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Episode 54 of AIR is here, and welcomes DJs, producers, and founders of the @Slow-Life collective, @laurine_sl and @cecilio-sl, to celebrate their label’s 10 years of existence. Comprised of a core crew featuring Laurine, Cecilio, S Moreira, and Indi Zone, Slow Life are defined by their thoughtful, easygoing approach to everything from music and parties to life itself. They have quickly carved out a niche for themselves through their artist showcases and record label; while Laurine and Cecilio have likewise worked tirelessly to explore careers as DJs and artists in their own right. Recently back from a South American tour that took them to a dozen cities across a handful of countries, they’re back in Berlin and looking forward to bringing that inspiration to Hoppetosse, where Slow Life will celebrate its 10 year anniversary on Saturday 26 March. In this conversation, we look back at Slow Life’s 10 years, the collaboration at the heart of their collective, and the philosophies about life and music that drive Laurine and Cecilio as artists. FOLLOW AIR Patreon: patreon.com/airpodcast Insta: https://www.instagram.com/_airpodcast/ Substack newsletter: https://airpodcast.substack.com/ ++ Music: "Era un Ravero" - Laurine & Cecilio (2023) "Beyond Lightspeed" - S.Moreira (2013) "Consciousness" - Paolo Mosca (2022) "Nobody Knows" - Laurine (2022) "Metropolis" - Primary Perception (2022)

AIR episode 53 is here, featuring a true craftsman in every sense of the word. @Neel is a techno mainstay, not only as a DJ, and a solo producer, but also as a live performer, best known for his expertly designed ambient journeys. This skillset is especially celebrated in his work with Donato Dozzy as Voices from the Lake. But even if you’re not familiar with his work, you’ve almost certainly listened to a record he had a hand in. A mastering engineer for over a decade, his studio Enisslab has over 400 credits on Discogs, including landmark albums by Deepchord, Pauline Oliveros, Abdulla Rashim, DJ Nobu, Atom TM, Mike Parker, Caterina Barbieri, and of course, his own work. In this conversation, Neel and I get deep on mastering and the evolution of his technical craft, his ears, and his artistry, as well as how each of his creative fields inform one another. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_airpodcast/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/airpodcast and sign up for the AIR newsletter: https://airpodcast.substack.com/ +++ Music: "Naeba" - Neel (2022) "Post Landing" - Neel (2014) "Osmio" - Neel (2018) "Circe + S.T." (VFTL Rework) - Voices from the Lake (2013)

Happy new year! This is our first show of 2023 and the 52nd episode of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. This month I'm joined by American composer, producer, and vocalist @kaitlynaureliasmith. Kaitlyn has put out countless well-loved albums which feature her explorations in synthesis and voice, including the famed 2017 record The Kid, 2020’s atmospheric Mosaic of Transformation, and her most recent album, Let’s Turn It Into Sound. Throughout her sonic journey, listening, both with her ears and with her body, has been at the heart of what she does as a musician; hoping that by listening in different and more intentional ways, she can more deeply connect with sound. In this conversation, we delve into Kaitlyn’s love of deep listening and somatic hearing, and how these rituals help to enlighten her artistry, her creativity and her performances. Kaitlyn's EU/UK tour is starting in April 2023, check out her website for more details: https://kaitlynaureliasmith.com/events/ ++ Music: "Give It To The Water" - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (2022) "An Intention" - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (2017) "Carrying Gravity" - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (2020) "Moon In Your Eye" - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith and Emile Mosseri(2021) "Check Your Translation" - Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith (2022)

we are here with the last AIR of 2022, and what a year it’s been! Thanks so much for all your support this year, we’ve managed to a hit a couple of lovely milestones, including of course our 50th episode last month with Paquita Gordon. Don’t forget you’ve still got a few days left to purchase your 50th episode commemorative t-shirt, available on Everpress here: https://everpress.com/profile/air-podcast On to this week’s episode, which welcomes French producer and DJ @Terence-Fixmer. A fixture in the EBM meets techno scene since its creation, Terence has established himself over the past two decades as a creator of deep, hypnotic, dark electronica. His live sets thrive off the feeling of jumping into the unknown and the unpredictability of performance; thrills that also fuel not only his personal life but his music as well. In this conversation, we discuss Terence's constant quest for new ways to explore, create, and live. ++ Music: "Expedition" - Terence Fixmer (2018) "Corne de Brûme" - Terence Fixmer (2022) "Desertic" - Terence Fixmer (2022) "Electro Static" - Terence Fixmer (2001)

