Emerging Fervour

I guess Ben Eshmade and his Arctic Circle gave me some of the best musical experiences in my life. Whether the Daylight concerts at the Union Chapel in Islington, the Bubbly Blue and Green Festival at Kings Place or the Explorer’s Club compilation, it has always been and will always be something unique and absolutely brilliant. So when I had the chance to join one of his weekly radio shows at Resonance FM in London with Arch Garrison as a show guest, not even the TFL could have held me off getting there.

Not a promoter, not a record label, not a radio station…what exactly is the Arctic Circle and who is/are the face(s) behind?

Arctic Circle seems to be an ever-evolving entity that has taken the best parts of being a promoter, label and radio station. It’s a community of like-minded musicians and music lovers who I try and bring together to create new and wonderful projects. I suppose it is easiest to think of me (as in a play) as the director of Arctic Circle with an alternating cast of supporting musicians and friends.

What would you say is THE one exceptional thing about Arctic Circle?

I would say our penguin identity. Being a fan of animation and in particular Studio Ghibli films such as Spirited Away to have something that so identifiable as the Arctic Circle penguin is really important. This was designed originally by Miho Ashima of Pika Pika. It is also great to see how this has developed over time. Damian O’Harais taking the artwork to a whole new ‘3D’ level this year. He’s even building Tate Britain out of paper at the moment.

Tell us a bit about the beginnings of Arctic Circle. Was there something like an initial spark? Where did the idea come from?

Well that’s a long story. The idea evolved out of my experiences of producing a radio show called the Chiller Cabinet on Classic FM and from having a strong desire to see the artists I was playing perform live. I also suppose I was trying at this stage in my life to find a niche, something I could pour my heart and soul into.

Arctic Circle recently celebrated its fourth birthday. It all started in 2006 with a debut event at the Hayward Gallery. I reckon a lot of things have changed since then. So where did you start and where are you now?

Alongside the initial Hayward Gallery show, we were running monthly nights at the Notting Hill Arts Club even at this stage. The NHAC is where we learnt all the hard lessons on how to attract an audience, how much we could pay an artist (without going bankrupt) and how sweets can make people happy!

What is Arctic Circle’s musical vision?

To put together once in a lifetime concerts and promote music which helps to inspire and to make people dream of wonderful things.

Would you say there is something that unifies all of your artists in a musical sense?

A sense of fun or a huge amount of musical talent.

In December 2007 the first compilation named “That Fuzzy Feeling” in collaboration with Loaf Recordings was released. Would you say this was bound to happen?

I suppose most people have the secret desire to release a record and I am not any different. It meant that the Arctic Circle could say  – we are very serious about what we’re doing. And it also meant that we could shout ‘THIS IS AMAZING MUSIC’ and you should listen to it.

Your latest coup is the “Explorer’s Club”, also a collaboration with Loaf Recordings. With a subscription you get the Explorer’s Club Survival Bag with a cotton tote bag, calendar, poster and some other bits and bobs plus a monthly e-mail with songs and a digital booklet. I think it’s a brilliant and forward-looking idea.

Do you think it’s necessary to think of alternative ways and special offers to make people spending money on music?

The Explorer’s Club is a project that I’ve been working on with Loaf records for a few years. We both liked the idea of doing something that was a bit different to the usual way records are released. It is our spin on an idea that has been done before with 7inch records. It’s a great way of bringing some of the great artists we have worked with from around the world. Above all it’s about the music, we just try and make the delivery as fun and exciting as possible.

And the Arctic Circle Radio. Tell us a bit about it!

What do you think of when I say Iceland? Probably an ash cloud. But this should change soon and you will think of music. Especially the music of Olafur Arnalds. The Icelandic musician is a busy guy. He has just finished his first tour in China, will be touring Europe in may and releases his new album …and they have escaped the weight of darkness on the 17th of may. Apart from that he is one half of the Techno project Kiasmos and composes music for other artists like the German heavy metal band Heaven Shall Burn. Lucky me, he was in London and willing to spend a few minutes with to talk.

The range of your musical activities is quite diverse. You’re releasing your new album in may, are part of the techno project Kiasmos, you’re composing music for other bands as well and you also did the music for the Wayne McGregor ballet Dyad 1909. On a musical map, do you have something like a hometown?

No, I wouldn’t say that, not at all. I just want to be good at myself and I like different things. It’s really that simple. I’d like to try everything, music is just music. So, I don’t look at music in genres, for me it’s all in the same pool. I want to study some some really far away music, I did some stuff with a Klezmer band some time ago. Doing more like this and trying to incorporate it with Western music, these are things I’m always working on.

I find it really hard to describe your music. It’s not only contemporary classic, it’s not pop, it’s not chamber pop. But, what is it? How would you describe your own sound?

Well, I say it doesn’t really matter. For me these things are actually so stupid. It doesn’t matter to anyone whether I’m turning pop into classical music or classical music into pop. I’m somewhere in between and I don’t care how people want to phrase it. I they call it neo-classical, or post-classical or modern-classical, in the end it’s all the same thing: it’s just music.

I am back in London for the next three weeks, don’t worry I didn’t expect you to realise I was gone. In these modern times where everything is digital, were we’re living in an augmented reality and become friends via facebook on our iPhone, it’s all the more important to seize this short time and do something extraordinary and exciting (I’m not really sure, if these two words mean the same, but who cares, it’s all about rock and roll, hell ya!).

And I hope that you lovely people would like to join here and there. There are infinite opportunities, so here we go:

On wednesday the 7th you should take a look at the Dingwalls in Camden. For only 15£ you will live to see Gabby Young (usually with The Other Animals, but I think she’s playing a solo set) a singer with a voice as remarkable as her style. To describe her music I will just quote a quotation from her myspace site: “if Ani DiFranco had sex with Jeff Buckley in 1920 while on acid listening to Ella Fitzgerald…that would be the wonderful music of Gabby Young…” I agree.

And then there is Vieux Farke Touré a singer and guitar player from Mali, South Africa. He’s the son of Ali Farke Touré, also a guitar player and singer, highly respected in his home country and worldwide. He was often called the African John Lee Hooker, because he merged traditional African styles and the African language with American Blues elements. But for all that, he didn’t want his son to be a musician as well. Because he had suffered so much within the music industry he decided his son should become a soldier instead. Vieux Farke Touré defied his father’s wishes, studied guitar and released his debut album Fondo in 2007 (a year after his father died). And like his father he embraces all cultural influences from rock to blues to reggae always combined with his African roots. Pretty interesting.

From a marketing point of view I would say that this is one of the worst slogans a record label could have. But I guess, it’s a question of interpretation.

The London based independent label Erased Tapes was founded in 2007, focusing on cinematic music. The artists on Erased Tapes cover diverse genres and styles, but they’re all united by one thing: sincere emotions.

Listening to the Erased Tapes compilations is like watching a plant grow. It seems random in the first place, but when the flower buds start to open, you can see that it’s all part of a master plan, that leads to perfection. And with selected seeds like Olafur Arnalds, Nils Frahm or Peter Broderick, the label proves its green thumb.

Nils Frahm is a Berlin based composer and producer. He recently released Wintermusik, and in just three absolutely overwhelming piano songs, he lets Yann Tiersen sound like a mediocre hobby musician. After his album Bells, which was recorded in a church in Berlin, Wintermusik is another stroke of genius. The more often you listen to his music, it becomes obvious that Nils Frahm creates something really rare: grace.