Collection 6 by KALTBLUT Magazine

COLLECTION 6

THIS ISSUE IS DEDICATED TO Oryanne Dufour I Aynur Pektas I Dirk-Peter Wiegmann I Anina Brosius I Juan Ernesto Oliveros Muller I Carina Jahn I Deborah Frey I Fabian Kalker I Erwin Stranintzky I Birge George I Romain Grandveaud I Anna Willert I Martin Strauss I Andrea Hoppe I Dana Mikelson I Silke Wilhelm I Valquire I Philipp Bruening I Franco Erre I Thomas Gastl I Gonny Glass I Georg Szablowski I Charli Howard I Christine Kreiselmeier I Urban Spree GmbH I Attila Huber I Daisy Walker I Jenna Lee I Sherion Mullings I Robert Logemann I Jochen Sand I Gabriella Barouch I Fotis Vazakas I Tussunee Roadjanarungtong I Steve Pletscher I Irmela Schwengler I The WYE GmbH I Marc Majewski I Fabian Blascke I Fak Yeah Clothing I Sven Stienen I Vatilis Neufeld I Stefan Nott I Christian Born I Contentement I Zsuzsanna Majadan I Kristin Lawrenz I Richard Dubieniec I Rosa Morelli I The Candy Factory Studio I John Morrison I Lucie Le Hir I Michael Woischneck I Marine Drouan I Jerome Karsenti I Torsten Grewe I Astafyeva Tatiana I Katrin Cremer I Anthracite I Shantu Bhattacharjee I Frank Wilde I Danielle Shami I Karsten Schulz I Karl Slater I Peter Wiklund I Robert Sacheli I Birte Meyer I Robert Kothe I Orestes Hellewegen I Kobald TV I Caroline Burnett I Florian Mass I Mads Dinesen I Marie Staggat I Sören Münzer I Felipe Torres Basave I Mario Seyer I Marc Handke I Eva Vorsmann I David Bennett I Arkadij Koscheew I Chantal Henken I Helge Langensiepen I Karina Schönberger I Anna-Christina Faust I Lisa Ladke I Voodoo Market I Suzana Holtgrave I Anita Krizanovic

THANK YOU

Spectacular programme with

More then 100 talents from all over the world.

fashion shows / exhibition / performances / designer market and more.

(The Netherlands)

6th edition of the international and interdisciplinary fashion festival in Maastricht

June

until

web

fashionclash.nl

June

photo: hordur ingason

Editor-in-Chief Fashion Editor

Marcel Schlutt

Art Director

Nicolas Simoneau

Art Editors

Amanda M. Jansson

mschlutt@kaltblut-magazine.com nsimoneau@kaltblut-magazine.com ajansson@kaltblut-magazine.com

Emma E.K. Jones

ejones@kaltblut-magazine.com

Music Editors

Amy Heaton

amyheaton@kaltblut-magazine.com

Ange Suprowicz

Photo by Lucio Aru & Franco Erre

ange.suprowicz@kaltblut-magazine.com

“If death doesn’t kill you, my demons will!” That could certainly be one way of summarising the past few weeks we’ve had here. The last months have been a difficult time for us at KALTBLUT. You could even talk of a cloak of darkness that was veiled over us. But we wouldn’t be KALTBLUT Magazine if we didn’t turn this around into something positive. We learnt a lot, both in terms of trust and how the magazine and fashion markets work. It’s not always easy to stay true to yourself but KALTBLUT Magazine stands for candour, strength and morality and this will always remain the same regardless of darker times. Noire is the theme for this issue. Black in fashion, in art and in music. Why the fascination with black? It was revealing to see how artists formed their own version of the theme. This issue celebrates two years of KALTBLUT Magazine and at this point of the journey we’d like to thank all our friends and family, artists and agencies. You continued believing in us, supported us and never shied away from offering us constructive criticism. Due to you we managed to grow up. We are more proud than ever to show our latest issue. A lot has changed. We’ve deliberately decided to publish the magazine with 208 pages, meaning we’re able to lower the price from 30 EURO to 14 EURO. We hope you like it and support the change. This issue is the most personal one for us all. A lot of tears were shed, it was a difficult journey but it was certainly worth it. Yours Marcel and the team

Movie Editor

Claudio Alavargonzalez Tera

Fashion Assistant

Nico Sutor

Brazil Editors

Mauricio & Aleesandro Lázaro

UK Editor

Karl Slater

Translation / Proofreading

Amy Heaton, Ange Suprowicz , Amanda M.Jansson, Bénédicte Lelong

calvargonzaleztera@kaltblut-magazine.com nsutor@kaltblut-magazine.com brazil@kaltblut-magazine.com

karlslater@kaltblut-magazine.com

Pernille Sandberg / Photographer

www.pernillesandberg.com Pernille is a well-known photographer based in Berlin and Copenhagen. For this issue, Pernille visited the fashion label Augustin Teboul in their studio and had a chat about the fashion.

Nik Pate / Photographer

www.nikpate.com Nik is a London-based fashion photographer and digital artist. Mister Pate is an upcoming artist in the UK and this is our first collaboration with him and we are proud to showcase two of his works.

Suzana Holtgrave / Photographer

www.suzanaholtgrave.com Once again, the Berlin-based photography icon has produced 2 amazing editorials for us. Suzana has been part of our journey from the very beginning. We are sure you’re familiar with her work.

Agnese Pagliano / Graphic designer www.agnesepagliano.com

Agnese is a freelance graphic designer. She has already worked with severals magazines and has made a notable contribution to this issue. She is obsessed with typography and loves to create new fonts in her free time.

Eileen Rullmann / Photographer www.art-photographie.com

Eileen is a still life photographer based in Hamburg. She specialises in macro photography, particularly focussing on insects. Her eye for detail and her aesthetics have allowed her work to be published in Vogue Italia.

Model: Melanie Gaydos, Photography by Maren Michaelis, Dress by Augustin Teboul, Postproduction by Florian Hetz - florian.hetz@me.com -

www.kaltblut-magazine.com KALTBLUT Magazine is published by KALTBLUT Media UG, Nicolas Simoneau & Marcel Schlutt

K A LT B L U T M A G A Z I N E I G r ü n b e r g e r s t ra s s e 3 I 1 0 2 4 3 B e r l i n I G e r m a n y

p.12 Dark Travelers p.20 Darkside p.26 Sketch Book p.30 The Last Supper Fashion Story

Interview

Illustrations by Jean Khalife

Fashion Story

p.38 Melanie Gaydos Fashion Story + Interview

Faces You Should Know p.46 Berlin p.50 The Widows p.58 Pins p.60 Decode of The Dead p.66 Pictures p.68 Paint It Black p.77 Joseba Eskubi p.80 Nachkriegszeit p.86 Horror-Shaping Art p.88 Heraista p.96 Into Brackets p.100 Black Metal Fashion Story

Interview

Fashion Story

Article

Fashion Story

Interview

Fashion Story

Article

Beauty Editorial

Interviews

Fashion Story

p.106 Augustin Teboul Interview

p.112 Marika p.120 Mehryl Levisse p.124 Cunt Cunt Chanel p.126 Must Have Fashion Story

Interview

p.127 Dear Bad Bed Bug

p.128 Queen of Sorcery Fashion Story

p.134 Gesaffelstein p.136 Lines Of Life p.142 Eirik Lyster p.145 Love & Malice p.150 Austra p.154 Ana Alcazar p.164 c355p001 Portrait

Fashion Story

Interview

Fashion Story

Interview

Fashion Story + Interview

Interview

p.166 Concrete Fashion Story

p.174 Gustavo Jononovich p.178 The X-Insider p.180 Termites Left Of The Noire? p.184 What's p.186 TrentemĂ¸ller p.190 Susanne Bosslau p.196 Kerby Rosanes p.198 Must Wear Interview

Interview with M

Photo Story

Column

Interview

Interview + Fashion Story

Interview

p.200 Sorry My Love Fashion Story

p.206 Humphrey Bogart p.208 CraZay Giveaway p.209 (End).itorial Portrait

12 Jacket: Sadak

Dark Travelers Photographers: Lucio Aru and Franco Erre www.errearuphotography.com Stylist: Crystal Birch www.therealcrystalbirch.comÂ Agency: Glossartistmanagement.co.za Assistants: Micheal Mosel and Moritz Jasper Hair and Make-Up artist: Janine Pritschow www.janinepritschow.com Agency: Glossartistmanagement.co.za Models: Franz and Nicholai at ultmodels