Hello everyone and welcome back! This is the 50th episode of the series if you can believe it, and joining me this month is none other than Francesca Faccilongo, also known as @PaquitaGordon. When I created the series in 2017, it was just a small idea I came up with and pitched to some friends before starting out with literally zero idea what I was doing, aside from that I wanted to tell stories in a different way. Although I’m not a music maker myself, I’ve always been passionate about music and creativity, and it’s been such an incredible experience to meet so many like-minded artists, to hear their stories of triumph and failure, to dig into their creativity and artistry… And of course to share that all with you. To celebrate, my very talented friend and designer Grant Gibson has created two different AIR Podcast 50th episode t-shirts, which will be sold through Everpress, here https://everpress.com/air-50th-episode-t-shirt and here https://everpress.com/air-50th-episode-bubble-t Thanks again so much for your support, I’ve got some really amazing episodes coming up for 2023 and am looking forward to what's next. I also recently started a Substack newsletter for AIR, where I’ll be sharing updates about the series, and also my thoughts and musings on music and my various guests. The first newsletter is out today, you can read my thoughts on making the 50th episode and interviewing Paquita here: https://airpodcast.substack.com/p/50 You can also follow us on Instagram at @_airpodcast or support us on Patreon at patreon.com/airpodcast. Onto today’s episode, which features Italian DJ Paquita Gordon, a resident of festivals like Terraforma and Waking Life, and a true musical devotee. A DJ for over a decade now, she’s spent time in London, Mallorca, and Sicily, bringing with her a deep love of music, creativity, and nature. Her mixes are meticulous and thoughtful, with each record well-researched and purposefully chosen. Her DJ sets are storytelling in its truest form, and playing out, for Paquita, is the best part of her job. Her site-specific performance project Il Vulcano invites artists to join in her in different Mediterranean regions for a jam session that is recorded, but never shared. Her goal as an artist is always to form links, whether that’s through sound, through art, through nature, or beyond, she is always seeking connectivity rather than publicity. She finds joy in the making of things, rather than solely in the end result. In this conversation, we explore her creativity, and the musical and artistic connections that make up a life spent loving music. ++ Music: Paquita Gordon - STE54 Paquita Gordon - Various recordings from Il Vulcano

Joining me this month for episode 49 is Canadian producer and live performer Mathew Jonson. Initially from the west coast of Canada and now based in Berlin, Mathew’s upbringing in electronic music started in the nineties with the jazz-meets-techno live band Cobblestone Jazz. Collaboration and improvisation continue to play key parts in Mathew’s music career, extending to inform his creative process, his solo work, and his techniques as a live performer. With this in mind, he created the Freedom Engine Academy, a music school offering intensive courses around electronic music production, music theory, and creativity taught by a roster of talented musicians and Mathew himself. In this episode, we’re discussing collaborative learning, and how the group experience can make music better. ++ Music: "Magic Through Music" - Mathew Jonson (2020) "Chance" - Cobblestone Jazz (2010) "Rays from the Cosmos" - Units & Measurements (2016) "Lunar Lander" - Cobblestone Jazz (2011) "Typerope" - Mathew Jonson (2020)

