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Dorian Concept - A Picture Of Dorian Concept

Author: 3D
Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Viennese sound artist Dorian Concept combines hip hop beats with a sonic salad of ambient, industrial and experimental noise. In Australia for Laneway and a few unique events, 3D chats with the boundary pusher.

There are a lot of 8-bit references in the sounds you both sample and get out of your keyboard. The jungle music in Donkey Kong Country on SNES has always been a favourite of mine, do you have any favourite soundtracks-
I’m a big 16-bit fan. So the Super Nintendo has been my favourite console really. I love the soundtracks from more unpopular games like Bubsy and The Claymates. From an 8-bit perspective I really have to say that I love Paperboy though.

You’re coming to Australia for the Laneway Festival, is it your first time here- Will you get any time off to enjoy the summer-
Yes, it will be my first time visiting Australia, even though it’s been one of my dream places to visit for a while now. Gladly I’ll have some time to hang around and enjoy the summer. In Vienna it’s freezing cold right now, so I’m really looking forward to the intensified sun.

Producing music so deeply rooted in hip hop, are you open to collaborations with MCs or do you prefer to keep it instrumental- Are there any MCs on the record-
Personally I prefer to keep it instrumental, but it really depends on the MC or vocalist. There’s definitely a handful of people I would love to work with, but at the moment it just feels right just to make music. The record will be MC-less.

When you play live, what comes with you- Any particular synths or programs that you won’t perform without-

My setup is rather simple. I fool around with Ableton Live on my laptop, have a Korg nano MIDI mixer and my trusty MicroKorg synthesiser. I mostly mess around with the tracks in Ableton a bit, and then just improvise over everything with my synthesiser: play new hooks, solos, chord changes and what not.

In your MySpace upcoming shows you’ve listed a gig at the Tate Modern, what’s that involve-
I think it’s going to be CDR night, maybe similar to the one I’m also doing in Sydney. I heard some rumours that it also has something to do with an event that’s trying to compare visual and audio art, but honestly I’m not really sure. Thanks to Mixmaster Morris I’ve also been included into a mix for a podcast on the homepage, so I think its best just to check it out at tate.org.uk.

What music led you to your current style of production- Did you have any favourite producers growing up-
Almost too many to mention, but hip hop was just the first music I consciously decided to listen to, or dig for; the first music that wasn’t fed to me through MTV, supermarkets and radio – so there are a bunch of influences in that genre. Back then I wasn’t really familiar with producers, but Pete Rock, Hi-Tek and J Dilla were those making the music I was digging for.

Prefuse 73 is a name that often comes up when journalists try to describe your sound. What artists would you ally yourself with-

Yeah, I love Prefuse 73’s output, have always been a big fan. I’m not sure, but I would probably ally myself with all kinds of people trying to find their own voice in contemporary electronic music. We’re all just trying to do our thing, really.

Do you play any gigs as a DJ- Are there any new records you really love to hear when you’re in the crowd-

I never really play as a DJ, even though I have quite a lot of vinyl. I’ll do my first DJ set in a couple of years together with Harmonic 313 in Vienna in a couple of months, but I will also take my synthesiser along, just in case I mess stuff up. There are always those tracks where I jump around when someone drops them, like Bullions’ Get Familiar, Dimlite’s Carlos Nino remix and Heralds of Change’s Bopp Gun. Definite classics for me.

WHO: Dorian Concept
WHAT: Speaks at CDR at Hermann’s Bar / Plays St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, Circular Quay / Space Is The Place at Hermann’s Bar
WHEN: Wednesday 4 February / Sunday 8 / Saturday 14
MORE: myspace.com/dorianconcept

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