One of the most captivating new voices in Berlin’s electronic music scene is Consumer Refund. A multi-talented artistic channel of various and diverse arts, her music – dark, ambient and shimmering – is as difficult to categorise as her artistic practice. Here, she meditates upon some questions we posed to her following the completion of her latest mix, Patterns of Perception 20. Consumer Refund is more than a music project. What’s behind it, conceptually? Consumer Refund is like looking into a pool of water. There is simultaneously: your own reflection, and depth into something unseen, something that is collectively shared. It is a research and art project collecting information on the flow of intuition or creative energy, from social perspectives, physical perspectives, from a mystical perspective, from a spiritual perspective. It is an ‘absurd’ channel to facilitate collective creative energy, addressing points of pointlessness and purpose in mass production, in art, in the way we think, and it uses the internet to do so, interacting with its participants. C-R plays games… dedicated to the ‘nonsense of art’: I think it’s an interesting question, whether C-R is a commodity in itself. I am considering the borders of self-expression as a form of the ego inherently acting in a capitalistic manner (ie: self expression, self promotion), as opposed to an artist acting as a potential channel of the common or collective unconscious. I do a lot of research with this project, into the psyche and into intuition, sometimes holding collaborative painting sessions and dreamwork sessions. It’s a project about playing with concepts of industry crossed with mythological self-help. For most of it over the last three years, the artist (me) has remained invisible, purely pulling strings around people to help them come into contact with creative energy… until now… 🙂 Although you’ve come relatively recently to music, you’ve been creating art in many different forms for a long time. Tell us about your history and practice as an artist. Yes! I’m pretty new to producing electronic music. Everything takes me a very long time because I am also meticulous to the point of driving myself almost crazy. Consumer Refund comes to music from something like a mix of natural progression and an interest/study of Core Shamanism. A particular drum pattern is used to journey, via a technique similar to practising active imagination. The journey is a tool for divination, a meditation and visualisations can be read, or asked of its ‘intention’. I’ve been a friend of music, and dance, since I was very small. Picking up my old flute and touching the keys of the piano again, after over 10 years, was like rediscovering an old part of myself that I knew very well, but had forgotten. What actually bought me back to music was a few unavoidable big dreams.. I couldn’t deny the meanings. My practise as an artist, that’s a big question. I have been through many different stages of making art and went through some years as a fashion designer, and graphic designer. Previously I’ve exhibited performance, happenings, video, costume, fashion, sound, object, have been in various art collectives, and ran an artist space for a short time. Nowadays, I am painting, drawing, musicing. I research a lot into myths and archetypes, and am also fond of curation/facilitation of art and collaboration. I have always been in search of the edges of creativity, asking “where does it come from?” and “how does it come?”, finding more purpose to the process than the product. I am most at home within multi disciplinary art projects, where I can output several different media, at once, all relating to the same concept. Some big art influences are Paul McCarthy (the performance artist), Marina Abramović (her early work), and a lot of 70’s performance art, artists like Lygia Clark, who didn’t make work that was easily exhibited and commodified. Your website features a “dream archive”. What’s that about? Good question! Find out. Follow the instructions on the website. Consumer Refund likes games. What does creating art, and specifically music, mean to you? Creating art is communication, is exchange, between interior and exterior worlds. Art (and music) is very special, it holds some kind of transcendent matter that can communicate in ways that language fails to. Holding charged symbolic matter, it touches each individual on a personal level and also on a collective level. Music, vibrations, they become the body. Feeling bass pulsing through the matter around you, it is a physical reminder that we are connected to each other, and the entire cosmos. I understand it that people who make art or music are picking up on not only their own subconscious matter, but also are picking up on the collective subconscious matter. It resonates. Artists are channels to help an audience feel and process current emotions that need to move through a society. Lately with sound for Consumer Refund, I have recorded from live instruments: drums, flutes, rattles, and am very grateful to a fellow healer-friend who I recorded playing her gong. All of the instruments used are also instruments of healing practises. This is important. You walk into an art experience, whether it be a museum, a gallery, a club, a film, a performance: you feel charged, reminded of particular things. Symbols and myths are allowed to be lived out within yourself. Art for me therefore is also: stories, emotion, reality, fantasy, life, health… Your music is refreshingly difficult to categorise. What are your musical influences? Yes, it’s weird for me too – to fit into classification systems without being reductive. Un-classification is an interesting process though because it allows scope to change. A big influence for a long time has been Healing Force Project. I once read an interview from Antonio Marini and he said something like: “I don’t play a particular genre, I play just good music.” Simple. The personality in his sense of rhythm, texture and the colour of his music… it’s a multi genre explosion to the mind and soul. I love HFP. There’s some obvious influences in this mix, not definitive and to me, not ‘so’ experimental. I included artists’ projects for what they stand for. For example Positive Centre: between shadow, spirituality and music. I didn’t pay much attention in this mix to catching up with latest releases although I had heaps of cool stuff which didn’t make it in. I chose tracks based on conceptual feelings of where myself and the dream archive are at. Woob, Paul Frankland, is a favourite… He used to work in advertising before he made music in the 90’s… An interesting connection? I’m listening at the moment to a bunch of old ambient, jungle, breaks, and abstract/leftfield techno and drum and bass… IDM, downtempo, dub… I appreciate ambient drum and bass with a peppering of mysticism. Also, some heavier stuff, noise and acid. But, just good music. I haven’t even really started digging to the extent of what I want, or where I want, yet… It’s an iceberg. I have big respect for long-time diggers. You grew up in Melbourne, Australia, but have lived in Berlin for a number of years, now. Why did you move, and what keeps you here? The concept of staying in one