13 Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Studio Laend Phuengkit, Scarf: Stylist’s own, Cape: Preview5, Trousers: Comme des Garçons, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester

Shirt: Sopopular, Coat: Julia Heuse

14 Shirt: Sopopular

Hat: Mads Dinesen, Shirt: Preview5

15 Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Studio Laend Phuengkit, Scarf: Stylists own, Cape: Preview5, Trousers: Comme des Garรงons, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester

17 Franz (left) Top: Sadak, Trousers: Ethel Vaughn, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden, Nicholai (right) Coat: Laend Phuengkit, Knitwear: Tiger of Sweden, Trousers: Bobby Kolade, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester

18 Nicholai (below) Shirt: Sadak, Trousers: Julia Heuse, Boots: Ann Demeulemeester, Franz (above) Jacket: Sadak, Trousers: Sopopular, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden

Trousers: Ethel Vaughn

19 Nicholai (left) Glasses: Kuboraum, Knitwear: Tiger of Sweden, Trousers: Sadak, Shoes: Tiger of Sweden, Franz Hat: Mads Dinesen, Coat: Bobby Kolade, Trousers: Ethel Vaughn, Shoes: Ann Demeulemeester

DARKSIDE: 20

A Lesson In Patience

the seven minutes of its duration; and in a record that fits an incredible amount of music into a compact 45 minutes, the silences themselves are moments of active listening too, with unintentional things happening between the beats. The opening track is eleven minutes long and it takes four full minutes for the tinkering to do its thing, to dissolve from a space-radio crackle into a beat that’s both melodic and methodical as it meanders and experiments into a heavy-lidded, inebriated swell. The first single Paper Trails with its singed blue riffs in the middle of the record is the album’s one only narrative and Freak, Go Home encompasses a constant fluidity between acoustic and digital percussion. Unhurried yet insistent; the record cogs away before it can get personal; Jaar and Harrington tease the concept of scale, the desire to instil wonder. The record is intimate: it’s a journey- from start to finish, to the celestial, to the otherworldly- that beckons you further: the longer you spend with Psychic, the more you sink into its depths, speeds, sounds and findings. Dropping you in from nowhere, there’s a driving force but don’t try to define As a producer who’s known for bringing dance it; it takes its time to coalesce, and as soon as an ostensible connection is made, it’s gone music down to 100 BPM or lower, he’s created an atmosphere that’s unconventional and again- fleeting and departing as quickly as it appeared. What grounds the record is Jaar’s unprecedented. The crowd’s patience is not uniquely congested vocals that eke in over a left underserving; Jaar delivers in pitches that persist and peak. In remixing the entire- gentle pulse of synth-dappled drones leaving ty of Daft Punk’s Random Access Memories the listener engulfed in the realisation that he has a voice where you never expect him earlier this year and renaming their project to mean exactly what he says. Live, the duo Daftside, Jaar and his musical partner shed gives a performance that displays both resa light on their unequivocal ability to find something else in the music- their inclination traint and a high level of skill- like the feel of the whole album: the sounds bulge as soon to take big moments and make them small, they burst, never giving away too much. In turning them inward – an achievement noted conversation, Jaar and Harrington are artifor its remarkable turnaround rate. In contculate, dedicated and gregarious; the former rast, the duo’s full-length album took a full passionate and insightful- with a careful, two years to produce and reflects Jaar’s eye for detail and the care he dedicates into every organised sense of self that belies his age. aspect he presents. Released on Jaar’s brand The pair’s full-length effort spills with sounds that self-ignite, over take one another, and new imprint and subscription service, Other combine at imperceptible speeds, whether People, predecessor to his first record label Clown & Sunset, Psychic beckons the listener solo or layered. Patiently and steadily, the rhythms, the meaning, the story rises and to slow down and move at its pace. reaches a state of euphoria without divulging that it was up anything at all- which, come Exploratory, confrontational and wandering, Psychic is full of characteristically long Jaar to think of it, is much like the collaboration itself. songs, that feeling of “the song has you” for Experimenting with electronic music at the tender age of 14, making his debut on Wolf + Lamb three years later, forming his own record label and releasing his critically acclaimed debut album before turning 21 or graduating: Nicolas Jaar may have gotten off to an early start, but he’s in no hurry to get anywhere fast. Disinterested in dwelling on the past or former glories, he’s invested in new beginnings and startling collaborations. The electro wunderkind has paired up with multi-instrumentalist Dave Harrington to create Darkside; a project that sees Jaar bringing his raspy baritone to air amongst warmly played keyboards, tactile electronic textures and other sundries. Slowhand Dire Strait leads might be the last thing you’d expect an electronic producer to bring to his records, but if there’s anything we’ve learnt from Jaar in the last years it’s: don’t expect. Subtlety, strangeness and difference: the precocious producer is giving listeners what they want. Nicolas Jaar is invested in developing a singular style and letting it patiently evolve over time.

21 Interview by Ange Suprowicz Photo credit: Other People / Matador

“…Sometimes things take their time. It’s sad sometimes; it’s frustrating sometimes but it’s also just very real… and I love the very simple fact when something finally happens you realise ‘Oh, it couldn’t have ever happened before. It needed to happen now.” KALTBLUT: First of all, huge congratulations on the album. It’s sensational. The recording process spun over two years and critics have been quick to comment that the record reflects that. I like to think you’re teaching listeners the virtue of patience and deliberation. Does this ring true? Nico: That’s nice. Dave: That is really nice. Nico: Patience… Dave: Patience… Nico: We had a song called ‘Patience’, we haven’t written yet. Dave: I think that those things are things that we both value. We share that in things that we like… and more important than just things, the experience of music for both of us has a lot to do with that and that is a very real point of connection and so if that’s coming through, then it’s very honest. Nico: And life takes its time y’know, sometimes things take their time. It’s sad sometimes; it’s frustrating sometimes but it’s also just very real and I love the very simple fact if something just takes two years to happen; something you’ve been waiting for finally happens then you realise ‘Oh, it couldn’t have ever happened before. It needed to happen now.’ Y’know that feeling of in... inevit… what is it? Dave: Inevitability. Nico: Inevita... Inevitability! Boom. That’s very real. We didn’t necessarily write songs or tracks we just wrote a fifty minute thing in a way, and so in the light of that we did want to tell a story that was a little bit more subdued, that hopefully you could sink into and that maybe the first time you listen to it you would tell yourself ‘this is an orb that maybe I want to sink into’. And I’m saying that in the friendliest way possible… it’s not a challenge at all.

KALTBLUT: It’s interesting, the theme of challenge. When you first started together you said it was tough, wasn’t what you expected and it required a lot of work. What was it that kept you pushing and motivated? Nico: When did we say that? Dave: Doesn’t sound like something I’d say. Nico: Nope, I think that’s probably like a bad German translation… KALTBLUT: I was surprised it didn’t seem like something that would apply to you… Dave: Maybe you could set the record straight. It’s so easy and fun and that’s why we kept doing it. Nico: It came about naturally. The end of anything is much harder because we needed to actually make some true, miniscule decisions. But at the beginning, no- that was all play. That was all fun. KALTBLUT: Nico, the idea of Darkside came to you to make a more blues orientated guitar heavy project… Nico: No, it didn’t really come to me. It was more the combination of Dave and I sitting down one day and making music together. It wasn’t a project that I had I in mind and I’m gonna do this. It was more… Dave and I just met each other and we decided to make music one day and then it happened. KALTBLUT: You started Darkside two years ago in Berlin and Nico you’ve commented that Berghain is your favourite place to play. How is it for you both to be back in this venue and city at the start of your Psychic tour? Dave: Yeah we made our first song in Berlin.

23 Nico: That’s the only song we made in Berlin. It’s amazing being back. I can’t wait to play. I actually had Berghain in mind when I wrote the record. The sad thing about that is that when you really love a space, there’s few clubs in the world that I love and that I don’t want to play anywhere else. I just want to continue playing in this place hopefully until I’m like old y’know? (laughs) When you don’t have a show that’s as good as you want it, it’s such a shame because everything is so perfect. It’s a perfect club. The pressure is higher in a way because you want to, not live up, but you want to adhere to the club. KALTBLUT: You’ve said before that where you play your music changes everything. For those unable to experience you live, what would be the best sitting to listen to the record in? Dave: If you’re sticking around for the show you’ll see that it is and it isn’t like the record, just for the record (laughs) My answer to this would be: wherever they want to listen to it, in a meaningful way not like a (distorts his voice) “listen to it wherever you want to”. I love records where I feel like I make it my “this-record”, it’s the record I listen to when I can’t sleep or this is the record I listen to when it’s a beautiful day out and I’m walking around. Nico: Or if you’re driving. Dave: Yeah if you’re driving… things that are very personal. Hopefully people can be personal with it. KALTBLUT: It’s been said that there’s a gravitational pull in the record that only exists in music made by Nicolas Jaar. What is this pull, this hype that surrounds you and how do you sustain it? Nico: Excuse me? I said that?

