Introduce yourself and what you do.
Karl Fousek. Musician and composer. I work primarily with electronic sounds, instruments and algorithms. My practice often focuses on improvisation, generative technique, and the histories of sound synthesis and electronic music.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
Beatriz Ferreyra – Huellas Entreveradas (Persistence of Sound) / Echos+ (Room40)
Lil' Jürg Frey4utechre Twitch.tv
Max Eilbacher – Here a Peak, There an Abyss (Anomia)
Lea Bertucci – Acoustic Shadows (SA)
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
The pessimist in me suspects that very little will change in the long run: the combined inertia of neoliberal governments and 21st century capital will drag any trace of a new “paradigm” back into the status quo once there is a vaccine. But at least it now seems possible to imagine new futures again. I would like to see the arts themselves renew their speculative imagination. Less nostalgia and superficial retro-isms; more searching to articulate new forms and affects. More possibilities.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
I was planning to buy tickets to
Kraftwerk when everything was canceled. The passing of
Florian Schneider only makes me feel worse about missing the show (even though he wasn’t touring with the group anymore).
Marcin Pietruszewski was another canceled show I was looking forward to. Otherwise, I’m looking forward to seeing literally any live event again.
Introduce yourself and what you do.
My name is Sam Rutledge. I’m a DJ and producer under the name Slim Media Player or SMP.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
Garage rock from the 60’s, John T Gast’s discography, contemporary British down-tempo and jazz, Stephen King novels.
Damon - Don’t You Feel Me John
John T Gast - Kids C Ghost (Bankruptcy Dub)
Jabu feat. chester giles - Slow Hours Read the uncut version of "The Stand." It's a blast, albeit a morbid one.
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
I think the “new reality” will be reflected by the social conditions that artists find themselves in during this period; whether it’s one of curiosity and unexpected gratitude, or, at the other end of the spectrum, loneliness or claustrophobia. I'm sure we'll see these conflicting states embodied in the media produced over this period.
Ultimately, though, people adapt, and I'm looking forward to seeing how our culture does so, particularly in the context of live performance. I wouldn't be surprised to see a new level of appreciation on the dance floors once they begin to open. One can only hope that this attitude would persist in the culture at large.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
Honestly, the last few months have really kicked my ass to not take for granted any opportunity to catch a live performance, be it a local experimental set or an icon in the sunset of their touring days. Shouts out to Joni - “you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone.”
Introduce yourself and what you do.
I’m Syd Woz and I’m a DJ here in Vancouver
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
Most of the music I’ve included in this mix I had bought off bandcamp recently. Previously I had always gone on knowing exactly what I intended to buy. But lately I’ve been spending a lot more time digging through labels and collections on there. It’s obviously nothing new- but it's a really great way to discover and share new music while supporting artists who are entirely relying on music sales during this pandemic.
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
I don’t think the climate in the dance music scene will be the same as it once was for quite some time. I can speculate that touring DJs will have a hard time getting international gigs even long after the boarders open back up, as well as venues will have to make many compromises so that things can operate in a safe manner once social distancing orders begin to ease more.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
I’m mostly excited to see our locals come together under one roof again! Our little city is so dense with incredible DJ’s, producers and collectives- makes me so proud to go to live events entirely organized and stacked with our local talent! :-)
Introduce yourself and what you do.
I’m a non-binary multidisciplinary artist from Mexico City. I work primarily with illustration, animation and graphic design, but I also started producing electronic music and DJing a few years back. My main project is called Goo, and it is a vehicle for me to explore sound, gender and also themes that I feel are channeled best through a sonic medium. My work in sound tends to veer around sleazy beats, textures and reverberating vocals in Spanish. Once every full moon I get together to play with my friend Emma Tomic as Ultraviolent Light.
As of 2020 I had the plan to start DJing under “El Angel Exterminador”, a project focused on highlighting Latinx producers, but that has been put on hold as well as “Plasma”, an event series I started with my dear friend CWR.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
A lot of the physical spaces we had will be lost… and there are already a lack of spaces, many which are not accessible. A lot of the people who depend on what should be universal infrastructure are also immunocompromised, and this would add a new layer of inaccessibility to the venues and spaces that remain standing. We should (always) be thinking on ways that we can reassemble while making it accessible to everyone, so I really hope that these considerations are taken into account as well as continue to strive for safer spaces and diversity. We are already seeing how our communities are migrating to online platforms (such as this), but I think we will have to be careful in how we do this and come up with solutions to bypass unjust structures that are in place or are about to form as much as we can and also organize against them.
I do have very real fear of how the work and ideas that people come up with in these efforts could co-opted, stolen, rehashed and resold as original ideas from the people who own these virtual spaces (as history has shown). We really have to work for the benefit of the community and our peers, while communicating and sharing knowledge with others around the world as we are all interlinked. The technocratic overlords are grotesquely feeding from this massive migration of the arts into their platforms, and existing ones have been doing the least to remunerate people’s work before this even started, so I see either a global alliance of artists forming to fight for equity, reforms and to dismantle these structures of power or a bleak assimilation that will render us smaller and powerless as time goes on.
