hanno leichtmann

[static]

www.static-music.de
static@static-music.de

As I see, you are a part of the Sonar Kollektiv. How long you are a part of this organization and what is it that Sonar primarly does – organizing concerts, releasing records…?

 

Im at sonarkollektiv since march 2000.it is a colectiv of producers,musicians and djs,founded by the jazzanova guys.

They have about 8 labels,releasing 12” and cds of all sorts of jazz related club music.they organize parties,radio sets,ect.

Just have a look at www.sonarkollektiv.com

 

Tell something more about yourself. Are you born in Berlin? Are you a dj also? Is Ronald Lippok your friend? (I know that he is from the band To Rococo Rot, because they are one of my favourite bands)

 

I am not a native Berliner ,and moved to berlin in 1994.i worked about 2 years as a real dj to earn money,when I was studiing jazz drums with gerri granelli and david friedman. but nowadays I prefer performing live on stage.i also dj sometimes but not dance oriented any more,but relaxed interesting music,from electronica to film scores or free jazz or so called urban dub.

 

I know Ronald for years,we toured together (paloma and tarwater)in 1997.

Then we know and respect our musical work.

When I wrote a black of dirty white,I heard his voice all the time on top of the song,so I showed him the song and he sang on it and on headphones and all was perfect,just like I had imagined.

 

What do you think about the German/Berlin electronic scene? There are many names and labels coming from there: Jan Jelinek, Pole (~scape), Kitty-Yo, Static (you), Ulrich Schnauss, Christian Kleine…, and they are releasing very enjoyable music.

 

I think there are very interesting things going on here,cause many people move to berlin and make music or labels.most of the people you mentioned are friens of mine and of course we all know each other somehow.

 

What are your past and present influences? What have you been listening to in the past, and what music you like to listen to in the present; what are you listening to today, right now, while you are writing this interview?

 

There are many different influences.

All time favs used to be kraftwerk,sun ra,cool jazz,miles davis, free jazz,john cage,morton Feldman,then club music and techno like ch.vogel and stuff.

Today im listening to a song of mine ,thinking of who I could invite for singing,I like to have a sort of jane birkin singing on it.

Then I listen a lot to lali puna,Thomas gave me a week ago,it’s a great record.

Also im listening to an old snd cd.

 

When i was reading one interview with Brian Eno, he said that he tells 3 kinds of things in the interviews: 1) the most interesting; 2) less interesting; 3) and the most boring things; - and the journalists always print all the boring stuff and nothing from the interesting things. So, i guess one of the most interesting things is what did you use (what software, hardware, instruments…) to make the music on your album Eject Your Mind? Tell me about your gear?

 

I have a mpc,a nord modular, a Rhodes piano,my drums and some delays.

And a g3 laptop.

I play everything into a protools system and mix it .

 

I'm listening your album Eject Your Mind right now, and i like the sound very much, because it's alive. But i wonder, why did you have to use the vocals? I, personally, don't like vocals in the electronic music so much. But, on the other hand, the vocals of Ronald Lippok and Justine Electra are very nicely merged with the sound. Why did you decide to use vocals? I think that the songs with vocals on your latest album as Static would be nice enough without the vocals.

 

Its funny.some love the vocals ,some hate it.

Personally I love them.i mean there are some songs where I had to put vocals on,like I have to put in an other song a piano or a bassdrum.it was a quite simple decision:I heard a voice on some songs and asked them to sing it.the problem I always had with vocals were the lyrics,cause they give a song a message or direction which is more open when you have an instrumental.but both Justine and Ronald write very open minded lyrics,so I don’t have this feeling.and besides I just love the sound of their voices and how they fit into my music.

 

Eject Your Mind is the only album that I've heard from you. But you have released more music under many different names, such as Paloma, Ich Schwitze Nie, Dj Attache & The Beige Oscillator, Dawn… Why do you use all those names?

 

Static is my solo work.

 

paloma is with hannes stobl.

 

Beige osc….is with Nicholas bussmann

 

Dawn was a band with Rupert huber from tosca and hannes from paloma.

 

And ich schwitze nie is a trio with lars Rudolph and Nicholas bussmann.

 

Its completely different things and styles of music,too much and too different to realize in one band or project.

 

I will send you my list of Top 20 albums for 2001 (I am a part of one local radio station here, so I had to make a list). What do you think about my album list and what is your list? Do you have your favourite album(s) for the past year or maybe some all-time-favourite albums?

 

I don’t know all of your acts on the list,but some of them I like a lot,like the aphex twin album.these piano pieces are great.

 

Here some all time favs.

Gil evans and steve lacy:paris blues

Steve reich :music for 18 musicians

Sun ra strange celestial road

Kraftwerk computerwelt

Curtis Mayfield,there is no place like America today

John barry:almost everything

Ennio morricone,same

Sonny Rollins blue note 1642

All the rhythm and sound stuff

John cage pieces for prepared piano

There are many more but too much to list

 

What do you think about the world music scene? Lately, I am very much interested in this so called post-rock music, bands like Tristeza, Tortoise, Couch, Town & Country, Chicago Underground Duo/Quartet, Mogwai, Sea & Cake, Mouse on Mars, Microstoria, Windy & Carl, Labradford, Papa M, Jim O'Rourke and many more. Do you like some of them?

 

Yeah I like mouse on mars,microstoria,jim o rourke.some pieces of tortoise.the rest I don’t know.

 

Tell me something more about the German post-rock scene!

 

Im not into the postrock thing.does it still exsist?

 

The song Northrop is recorded live at Der Leiseste Club Der Welt in Berlin, september 2000. How and where do you play/perform your music live?

 

This song was recorded with my old live setup,a mpc 2000 xl. 

Now im playing with a g3 laptop using a patch written in super collider by Nicholas bussmann,heiko gölzer an me.it’s a 12 track realtime patch whrer you can really fuck up everything,very nice.its very inspiring.

Im just editing some of my live tracks wich I recorded on harddisk.

I play in clubs or in concert halls wherever its cool.

one can book me under static@static-music.de

please don’t forward hanno@leichtmann.de it will be deleted soon.

When you need some more infos about me,just go to www.google.de and search for hanno leichtmann.

Ok,hope this is ok