KALTBLUT: No no, you didn’t… (laughs) Nico: Oh, thank god. I honestly don’t see how any of the music that we made as Darkside has that much to do with me. I think why I decided to make this project, to be in this position of being in a duo instead of doing my own thing etcetera etcetera is because I believe in the fact that we’re creating a different sound than what I do and that whatever… thing that he’s talking about y’know, maybe that’s his own subjective way but for me this is a band and a band that makes songs together and if anything I’m excited to not be the sole maker of decisions and the sole maker of the music. I’ve been doing that for five years and now it’s exciting to not do it. KALTBLUT: So let me ask you: do you think you establish connections between genres or pronounce differences? Something that’s very apparent is that there are no rules to your work… Nico: I… I love the idea of no rules by the way. That’s… I’m happy that at least you can see that because that’s very exciting to me. One of the most important things about just talking about genre, which I like talking about… I don’t hate talking about genre; I actually like talking about it a lot because it is interesting. I don’t think it’s interesting to make music in a very specific genre in order to do certain things… I mean you can use genre, I think that’s the most exciting thing. But one thing I wanted to say, in the ‘base form’ there are certain things about music that have been co-opted by music’s ability to sell. And genre is one of them and so I get very excited when I see music that can be appealing but that maybe finds a way out of very, very specific cultural and musical statements because in my utopian mind that I still think I have, music that makes you

“The most important thing is to defy being used, defy being labelled, defy all these things, maybe create a tiny space for yourself where you don’t have rules because rules are the things that create a lot of the problems that this time has.”

24 question it makes you question a lot of different things if you actually think about it, not only music. I think that’s the small role that an artist can have today because our role is getting smaller and smaller and we’re getting used more and more, right? We’re just getting used more by everyone. Not me, artists in general so I think the most important thing is to defy being used, defy being labelled, defy all these things, maybe create a tiny space for yourself where you don’t have rules because rules are the things that create a lot of the problems that this time has. KALTBLUT: Drawing on the point about music being co-opted by it’s ability to sell … you’ve said before that you hate CDs and you think the music industry is just out to sell drinks. Nico: The CD thing is just a stupid thing I thought for a while. I don’t know why I was so against them, I actually don’t really care. I don’t want to be mean to your question though; the truth is I actually don’t care... I’m not anti- it… in one interview, in the one stupid interview where I said that, because I do feel stupid that I talked about it in that way… what I actually meant to say is that CDs were invented with a specific amount of time, with a weight and with a design that was easiest to sell and we should think about that. That’s all I was saying. The context of that is huge. KALTBLUT: So you designed The Prism as a contrast to that? Nico: Yeah, but that’s also a primitive idea of hopefully a better idea that I’ll have at some point, because that’s still not the answer at all.

KALTBLUT: It’s been noted that you have some distinctly old fashioned ideas about art and integrity. Your sound and musical tropes reference things before your time. Simply put, do you think things were simpler in the past? Dave: I wouldn’t really presume to know (laughs) I mean, the short answer is no. I think that’s kind of a binary that relies on facile idea of history that Nico and I wouldn’t think. If there are sounds or things that are feel that they’re from another time then its because we live in the era of the über-archive, like the total and so, what that means is that…what ends up becoming the fabric of internal life, one’s creative life is built on thousands of years of history because now we’ve fully archived it in a very intense way. On a fundamental music level that means you become influenced by, and this is my impression, things that aren’t in your city, in your year… right now I’m reading the biography of Derek Bailey, a free improviser guitarist and he talks about growing up in England before WW1 if you wanted music, he grew up in a small industrial town, you had to go see it at the pub, that’s a real thing. They couldn’t afford records, if you wanted to hear music; this was 70 years ago… Nico: Only… Dave: Yeah, only 70 years… you’d have to go down the street or drive to the next town to hear whoever had taught themselves whatever it is they were going to do over there and so now and we live on the opposite end of that spectrum. If I’m hungry and I’m curious about different things, they inevitably seep into you because you live in this archive.

KALTBLUT: True to its title, Psychic is not a heart to heart but an extra sensory telepathic exchange. How important was the name giving of both Darkside and Psychic on a personal level? Nico: You mean the actual words? So the second we finished our first song, this word ‘dark side’ was in the air between us. It wasn’t the band name; we were just using it a lot. Dave: It became a descriptor of a feeling or experience, y’know if something got deep we’d be like ‘dark side’ or if something was a little bit crazy… Nico: So when we finished our first song, we were like ‘dark side’. And then we were like, whoa that should be our name. And that’s it. We never spoke about it again. It’s a placeholder. And it’s meant to be that. There’s no meaning. There’s no meaning. It’s a placeholder. It’s a colour of a shirt, right? It’s just a black shirt; it doesn’t say anything. But it says a little bit… because it’s black, it’s not white, it’s not stripy. It’s just a black shirt. Psychic is…. (hearing music in the background) Oh, they’re playing Val…the DJ is. Dave: Oh, snap! Nico: Isn’t that so cute? Dave: That’s amazing. Nico: That shit blows my mind. What were talking about? KALBLUT: The naming of Psychic… Nico: So Psychic was a little more deliberate because we did feel like there were certain things about the record that we wanted to give to people; like these were some of the things we were thinking about. And the idea of each other’s mind and creating a telepathic exchange is exciting to us… that’s so exciting to us.

www.darksideusa.com

FA C E B O O K . C O M / P H I L I P S S O U N D TW I T T E R . C OM/ Y NT HT _ DE PLAY. S POT IF Y. C OM/ U SER/Y N T HT

MACHT SCHÖN ... ... WE I L DU M IT DE M KOM PAKTE N , FALTBARE N DE S IGN N IC HT N U R DE IN E KO PFHÖRE R IN DI E TA SC H E STEC KST.

MACHT LAUT ... ... WE I L DI R DI E C ITI SC A PE FR AM E S M IT I H RE N WE IC H E N ON E AR- P OL STE RN E X ZE LLE NTE N SO U N D LI E FE RN .

SHL 5705

MACHT SPASS … ... WE I L DU DAN K DE S INTEGRI E RTE N M I KROFON S J E DE R ZE IT Z WI SC H E N M U S I K U N D TE LE FON I E WEC H S E LN K AN N ST.

E RLE B E M U S I K WI E NOC H N I E ZU VOR W W W.YO U N E E D T O H E A R T H I S . C O M

ENTDECKE DIE KOMPLETTE RANGE UNTER WWW.PHILIPS.DE/HEADPHONES

SKETCH Almost like an extension of themselves, the sketch book is an indispensable part to every artist. Bursting with ideas, thoughts and doodles, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where the magic begins. Every issue we approach one artist and present them with a blank page to allow their imagination run wild. The first guest for this brand new feature is Jean Khalife, product designer of Vans Europe. Jean can also be found on Instagram via his illustrator name JOHN KAISER KNIGHT.

THE LAST SUPPER 31

Photographed by Gal Reuveni Styled by Marina Milcheva Models: Blake Myers, Sofya Titova, Natasha Ramachandran @Next Model Management

To p - B a l m a i n , R i n g s - To p s h o p , B e l t - E v i s , M o d e l : N at a s h a R a m a c h a n d r a n

Leather Biker Jacket - Evis, Skirt - Zara , Belt - Balmain, Sunglasses - Ray Ban, Model: Blake Myers

Leather Vest & Leather Biker Jacket â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Evis, Models: Natasha Ramachandran & Sofya Titova

Jumpsuit - Gucci, Belt - Moschino, Model: Sofya Titova

Melanie Gaydos

The Queen From Outta Space!