Traveling in this new age will come with harsher restrictions on top of the existing ones, so artists that already had less opportunities to perform/talk/show their work in other countries will have less chances to reach out to these crowds in that level, so I would like to see these artists being highlighted and invited to the virtual table until these bookings are able to materialize irl. To be specific, a lot of this artists are from the Global South and deserve a seat in the table as much as our Northern-European peers do, so I think we could benefit from re-shaping around that too.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
Pelada, Ambien Baby and Lechuga Zafiro
Introduce yourself and what you do.
I’m Haley, aka strawbb. I’ve been DJing for the last few years, but am coming to this world as a music lover and dancer first n foremost. Over the last few months I’ve begun selling custom cakes which has been quite a fun dream come true activity to come out of this time. I’m also planning to move to Los Angeles in the fall to attend grad school for urban planning/social work, but we’ll see how the details of all that work out.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
Like I’m sure a lot of people can relate to, my relationship to media has been fluctuating like crazy over the last few months. I’ve taken a few breaks from music for weeks on end, feeling too full in my head to listen to anything. When it feels right, I’ve been listening to a lot heart-healing podcasts like On Being (I recommend the recent interviews with Ocean Vuong and Ai-jen Poo), and every interview I can find with Bayo Akomolafe on any platform.
Music-wise, I’ve been super excited about the tracks my friends have working on for an upcoming CUMpilation of sorts. Other than that, it’s mostly been a nice cycle of Nadia Khan, Ulla Straus, and Asa Tone on repeat along with the recent addition of Yoshinori Sunahara’s Lovebeat album, thanks to Pascale’s hot Zoom track ID the other week.
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
It’s hard to answer this question without getting too dismal. The lack of support for the scene on both a collective and individual level is just so painstakingly obvious right now. There needs to be space for music sharing and production that enables artists to make a living without having to reach millions of fans. Same goes for small venues. Hearing Chip Wilson say that spaces like Index don’t matter because “there’s not enough interest in the product” makes me fume. We are in dire need of revisioning what we value as worthy of our protection and time, and numbers and profit cannot be our only form of measurement. Not only for the arts but for truly everything.
On a positive note, I had a blast working with Jamie and the New Forms team on this mix, working within the creative constraints imposed by this time. I definitely don’t think a 2 booth/sound card set-up is the new reality of b2bs, but it was a heckload of fun to play around with. I’ve also been enjoying some of the streams that have been happening, especially World Healing, Nowadays, and C-TV. While I don’t think online programming can/should/will replace real-life events, they have made the scene-at-large feel more collective in my opinion. Being in the chat and listening to music with DJs and music lovers around the world has been quite powerful and humanizing.
For Vancouver, I think that weeknight streaming events could be especially valuable long-term. There’s not much going on during the week anyways and people tend to stay at home during the rainy months. Digital events could offer a fun way for people to socialize and be excited about music without having to leave their basement suites.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
I was really looking forward to DJ Plead coming to Vancouver and am hoping that’ll get to happen again one day. Otherwise, I would so deeply love to see Octo Octo and Eris Drew play together along with Kiernan Laveaux, Beautiful Swimmers, Will DiMagio, Physical Therapy, Kia, DJ EZ, and the whole Imaginary Friend crew. Until then, I'll keep living in my sweet dancefloor memories... <3
Introduce yourself and what you do.
My name is Jamie Enns, I'm a producer and DJ here in Vancouver with a studio at Deep Blue, the best venue on planet earth.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
I really enjoyed tuning into "c minus tv" on twitch. Which was a series of 30 minute episodes made with few rules by some of the best in the world. Some of my favourite eps were Aeriform, The Hutchin Crew, and especially "Pontiac Streator & Ulla Straus: "I Want My Rewards" Tour Commentary" but honestly every episode was amazing and I'm looking forward to the next stream on 06/27.
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
This 'new reality' kinda has an accelerated time aspect that I hope everyone uses to learn new skills. I think quality and quantity will both go UP as we all learn how to catch up to all the technology thats already here.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
Every late night in Vancouver is so special. Looking forward to literally anything 'in real life'
Introduce yourself and what you do.
I am a carpenter by trade, but that just pays the bills. I think I have been spinning vinyl for about three years now and was first introduced to the rave scene the summer of 2018. Before that I played bass and for years was convinced that all DJs did was push buttons on a laptop and needed no skill to perform. Oh irony, you fickle queen.
In the last two months, have you discovered any new music or media you'd like to share?
It's commonly said that we've entered a "new reality". Can you speculate on how the arts might shape, or be shaped by, this new paradigm?
In this new era, especially concerning DJing, I think your social media presence will play an even larger factor in your relevance than ever before. Without the ability to physically see artists, the benchmarks that we use to judge success will change. I think it will shift from "Wow, [Local Artist] was just booked to play Berghain" to instead how many stream views and/or followers they have to how appealing their posts are. The broad scope of the internet opens up the opportunity to reach a wider audience and just as easily be swallowed up by its vastness.
What's a live performance you look forwards to seeing if and when events are able to happen again?
A huge bucket list DJ of mine to see would be Sunil Sharpe. His fast, urgent style of mixing has definitely had a huge influence on my performances. To see him live would be a dream for me. Oh, also Surgeon. I think I have almost all of his records now, I'm a huge fan!