This month’s guest is German-born Turkish artist @SedefAdasi, a DJ and burgeoning producer based in the city of Augsburg, Germany. Sedef is perhaps best known for @HAMAMNights, her self-made event series which sees her booking not only local favourites but big name artists at City Club, one of her hometown’s handful of electronic music clubs. Despite a jam-packed tour schedule and a new residency at Panorama Bar, Sedef isn’t interested in moving to a music capital, preferring to work with friends to create all-inclusive events and workshops that foster the growth of her community. In this episode, Sedef and I discuss the story of HAMAM Nights, small city living, and its impact on her creativity as a DJ and producer. ++ Music: "Gel Gidelim" - Sedef Adasi (2021) "Turbo Ride" - Sedef Adasi (2021) "An Anonymous Force" - Sedef Adasi (2021)

Perhaps best-loved for his dynamic take on techno in both his productions and his DJ sets — having been involved and around music for nearly 30 years, @DVS1 is an expert in his field, a true veteran of the scene whose roots extend beyond DJing into grassroots raves and event promotion in his native Minneapolis. These days, he continues to push his own limits, getting involved in and starting up projects that fuel his love of music, but also his love of the community he was raised in and helped build. His most recent venture, Aslice, is a software-based platform which proposes a fairer music ecoysystem for DJs and promoters is in its early days, but its concept is bringing up questions for both me and Zak. For episode 47, we're exploring the value of art, the definition of success, his own personal perceptions of his worth as an artist.

This month is a special one, and our first ever tandem interview — joining me for a Freerotation special are the festival’s founders @Steevio and @Suzybee. Influenced by the free festival movement around the UK in the 1990s, Steevio and Suzy created Freerotation, an annual gathering of music and arts which now takes place in Baskerville Hall, Wales, and has, since its inception in the mid 2000s, become one of the scene’s best loved festivals. Kept relatively small and amongst friends and friends of friends, Freerotation is known for its thoughtful curation of both DJs, live acts, and VJs, and its intimate, familial setting. In this conversation, Steevio, Suzy and I get into the festival’s early days and its direction and curation today, plus their own personal histories in art and music, and their distinctive creative philosophies. ++ MUSIC: Steevio - "Candescent" (2022) Steevio - "Y Llifogydd" (2022) Steevio - "Passive Resistance" (2022) Purchase part one of Steevio's Dod yn ôl at fy nghoed here: https://steevio.bandcamp.com/album/dod-yn-l-at-fy-nghoed-part-1

Born and raised in Russia, this month's guest, DJ and producer @AnastasiaKristensen moved to Denmark when she was a teenager. Finding it hard to adapt to her new life in a rural part of the country, she went online, finding solace in her favourite music forums where she discovered not only music, but a community. Turning to music as an escape became a kind of ritual that she went back to again and again, the connection only deepening when she started DJing. In this conversation, Anastasia and I look back at those early days as an outsider, finding her identity as an artist, and how music was and continues to be the best escape. ++ Music: "The Flight" - Anastasia Kristensen (2019) "The Voice Within" - Anastasia Kristensen (2021) "Volshebno" - Anastasia Kristensen (2021)

Born and raised in Chicago, with roots in the footwork dance scene and many years of DJing under his belt, RP Boo is best known as a pioneer of footwork — a lightning fast genre of music that borrows from hip hop and ghetto house. Although RP came up in the 1980s and 90s, he flew under the radar outside of the footwork scene until the mid 2000s when his debut album Legacy released on Planet Mu, bringing his important and iconic work to the wider music industry, a long overdue step into the spotlight. In this conversation, RP and I discuss his roots as a musician, the art of sampling as a nod to his peers, and the legacy he’s spent three decades building. ++ Music: "Bangin on King Dr." - RP Boo (2015) "Baby Come On" - RP Boo (2015) "Try 2 Break" - RP Boo (2015) "11 47 99" - RP Boo "Ivory Surface" - RP Boo (2021)