Interview by Marcel Schlutt Photography by Maren Michaelis www.marenmichaelis.com Styling: Carrie Bass (alter.ego) Hair & Make-up: Deniz Mouratoglou (alter.ego) contact@alterego-art.de

Some human beings are so special, they must simply be from outer space, can’t come from this planet. New York based model and artist Melanie Gaydos is one of them. Officially born in Connecticut, but I am sure this is a legend, Miss Gaydos is gifted with the most special looks and a big heart. She was born to be a model. During these last years, we have worked with so many models but none of them revealed that much of her own personality in front of the camera. She is not afraid of being naked and so easy to work with, that I would like to just book her again and again, right away. Together with photographer Maren Michaelis, she has produced one of the most amazing editorials for our magazine. Yes, she is not that typical boring beauty model. Her beauty is on another level. I don’t see how any of the “normal” models could compare to her. I had the pleasure of interviewing Melanie and after the interview I am 100 % sure that she is not from Earth. She is : The Queen From Outta Space!

39 KALTBLUT: Hallo Melanie. First at all I have to say: I adore your photos in our editorial, and having had a look through your portfolio. You have some amazing photographs. On every photo you look so strong, as if you are born to do this. Was modelling something you always wanted to do? Melanie: Hallo! Thank you so much, when I was younger I had a dream of being on a billboard. I never thought I would be modelling, though I am sure this is something every little girl may dream about. I don’t think I ever thought I could model, but I wanted to be someone important. I guess in general I always had a fascination with something being “larger than life.” KALTBLUT: You take some amazing photos in each shot: which story or editorial is your favourite so far? Melanie: I really enjoy all of the photo shoots that I take part in so it is so hard to choose!! My favourite projects would have to be (in chronological order) the Rammstein video shoot for “Mein Herz Brennt” directed by Eugenio Recuenco and the current editorial by Maren Michaelis for your magazine KALTBLUT. I also really loved one of my last projects in Germany, a collaboration with photographer Christian Martin Weiss. KALTBLUT: Can you tell us something about your background? All I know is that you live in New York. Are you born and raised there? How did little Melanie grow up? Melanie: I grew up in Connecticut, a suburban town an hour or so outside of NYC. I moved to NYC about three years ago while transferring art schools. I had kind of a rough childhood with my peers and family life, but I always found solace in artwork and the outdoors. Since moving to NYC, I miss living in the forest most of all! KALTBLUT: What was your dream growing up? And why? Melanie: I had always wanted to be an artist growing up. This really paved the way for all of my childhood and before I started modelling, I was a fine artist and studied in school for a degree. Being an artist is the complete freedom to do whatever you wanted to do, and basically the freedom without any excuses to just be who you are. KALTBLUT: You have quite a unique look: and as I can see in your portfolio you don’t have any problems with being nude in front of a camera. Where is this confidence coming from?

Melanie: Sometimes it surprises me how comfortable I am with nudity as well. I think it comes from a variety of things but I’ve always just been comfortable with it. I’ve had to endure a lot physically and psychologically when I was younger so I think I’ve had to learn at an early age how to accept and be comfortable with my own body. Nudity is our purest form and most natural state. It doesn’t matter to me if I am clothed or nude, there is so much our bodies can say regardless. KALTBLUT: You have a very good body. Do you work out a lot in the gym? Or is it nature? How important do you think it is for a model to stay in shape? Melanie: Thank you, no I don’t work out or go to the gym. I do have a very high metabolism and am naturally thin. I used to go to the gym when I was younger just to stay fit or accompany friends. I always think it is a good idea to stay healthy and really enjoy being active in general. Living in cities or even the forest really helps, you just walk everywhere! When I first started modelling, I worked primarily in the ˝art nude“ world where the subject’s body is encouraged to have character and to really embrace who you are outside of society’s ideals. As I shoot more on industry related sets, I definitely see and can understand the pressure models have nowadays to maintain their image. As individuals, we evolve and our ideals change. I think all people have the right to be happy and healthy. KALTBLUT: Do you live from modelling? Or do you have a normal job to pay the rent? Melanie: I am a full time model so yes this is how I live! At times it is difficult, especially just being a freelancer in general but I can not think of anything else I would rather be doing. I’m very open to creativity and opportunities, but modelling is by far the most enjoyable for me. KALTBLUT: As I said before you live in New York: capital of all cities in the world. How does a normal day usually pan out for you? Melanie: Haha well it is probably a lot less exciting or stable than one would think! My schedule varies day by day. I also live in Brooklyn which is a borough separated from Manhattan (”the city”). Life in Brooklyn is a lot more relaxed than living right in the heart of New York. A typical day is waking up and having breakfast, then taking the subway into Manhattan or wherever my shoot may be. The subways are pret-

ty much amazing here because they usually pan out anywhere you need to go. Once I leave my neighborhood, it is very busy and I just get swept into the momentum of the city. I love waking up to go to shoots and then depending on how much time I have in between shoot schedules, or how long of a day it was, I love running errands after and having dinner. KALTBLUT: As you know the theme of our issue is Noire. We just love every thing dark. What kind of imagery does this word conjure up for you? Melanie: Noire to me is like a sexy smoke screen. There are a lot of layers and hidden subtleties. It is very mysterious and elegant in my opinion. KALTBLUT: Can you share one of your worst nightmares with us? We all have bad dreams from time to time. What is yours? Melanie: This may sound awful, but as I get older I can no longer really tell what would constitute as a bad dream. Sure I have unpleasant dreams but when I wake, I have the understanding that it is my subconscious and I always really try to learn from those messages: such as why do I have fear, and how could I overcome it? When I was younger I would always have nightmares, now that I am older I don’t have as many and I guess in the rarity that they do occur, it is a visitation to something in my past. I don’t like to dream about people that I’ve had negative experiences with! KALTBLUT: Where would you say is the darkest place in New York? Melanie: I think the darkest place in New York is the darkest place anywhere in the world, in the negativity of one’s own mind. KALTBLUT: Our shoot was on location in Berlin. Do you like our hometown? How many times have you been here? And where do you hang out when you are here? Melanie: I absolutely LOVED Berlin! Absolutely. I have been to Berlin once before during a video shoot for the band Rammstein, but I did not get to travel around the city or see much as I was on a tight production schedule. Even though I was in Germany for about a month, I was shooting almost everyday and I had spent a few days in Munich as well. The times I did get to hang out in Berlin, I really liked walking around Mitte, and Kreuzberg for a bit.

Dress: Moga E Mago

Dress: Augustin Teboul

42 Blouse: Stylestalker

43 Clothing: Immortal by Thomas Hanish

45 KALTBLUT: What makes Berlin a place to be for you? And what is different here to New York? Melanie: I really love Berlin’s energy. I feel a certain sense of calm and relaxation. I think I feel most grounded there, naturally without even trying :P The air is fresh and crisp, and really that is the difference there than in New York! This was the first time I was able to “live” somewhere outside of the USA for a while, and in returning, I see a large difference in the way people interact with one another. I think people are much more friendly and open than in New York. New York is just a very busy city, everyone is living their own lives. KALTBLUT: I know you have worked with Rammstein. For the video “Mein Herz Brennt”. How was it to work with the international superstars? Melanie: It was very, very nice. A really wonderful experience to be on a large production set, I had learned a lot from that shoot and had only been modelling for about five months at the time. The band mates are all very nice and sweet guys as well. KALTBLUT: Do you know any other German artists? Are there any you would particularly like to work with? Melanie: I would really love to meet and shoot with Karl Lagerfeld. I don’t know of many other German artists aside from the people I have met and shot with during my last trip. They’re all very beautiful and amazing people, I am so happy to have met them. I really loved Germany though, and would visit again any time! KALTBLUT: Melanie thank you very much for the photos, the interview and your time for KALTBLUT. It will be not the last time we work together. I swear! Melanie: Xoxo, thank you KALTBLUT so much!! I really loved shooting with you and look forward to talking with you again! Dress: Augustin Teboul Hairpiece: Moga E Mago

BERLIN Faces

By Fleur Helluin

“When it comes to the future, there are three kinds of people: those who let it happen, those who make it happen, and those who wonder what happened.” John M. Richardson. KALTBLUT is here to introduce you to some of the kind who make it happen. They are extraordinary, creative, outstanding, special, notable and unique and they will change the world soon. That’s why we have to keep an eye on these three people and you better do the same. Photo by Marcel Schlutt