place my whole life was not for me. I moved to break out of my own constructed persona, all of those expectations you grow up enforcing on yourself in whichever city is called home city… sometimes that’s needed to be able to evolve as a human. So you could say: I moved to gain knowledge about humans, the world, and myself. A creative city such as Berlin allows space for introversion and autonomy. The rhythm of the seasons, the scope of the art and music scenes, the aliveness of the night. There is liberal freedom and spontaneity here without judgement. The ability for an artist to live a somewhat open life without too many boundaries is important … it helps to access the true stuff. I think that cities which have had a lot of destruction, change and creative migration in the past, hold a lot of residual emotion that can and needs to be worked with… in a way sensitive people flock to it to be ‘healed’ as the city ‘heals’. Spaces like this need to be cherished and protected. Is gender relevant to you as a producer? What are your thoughts on gender in the electronic music scene, in Berlin and abroad? Firstly, Gender is not a binary notion to me. There are both male and female energies within C-R, and within me, within everything. Both are needed. Balance and equality is a constant process. Yin Yang or the oúroboros, they are not static, they are in constant motion and conversation between light and dark, product and process, thought and intuition. The only constant is the flow of energy between the two. The unfortunate thing is, it is clear that so much is out of balance in our societies – in politics, economics, in some of the basic human understandings of ourselves and of each other… The topic of gender in every single industry cannot be pushed aside in the present day. It is extremely relevant, not only in electronic music: in every aspect of life. I think for starters, basic empathy is needed to see how far inequality in general affects individuals, every single day of their lives, and society on the whole; how deeply it is implanted into the fibres of the glasses we then look through (our perception), and how this can affect people. Inequality starts impacting on someone’s life when that individual is born, of course, one tiny insidious fleck of an experience of sexism, racism, homophobia, can manifest to become core beliefs that continue to hold them back their whole lives. It can easily stop them from believing they have the right to their own voice. It is not only by the time they decide to make music, and want to be booked, that minority artists begin to battle with inequality. In the industry, it is not just the bookers that need to be solely responsible. They are seemingly the ones who choose, but they are not alone, really, there’s also: press, the audience, the social media fan base (which does a lot of ‘indirect choosing’, if people book respective to the amount of followers an artist has), the labels, the clubs…  if each of those sections are all a bit biased, down the line, it adds up. I wonder whether female/LGBTQ identifing people feel as comfortable, in general, to self-promote, as their male counterparts. I don’t think there’s any point in blaming or pointing fingers, we could go eternally in circles, (and it’s boring). But the facts, they are pretty important to know, for me. I’m lucky to be a member of female:pressure… and able there to channel some past experiences into positive work… I’m building up a kind of creative studio, co/re, which will focus more on ethics: working with artists/graphics/promotion for creative fair projects. I’m happy to be making some co/re graphic work for female:pressure, on a particular project organised by an extremely hardworking and strong group of female individuals. I’m thankful for groups like sister, meet:up Berlin, happy to see parties like Lecken, communities like Room4Resistance, collectives like Mint, and now NoShade pops up! All focusing on female and queer spaces and run by cool, smart and thoughtful people. I’m glad to see a group of funding bodies in Berlin focusing on supporting young female producers with open call’s that have put preference on offering places to ‘female identifying’ acts. This Consumer Refund mix features male producers. I do exist in many male dominated scenes, I listen to many male producers. I’m still in the middle of pondering what that means: I have produced a mix for Patterns of Perception that is pretty masculine…. How easy it is to propagate the inequality, without realising or intending to. In the end, as Sarah, I’m absolutely a feminist. Yet Consumer Refund is genderless. It doesn’t matter which gender anyone is, or chooses to be, or if they even have a gender at all… at any given moment CR would rather be ‘everything, everyone, and nothing’: to be accepted as such, without so much as a batted eyelid… But: isn’t that very simply what we all want? To be truly accepted, as equals, ie: exactly the way we are… What do you see as the future for Consumer Refund, the music project? I’m at the tail end of refining a chunk of tracks at the moment. As to releases, I’ve had a few conversations here and there but haven’t set anything in stone yet, and the work is still in process. It takes time. I am keeping the process moving and creating more new work: if I focus too much on over-refining, I lose connection to the source. There’s a radio show coming out soon in collaboration with Berlin-based producer Akkamiau, which I am very happy to be a part of. It features readings from Sylvia Plath’s diaries, focusing on female energies – the first episode will be coming out soon. I’m acquiring more magical instruments and integrating that into live performance. The future is largely unknown, which is good.. I hope it will include me finding more opportunities to take your mind/body/souls to interesting places. I think it might.

One of the most captivating new voices in Berlin’s electronic music scene is consumer-refund. A multi-talented channel of diverse arts and performance, her music – dark, ambient and shimmering – is as difficult to categorise as her artistic practice. Sarah is actively involved in international networks of female and non-binary artists in the fields of electronic music and digital arts. Her mix for Patterns of Perception features a myriad of her own productions, embedded within a selection from some of her musical influences that she felt resonated with the Patterns of Perception driving force. Consumer Refund's Links: SoundCloud MixCloud http://www.consumer-refund.com/ Tracklist consumer-refund – Nephthys Healing Force Project (user-587012667) – Strange Apparitions in my Recording Room Consumer Refund – Anonymous demdikestare – Procrastination Consumer Refund – Moon positivecentre – Disappearing Trick gesloten-cirkel / Ratsnake – Hole Consumer Refund – Run pessimist – Orphic Consumer Refund – Broke Woob – Strange Air Woob – Wuub Hybrid mash-up/Live set with respect and gratitude. Gongs played by Roberta Perzolla. “Broke’ samples in collaboration with Akkamiau. “there is a place, a shared space: there, you’ve always been everything there we have all been, always : nothing Y O U A R E M E / I A M Y O U R E F U N D Y O U R S E L F C . R E F U N D .”

