />
was not the same due to his long<br />
fight against this illness. His fight<br />
was very hard, the same way he and<br />
his characters did on screen but this<br />
time he was defeated. At his funeral,<br />
his friend John Huston said: “He is<br />
an irreplaceable man. There will<br />
never be someone else like him…”<br />
Although I agree, I still prefer what<br />
Lauren Bacall said to Lars von Trier<br />
after a fight during the filming of<br />
Dogville: “Listen stupid, you weren’t<br />
even born and were already sleeping<br />
with Humphrey Bogart”.<br />
Bogart had the perfect face for<br />
Noire, a face filled with character.<br />
Our signature image of him is<br />
seated at a table, the inevitable<br />
drink nearby, cigarette in hand, as<br />
he stares out at the world without<br />
passion but understanding of its full<br />
meaning. It is said Bogart’s means<br />
of expression were limited, but his<br />
eyes radiated complexity. He played<br />
men of principle, men with their own<br />
code of honour. Men with a cynical<br />
mask hiding integrity. Bogart was<br />
the king of Film Noir but above all,<br />
Humphrey Bogart is in two words:<br />
classic cinema. A myth.<br />
Perhaps in the same way there was just one Marilyn, one Katherine, one<br />
Bette or one Ava, there was just one Bogie, and his last name was Bogart.
208<br />
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209<br />
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Concessions.<br />
People say you have to make something happen if you want to be able to make your way in life.<br />
You start with a project, an idea; where you put<br />
all your heart and soul, you have a vision, a really<br />
good view of the goal you want to hit - but the<br />
thing is, the whole thing is not really working the<br />
way you would like it to. So to make it work you<br />
have to allow for concessions; have to accept the<br />
fact that by transforming the thing, it may actually<br />
finally work. The question is, how much are<br />
you ready to give away? How many concessions<br />
are you ready to make in this process, and where<br />
is the limit? What about if you make too many<br />
concessions and you’re even not able to recognize<br />
this thing as your own anymore? It may indeed<br />
feel as though it is not yours anymore, because<br />
it's too far from the vision you originally had.<br />
This is a really delicate process, and you have to<br />
be open for changes, of course; but also ready to<br />
accept that your initial idea was maybe not as<br />
good as you once thought it would be. This is<br />
not just about your project, at the end - this is<br />
also about yourself and to be able to look at your<br />
actions with some distance, and to be able to readjust.<br />
When I heard that we had to reduce 400<br />
pages of our beloved collection down to 200, I<br />
was angry and sad, because I thought if we only<br />
print 200 pages, that this is not us anymore, this<br />
is not what we created. However with a good<br />
long look at it, and seeing with an open mind<br />
the facts and the way they are, I can truly say<br />
that this Collection [Noire] is by far the best we<br />
have done yet. The content is thick-and-tight,<br />
really fits the theme, and the editorials and the<br />
interviews are just on point. Here we are, always<br />
trying to push ourselves to be able to present a<br />
beautiful product to our readers, and for once we<br />
can stand proud, and be sure that you’ll understand.<br />
We are in constant evolution, because we<br />
try to evolve with you. Thank you to everyone<br />
who has helped to make it possible this time, and<br />
god knows that they are a lot of people to name.<br />
Thank you for being fidele. I really hope you did enjoy it.<br />
Yours Nicolas<br />
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