47 concentrated amount of information. Darkness is needed as counterpoint of light to give her a sense. Some of my early work plunges into darkness to come back with a reflection of the self concentrated in high symbolic pieces. KALTBLUT: Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Beatriz: There is even light in the most absolute of darkness. No tunnel out there. KALTBLUT: Some of your projects are very elaborate and quite complex, like Interstitial, while some of your pieces seem to flow naturally. How do you make a difference and how do you see your different pieces co-existing? Beatriz: The different kinds of artistic expressions are for me like different languages. My discourse in art is permanent, it is part from some seed convictions, I’m questioning myself, which I try to understand and solve through art. Depending on what I want to explore or explain, I decide which one of it is more interesting. The writing, the performance, videos or installations, collaborative and participative art, drawings or paintings… all of them flow in a very natural way. Some look more complex because the questions were also complex or because the answers had been very abstract cooking inside me, and concentrating like a short poem, in which all the different meanings of each word are in the play... KALTBLUT: What is your favourite black thing? Beatriz: Coal with its shimmery hard surface, and the vegetal charcoal from willow. It’s like velvet for the eyes. So delicate and deep in his tone. KALTBLUT: Is black the new black? Beatriz: Definitely! (laughs)

Beatriz Crespo is a luminous young woman full of talents. I met her at the Neukölln gallery EXPO, and was soon surprised by how elegantly she managed forms and power in her work. I kind of thought she’d be a woman who wouldn’t get scared in the dark, so I interviewed her to find out. KALTBLUT: Dear Beatriz, what was your darkest hour? Beatriz: I broke my right hand last year in an accident. The healing time was long and full of incertitude. I nearly went crazy… but all this impotence and energy shouting inside me, ended flowing through the left hand. Now I’m ambidextrous! KALTBLUT: Why do we draw in black so often? Beatriz: The act of drawing a black line over paper or a surface, is determination, you take a position in which you divide the space and lead the eye trough the narrative of your discourse. Then black lines are incredibly graphic, I love this characteristic in art. When you take some black bituminous

colour, or coal or charcoal and you start to make some Graphism, it has something quite strong and primitive about it. I like to think that in this primary act of tracing a line all this energy of the human being of past, present and future eras is conveyed. We are repeating the same act once and again and this act takes you to the origins, to the primitive. KALTBLUT: How do you cope with dark times? Beatriz: You may learn quite quick that it gets dark at 4pm during the winter here in Berlin, but that’s already perfect for me. I‘m a painter of the night, I work with the low light and during the slow rumours of the night that I paint my best. I like to see the darkness as a

KALTBLUT: Where shall we meet in five years? Beatriz: Somewhere in the East... KALTBLUT: 2013 recently came to a close, what were your last projects of the year? Beatriz: I opened another solo show in Valladolid Spain. It was a show called “Soul’s Topography” that was selected by the CreArt European project. Addressing the human body from unusual viewpoints, I concluded ethereal works in which the male’s physiognomy becomes a rugged landscape carved by the passage of time. “Topography of the Soul” is an ode to man and the beauty implicit in the erosion caused by the experience. Following this exhibition, I explored how our brain attempts to hold images and memories that are meaningful. I tried to paint or represent my memories and tried to deal with the holes that time created in them.

www.beatrizcrespo.com

If you’re an attentive reader of KALTBLUT Magazine, the brand Moga e Mago is probably not new to your eyes. I met the incredibly talented Elisa Lindenberg and Tobias Noventa a few years ago and have been following them very closely ever since. Sometimes, I have this special feeling for something and the brand fulfils this. That’s a pretty vague description, so without further ado, let’s introduce their latest SS14 collection “Notturno”, consiting of chiselled lines, precise fabrics and an innovative vision. KALTBLUT: “Black is black” or “Paint It Black”? Moga e Mago: ‘Black as the dark night she was...’ KALTBLUT: Seeing black or feeling blue? Moga e Mago: Seeing black cats in dreams. KALTBLUT: What was the most depressing day of your life? Moga e Mago: May 7th, 2008. KALTBLUT: Why are so many fashion people dressed in black? Moga e Mago: Black is still the new black.

KALTBLUT: Did you experience appetite loss, great fatigue, paranoid ideas or insomnia in the last months? Moga e Mago: Yes, the last week before fashion week (laughs) KALTBLUT: What’s the perfect piece for Collection Noire? Moga e Mago: The perfect black piece of our NOTTURNO SS14 is a superlight-weight goat-on-fabric coat. KALTBLUT: What’s the darkest corner of Berlin? Moga e Mago: Berghain’s dark room? KALTBLUT: Best remedy to feel good? Moga e Mago: Travel.

www.mogaemago.com

Emmanuel Hubaut is a poem of a man. I was 13 the first time I saw him; he was on stage with his infamous band LTNO. He’s been working on prestigious projects with Karl Lagerfeld, ORLAN, Maurice Dantec and others, and it’s always impressive how he can maintain professionalism and be so cool at the same time. Lately, he’s been working with David Maars and Andreas Schwartz to host “Ich bin Ein Berliner” parties at SO36 and has been producing the third album with his band DEAD SEXY. KALTBLUT: “Black is black” or “Paint It Black”? Emmanuel: Paint it Black. I’m definitely a Rolling stones fan... I’m very fascinated by their late 60’s/ early 70’s period when Kenneth Anger got close to them. And back when the hippie movement turned into nightmare at Altamont, or with Charles Manson families ... KALTBLUT: Seeing black or feeling blue? Emmanuel: Listening to Blue Velvet. KALTBLUT: What was the most depressing day of your life? Emmanuel: My birthday... people are mean and want me to celebrate it every year! KALTBLUT: Why are so many rockers dressed in black? Emmanuel: Baudelaire’s Fault, he’s also responsible for green hair ! KALTBLUT: Did you experience appetite loss, great fatigue, paranoid ideas or insomnia in the last months? Emmanuel: You mean 3 Tage Wach? KALTBLUT: What’s the perfect music for our Collection Noire? Emmanuel: Heresie by The Virgin Prunes, amazing double album released in 1982 on “l’Invitation au Suicide” label.

Photo by Karl Lagerfeld KALTBLUT: What’s the darkest corner of Berlin? Emmanuel: Gustav Meyer Allee between Brunnenstrasse and Hussitenstrasse. I regularly passed this place at different times at night because it was on my way to a club I was DJing at. I always had a very weird, scary feeling when I passed the hill on the left side in the park. I

eventually found out that it’s a fake hill made after the WWII to uncover the Leitturm Bunker Humboldthain. Berlin is very relaxed and open-minded city maybe also because of a very hard and dark and sad history... KALTBLUT: Best remedy to feel good? Emmanuel: Turn off the light.

www.deadsexyinc.com

50 Veil – Rene Walrus Shirt – Obscure Couture Ring – Georgia Wiseman

The

Widows

Photography – Nuala Swan www.nualaswan.com Fashion – Molly Sheridan Make Up – Molly Sheridan Hair – Anna Wade Models – Jude and Rosie @ Model Team, Kirstin @ Superior

51 Body Suit – Kirsty Elizabeth MacLennan Jacket – CuriouScope Skirt – Obscure Couture Ring – Georgia Wiseman Shoes – Model’s Own

Headpiece (worn around the neck) – Rene Walrus Top – Staysick Jacket – Obscure Couture Skirt – Matthew Houston

Headpiece – Rene Walrus Shirt – Matthew Houston Jacket – CuriouScope Shorts – Obscure Couture Ring – Georgia Wiseman Shoes – Stylist’s Own

Necklace – Rene Walrus Top – Staysick Jacket – CuriouScope Trousers – Katy Clark

55 Hood – Chouchou/Rene Walrus/MYB Lace Bodysuit – Obscure Couture

56 Hood – Chouchou/Rene Walrus/MYB Lace Shirt – Matthew Houston

Kirstin Bodysuit – Kirsty Elizabeth MacLennan Jacket – CuriouScope Skirt – Obscure Couture Rosie Jacket – CuriouScope

PINS

There’s a lot of testosterone floating around in our Noire music section, but something tells me the PINS girls would kick those boys’ asses, and then some. Hitting the spot with their lo-fi tinge of mancunian melancholia and atypical girl band aesthetic, Faith Holgate (vocals, guitar), Lois McDonald (guitar), Anna Donigan (bass), and Sophie Galpin (drums) released their reverb-soaked debut album “Girls Like Us” this September on Bella Union. Having been an avid follower of their velvetine droning since the release of the single “Eleventh Hour” back in February, I was chuffed that they didn’t disappoint with their full length, but what kind of girls are they exactly? We find out!

