Take 5 – Christopher Kah

christopherkah

We had a chat with Christopher Kah about his upcoming Ballet EP, his approach to creating music, plans for the future and more. Check out what he had to say below.

You’ve been getting a lot of support lately from the likes of Laurent Garnier & Luciano, to name a couple, in their sets. How does this support from your peers make you feel?

I’m really happy that my tracks are supported by the biggest ones. Especially by Laurent Garnier, who’s been supporting me from the beginning. I’ve always loved his philosophy, his approach to music, what he represents …! I feel proud and humble.

What can you tell us about your latest EP ‘Ballet’? What was the main idea behind it?

‘Ballet’ is a project I worked on for several months. Unlike most of my other tracks I usually compose in just a couple of days, or my actual concept RE:SOURCE (previously named LIMITED RESOURCE)
The starting point was to get the philosophy of acid sounds and add the depth of melody and the dancefloor side.

What is your approach to making music? Do you go into tracks with specific ideas or themes in mind or is your composition more improvisational?

Most of the time, it is improvisational. The first thing I do when I create music is searching one sound, capture it, and build a track around its heart, that’s the key for me!

Are you more in the digital or analogue corner?

Both, but for the composing part, more analogue, as I now totally integrate the RE:SOURCE concept.
Hardware allows me to compose music with my guts and soul much more easily.

It’s a sort of exclusive relationship you can not have with the virtual.

What’s the one piece of gear in your studio you can’t live without? And why?

Currently, I really enjoy working with Elektron machines.
It takes time to tame them, but once this process is done, I can go really far in the composition system and ideas, especially with Digitakt and Octatrack !

It wasn’t so long ago that you released ‘Limited Resource’, do you plan on continuing to release music at this rate?

Yes, definitely !
The very concept of RE:SOURCE is to express myself spontaneously. I’m much more efficient than before with this concept in terms of creativity and profuseness than just with dow.

You recently did a music class with children, what more can you tell us about that?

Yes, that was awesome! I paid a visit to a preschool, with children from 3 to 6 years old.
We looked at the machines, I explained and showed them the functions of a synthesizer, a drum machine, a vocoder, etc. Their reactions were really interesting. No filter, spontaneity, great sense of imagination. And we finally started to create a track, all together! There was lots of dancing, clapping and joy around! Fabulous experience.

What can we expect from you for the rest of the year?

I am working on several EPs due to be released on my own label, a new album for beginning of 2019; and … other great things going on I will soon unveil!

What producers have been really impressing you of late?

Laurent Garnier, especially for his open mindeness and eclecticism; Richie Hawtin for the concepts he develops, the genius creation of the MODEL1 and also his live performances as Plastikman.

What’s been your favourite release of the year so far?

Møhr / Danus Kart Invocation EP.

This EP is pure powerful techno. The depth of minimalism, mixed with the heaviness of repetition, ‘Fatigue Connection’ is THE track for me. “Future Point” is also a very good piece, haunting, beautiful, dark.

Christopher Kah – Ballet EP is out 31/08 on Highwav Records.

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