Joining me this month for episode 43 is Christina Sealey: producer, live performer, and one half of Canadian industrial techno duo @Orphx. Christina and music partner Richard Oddie founded Orphx back in the 90s, early on using what few instruments they’d collected: a reel-to-reel tape machine, some microphones, and an effects pedal to craft the kind of visceral sound they’ve since become celebrated and loved for. Slowly, they added in more instruments: analog gear, software, but also primitive pieces like sheets of metal, drills, kitchen utensils, razors… Anything they could manipulate to their creative liking. Their intense and often raw style of music is a kind of meeting point between rhythm and noise, with works like Pitch Black Mirror, Division, and Fragmentation leading the charge. In this conversation, Christina and I discuss her love of primitive instruments, the creativity of limitations, and how to make music with what you’ve got. ++

Episode 42 welcomes a music industry veteran: Anthony Child, also known as Surgeon (@dynamic-tension), got his start DJing in the 1990s, Tony has long been an integral force in the world of techno, best known for his driving DJ sets, and his thoughtful productions. His music has also expanded into experimental live performance, with projects like The Transcendence Orchestra allowing him to explore even further corners of electronic music and question the very limits of what constitutes techno. In this conversation, we focus on an idea that has been on both our minds lately — what makes music authentic? How can an artist bring honesty to every facet of their work? What constitutes authenticity in a fickle industry? What does it mean to be true to your own voice? ++ Music: Master of All Visible Shapes - Surgeon (2018) Winged Assassin - Surgeon (2020) Satsuma Felt Slow - The Transcendence Orchestra (2021) Transparent Radiation - Surgeon (2011) Having My Head is Felt - The Transcendence Orchestra (2021) Follow AIR on Instagram https://instagram.com/_airpodcast Support us on Patreon https://patreon.com/airpodcast

We’re back for 2022 with episode 41 of AIR, an interview podcast series with a different theme each episode. Joining me today is Spanish producer and DJ @jass-29. Silvia’s music first caught attention in 2017 when she put out her debut album Weightless, which was well-loved for its heavy use of drone, its avant-garde sound and its industrial mood, terms that JASSS’s intense DJ sets also came to be celebrated for. Now a seasoned artist in her prime, her sophomore record A World of Service, out now on @ostgutton-official, continues to explore those primal tones, not only in its sound but also in its visual elements and a custom made scent that accompanies each vinyl. As such, Silvia and I sat down to talk about music as a sensory experience — how we experience music through each of our five senses, how factors like drug use, social context, and emotionality enhance our artistic world, and the role of memory in our love of music. ++ Music: "Vapor Dentro" - JASSS (2021) "Camelo" - JASSS (2021) "Luis" - JASSS (2021) "Instantaneous Transmission Of Information" - JASSS (2017)

Can you believe?! This is the 40th episode of AIR, and this month’s guest is American composer, musician, and visual artist Charlemagne Palestine. Born and raised in New York, Charlemagne plays a wide variety of instruments — favouring hours-long pieces for piano and organ, often utilizing techniques like strumming that he himself has invented. His music is expansive both in tone and quantity, and his style has often been described as “playing an entire building.” In fact, I had intended the theme for today’s episode to be maximalism — but true to his own rebellious nature, Charlemagne almost immediately rejected the term’s usage in our interview. Instead, we approached the topic of a “total art experience,” the many ways he creates visceral music, and the physicality of playing. ++ Music: From "Four Manifestations on Six Elements" - Charlemagne Palestine (2020) "Strumming Music" - Charlemagne Palestine (1974) From "Schlingen-Blängen" - Charlemagne Palestine (1999) Clip of Charlemagne playing the carillon at AV Festival 2013 From "Four Manifestations on Six Elements" - Charlemagne Palestine (2020)

Episode 39 is the second instalment of our talks about mental health with producer and DJ object blue. London based object blue has quickly established herself as a producer and live performer to be reckoned with, finding solace in the making and playing of music. She has often been outspoken about battling with depression since she was a teenager, and has talked openly about how dark thoughts can interfere with her work. In this conversation, we delve into imposter syndrome, mental health and creativity, and the power of music as a healing force. ++ Music: "Cerco de Deus" - object blue (2018) "Bipp" - SOPHIE (2015) "Ecstasy of Saint Teresa" - object blue (2019) "Even in You" - object blue (2019) "Closed Open" - object blue (2021)

