Moods 21: Altstadt Echo
October 2019 has none other than dub techno mastermind Altstadt Echo (Taylor Vincent, or @altstadt-echo), founder of @modern-cathedrals whose released on bbs from @semantica-records to @ithqdetroit 's Eyeteeth. "The concept behind the mix is that it's music for sleep deprivation - for listening to on the days after tossing and turning in bed all night, and you're barely able to keep yourself together. Sometimes it's peaceful, sometimes it's frustrated, sometimes it drifts off. It's definitely not a New Age mix designed just to make you feel better, but rather an exploration of the feelings associated with sleep deprivation."
This Moods mix navigates from contemporary classical to ambient, noise, and experimental. Something totally new for us on Moods, so grab your blanket and watch the leaves fall.
The Playlist
1. Ólafur Arnalds - Raddir
2. Rod Modell - Untitled 01
3. Roly Porter - In System
4. Nils Frahm - Four Hands
5. Loscil - Weeds
6. Max Richter - Path 3 (7676)
7. 坂本龍一 - solari (T鬼母の懺悔)
8. Deathprod - Disc
9. Arvo Pärt - My Heart's In The Highlands
10. Ólafur Arnalds - Öldurót
11. William Basinski, Lawrence English - Selva Oscura 1.2
12. Loscil - Monument Builders
13. Boards of Canada - Magic Window
14. Emptyset - Divide
15. Eric Whitacre, Brigham Young University Singers, Ronald Staheli - Sleep
Taylor was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona in the 90s. "I started DJing when I was 15, ordering trashy UK Hard House records on the internet and hoping they didn't get warped by the heat before I got home from school." A move to Michigan for school in Ann Arbor, then a move to Detroit to found Modern Cathedrals, shifted landscapes, temperatures, and communities from the 00s to early 10s.
Techno, of course, was there in Detroit, against the city's cold nights and empty streets. "I think I first heard techno scattered throughout some of the early Warp Records and Rephlex label catalogs, but it was kind of accidental as I was really just interested in the IDM. I started listening to techno in earnest in 2009, I think. At first it was some minimal-ish techno (think: Perlon) and dub techno (which I was introduced to by old mixes by Placid).
"For the rest of the songs, it's really just been about years of online digging. I listen to contemporary classical and ambient all day while working, so I get through a lot of material. There were some artists I really wanted to fit in (like Jóhann Jóhannsson) but if it didn't fit with the flow and balance of the mix then I didn't want to force it."
For example, let's take the the last song in the mix, "Sleep." That's a track from a high school friend, Patrick. "We were sitting on the floor of his basement, not really doing anything, and it came on. I grew up singing in choirs and honestly had a lot of disdain for them, but hearing this track opened me up to genre again. Since then I've gone on to sample choir pieces in my own music on a regular basis. It's still a big source of inspiration."
I then paired Altstadt Echo's mix with one of my all time favorite photographers, An-My Lê, whose work documents war films and military exercises, shooting on-site with producers and instructors in order to demonstrate how America canon-izes the military industrial complex. This sparse piece shot during a training exrcise in California vibrates well with Altstadt Echo's nuanced mix. Both, in many ways, are painting landscapes with their work.