Svreca needs little introduction. The Semantica label head has carved out a reputation in his hometown, Madrid, and internationally as a master of deep, hypnotic, forward-thinking techno. For our One Year celebration at ://aboutblank in Berlin in May 2017, he held us spellbound under the glow of the late-spring sun with this luminescent mix of colours, textures, and sounds. We are very excited to present the live recording of this set as the latest installation in our mix series. Svreca's Links: Facebook Resident Advisor Semantica - Facebook Semantica - SoundCloud https://semanticarecords.bandcamp.com/

Ten tracks that represent our current sounds and inspiration. Compiled by A. Brehme and Hysteria. Selected by A. Brehme From Dyson Sector-NGC-224. Hypnus, 2014. For being the soundtrack of an intense psychedelic experience. - From Sister Feelings Call. Virgin, 1981. Because there’s no reason for not having it on constant rotation. - From Vocalcity. Force Tracks, 2000. For being one of the sexiest records I own. - From Evoked Potentials Part Two. Semantica, 2010. For serving as the soundtrack of an emotionally tough period. - From the 80s Compilation EP. EE Tapes, 2012. For being a token for the many discoveries working in a record shop has to offer. - From Entain. Mille Plateaux, 2000. For bringing me inner peace when demanded. Selected by Hysteria From Eyes in the Center. Ostgut Ton, 2017. Dark, trippy and cosmic. I feel like I’m flying through an intergalactic space chase. - From Timid Ocean Drawings. Deep Sound Channel, 2014. Strikes a perfect balance between hypnotic intensity and lucid dreaming. - From Kinship. Delsin, 2017. My favourite track from their debut LP. Pulsating acid trip. - From Bakom Planteringen. Posh Isolation, 2016. Rhythmic and melodic electronica, perfect for a drive home. Full playlist:

16.06.2017 @ OHM Berlin From the magazine We had a chat with Amandra to discover his backstory into techno, co-founding his label and what the scene is like in Poland. Read the interview We sat down with A.Brehme to discuss why techno first caught his attention, the current state of the scene in his hometown of Brussels. Read the interview Selected listenings Amandra A.Brehme Facebook / Resident Advisor

On June 16, Patterns of Perception hosts the German debut of revered producer Amandra. One half of Ahrpe Records, he co-founded the label with good friend Ovend, giving each the freedom to produce and release music without conforming to expectations. His music is rhythmic, tribal and often tinged with acid, offering a brand of techno that’s bright and uplifting, never dark. We caught up with Amandra ahead of his live set at OHM Berlin this coming Friday. First up, tell us your backstory: how did you get into techno, and why did it stick? I started to listen to electronic music with my friend Ovend 10 years ago. Then techno music turned to be quite trendy so that’s how I got into this movement probably. At home everyone in my family is a musician with different tastes and styles. I have a classical background in music with playing the guitar, singing etc, so I guess it’s logical that the whole fun here to me is about producing this loopy atmospheric music more than DJing. I love to look for new rhythms. You’ve released on labels including Tikita and Silent Season (as the project Odes Of the Kabatians with PVNV), as well as the label you co-founded with Ovend, Ahrpe Records. How would you describe your sound and vision as a producer? Well my sound and vision are constantly changing. I like simple things so that’s why in my studio you’ll find only very limited instruments (synthesizers etc). As for describing my style as a producer, I want to find a cool balance between atmospheric stuff (but not boring, at least I try), tribal percussive sounds and not-that-obvious acid. I give it a retro side; I love music from the 80s, that’s mostly what I listen to. I’m also quite a “bright” guy – I don’t like metal music for instance – so even if the whole thing may look dark from the outside, I try to give it a bright and soulful feeling (see for example Ahrpe’s visuals). Soft stuff you can mainly listen at home. Resident Advisor compared your productions to “the likes of Abdulla Rashim or the Hypnus crew, but … illuminated with a unique sense of vibrance and color”. Would you agree with this comparison? Yes, when I started producing, I was listening a lot to Plastikman, Ko-Ta from Stratosphere Records, Iesope Drift, Abdulla Rashim’s early brilliant loops from what he self-released mostly, and all these quite comparable classy atmospheric sounds coming from the ‘90s-2000s. So of course this has influenced my music. I’m not a revolutionary brain, I’m simply producing what I like to listen because I feel there’s a need, otherwise it would be pointless to produce it! What is the concept behind Ahrpe Records? What inspired you to start the label? How do you choose what music to release? The concept is simple: we were tired to hear critics from outside of our music. You know, people feeling above you without doing it any better. We understood that the demo process is lame and that a lot of guys are producing electronic music, so the only way to be “free” and release our stuff without caring much about people’s opinions was to build something from scratch: Ahrpe! Ovend is a graphic designer so he took care of all the visual side with building of course ideas with me. Another friend, miss Anthea Lubat, is a pro artist doing very interesting visual work so it sounded obvious that she would participate in the project as well with her paintings. And myself being a master engineer in mechanical structures, I take care of the whole project and organization aspects behind the label (and there’s a lot to do). We thought we had the skills to build something very personal without spending too much money and that’s what we did. Music comes either from Ovend and I, or very close friends like Flogo for instance. We choose music to release simply by sending each other’s tracks along with a project idea, that’s it. You originally hail from France but are now based in Warsaw, Poland. What was behind your decision to move there? Love my friend, love! What is the techno scene like in Poland at the moment? Is the style of deep techno that you produce well appreciated there? To me Poland has a huge potential, it’s like Berlin but without this saturation in artists. So it’s nice! There are some crews doing a great job like Behind The Stage which I’m part of, throwing some personal events around. It’s cool and small, you should come over Berliners! Also the Technosoul peeps are doing awesome events, I’m jamming from time to time with one of them, Michal Wolski, an impressive musician and moreover very close friend. I’m a big fan of Brutaz as well, a Polish name to check if you guys don’t know. Well, anyway, it’s nice in Poland. Patterns of Perception will host your German debut on June 16, which we’re very excited about! What can we expect from your live set? I’m also super excited, thanks again for the invitation, looking forward to it! I don’t plan too much my live sets, I like to improvise a lot on my machines so each live I do is unique. Expect the place to be tribalized. Lastly, which artists do you have your eye on at the moment? Tikita and Semantica, labels to keep both eyes on.

