’23 Seconds’ by Cobblestone Jazz: Album of the Week

’23 Seconds’ by Cobblestone Jazz: Album of the Week

22 October, 2007 | 1.41PM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: !k7, album of the week, cobblestone jazz, danuel tate, it is what it is, mathew jonson, the modern deep left quartet, tyger dhula, vancouver, wagon repair

Not long after Wagon Repair’s Mathew Jonson started making music and capturing ears in the early 2000s, his more open-ended and free form project, Cobblestone Jazz, also came to light with fellow members Danuel Tate and Tyger Dhula.

Where Jonson concentrated on spacey tunes for the dancefloor, Cobblestone’s roots are immersed in jazz, but interpreted in only the way three friends and loads of analogue equipment can do.

Jonson and Dhula come from similar worlds of electronic music production.

Dhula’s experience as a DJ that has helped him to isolate the key elements of a cut, while Jonson’s improvisational mixing and composing push the sound in new directions.

Add Tate’s jazz foundation keyboards, spiced with Hancock-style funk, and you have one of the most unique sounds to emerge from the electronic music scene today — not to mention from Vancouver, B.C., Canada via Berlin.

Forming out of the roots of another collective set-up for all sorts of experimentalist tactics, Cobblestone’s direct ancestor is The Modern Deep Left Quartet, a project with all members of Cobblestone plus Colin ‘The Mole’ de la Plante.

While The Modern Deep Left Quartet do occasionally find time to play together still today, it’s clearly Cobblestone that’s stolen the show.

Cobblestone Jazz has released EPs on It Is What It Is (IIWII) and Wagon Repair, but this full-length debut hits the wider distribution network of !K7.

The outfit is fresh off a live performance for Fabric London’s eighth birthday celebration, and is now in the midst of a European tour.

We were able to catch up with the 29-year-old Jonson, who describes his current activities as “writing from Rio, living in Berlin.”

When The Modern Deep Left Quartet started, did it sound anything like Cobblestone Jazz sounds today?

It had a lot of the same elements but the sound has changed, of course, with it being Cobblestone Jazz.

We still keep the Modern Deep Left Quartet going but we don’t play as often as we would like to.

Having four people all jamming sounds much different that three, especially because of having The Mole with us.

Does it feel different to release a full album as opposed to an EP?

Yes, of course.

You want an album to have a similar feel to it.

EPs are really easy — you can just do whatever you want. 

When you made ’23 Seconds’, did you consider the dancefloor, or is it aimed towards home listening?

All our music is aimed at DJs for mixing, which is why the tracks are what they are, and the dancefloor is part of that.

But we also wanted this album to be something that could be listened to anywhere. 

Cobblestone Jazz seems very taken with, well, jazz. How did you find yourselves in this position?

Each of us came from jazz before we were playing house or techno, so it seems natural.

What’s the idea behind the name of the album?

There isn’t so much of an idea behind the name.

It’s the title that we felt would suit the album most out of the tracks we had.

The number 23 has lots of different meanings, from sacred geometry to cult meanings.

Its vast nature can be discussed in many ways and leaves you open to interpreting the album for the music — not necessarily the intellectual idea behind it.

How long did it take to make ’23 Seconds’? What was the most memorable moment while making it?

We made it over a two month stretch, but only in a few studio sessions.

Most of the writing was done in about three or four days.

The most memorable part for me was watching Danuel dancing around like an old hippie raver with his shirt off.

Once the shirts come off in our studio, it’s time for business.

What’s the oddest inspiration for one of your songs?

‘Change Your Apesuit’ was created by saying, “Let’s play shitty and see if anything good comes out of what we do!”

So we tried to sound like shit and experimented, and then we picked out good parts from the mess.

The song turned out to be one of my favorites on the album.

What’s the process of recording? Do you all work together in the same room, or do you share via the internet?

We all work together.

We actually write all at the same time too with multi-tracking.

You’ve included a live performance with the CD release of the album. Does ‘23 Seconds’ work better in the live setting or as a studio album?

When we play the songs live, we add new parts, so there is a new energy in each song, every time.

This makes it new and exciting for us, which translates into the energy of the listener.

Next to which artist would you like to see ‘23 Seconds’ filed?

Maybe Jamie Lidell, or Matthew Herbert.

Are there any dream guests that you’d like to work with on the next record?

I would really like to do some more work with Ricardo [Villalobos] or Luciano.

But for a dream guest that’s not one of our friends, I’d have to say Quincy Jones.

How do you feel about being awarded ‘Album of the Week’ on Beatportal?

It’s great to have the support from Beatport!

And it’s nice to be named Album of the Week, as we are really proud of the work we did and are happy that others are too.

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Also check out Wagon Repair: Label of the Week on Beatportal.

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