STIMMING x LAMBERT OPENAIR
CROSS SQUARE
18:00 - 20:00 Dj Biodan with Jana Věnečková
20:00 - 22:00 STIMMING X LAMBERT: POSITIVE
Listening to Stimming x Lambert’s first full length collection, Positive – also their first release for XXIM Records – you’d be forgiven for thinking it was the result of an intimate working partnership and monthsspent hunched over their ‘instruments’, bouncing ideas off one another and finetuning the results. It’s rare to hear a collaboration where two artistsbecome so tightly intertwined that, despite their vastly different musical backgrounds, it seems impossible theirs is the work of more than just one person.This is particularly notable since Lambert, known as ‘the piano man with the mask’, and Stimming, one of Germany’s most credible techno artists, have earned their reputations in contrasting musical fields, one performing in some of the world’s finest concert halls and the other in dirty nightclubs during the small hours. Here, though, they unite their respective disciplines to create one of the year’s most inventive, inspired albums, a masterpiece of piano melodies and electronic innovation which enrich the work of both.
Given recent events, their solitary procedures may not seem uncommon. Butthough the recent outbreak of Covid-19 was obviously horrifying, it didn’tprovokeLambert x Stimming– unlike many other musicians – to undertake an unusual project nor adopt an unfamiliar way of working. Instead, it made little difference to their relationship. “We just talked about how complicated life is as working parents,” Martin Stimming chuckles, “with the kindergarten closed.”And the reason nothing changed? Lambert x Stimminghave rarely met anyway, and, except when they go on tour,they’ve never had much need to. In fact, their alliance – which began with the release of a mini-album, Exodus, in 2018 .
“I came home from a club one night,” Stimming recalls, “and I admit I wasn’t sober!I was like, ‘OK, let’s hear this guy’s record’. I totally fell in love. Then I wrote on his Facebook page about how much my turntable and my living room liked his music. Clearly that was the right sentence.” Indeed, it was. “I replied instantly,” Lambert recalls, “because I like Stimming’s music. I only had a rough idea what a rave would feel like, but he liked my rhythmical approach and my melodies,and I liked his extraordinary feeling for structure and sound, never neglecting a strong idea that would keep his compositions consistent.” Stimming is full of similar praise for his colleague. “What I admire is how he makes something very accessible, but then has two or three twists where you think, ‘Oh, shit! This guy really knowswhat he’s doing!’”
There was only one thing for it. “We decided to meet in real life,” Lambert remembers,“had a short chat, then improvised together for several hours.”That, though, was it. Afterwards they returned to their homes – Stimming’s in Hamburg, Lambert’s in Berlin – never to unite in such circumstances again. “We share aesthetics and tastes,” Lambert continues, “but have a very different way of working to get the music where we want it to be.Sowe went back to our studios, encouraging each other to leave the safe spaces of our subgenres, even to explore production techniques far from our usual habits.” This unusually unsociable processhas sinceprovendependable, but never more so than with Positive. “I challenged him to rethink his behaviour,” Stimming says, “which also challenged me to adapt to what he came back with. I was a bit of a troublemaker, but most of the time it was valuable because the result was better. If someone’s a very good, close friend, things like this can become difficult. If we’re working separately, I don’t see it as a problem.
”Nonetheless, if their methodology didn’t change, somethings did.By late 2019, Stimming x Lambert had in fact completed their debut album and werealready discussing its release, but afterlockdown arrivedStimming revisited their work. “I realised there were three or four tracks,” he recalls,“whichdetracted from the others. I suggested we throw them out.” The duo didn’t exactly argue about this – “We never fight,” Stimming insists – but Lambert remembers he was, albeit briefly, annoyed. “Especially because I knew he was right!” he admits. “The world was changing, and the music had to reflect that somehow.”SoLambert stepped back from what he calls his “safe and cosy piano sound,” embracing his few lo-fi analogue synths. Stimming, for his part, experimented with new rhythmic techniques, exploiting his versatile understanding of synthesised sound to explore uncharted electro-acoustic territory.
In the end, it’s taken the best part of three and a half years to complete Positive, sonamedpartially to reflect the word’s changed implications in a world full of rapid testing. “Nowadays,” Stimming reminds us wryly,“positive is the new negative.” The album, however, also provided a source of connection, a goal to keep them motivated, and light at the end of the tunnel.More ambitious, complex, extravagant and sophisticated than their first collection, with far broader horizons, it embraces multiple styles – among them electronica,ambient, jazz, downtempo,classical,theavant-garde, often simultaneously–voyaging into exotic, exhilarating territory, distinguished by Lambert’s remarkable melodies and Stimming’s meticulous production.From ‘Intro’s shimmering beauty to ‘Child’s Play’’s closing elegance – via the playful ‘Detektei Lambert’, ‘Morgentau’’s unsettling, stuttering grooves, the cinematic ‘Laura’ and ‘Pocket Tragedy’, the fragile ‘Der GrueneGnom’, the quietly uplifting ‘Newborn’ and ‘Gluehwuermchen’’s warmth – it speaks of companionship even at a time of isolation. That they emerged from such circumstances with something so engaging proves how successful they – and indeed their music –areat cultivating a sense of optimism. Like the album’s title, these things are always a matter of perspective, and on Positive both artists allow themselves, and encourage one another, to investigate bold, new universes.
HOUSE STAGE
22:00 Dj Biodan
00:00 Hello Marcel live
01:30 Furrier (PL)
03:00 Täino
04:30 Lewis P
TECHNO BASEMENT
ka.za