Recently dubbed the king of warm up techno by a fellow Belgian DJ, A. Brehme is making waves in the country’s growing deep techno scene. We sat down with him to discuss why techno first caught his attention, the current state of the scene in his hometown of Brussels, and what to expect from his set at Patterns of Perception on June 16. Tell us how you got to where you are. How did you get your start in techno? Around the age of seven I was already attracted by the early Belgian New Beat and EBM vinyls and CDs of my parents which hit Belgium between the mid-eighties and the mid-nineties. Tracks such as Neon’s Voices, In-D’s Virgin In-D Sky, Euroshima by Snowy Red, and The Neon Judgement’s TV Treated belong to my first musical memories. I had my first clubbing experience around the age of fifteen, at a former venue called Structure Béton. It was a dark and infamous underground drum and bass venue, in an empty parking lot on the industrial outskirts of Brussels. I attended raves over there multiple times a month for about two years until its doors closed, and during this period I got hooked on DJing. Since it took me significantly longer than my close friends to learn how to beatmatch, I decided to create my own music in Fruity Loops and sync it through Ableton. This lead me to a kind of primitive live set which I performed for an audience for the first time when I was seventeen years old, consisting a ravey sound that was quite popular at that time and which often surpassed a tempo of 160 beats per minute. After a while I didn’t experience any gratification with this anymore and started digging for techno and going out to Fuse in Brussels. What initially attracted you to techno as a genre? I quickly got hooked on the slower tempos and more challenging textures techno has to offer. From this point I started studying techno, defining my musical identity and carefully began recording sounds from machines through Logic and got booked more often to play in clubs and parties around the country. It’s only recently that I started being productive in the studio, after facing a lack of self-confidence in my output throughout the years, which held me back from producing music on a regular basis. Thanks to some significant changes in my life and stimulating sources of inspiration I found the determination to sculpt and wrap up tracks that define my personality. Your bio says your approach to DJing and producing envelops “the last twenty years of musical history”. How so? I like to combine older records alongside more contemporary sounds. One of the two resident DJs of Fuse since more than two decades, Deg, often played and still plays a lot of older techno records that instantly intrigued me — by artists such as Random XS, Basic Channel, Lory D, G-Man, DJ Slip and others – and that I like to include in my sets on a regular basis as well. Unfortunately, there’s a dead gap which started in the early 2000s until approximately 2006 where techno tends to be too loopy in a harsh way for me. But I regularly find a lot of interesting minimal, electro and ambient sounds originating from that period which I like to use as a second or third layer in my sets as well. The impressive home set-up that A. Brehme shares with his housemate, DJ Walrus As a Brussels born and based DJ, how have you seen the city’s techno scene develop in recent years? What place does the deep, hypnotic techno you like to play have in the clubs of your hometown? Unfortunately, Brussels has few clubs to offer, which leads promoters to occasionally use temporary or one-time locations throughout the city. Sadly enough many purist initiatives get repressed by the authorities. I prefer not to be too rancorous about this and try to focus on the future and the past initiatives instead that have worked out, such as last year’s rave in an abandoned multi-level fashion house in the heart of the city, which offered a place for more than 500 people to party around the clock without being noticed by the police. I had the chance to play nine hours and still often daydream about what happened during that particular night. I feel that Brussels is emerging from a quiet period when it comes to deep techno. Artists such as Lunar Convoy, Ground Tactics, Thomas Hayes, Kafim and Siwei have released or are preparing more than interesting and refreshing releases. As a buyer of the techno selection at Crevette Records, a new record store in Brussels, I’m partially involved in the settlement of our own record distribution and I can already see that this is facilitating and accelerating releases for artists that are sitting on a huge pile of interesting unreleased tracks. On a personal level, I promote a club night called Sonata Forma at Fuse a handful of times a year, where I welcomed artists such as Marco Shuttle, Luigi Tozzi, Deepbass and Evigt Mörker. The next ones are scheduled for September and November. Along with Peter Van Hoesen, you’re a resident at Technoon, the Sunday day party in Brussels. It seems like a great concept, with similar bookings to Patterns of Perception – what’s it like to play there? The people behind Technoon have become like family. There’s a unique spirit of mutual trust and confidence which makes the experience ironically unique every single time. I feel that this is the case for the invited guest DJs as well. It’s dark. It’s loud. People dance from the first until the last row. Since the very beginning I’m taking care of the three-hour warm-up slots most of the time, and it’s been a great apprenticeship for that concern. I’ve seen a tendency of people anticipating every new Technoon party without being focussed on the booked guest DJ, being daunted by weather conditions or having to go to work on Monday morning. And that’s unique in Belgium. I feel blessed to be a part of it alongside a warm group of likeminded and committed people. Fellow Belgian DJ Pilose called you “the king of melancholic warming up in techno land” in a recent interview. How do you feel about that label? I generally don’t support labels, but I take his finding as a compliment. I enjoy playing warm-up sets because it offers the opportunity to play out weirder, slower and more experimental tracks than during peak time slots. In contrast to other time slots, the vibe of the whole set can collapse by just one slightly inappropriate track during a warm-up, which makes it absolutely delicate but interesting and it forces me