Photo taken exclusively for the Noire issue by PINS

Interview by Amy Heaton

KALTBLUT: For our readers who don’t know you yet, can you tell us a bit about the name, how did you decide on PINS? PINS: It was actually suggested to us by a friend and we thought we’ll keep it for a while and see if it sticks then Faith and Anna went to see Dum Dum Girls at the Deaf Institute in Manchester and spoke to Dee Dee after the show, we told her we were starting a band and asked her what she thought of the name, we said y’know cos like pins, as in girls legs because we’re all girls in the band and she said oh we call them stems in America, so we considered STEMS for a little while but eventually settled on PINS. I’m glad, we like it, it’s a good name. KALTBLUT: Was it hard to find female band members in Manchester when you started in 2010? PINS: It really was! There was almost a

year between starting the band and completing the lineup. Prior to meeting Anna, Faith had been trying to make a band or join a band for like a year too, so it was a very long process for them! For Lois it was also about finding the right people to work with. We tried lots of different ideas out and it’s important to be open minded and try styles that might not be your first choice, we have a good balance of that as a group.

sound to develop, at the beginning we all had very varied music tastes, and we still do but we’re aware of much more music from other genres now cos we talk about it all the time. We wrote Eleventh Hour pretty early on when it was cold, dark and miserable in Manchester. As we’ve progressed as a band we’re definitely up for a lively pop song to dance to. Our moods (and the seasons) sometimes have a strong influence on what songs we write, but the sound is always developing, it’s a natural process of maturing as a band.

sify PINS as a Riot Grrrl band, saying that though we wouldn’t classify our band as grunge or punk or shoegaze or post punk or garage rock or any of the other genres that people attach to us. KALTBLUT: You all have different musical backgrounds, what instrument(s) do you each find most comfortable to use?

PINS: We all come from different musical backgrounds. The guitar is Faith’s one true love, “I’m pretty jealous that the other KALTBLUT: How did you envision the band girls can all play the piano but I’m going to sound? KALTBLUT: Would you place yourself in the to learn!”. Lois played piano and tried out clarinet, but on hearing Nirvana taught PINS: Well, Faith always said heavy toms, Riot Grrrl genre? herself to play guitar instead, playing pireverb, fuzz, delay..referencing bands ano and guitar are different experiences PINS: It’s a very distinct sound, we’re like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Black definitely inspired by the attitude, and we for her, but both cathartic. Anna had neTambourines, The Stooges. Anna was liked some Riot Grrl bands, as a teenager ver played the bass guitar until she joined imagining dark and broody, listening to Pins. “I feel so comfortable on it though Bikini Kill were one of Faith’s biggest Zola Jesus and Lower Dens at the time, and love the power of it and the solid and we all like experimenting, so wouldn’t inspirations so it’s possible that some of backbone it gives to the band with the say that we have ‚a sound’ or at least not that shines through in the songs or the lyrics or whatever but we wouldn’t clas- drums.” She played the piano and cello one that we are sticking too. We like our

“Tishstiell are lsoext iosmf

in music”

59 KALTBLUT: What about when your debut single release of “Eleventh Hour / Shoot You” sold out? Amazing! How was that experience for you?

KALTBLUT: You’ve been touring a lot this summer? Do you have a favourite gig so far? Or one coming up maybe?

PINS: Exciting! Especially because it was something we did on our own, we’re grateful for all the help and all the people we get to work with now but when that release came out it was just us doing it for ourselves and it was really special. The experience of recording a couple of songs early on then deciding to release them on (gold) cassette and make a video to then have it sold out within a couple of hours was amazing! Until that point we never realised how much there was going on in the ‚blogosphere’ so to have people recognising and noticing what we were doing was very humbling.

PINS: We have been touring with our friends Abjects, September Girls and Post War glamour Girls and we’ve had so much fun with them. Brixton Academy next week. Oh. My.

KALTBLUT: “Girls Like Us” looks like one hell of video, but what girls are you exactly? PINS: [Laughs] It’s difficult to sum yourself up like that so we’re not going to but what we will say is that the song “Girls Like Us” isn’t about being girls like us it’s meant to be about being yourself and about being happy to be yourself. KALTBLUT: Is sexuality a prominent topic with your music? Or is it just a big F.U to anyone who makes a big deal out of it? PINS: There is still a lot of sexism in music just like there is in most industries. We rarely experience it first hand, it’s usually some sad troll on the internet or some wannabe journalist, basically it’s never anyone who’s opinion you actually value. KALTBLUT: What made you decide to start your own label “Haus of PINS”?

from when I was young but the piano is more of an instrument, she enjoys playing to herself rather than in front of an audience. Sophie’s been playing instruments since she was four, starting on piano, then took up violin and guitar too, but only started the drums properly back in February when she joined PINS, “but now I feel like a real drummer and absolutely love the drums. It’s a whole new experience.” KALTBLUT: What was the first album you heard that really made you want to be part of a band? PINS: Well as a band of four members there’s a few answers to that one! Faith used to try and make these bands when she was a little kid, probably most inspired by the Spice Girls or Britney... getting dressed up with friends and making up dance routines, singing the songs... rehearsing day after day for the imaginary show we had... “I discovered Hole when I was about 14 though and that changed everything.” Lois reckons Nirvana’s “Nevermind”, or Greenday’s “Dookie”. “I remember hearing it for the first time and thinking, what is this and how can I make that much noise? I started a band with my friends Beki and Natalie and we lasted one practice in the garage. I quit.” For Anna it’s probably Arcade Fire’s “Funeral.” “I loved how many different instruments they play and how they keep swapping about on stage. I’m keen to slip a hurdy-gurdy into a PINS song.” Sophie wanted to be in the Spice Girls, but it was Elvis that inspired her to learn guitar.

PINS: It began as a platform for us to release our own music, at the time of the “Eleventh Hour / Shoot You” release we couldn’t settle on a label, also it felt a little premature to be working like that so self releasing seemed like the best option. After that, we thought it’d be fun to work with bands that we really love who are at a similar place. KALTBLUT: I’m a big fan of your all-girl mix for i-D magazine, it contains some of my favourites like Bikini Kill and Siouxsie and the Banshees, are these your main musical inspirations? PINS: Faith chose Bikini Kill, “I love them... as for many teenagers they had a huge impact on me. I was too late for the Riot Grrl movement, but, getting into Bikini Kill helped me discover a whole bunch of other music from that time, and was my first introduction to feminism.” We have loads of musical inspirations, and if we did another mix today it’d be different depending on how we’re feeling and what we’re into. Sophie adds, “I’ve been getting into bands that we have been compared to more retrospectively, I never really actively listened to the Banshees until we were compared to them.”

KALTBLUT: What was it like opening for Best Coast at Manchester’s Ritz? PINS: It was special because it was our first experience of a big stage in a venue where we’ve seen some of our favourite bands, it felt like a milestone. “I like Best Coast but I don’t think they were the highlight for me”, Faith comments, “I have a tendency to over romanticise everything but it was definitely a night that I won’t forget.” Sophie was actually in the audience at that gig, “I thought, I would like to be in this band.” Little did she know... KALTBLUT: Are you excited to support Warpaint at the end of this month? PINS: It’s safe to say that we are all very excited to be supporting Warpaint. We hung out at End Of The Road Festival - they are SUCH babes. Will be a pleasure. KALTBLUT: This time our theme is all about the Noire, the underground, the grime, the downright dark. I noticed you use black & white imagery a lot in your work. What is it that draws you to this aesthetic? PINS: I think we like a lot of imagery from the past, sorta 60’s era and it probably comes from there. It has a classic look. We do work with colour too, but even then I think the colours are very specific or of a certain era, the “Stay True” video for example. Faith comments, “to be honest, black is my favourite colour, I’ve always dressed in black, even as a kid, I don’t know what draws me to it.” KALTBLUT: How important is your image as a band, in comparison to the sound...? PINS: Our music comes first! We don’t really ever consider our image... it just is what it is. We love getting involved with all the design, videos and photoshoots creatively where we can, but just because we want to make stuff that we like and are proud of. The image is just an extension of ourselves. We’re just projecting who we are. KALTBLUT: If you could shoot a music video with any director, who would it be? PINS: Faith - I’d stick with our pal Sing J Lee. Lois - Stanley Kubrick. Anna - Anton Corbijn. Sophie - Chris Cunningham - that would be fuuucked uuup.

wearepins.co.uk

DECODE Photography: Anny CK www.annyck.com Model: Anastasia Bresler Hair & Make-Up: Anne Timper @Nude Agency Styling: Pablo PatanĂŠ Retouching: Aurore de Bettignies @ One Hundred Berlin

