Work Experience: A chance for artists to reveal who their dream co-labs would be….
Today we’re asking Swiss sonic scientists Task Horizon. As a duo they know plenty about collaborating. In fact they love it.
“We are two different types of musicians,” explains Tim Kleinert, one half of the duo. “I’m old school, I practice a few hours every day. Aaron is more of a modern producer. We come from very different worlds and meet in the middle. Aaron will comment on my contribution and add to it and I hope I do the same with him. We learn something new off each other every day. We’re also very self-critical so it helps to have these two separate heads and separate sets of opinions. We put a lot of work into our tunes. Even the intros and outros which you don’t often hear on the dancefloor. In fact we worked on Perfection off and on for three years until we got it down the right way.”
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxat6GCAuc8
Three years hard work has clearly paid off. Out this week, Perfection is joined by iDrive. Fittingly both are fully charged with undiluted creative collabo juice. And there’s more to come… iDrive features the distinctive tones of Spyda and acts as a handy introduction to a massive four track EP they have coming out with him in the near future.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVci5J1dFws
“It’s called Arachnophilia,” says Aaron. “MC Spyda is on all four tracks and there are some very interesting techniques. All sorts of sounds and new things. We’re very very happy about it.”
“He was off the hook,” agrees Tim. “He was improvising and we got so many different things down. He’s got such a distinctive style, that amazing raggamuffin flow. We worked around him and came up with some interesting rhythmic ideas and different processing techniques. We even made bass sounds out of his voice! We think it’s our best work to date. Four tracks and they each sound very very different.”
Making bass sounds of Spyda’s voice? If anything summarises the creative potential of collaborations, it’s that. Interestingly, Tim and Aaron believe NO OTHER label would touch such a mad project. A whole new chapter for the duo with their new label Evolution Chamber, Aracnophelia will showcase Task Horizon’s skills as both producers and as label bosses.
“No label would touch it with a huge pole, it’s so off!” laughs Tim. “We love polarity on releases. Just like iDrive and Perfection. A lot of labels have a certain sound so they wouldn’t be able to release such broad selections. We just want to be known for good music and that’s that. Not just neuro or liquid or drumstep or whatever – just good, exciting, creative music! Music is like food. I don’t want to eat the same dish every day. No matter how much I like it. With this forthcoming EP – some of the tracks are wild, some are spacey – but we’re just interested in quality. Quality is more important than style.”
Perfection / iDrive is out now. Listen and download.
Task Horizon Work Experience:
Dream Collaborations
Bjork / Chris Cunningham
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjI2J2SQ528
Aaron: “This is two of our wish co-labs in one, we love them both.”
Tim: “It’s not just music but the whole experience and Chris Cunningham would be amazing to work with. He’s one of the best video artists ever. Bjork is such a stunning vocalist too. At points she’s so emotional and fragile and close and soft. The next she’s bold and so loud and dynamic. I think that works so well within the electronic sphere.”
Vangelis
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zI_gM-zrkc
Tim: “We watched this again after a studio session and it still stands up perfectly. It hasn’t lost any of its impact. Vangelis is just a king. I gravitate towards music that has a human touch. I don’t think technology and emotions exclude each other and Vangelis is one of the first people in the early stages of electronic music to prove that. He plays everything live, he doesn’t do any overdubs. To me that’s what I aspire to; the combination of man and his technology where nothing is left out and the end product is humane, musical but very futuristic. Ahead of its time. Even now, 30 years later, it still sounds amazing.”
Amon Tobin
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdcZyOY4Z1E
Aaron: “I would love to spend a day with him, walking around, recording sounds and watch what happens in the studio afterwards. I’m so interested in seeing how he processes those sounds and make sense of them. He’s a very daring producer. You can’t pigeonhole him; he has his own world that’s set by his own rules, concepts and ideas. In the past there have been too many categories and boxes that things are expected to fit, but he has always ignored all of that and does what he wants to do. Everything he does is different from the last. It’s incredible. We’d love to do more work in this way; people are a lot more open minded and there are less expectations to stay within a rigid form. It’s great to know we have the freedom to do what we want so expect plenty more surprises like that from us in the future. We always try and push things forward and I don’t think producers like us could do that without the foundations set by people like Amon.”