to be focussed on every single track, as a small independent piece of a wider puzzle. I often like to start out at a tempo around 80 BPM and go up until I reach a tempo which is suitable for the next DJ to take over with a dancing audience. However, I prefer not to pin myself down to a certain time slot. Every occasion demands a specific approach depending on time and space which keeps it challenging for me, whether it’s a full house during peak time or whether it’s in front of a handful of people during an after hour. You’re playing alongside Amandra for the next Patterns of Perception party on June 16. What can we expect from your set? A melancholic trip in techno land enveloping the last twenty years of musical history! What else is on the cards for you this year? Any productions on the horizon or are you focusing on DJing for now? Currently, I’m working at my new studio on the first release on my label Sonata Forma. Next to that my first solo EP is scheduled after this summer as the second release on an exciting new Belgian label, and a remix for the first release of Siwei Recordings is coming up as well.

Since beginning his electronic music career as a seventeen-year-old immersed in the prevalent 160+ BPM rhythms of the time, A. Brehme has since shifted his focus to the hypnotic textures and slower grooves of deep techno. A key resident at Brussels’ Technoon day parties alongside Peter Van Hoesen, A. Brehme is also a fixture at the legendary Fuse nightclub. In addition to his appearances as a DJ, he has a serve of deep, psychedelic productions slated for release later in 2017 through an exciting new Belgian label and his own imprint Sonata Forma. Patterns of Perception 18 exemplifies his style, with an hour of driving, hypnotic techno, edged with hallucinogenic and melancholic detail. A. Brehme's Links: Facebook SoundCloud Resident Advisor Instagram

21.05.2017 @ ://about blank Berlin Featuring Svreca, natural/electronic.system. & Jin Mustafa From the magazine To coincide with Semantica’s 10 year anniversary, we asked label head Svreca for his top tracks from each year of the past decade. Check out his selections One year on, we caught up with natural/electronic.system. to see what they’ve been up to lately. Read the interview Selected listenings Svreca natural/electronic.system. Jin Mustafa Facebook / Resident Advisor

natural/electronic.system closing Paral-lel Festival, 2016. Photo by Lorez. Antonio Giova and Valerio Gomez de Ayala, aka natural/electronic.system, have been close friends of Patterns of Perception since the beginning. They performed at our first party at OHM Berlin last year and produced an excellent contribution to our mix series. One year on, we caught up with the pair ahead of their appearance at Patterns of Perception’s anniversary party this weekend to see what they’ve been up to lately. It seems like so much has been happening for you guys since we last spoke. What were some of the highlights from the past year for you? Last September Paral-lel festival was a great experience, we have been there from the first day and we soon felt the right atmosphere. For us it was an honour to close those amazing three days with such a responsive crowd. Closer Club in Kiev, Elysia in Basel and our last trip to Amsterdam for FIBER festival were also pretty remarkable. You have a new release coming out on Tikita in May –  your first full vinyl release. Was there a particular inspiration or concept behind this release? There is no particular concept behind the EP. We really like to make different music; it depends on our mood, the moment of the day or just following an inspiration in our minds. We’ve both loved to listen to and select very different electronic music since we were very young, so we have many different influences. We just picked some of our productions that can fit well together but that are basically also very different from each other. We are usually very critical of our own music. Karim, the owner of Tikita, gave us the right support and motivation to compile this work. You’re playing at Paral-lel Festival in Spain again this year. It sounds like a very special festival – what’s it like playing there? How is your music suited for an intimate outdoor festival of this kind? We said already that Paral-lel festival was very inspiring. It’s not usual to find such a well prepared, polite and “really into the music” crowd in Europe but we stayed there from the first day and we experienced the first days as part of the crowd. We felt these things pretty clearly, so when our moment arrived (to play) we knew that we could just be ourselves, play what we love and enjoy that great moment with the crowd. Everything worked pretty well in the end, so we’re very happy to go back this year. Valerio, you’re running a party called STRATI in Rome. Tell us a little bit about the concept, and how you approach the lineups for these parties. What have been some highlights from the past year for you? STRATI is the club night I run with a group of some great friends in Rome. The main concept was to bring groundbreaking artists and music to Italy, mainly related to what we like. It can be techno, it can be deep house, but it should be always hypnotic. This is what we like! Probably this is the key element that connects all the artists we hosted. Actually we had many, many highlights during our four years of activity: Diamond Version Live (Rome Premiere), Kangding Ray Live (Rome Premiere), Ulwhednar Live (Italian Premiere) + Acronym Live, Tin Man Live (Rome Premiere), Voices from the Lake Live (Rome Premiere),  Eric Cloutier & Nuel DJ set + Plants Army Revolver Live premiere during season two on the same night, Deadbeat, DJ Nobu (Italian premiere) + Neel hybrid set, Alan Backdrop DJ set, Juju & Jordash Live (Rome Premiere). We also made a great closing set as natural/electronic.system. last June at Ex Dogana club, very nice memories! In recent times we had a very nice live act from Dorisburg (Italian premiere) and a mesmerizing Steve Bicknell DJ set last October. We are going to throw the last party of the season soon, then let’s see what happens in the future. With Antonio based in Berlin and Valerio in Rome, how do you guys balance living in different cities? Are there any particular challenges –  or maybe advantages – that come with this setup? Nowadays we have less time to listen to music together, so when we meet somewhere for a gig and