Fashion by Moga e Mago

Pictures of theDEAD Text and photos by Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E. K. Jones

dmittedly, the Victorian Age is one of the strangest and most absurd eras in world history. One of the weirdest traditions, amidst covering piano legs and other absurdities, were post-mortem photographs, which is not as insane as it seems at first. Post-mortem photography, which is also known as memento mori and consists of memorial portraits or mourning portraits, is basically an arranged portrait of a dead person shortly after the personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death and it is often intended to appear life-like. When photography was invented and in its early stages, this specific art was often used for occult practices and to capture scientific or paranormal activities, as well as to document spaces. With the invention of daguerreotype in 1839 portraits became less expensive and easier to set up, gaining them a great popularity especially among those who could not afford to sit for a painted portrait or those who were simply fascinated with this new invention. Even though affordable to the middle classes, portrait photography was still far from a daily practice. Portraits of beloved ones remained rare and were supposed to serve as a form of remembrance. These are the circumstances that gave rise to what seems now to be the creepiest form of photography; of taking pictures of the deceased. In the nineteenth century people usually died at home, and often at a relatively young age, which meant it was easy to have someone to take a picture, and often resulted that this picture would be the one and only treasured photograph of the departed and the only means of keeping their memory alive. As a result, it was customary to arrange them in an upright position to allow them to

67 look as alive as possible and to have them posed with siblings or other family members. Infants were often positioned in cribs as well, while for adults an arm chair was more common. In these cases, eyes were propped open and the pupil was later enhanced on the print. Sometimes, cheeks were tinted pink to give the corpse a more lively appearance. Of course, there are also many pictures of the deceased in flower filled coffins, peacefully sleeping while surrounded by mourners, especially in the earlier days. As it goes with everything, fashions also came and went with post-mortem photography, but the exact composition was usually up to the photographer and the family to decide. When it became possible to reproduce this photograph of the dead, it was often sent out to relatives and other family members as part of the mourning and remembering process. Eventually, by the early 20th century, this practice ceased as family photos and all sorts of photos became a part of every day life with the arrival of the snapshot and when personal cameras were made available to the public. Initially a part of life, these death portraits were not viewed as macabre. In the 20th century they came to be viewed as creepy, morbid or unspeakable because of the revulsion, reject and lack of familiarity with death that the modern world brought with it. By now, still causing shivers, they have become an accepted method of as keeping somebodyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s image and memory, rather than being regarded as violation or lack of respect. However, in a world stripped of magic, there is one aspect that is overlooked today, and it was a very widespread belief in the 19th century: people would believe that the soul of the recently deceased would linger around the body and room for several days before the burial. A portrait made during this time acquired a special meaning. As already mentioned, photography film was often used during sĂŠances or to capture auras and other supernatural phenomena and experiments. The sensitivity of film and the magic of its workings gave and still gives room for plenty of speculation. It was firmly believed, as it still is in many cultures, that a photograph could trap or at least depict a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s soul. And occasionally this was the very purpose of such a picture. To always keep the actual soul of the depicted dead very much alive.

Paint It 68

Black Photography: Ali Kepenek www.alikepenek.com Styling: Hakan Bahar www.hakanbahar.com Hair & Grooming: Daniel Dyer, Aveda Haircare and Shu Umera Skincare Body Painting: Kai Sued Photo Asistant: Andre Titcombe Model: Jasper Harvey @Elite Models London

Raincoat by Alexander Wang

Left Page: Trenchcoat by Rodarte, This Page: Pants by Dries Van Noten

72 Top by Thom Brown

73 Jersey by Elif Cigizoglu

This Page: Leather Jacket by Vintage Raberg

‟DUCTILITY AND ITS ABILITY TO CREATE SHADES”

www.flickr.com/photos/josebaeskubi/

Interview by Emma E. K. Jones & Amanda M. Jansson

Joseba Eskubi’s art has been a real revelation to us. Living and working in Bilbao, Spain, he is currently teaching at the Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of the Basque Country.

His

abstract,

yet

very

theatrical work often consists of a stage and one single figure, silhouetted against the background. This figure becomes the very definition of decomposition, through the soft and amorphous qualities that accentuate the tactile sense of vision. Highly suggestive and haunting, difficult for some and addictive to others, his imagery is definitely among our favourite modern classics. KALTBLUT: When and how did you begin painting? What were you doing before that? Any kind of art you were interested in? Or did paintings come first? Joseba: I started painting many years ago. At first I also drew a lot. In my early works many similar forms of the actual painting had already appeared: organic and oneiric. Later, I realized some sculptural objects where I mixed different techniques but basically, painting has always Many

been

times

my I

primary

create

interest.

photographs,

digital works, and other kinds of processes where I find new ways. I have also made some manipulations of

classical

painting

reproduc-

tions, altering the forms and original compositions.

78 KALTBLUT: Your style is very specific and distinctive. How would you describe your style? Joseba:

Style

becomes

something

recognizable in dealings with the matter, a mechanism that aims to limit and structure desire. In my painting the brushstrokes are very marked, creating collisions, knots, contrasts. In recent years I have worked

type

composition

where a landline appears and generates a theatrical space. KALTBLUT:

Technically

speaking,

what kind of material and colours work best for you and why? Joseba: I am interested in enhancing the colour intensity, so that the painting has a certain energy and electricity. I like the colours to be vivid and vibrant. In many cases I use very intense reds, as a first sight of the vision that weaves the emotions. Black is another fundamental colour in my work. Many of the figures are silhouetted against this indefinite plane. It始s amazing to discover how many shades of black can exist .... all depends on small nuances. I love oil painting, its ductility and ability to create shades. The technique is something dynamic, changing during each process to adapt to new contexts and transgressing its own rules. The diversity of media creates new starting points, to maintain a certain emotion and encounter with an unknown image. KALTBLUT: What colours do you use most depending on your emotions? Do certain colours represent certain emotions for you as a person? Joseba: Of course. The colour evitably determines our

in-

emotions

and the perception of the image. I am interested in the contrast between dark and cold zones and the carnality of the central figure. It is a resource very common in Baroque painting. The shapes are cut in front of a vacuum, and the co-

79 lour of the live element acquires

Joseba:

interested

com-

rience creates a way of perceiving

an increased presence.

bining different sensations inside

reality. Some images may be a kind

to emphasize the saturation of cer-

the

of catharsis to this fear.

tain colours (red, yellow..), crea-

things

ting a surreal atmosphere where co-

everything in a certain order, a

lour breaks the logic of a realistic

structure against its ruin. In many

view.

of my works, there are still life

I also like

image, and

resonances

one

that

another

and

unbalances

that

echoes

arranges

Baroque

KALTBLUT: There is something extre-

painting. I also like a lot of ac-

mely unique about your work but also

tual artists like Allison Shulnik

something

What

for example. There is so much visual

are your influences in terms of art?

information today that sometimes it

classic

about

it.

is difficult to digest all this visual universe that we receive.

a new painting from? There

are

many

inspiring

can hold an entire universe of sensations. Attention is the tool. I donʼt use natural models. The painting itself offers many paths and possibilities.

So, NOIRE what comes to mind? What would you paint to that word? a

quite

suggestive

term. I imagine a bleak and hypnotic space, where it seems that everything is occult, submerged in a deep silence. Noire can be a place that

everyone

Joseba: Wow, itʼs a quite fascinating

question.

Perhaps

would

like to experiment the sensation of being inside of the painting ʼAgnus Day of Zurbaranʽ,

touch the skin of

the animal and feel the silence of

KALTBLUT:

What

you

think

at-

strangeness?

What

fascinates

about things that frighten us? Joseba:

The

fascination

for

so-

mething that is strange but familiar at the same time. I think that there is a subtle difference between the suggestion and the purely ex-

KALTBLUT: You work a lot with black.

Itʼs

like to live? Touch it, feel it?

tracts people in horror, darkness,

things. Small residues found in soil

Joseba:

re one painting in which you would

the scene.

KALTBLUT: Where do you get ideas for

Joseba:

KALTBLUT: Of all paintings, is the-

without

revealing

themselves are awaiting our visit. KALTBLUT: Some people may say your work is difficult, “hard to take“, why do you think they might feel that way? Does it strike a chord that makes them uneasy?

plicit and descriptive way. KALTBLUT: If you had to sum up your body of work to 3 themes, what would you say are the 3 major themes in your work? Joseba: Metamorphosis, light, organic. KALTBLUT:

What

was

the

creepiest

dream you ever had? Do you remember? Joseba: I remember one in which people were following me to the door of my house ... I tried to close the door and couldnʼt, all I wanted was to catch hands ... it was the end

Joseba: I donʼt see this as a dif-

... a bad dream where the only way out was to scream!

ficult work. Perhaps the discomfort can sometimes arise from the dif-

KALTBLUT: What would your self por-

ficulty

trait look like? What colours re-

identifying

the

figures

and elements of the image, its ambi-

present you?

guity creates a certain uneasiness. Joseba: I donʼt know. I would paint KALTBLUT:

Your

work

haunting.

it in white shades, quite bright.

