Impressum

Nowadays, there's hardly a club without electronic-visual features, hardly an event without VJs. DIN AV 04/01/CN/86.03, the first release on brand new ~scape sub label dvdscape, highlights the personal and general development of this still relatively young VJ culture in which any division between art, commissioned work, club or high culture has become irrelevant. Initiated and curated by Berlin-based visomat inc (dedicated to the visualisation of music between media art and club culture since the mid-90s) this first instalment of an upcoming series provides insights into an extraordinarily vibrant and multi-faceted club video scene. Whether medial space design, installation, concept art, entertainment or simply aesthetic backdrop - the 7-10-minute VJ mixes featured on this DVD (set to the music of their choice) celebrate the renunciation of and return to the video clip in an evolutionary and self-renewing progression. Supplemented by extensive background and bonus material these mixes work both as audiovisual wallpaper and undivided attention grabbers. In separate interviews Pit Schulz questions all artists involved on the interrelation between image and music and the role of the VJ because in their approach to sources and chance (leaving everything or nothing to it) the VJs featured could hardly be more different: while Pfadfinderei favour the spontaneous mix - dismissing automatic synchronisation in favour of live improvisation - Rechenzentrum prefer to cultivate the equality and synchronicity of music and image in an almost traditional band format.

DIN AV 04/01/CI/86.03 opens with its curators VISOMAT INC and the gradual rise of a sine curve: a field is pegged out and slowly filled with sound and visuals. From small to large, from abstract to model city, until JAN JELINEK's beat adds a third dimension, a trembling blur to the prefab estate. Cuts, stripes and fields for a true memory effect. Visomat prefer to work with space itself and, with gentle implacability, pay homage to a city destined to return to its banal, abstract void. RECHENZENTRUM, on the other hand, self-proclaimed protagonists of "maladjusted electronica2, see computers and dictaphones as pragmatic means for their audiovisual symbioses. Sensory blips increase in mutual expectation: from modern minimalism to colour and beats, until sense and illusion make easy bedfellows. This de-glitched matrix is followed by a short, sharp cut to cinemascope: U-MATIC interlaces interstitial faults, system crashes and error messages into almost poetic gushes of colour to highlight the history of these non-moments. Her inherent rhythm is perfectly matched by SAFETY SCISSOR' sweepingly optimistic, breathless beats, fighting back with an equally astonishing fault tolerance. JUTOJO's analogue flickers of pictorial memories offer a bit of breathing space and take CHRISTIAN KLEINE's honeyed music onto a journey between day and dream. Cryptography on the remainders of celluloid and monochrome raindrops caught in the fading rays of the last 100 years of cinematography hint at shadows of arrival, associations of light and lines. JÖRG FRANZMANN sparks up the proceedings with circling splitscreens, girls and technology, quest and desire, with slogans of youth and hope to DIMBIMAN's track. Last but by no means least PFADFINDEREI turn out to be the only straightforward storytellers on this compilation: together with MODERAT (Modeselektor + Apparat) they stage an ordered kitchen apocalypse - saucy, spicy, racy and tasty. Don't try this at home, kids!

Almost the end, but hardly over: Stefan Betke/POLE emphasises the musician's and label owner's perspective of an audiovisual collaboration, ideally (as on this DVD) a mutual, symbiotic feedback way beyond the sum of its parts. For quick intermissions or endless pleasures remember to check out the included three screensavers to enhance your virtual standby mode or private soiree with missing content or the elegant, monochrome trickles of Satie.