we do a back-to-back it is much more challenging than many years ago. On the other side, living in different cities and being part of different scenes extends our perception of things. We interact somehow with different worlds and we get in touch with different sounds, and this is reflected in our music of course. Right now, production-wise, we work mostly exchanging projects, sounds and ideas using the internet and then we meet several times during the year to finalize stuff together. Our strong friendship of course is also a plus to make everything work well. You were one of the artists at our very first party in 2016 so it’s only fitting to have you back for the 1 Year celebration. What can we expect from your set on May 21? Thanks for inviting us back! You were one of the first crews that invited us in Berlin so we are happy you enjoyed the last party. The location and the context where we perform are always important for us. It’s a kind of guide for our mood, for our selection and for the kind of journey we try to describe with the music. We know that for this Patterns of Perception birthday party we will perform an afternoon set in a beautiful garden, we are going to share the decks with Svreca… so it will be fun for sure! natural/electronic.system at Dommune, 2012. What’s up next for natural/electronic.system? And for each of you as individual artists? We are keeping working on our music and try to perform more. We want to try to define always more our own style: something that our listeners can recognize as the n/e.s sound. This is the main focus for our future. Lastly, what tracks do you have on constant rotation lately and why? Marco Shuttle – Systhema From Spazio Disponibile, upcoming Brilliant album from our good friend Marco. - Midori Takada – Through The Looking Glass From we release whatever the fuck we want, 2017 Great ambient classic reissue. - Chi Factory – The Kallikatsou Recordings Astral Industries, 2017. Last album from one of our favorite ambient labels of these last years - **(Upcoming TIKITA 007 and TIKITA 008)** We can’t reveal the artists for the next Tikita releases but they are absolutely killer!

To coincide with revered techno label Semantica’s 10 year anniversary, we asked label head Svreca for his top tracks from each year of the past decade. Spanning 2006-15, these are his picks – and the story behind them. Catch Svreca at Patterns of Perception 1 Year in About Blank this Sunday, May 21. 2006 Paul Bailey – Multiball From the 126a EP. “Still loving this awesome track from Paul ‘Damage’. This was featured in the first 12” on the label, a record in between techno and IDM with Kero and myself.” - 2007 Vladislav Delay ‎- Recovery IDea (Svreca Edit) From Recovery IDea (Part One). “This one is quite special: it’s my first remix ever and for Vladislav Delay. I remember having this test-pressing for more than a year waiting to enter production due to a lot problems with the distributor. It was finally out in 2008, but the 12” was finished early 2017.” - 2008 Arcanoid – Sad (Talking About) From Prologue. “This is an absolute masterpiece. Arcanoid is probably my favorite Spanish producer; an amazing talent and a true pioneer as a DJ playing a key role in the Spanish scene during the ‘90s. This track was the beginning for the SEMANTICA X, Y, Z 12”s.” - 2009 E.R.P. – Sensory Process From Evoked Potentials (Part One). “Gerard Hanson is a unique producer on many levels, and that’s why every release under his different monikers had that ‘cult’ imprint. So I put this unfinished Evoked Potentials series into my favorite Semantica releases. We definitively need more E.R.P. music.” - 2010 Svreca – Utero (Regis Remix) From Obscur. “This track marks to me an inflection point in my life. Everything started to change with this Obscur 12”; during making and after releasing it. Karl had always played a huge role as an influence to me. Regis, Downwards, BMB, O/V/R, Sandwell District, Jealous God and every alternative pseudonym. Legend.” - 2011 Mike Parker ‎- Thermo From Thermo. “Semantica moves totally to techno at this point. This track is an amazing take from Mike Parker who delivers an awesome 12” for the label.” - 2012 Surgeon – As You Breathe Here Now From Untitled. “One day I received an email from Anthony Child with this astonishing track. After several requests, Tony waited for the right moment to gave me the opportunity to release an original track from him. I built SEMANTICA 50 in a kind of improvisation to give sense to this orphan but key track. Every time I listen this track Labyrinth 2012 came to my mind; was a very special place to unveil this gem.” - 2013 Grischa Lichtenberger – Remel Plus (Svreca Edit) From the For Your Eyes Only Sampler 2. “I made this remix with the ‘For Your Eyes Only’ Mix in mind. A project in between a catalog showcase and the tribute to Konvent (Cal Rosal). Still one of my favorites on the label and a more personal vision of that techno moment.” - 2014 Acronym – Nifelheim From Yggdrasil. “This Acronym 12” is just flawless. No matter which track you pick from this ‘Yggdrasil’, it is Acronym at his best. Dan’s talent and vision is simply brilliant, and I’m sure he will only get better and better with the years.” - 2015 Varg – No Knowledge Of Sorrow Or Regret (Abdulla Rashim Remix) From Variations. “Jonas and Anthony’s contributions for Semantica are priceless. This one is just an example, because they don’t have limits or boundaries in this game.” Full Playlist:

Antonio Vázquez hails from Seville, Spain, but learnt his art as a DJ in Madrid in the 2000s. Moving to Berlin was the turning point in his musical development: it was here he started to explore the deeper side of techno. He has since released on such forward-thinking labels as Shaded Explorations, Hypnus Records, and Semantica, while taking up bookings at some of Berlin’s most respected clubs. We caught up with Antonio to discuss the concept behind his recent mix for Patterns of Perception, how moving to Berlin has impacted his sound, and why paring back his life has helped him find a sense of peace that flows through his music. Tell us about your Patterns of Perception mix. Was there a particular concept or inspiration behind this mix? How do you approach mixes more generally? For me the mix started with the idea to project different moods and music styles within techno. The starting point was what I’m interested in, which kind of tracks. Typically when I do a podcast I meditate first and then record it. Everything flows in this way. With music, I see myself as an instrument. I’m interested in many different styles of music, especially because of my concept of what music really is. I see it as a tool to make us vibrate in different states. The first part of the mix is a really calm, profound, deep sound with atmospheres and grooves and weird elements to create different emotions. I wanted to set a really calm mood. The second part is much harder, which is developing more into my punk, metal, rock and more hard styles. This is to create a sense of rage and anger, to let out these emotions and feelings. Then the third part, which is the most danceable I think, it belongs between the previous two parts. Sometimes there’s a track that’s more moody, more groovy or more hard, but it sits in between both. This third part could be the middle point of the first and second part. Is there a particular reason you structured the mix this way? Why put the ‘middle’ section at the end? We shift between two poles and it’s clear that we have to make a balance. You feel one side and then the other side, and then you put it in balance. It’s like everything in life – you cannot understand one side without the opposite. So that’s why I put this third part at the end, to put everything in balance. But what I’m more interested in is what other people receive, what other people feel when they listen to it. Most importantly I want them to really enjoy it. Take me back to the start for you. How did you first get into music? Almost everything in my life is just about following my natural flow so it’s difficult to explain. But actually, if I reflect on it, I think it was because of my father. My father has a really big focus on music. Whatever he does, he really needs to have his time for music. When I was younger, he was working a lot, moving around, and most of the time I travelled with him in the car and he always puts on these cassettes recorded from the radio. We’d stop at the gas station and we’d buy cassettes. But of course, it started because I had it inside – we all have it inside. I have these moments that I need to explore with music. What music did you listen to with your dad? Well, he plays a lot of different styles and songs, especially ballads and quiet music, and also jazz, classical music and awhile ago I tried to get him into post-rock. I started to show him my favourite band Tortoise. He enjoyed it. He’s not a person to express his feelings so what he thinks about it, you see it in his face. The music he played help me to discover Pink Floyd and early Santana, so this took me to focus on psychedelic rock. I think I was eight years old when I first listened to electronic music, with a cassette compilation that my father bought me called Max Mix 10. How did you get your start as a DJ/producer from here? I was living in Malaga, trying to study at university. I say ‘trying’ because it was not my thing and I quit it two years after. I was involved with friends, especially one called Javier Salas, he started to DJ and play and show me a lot of music also. And also with other friends, Ruben Guerrero and Segundo del Toro, we started meeting and listening to music. Here I discovered bands like Gong, Can, Tortoise, Mogwai, etc. This was a really good inspiration for me. And we started to go out to parties and to Granada to go to clubs, to see Oscar Mulero and Oliver Ho, for example. Then I started to research about music programs for my computer. I had a lot of fun with it. Two years after this I moved to Madrid. And then after one year or so, I decided to buy turntables and to start learning to play. In about 2009, I played in my first club, called Cassette. Before that, it was mostly bars, private parties and events. This made me more comfortable to do it. How did your sound develop over this time? My music taste developed because in Madrid at that time the kind of techno I used to play was not really promoted, so I shifted to explore other music. I often played in really small bars and there were not so many places where you could play that harder sound. I was always between the two sides of really smooth and really hard. After playing at Cassette, it made me go back to that root of harder techno. This is the history of my music life: I develop and then I always come back to the root. Then the key moment was when I came to Berlin, this is essential. At what point did you decide to relocate to Berlin? I came to Berlin in 2011. As with everything, it was the flow of life. You feel the impulse and you follow it. In Berlin, I met some really good friends and inspiring friends who were making great music. Here I met Refracted. To me, he is one of the highest producers and DJs. His music speaks for itself. What he does with his concept and how he expresses himself, there are no words. Besides meeting these friends, what is it about Berlin that’s had such an impact on you? Berlin gives you the freedom to be whatever you are. You can dress however you want to, nobody judges you. You feel it on the street, you feel it walking. I think part of it is because of the history of the city. One kaiser, I don’t remember who, in the time of the inquisition took all people persecuted by the church and made a safe place for them in Berlin. That is what the spirit of the city became. Energetically, I think it’s also because of the amount of water. Berlin is surrounded by water and I think the water is what gives it this energy. Water has the possibility to have memory and be affected by energy. And everything in life is energy. How has moving here affected your career in music and your sound? I just started to research, thanks to Refracted, more deep techno. Because of the group of friends we were, we started to have after parties at home and I just started to play more. Two podcasts I made were important but one in particular, the T_mood podcast, I think this one was the key moment with how everything develops for me. Thanks to that podcast and meeting Caleb ESC, I was invited to play for the first time in About Blank. At this time, I released an EP on T3R Records under the name Versenkt called The Owls Are Not What They Seem (in reference to one of my favorite directors, David Lynch). And then I had the big surprise: I got invited to play in Berghain about one year after I arrived in the city. It was totally out of