COLLECTION 6

135
Although his electrifying DJ-sets have earned him acclaim from
Boiler Room Berlin to Electric Zoo in NYC, Sonár in Barcelona
and Bestival in the UK as a self-confessed introvert Levy admits
that he isn’t by nature an outgoing clubbing type, “If the music is
really good I have to sit down on my own and listen...when I go out
I have to forget the
technical side of the
music,” he admits,
“DJ-ing can be fun,
especially if I‘m doing
it with Brodinski.
We’re friends and it’s
exciting to work together.
But in the end,
you are playing mostly
other people’s records.
I prefer to play
live.” Indeed, the Gesaffelstein
show is the
best way to experience
his decadent vision:
a classicist form
of electronic music
that aspires to high
art. His approach to
each live exposition
is with meticulous attention
to detail, performing
from within
a giant custom-made
marble altar where
he can control everything
from the frequencies
to the lights.
“I can have a response
directly with the
audience,” he says. “I
can take the pressure
up and down, build
tension and release
it, and take people
deeply into the music.
I have much more
pleasure this way.”
As far as the visual
is concerned this is
an entirely different
matter, and he frequently
collaborates
with fellow artists, directors
and designers
to help better express
the ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’
element of the
project. Inspired by
artworks that range
from the contemporary
abstract paintings
of Pierre Soulages to
the severity of 18th century neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David—infamous
for his depiction of Napoleon on horseback—it’s
no wonder that the visual is just as important to Levy as the music
itself. Take the album cover for the album for example, the design
was created with Manu Cossu. “He has the hands to make it happen,
and I have the words,” Levy explains. “The cover is pure and
complex at the same time and everything relates to the idea of the
Aleph, which is both the beginning and the return to the beginning.
It’s a beautiful object.” Similarly his music video archive is
a black hole of visual exploration. The first video that grabbed me
was the monochrome film project for “Viol” entitled “Ghostrider”,
filmed in the darkened
streets of Paris
the directors Jérémy
and Anto, aka, Les
Darons, twinned their
passion for fixies and
film-making capturing
a dark spirit of
the discipline on camera.
As they ride
like hell without a
flicker of fear in their
eyes the cyclists push
on in time to the oppressive
beats of Gesaffelstein
creating
an addictive visual
reality that is instantly
seductive. This is
the kind of visual that
fits perfectly to his
music, and the powerful
imagery it can
inspire.
Photo by Emmanuel Cossu
Text by Amy Heaton.
www.gesaffelstein.net
Without a doubt Levy
is a master of exposing
the Noire that
hides in all of us.
His sound encapsulates
the madness,
the melancholy and
the darkness that’s
somehow striving
to get out. Working
at the intersection
between solace and
aggression there are
themes to which Gesaffelstein
will always
return: raw, and unending,
ecstatic, yet
deeply concentrated
and controlled. When
asked to comment on
the meaning behind
the title of the album,
‘Aleph’, he explains
that it’s a word which
can have many meanings.
The first character
of the Hebrew
alphabet. The computer
that contains
a complete reality
in Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel ‘Snow Crash’. The letter
which brings a clay Golem to life in Jewish legend…and whatever
other interpretation you as the listener wish to bestow upon it. “I
have the key to my music,” says Levy, “and I keep it for me. But
I’m really excited to witness other people discovering it.” Now it’s
your turn.