Episode 38 welcomes longtime AIR favourite Seth Horvitz, also known as Rrose. Initially bored with dance music early on, Seth had in mind to leave the club scene behind altogether before his studies at Mills College gave him a change of heart — he came back to techno, albeit in a completely new way. His music project and persona Rrose has become known for a forward-thinking take on music of all kinds. Whatever form the music takes, Rrose is an incredibly thoughtful artist, and together we dig into the precise and particular processes of composition, reinterpretation, and performance. ++ Music: "Bandage" - Rrose (2019) "Purge" - Rrose (2015) "Organ Study No. 1" - Rrose (2020) "Having Never Written a Note for Percussion" - James Tenney (Rrose reinterpretation (2015) "The Goldennn Meeenn + Sheeenn" - Charlemagne Palestine + Rrose (2019) "Mine" - Rrose (2019) "White/Drip" - Rrose (2012)

This month’s guest is Berlin based producer and DJ Joseph Richmond-Seaton, also known as @Call-Super. Perhaps best known for his incredible, often surreal, abstract, and psychedelic compositions like 2014’s breakthrough Suzi Ecto and 2017’s Arpo, Call Super’s love of music runs deep. He’s a dedicated producer, starting every day in the studio and working away the hours, whether he feels inspired or not. Music is one of the only pursuits, alongside drawing and painting, that allows him to reach a state of total presence — something he considers essential for happiness. In this conversation, we look back on Joe’s childhood, the escapism he’s found in music and art, and the nature of staying present. +++ Music: "Ekko Ink" - Call Super (2017) "Coney Storm Drain" - Call Super (2014) "Every Mouth Teeth Missing" - Call Super (2020) "Sulu Sekou" - Call Super (2014) "OK Werkmeister" - Call Super (2017)

Episode 36 meets one of my faves, German DJ and producer, @tinicouldbeworse. Although she never intended to make it her profession, tINI has always loved music. At home in Munich, she learned to mix early on and quickly fell in love with electronic music, balancing her work and her passion until she was ready to take the leap into pursuing DJing full time. Since then, she’s become an artist in her own right, putting out several releases and even starting her own now-infamous event series, @tiniandthegang. Despite over 20 years in the game, her approach to DJing remains deeply passionate. In this episode, we discuss her musical roots, her dedication to her craft, and the discipline required to stay afloat in this industry. ++ Music: "The Authentic Blach" - tINI (2019) "Monkeys Cave" - tINI (2011) Clip from tINI & Bill Patrick live at Sunwaves (2016) "What If, Then What?" - tINI ft. Amiture (2021) "That's Right" - tINI (2009) "Someone Loves You" - tINI (2011)

Episode 35 is an ambient music special with one of the genre’s contemporary luminaries and a personal favourite of mine, John Elliott, also known as Imaginary Softwoods. Although he’d be loathe to describe his work as ambient, John’s music as Imaginary Softwoods is celebrated for its deep, lush tones, beautiful synthwork, pensive melodies, and thoughtful samples. Perhaps best known for his band Emeralds, which disbanded in 2012, John has been making music as Imaginary Softwoods since 2008, releasing several incredible works on tape and on vinyl over the years, while simultaneously managing the @EditionsMego offshoot label @SpectrumSpools. In this conversation, John and I discuss the ins and outs of making, playing, and releasing ambient music, and what the genre has to offer in 2021. ++ Music: "Another First/Sea Machine" - Imaginary Softwoods (2020) "Overlook" - Tetsu Inoue (2007) "The Imminent Collapse Department" - Imaginary Softwoods (2020) "Court of Failure" - Imaginary Softwoods (2008) "Entrance Through Selenite Pillars" - Imaginary Softwoods (2016) "Vaporware 04" - Donato Dozzy Plays Bee Mask (2013) "Sapphire Point" - Imaginary Softwoods (2019)