the blue, actually I just received a message on Facebook one day. I think this is how I want to live: just enjoy your life and not expect anything. I’ve learnt it with the years, to live in peace with yourself and your environment, and to follow your own flow. The most important thing is how you wake up in the morning. If you have a moment of peace – if you have your cup of coffee and breakfast and enjoy it quietly – then this helps you to have this same energy throughout the day. Maybe play some ambient music, some quiet music. And also do the same before you sleep. These are two essential pieces to find balance. What’s your moment of peace in the morning? Do you have a particular routine? This morning, for example, I woke up and I played Vangelis. I can’t remember the album. I usually listen to a full album and after that I take my coffee, I play some post-punk or rock to energise myself. And then I continue the day. I live quite comfortably because I work just two days per week. To work more is unnecessary. I reduced my expectations of life: I don’t have a phone, I don’t need to eat too much, I don’t need to spend so much money. I reduced the… I wouldn’t say my needs, but wills. I worked a lot in the past years and I discovered, why do I work so much to go on holidays? Why am I not living like I’m on holidays? This is one of the essential points for how I reached the peace that I have. What impact has this way of living your life had on your music? I’m still waiting to see. For the moment, I just express it through my recent podcasts. This one (for Patterns of Perception) is the fifth one since I started to feel this, and I think the Deep Electronics podcast really shows the moment where I discovered the peace I was living. What I discovered is that I don’t want to limit myself through my musical tastes. I receive what I like, I process it inside and then I express it. I also discovered that I don’t want any stress about producing or releasing my music. I don’t like to see my music as a product, I just see it as it is: a tool to enjoy and make us all enjoy. I try even to avoid promoting myself because I don’t like it. I only do it because I am asked to do it, and to support the parties, sites and labels I’m involved with. I stopped using Facebook at one point for this reason and others, and wish that soon I will stop again. If people are interested in following what I do, they will find a way to search for it. My life and what I do is not an advertisement. In summary, I don’t care to become a big artist or earn a lot of money with what I do. My success lies in enjoying every moment that I live, in every breath I take and every step I do. So I don’t need anything else. How have you seen the Berlin techno scene develop over the years? Techno is always developing. It is always reinventing itself. This is what I like in this style of music. Every time I talk with Refracted, or all the friends I have who make music, they are really searching for something new, something different. And myself, I’m always searching for new things. Also for my productions, each one is different. That’s why I think I am on Hypnus. It’s the feeling that the owner of the label gave me, that to meet him and also all the family was essential for my evolution as a producer. Hypnus is like a family, with freedom of expression, but of course with a certain quality of sound. And in Berlin, there are always new parties and the clubs are open to receiving and promoting more events and new music. Lately I have heard a lot of comments, judgements and opinions about clubs and parties, which is just gossip at the end. All this takes the real joy out of partying, which should be somewhere you can feel free to release yourself, without being affected by others, without affecting others with our own perceptions, thoughts and emotions – and just have fun and enjoy the music you like or want to explore. I believe parties are the best place to meet people because here they forget a lot about their own lives and worries. They just open themselves properly and enjoy. The world would be a much better place if we all partied. Let’s take Kim Jong Un to a party! Merkel, Trump – let’s do a Patterns of Perception presidential edition. You’ve released on labels including Semantica and Shaded Explorations as well. What have been some highlights production-wise for you? The Coil on Shaded Explorations is the one that reached people the most, based on their feedback. But each release is different for me because each marks a certain moment that I was living. The Semantica one, everytime I hear it I find something new. This is my goal because it gives you something more. Repeating the same thing is nice of course but I prefer to discover something new. Are you working on any releases at the moment? At the moment, I’m working on a release for Hypnus. I’m researching and have a clear idea of what I want to do. I even have the name of the release, it’s just taking some time. But I have to give something to the family. What else is on the cards this year? Any gigs you’re particularly looking forward to? Definitely Parallel Festival. I was recently asked about my personal goal, and the only thing I thought of was to play at Parallel Festival. I can say so many things about the experience from last year but nothing would do it justice. Parallel has a special concept – each day means something. I still don’t know at what time I’ll be playing so I will guess and keep researching tracks. What I like is to prepare the beginning of the set, like the first hour. Then I get people in the mood for the kind of music I like to express. I’m still waiting for confirmation from two of my favorites parties in Berlin to play so I would prefer not to say anything else until they are confirmed. My next gigs are at AVA Club on May 17 and at the Tokyo Redlight party at Renate on June 17. Every gig teaches me something new so I am really looking forward to them. Anything else you have coming up? Next winter I’m thinking to move back to Seville. My idea is to go back to my roots, to experience something new from them. It’s also about energy, meditation and all these other things I’m practicing. Just for the winter. Other than that, what is coming up will come up. I prefer not to know, I prefer to focus on the moment as always. Links: Antonio Vázquez on Resident Advisor Antonio Vázquez on Facebook Antonio Vázquez on Soundcloud