New album Liquorice is unlike anything Martin Stimming has produced before. And that’s saying something. The Hamburg-based music-maker has, over time, earned a reputation for fashioning complex house and techno; multifarious grooves enlivened by loose, un-mixable percussion and deep, emotive melodies. But Liquorice is something else. Unpredictable. Indescribable. Intense. Weird even….
There’s a good reason, for that, he explains: “I only tried to express the feelings I had at the time. I was going through some relationships problems; I couldn’t be in our flat at the same time. It was totally stressful and so I was sleeping on the couch in my tiny studio. It was very, very intense.”
Stimming’s studio became both home and confession booth, providing him with a valuable private space in which to off-load dark thoughts and emotions, and an over-whelming sense of unbalance. The console desk was cathartic but not, he claims, entirely drenched in tears.
“I’m not sure I could make Liquorice again” he muses, “it fits perfectly with that particular time of my life. But it wasn’t all anger and bitterness. I still found myself enjoying putting those tracks together, even though everything was dark and going wrong for me at home. I managed to channel the negativity.”
Stimming has chosen his album’s title carefully. Liquorice, he explains, is the sweet that people either love or hate, and he’s certain his new album will garner similar Marmite-like reaction. Refreshingly, he doesn’t seem to care: “I never intended this as an album. It started as a personal reaction to a situation. But then I was walking through the local park one day with my headphones on listening to what I’d already recorded, and I was like ‘shit, this is great… no-one has heard anything like this before, I’ve got to do something more with it’. So I did, spending another five or six months adding to it and turning it into a proper album. ”
It’s not a ‘proper’ album, however. Liquorice defies convention incorporating Stimming’s trademark ‘field’ recordings (think dustbin lids clanging, coffee machines percolating, and trains zipping by) into a heady, improvisational, hitherto unheard swirl of radical percussion, instrumentation and b-line. There are elements of house, minimal-tech and dub, yes, but the style is without name – Stimming’s press materials make a half-decent stab with ‘electronic free jazz’.
It’s not that easy to be free in a recession-battered music industry increasingly driven by commercialism and economic necessity. Even within dance music’s various niche and underground circles, artists and labels are often, contrary to their protestations of autonomy, shackled by the basic need to make cash and survive. Exactly how difficult was it then for Stimming to make this record?
“Surprisingly easy” he confides. “I was screwed up at the time and had this sort of punk ‘fuck you’ mentality so it was very easy to let go. Even now I don’t care who ends liking this new stuff, and who doesn’t. But usually, for sure, it’s more of a struggle to be free.
“I think those of us who work in the music industry today can always feel the audience’s expectation; we’re more aware of it now because of the internet and because club music has exploded so. We feel a pressure to do certain things in order to stand out and avoid getting lost in all the noise. I try to be unique and ignore the trends around me but letting go of boundaries is difficult; I do still think about the music I make, I can spend hours sometimes listening to drum loops to get them right for my audience.”
Martin Stimming was born in Giessen, a mid-sized German town on the outskirts of Frankfurt, and by the age of 10 was playing violin, piano and drums. At 15, he discovered electronic music for the first time – DJ Krush and Grooverider are cited as early influences – and involved himself in drum & bass crew Breakaholics, as well as ‘speed garage’ production alongside studio partner Alexander Kubler, before turning to techno a short time later.
Since those early days Stimming has forged a close relationship with renowned imprint Diynamic, firing out several melodic yet idiosyncratic tech-house singles. All have found their mark, particularly collaborations with peers HOSH (Radar) and Einmusik (Magdalena), not to mention Chilean folk singer Violeta Parra (2008 hit Una Pena.) In 2009, Diynamic unveiled Stimming’s acclaimed, acoustic-licked debut album Reflections; and then there are the countless (successful) EP outings on Freerange, liebe*detail and Ben Watt’s Buzzin’ Fly stable.
“I see music as a whole, there’s no big difference between an organic style like jazz and an electronic one like techno” he suggests. “But a lot of DJs and producers, it seems, are leaning too much towards the techno which is where it can get boring. I’m trying to bring jazz and techno together but still with a grounding in technology.”
Stimming is, of course, firmly anchored in his own sonic world. The productivity of contemporaries continues to increase, especially through digital channels, but scene competition and evolution do not concern him: “It sounds narcissistic, I know, but I focus on me. When I’m playing in clubs I do pick up on what other people are doing but a lot of it sounds stuck, like it’s going nowhere. It’s largely uninspired tech-house, with no real melody, no instruments or originality.
“I put my own raw feelings into my music; it’s the key to everything I do. Music has the power to translate complex emotions and it should be used as such; I’m not one of these people that create drum loops simply to get people to dance. It’s a deeper process than that… another level.”
Martin Stimming’s plan for the rest of the year is in perfect accord with the spirit of his new long-player – creative improvisation. It’s hard, in fact, to pin him down on anything concrete. “I have a couple of EPs in mind, and a few gigs, but let’s see, the year is young” he teases. “I’m curious actually to see how my image will change following the new album. The record is a shift, I know, but I’m happy with it. I actually sat down the other day, lit a spliff and listened to the finished version for the first time and loved every minute of it. It’s funny how such an intense time is making me smile now.”
Words: Ben Lovett
Stimming’s new album Liquorice is out on Diynamic (Ger) on March 28.
