Dutch master Fre4knc has stepped forward with the eyeball-squeezingly good Tellurian ep: another addition to Samurai’s startlingly fresh crew and as syntactically confounding and unique as his artist name.
But first of all: that stunning artwork for the release…
Hi. What brief was given to the designer considering this release is so unique?
Instead of giving designers a direction how it should look like, well I never do that. As I heard the tunes for hours and hours, you can have a different feel than a designer who hears them for the first time. Designers are creative, so most of them can handle that. It’s even more interesting to see what they come up with, without giving them directions. So, Samurai sent me a first WIP from Ryan / RQ and I loved it.
The music is big in vibe, cinematic, best summed up by the killer title track, when did this tune arise? Where did the title come from?
I’d finished ‘Tellurian’ in November 2013. When I listen to it, there is this atmos going on before the drop which reminded me of a sunrise. At the drop I visualized a tellurion (a mechanism that depicts how day, night and the seasons are caused) going mad, so there was the track-title.
So you’d already been hard at work since the last Samurai 12 of yours leading to Tellurian?
The response I had after the Tubular 12″ (NZ022) was really motivating to work even harder. I’ve written many many tunes after that and I’m really happy Samurai picked these for the EP. All of them are quite special to me!
What would you say are some influences?
When I watch a movie or play a game I’m always interested in its sound design. I love the sound design in Gravity, Prometheus and Limbo for example. Sometimes it’s quite annoying as I’m listening more to the sound design than paying attention to the movie itself. Just like when you are a DJ and you listen how a DJ is mixing instead of partying yourself.
Further I’m always intrigued by some weird sounds on the street or in factories. Sometimes I take a zoom-mic and record a part of a machine. There are quite some own recorded sound-fx in tunes from myself.
In your studio I have this image of you almost like a drummer, with all your gear surrounding you. That’s how it comes across, like you’re in the middle of this big array of sound sources. On ‘Flink’ it comes across like that, is that the case?
Ha ha, well that’s good! But I don’t have a drum kit here! I’ve always been interested in drums. When I was a young Fre4knc, I wanted to be a drummer. At concerts I thought drum solos were the best part of the show. I just love them.
During the years I sampled many drums, collected many drum samples, and I received solo drum recordings from a friend. That’s why, I think.
Shocked at how gully this is, it’s mental in parts! Particularly beats on ‘The Source’.
I received a beatpack from Fanu in 2013 with some really nice stuff in there. After weeks of cutting beats and puzzling around how to make smooth switches from D&B bpm to hip-hop bpm, adding Reeces, weird fx and a moody sub, it was done. I had these switches in my mind for many years and I was really happy I’ve finally done it. The first time I tested it on a dancefloor, I was very curious how the crowd would respond. It was surprisingly good, so I sent it to Samurai.
I know you’ve worked with Mindmapper and MTWN, who are your main musical friends and close mental allies in the music?
I’ve made about 25 tracks with Mindmapper during the years. Always fun, and most of them are released. Mtwn are really talented guys from Belgium who I signed on my label Break-Fast Audio. We made two collabs now. Further I’ve done a collab with Amoss and we’re busy with collab #2 at the moment. Silvahfonk, who’s my D&B buddy since the start. Non-collabwise I owe Presha and Noisia a lot. Since they are helping me, everything changed music-wise in a good way.
I can’t help myself as you mentioned films before: what’s three more you like?
That’s really a tough one, but these came up in my mind first:
Into The Wild
Happiness
Let The Right One In
Your music is idiosyncratic: what idiosyncracies exist about you?
I’m 1.97m, I don’t like cold cheese as a Dutchman, I’m teaching math for fun and I think Lauren Cohan – Maggie in The Walking Dead – is really hot.
