Movement interview: Innervisions’ A Critical Mass

Movement interview: Innervisions’ A Critical Mass

12 May, 2009 | 4.50PM

• Written by: Beatportal
• Filed under: Music News: ame, dixon, henrik schwarz, innervisions, movement

We live in a time of perpetual trends. Consider the moustache. A couple of years ago, if you had a moustache you were probably also wanted by the police for hanging out with people much, much younger than yourself. Like, kids. The moustache is now enjoying a hairy comeback, just ask Kristian from Âme.

The concept of self-sustaining momentum is only too well understood by Âme, Dixon, and Henrik Schwarz, who whether intentionally or not, embody the idea through their new Innervisions Orchestra project that also gives the concept a name. They are ‘A Critical Mass’. They are a part of a movement by electronic music artists towards collaborative live performances. They are a product of technology. They are not, however, all moustache wearers.

With Innervisions debuting their A Critical Mass live project at Detroit’s Movement festival later this month, Beatportal decided to find out more about their collaborative efforts and what to expect from their highly anticipated Movement performance.

Can you briefly explain the concept behind A Critical Mass.

Over the years we have done a lot of collaborations together, so there was always the idea there to bring that stuff onto a stage. When we started working together on our Grandfather Paradox project [the trio put out a mix CD together] we found out how the live thing should work out.

Henrik likes to say that the main thing is that four brains are working together in realtime.

How did the idea come together?

Like I said during the time in the studio that we worked together, we recognised that there was a special chemistry between all of us.

I think the main inspiration [for A Critical Mass] comes from the whole free jazz thing but with a techno approach.

That’s the good thing about modern technology - there are no real limitations if you know how to use it.

What kind of challenges are there when doing improvisation techno on stage, live?

It’s team work and really concentrated time wise. DJ sets are created for a longer period so it’s more of a transcendent thing, but the live thing is more energetic over a shorter period.

It’s a challenge for all of us and we’ve already learned a lot after the first few gigs.

Has the live set evolved much after your first gigs?

As we are trying not to play the same set each time it is always a challenge to do a new concert.

We are getting into certain routine now and that makes everything much easier especially for the improvisational aspect of the show.

How does your live set-up aid the challenges of collaborating on stage?

There are three laptops running and synced together with Ableton Live. Plus we have two keyboards and a drum machine, with all of it running through a big mixer where everything comes together and gets manipulated too.

Are there any limitations to that set up?

That’s the good thing about modern technology - there are no real limitations if you know how to use it.

Ableton makes everything easy, maybe even too easy for some people who are getting lazy. But if you use it right you can do a lot of improvised and free stuff with the software.

How does the software help you with long distance collaborations?

We can send over files and exchange ideas as we all use the same software and we have a server with a big capacity too.

How would you compare yourself with other dance bands like Tortured Soul or Cobblestone Jazz?

I can’t really say that much as I’ve only seen Cobblestone Jazz play live once and they are definitely working in a different way to us.

Maybe, music wise some people would compare both projects but as I said I am not really the one to judge that.

At ADE, your performance was named one of the best of the conference. How was that particular show for you?

That was for us a very special party in our life. It was the first really live show ever hosted by one of our best friends in clublife.

It was at a special location filled with fans and music lovers only, so that made everything quite easy for us and we let it flow the whole night and people could see how much fun and love we had invested in that event.

Everyone who has played at Movement has said great things about the festival so our expectations are high.

How do you feel about bringing your live set to North America?

We are looking forward to that, but as we have all been a lot of times to the States it’s proven to be an unpredictable place for us. We are hoping it will be good and we will bring over a lot of passion as we hope the people will have too.

What are your impressions of Detroit and the Movement Festival?

None of us have ever been to Detroit so it’s an honor for us to play at this legendary festival in the hometown of techno.

Everyone who has played at Movement has said great things about the festival so our expectations are high.

Do you have any plans for A Critical Mass release on Innervisions?

We will definitely do a live CD next year and maybe an album later on with our own material, but there still so many things to finish that it would be too early to announce something like that.

Are you playing any other dates this summer as A Critical Mass?

We are playing some selected festival gigs throughout Europe and one in Japan.

We are trying to keep the whole thing special by doing only a few shows every year, as we also have a tight DJ schedule so it’s pretty hard to organise these shows.

Innervisions: A Critical Mass play the Vitamin Water Main Stage on Sunday, May 24th.

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