Colourful but dark at the same time.

Perhaps it would start being real,

What scares you the most?

but surely would

change until it

would become something unrecognizJoseba: Anything that takes me to

able. Every form leads to another as

an unpleasant experience. The expe-

a river that always flows.

T I E Z S G E NACHKRI 80

Photography: Oliver Blohm www.oliverblohm.com Stylist: Pablo Patanè Hair & Make-Up: Theo Schnürer @ Blossom Management Model: Nala Diagouraga @ M4 Models Photography Assistant: Mari Inoue

Dress & Stockings by Unrath&Strano, Armour & Shoes by Amélie Jäger

Dress & Sleeves by Amélie Jäger, Vintage Fur by Giulia Iovine Collection

82 Armour by Pablo Patanè Armour (Stomach + Neck) by Amélie Jäger Fur Sleeves by Amélie Jäger Stockings by Unrath&Strano

Neckpiece by Amélie Jäger Mask by Guillaume Airiaud Dress by Unrath&Strano

Dress & Stockings by Unrath&Strano, Chestplate, Sleeves, Shoulders by Amélie Jäger, Shoes by Amélie Jäger

Neckpiece by Amélie Jäger, Mask by Guillaume Airiaud, Dress by Unrath&Strano

Horror-shaping Art How is it possible that horror films could influence art in any way? What do they even have in common? If you think the answer is “nothing”, then you will be quite surprised to find out that not only do these two share more than you can imagine, but horror films do indeed influence entire art movements and actually always have. Art is the highest form of, well obviously, art, and horror films are like the lowest form of “art”, if it can be called so; or at least that’s what most people need to advocate in order to convince themselves they are artistic and cultivated enough. Obviously, this is far from true. Horror in all of its forms, be it film or literature, just like art, is there to push limits and to experiment, to investigate the human psyche and its deepest aspects, to give voice to troubling thoughts, to give expression to human feelings and emotions, to shape culture. Admittedly, no other genre has the power to shock us and stir us like horror does, and the very definition of good art is its potential to shock or provoke as well.

were still in their infant stage, horror became a playground for emerging artists, who would design sets, costumes, absurd plots and be in charge of photography. Take Dali for example, along with ̔Un Chien Andalou̓. So, the first horror films actually were a firm part of contemporary art movements and influenced each other greatly. They did revive an interest in classical paintings and lighting and explored fears and nightmares, thus giving a huge boost to Expressionism, Dadaism and Surrealism and allowing them to literally take off and reach audiences they wouldn’t have been able to capture otherwise. Even names such as Francis Bacon, a master of the macabre, have been inspired by these early nightmarish images.

But what about today? We have come a long way. Art has been through a lot of movements, some pleasant, others more unpleasant and vulgar to some, still in touch with their horror roots. And perhaps, by now, magnificent artists like Joel-Peter Witkins have made corpses acceptable as an art object, but that was not before horror directors made dismemberment, disfigurement and blood widely Proof of all this is in the very beginnings of horror film history, which goes hand in hand with art. More than those acceptable and even expected on screen. The acceptance of any other “serious” kind of film. When moving images of death in art did not come before the familiarity with

death in films that appealed to the masses; horror shapes and defines culture like only art can, and because of their pretty intimate relationship. It is necessary to mention the early Tim Burton imagery, heavily loaded with Edgar Allan Poe, German Expressionism and a Gothic aesthetic, and to remember how he changed the art landscape for over a decade. One can also observe how the empty and silently haunted-haunting atmosphere of Japanese horror influences so often creep into a brilliant young photographer’s work. Lately, it is horror films like ̔Carrie̓, ̔Prom Nights̓,̔ I Spit on your Grave̓, ̔Poison Ivy̓, horror films dealing with teenage girl sexuality, and young girls’ culture that help shape an entire movement that remains to be named. The glitter and menacing atmosphere of a teenage world as depicted in some of these iconic films are forming a great archive for photographers willing to deal with the trauma of entering adulthood, the maddening burden of expectation, the mental inner massacre of being a girl and symbols for female sexuality. There is really no reason why we should be ashamed to face up to the fact that horror films are shaping our taste, our culture and yes, our art as well. Art because it is art and horror because it is so easily condemnable. These two, set our imaginations ablaze and play on our memories and stories of common experience, explore human nature and collective reaction; bring up issues we want to never have to deal with, question and expose. All this they both do visually. It couldn’t be a more perfect match. By Amanda M. Jansson and Emma E. K. Jones Photos by Michaela Knizova

Foundation: Shiseido, Advanced Hydro Liquid Compact, Nr. 120 Eyes: Benefit, Creaseless Dream Shadow, Bronze Have More Fun I Lips: Lancôme, L’absolut Rouge, Pense a Mio, Nr. 131

Photography: Ulrich Hartmann www.ulrichhartmann.de Stylist: Silvia Naefe @ Basics Hair & Make Up: Stefan Kehl @ Close Up Model: Nele @ Modelmanagement Photographer’s Assistant: Patrick Jendrusch

Embroidered Top: LUXXUS Berlin Foundation: Sisley, Skinleÿa, 01, Light Opal Eyes: Benefit, Creaseless Dream Shadow, Bronze Have More Fun Lips: Chanel, Rouge Allure, 99 Pirate

Foundation: Dior, Nude BB Creme Light 001 I Eyes: Écriture de Chanel, Black Lips: YSL, Rouge Volupté Shine, 05 Fuchsia in Excess

Dress: Comme des GarĂ§ons Hat: Traditional costume seen at Comme des Costumes Foundation: Make Up For Ever, Uplight Face Luminizer Gel, 21 Pearly White I Eyes: Givenchy, Le prisme yeux Mono, No. 03 Hop Grey Lips: Givenchy, Le Rouge, 307 Grenat InitiĂŠ

Dress: Saint Laurent Hat: Anna de la Russo for H&M Rings: Gregory’s Joaillier Black Panther: 267 Black Diamond 9.42ct, 2 Emeralds 0.14ct. , 18kt. Black Gold Poisonous Frog: 416 Tasvoriten 5.20ct., 1.02ct. Black Diamonds, 0.11ct rubin 20g 18kt. Black Gold Gloves: Stylist’s own Foundation: Chanel Lift Lumière Eyes: Armani, Maestro Eye Liner Lashes: Armani, Eyes To Kill Excels Lips: Chanel, Rouge Allure Renovation, Nr. 104, Passion Lip Liner: YSL, Dessin du Regarde Crayon Yeux Haute Tenue, Velvet Black, No. 1

Link Page Eyes: RMS Beauty, Seduce Lips: Chanel, Rouge Coco, Nr. 19 Gabrielle And Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, Lip Tar, Green This Page Black sequenced jacket: Giorgio Armani Vintage I Mask: seen at Comme des Costumes Colors: Make Up For Ever, 12 Color Case. MAC

Into

noires

Text and illustrations by Marianne Jacquet, www.wrangelkiez.org

Think positive, just do it, everything is going to be fine, keep calm and carry on, just relax, it is not gonna last forever, tomorrow is another day, it’s half as bad, trust yourself, smile, it’s all good, don’t you worry, it’s going to work out, cheer up, head up, I got your back, don’t worry, your work is gonna pay, don’t give up, after the rain comes the sun, don’t be afraid, I believe in you. Between two ears and behind two eyes, I got caught up in the matière noire, where a rusty dream of a bright future as a musician stands. Breath in, it is not going to hurt... hum, well maybe a little bit.

FEMALE PRESSURE

has raised its flag for more equality between male and female in the music industry and digital art. They got started in Berlin with the Perspective Festival at aboutblank and more recently have started hosting a regular party at Tresor. Kritzkom is a french music producer, graphic designer who lives in Berlin and joined the Female Pressure fight among many others artists. The message is clear: stop the painted black and fade to grey! KALTBLUT: How did the initiative of female pressure start? Kritzkom: Female pressure started 15 years ago in Vienna, founded by the Electric Indigo (Suzanne Kirchmayr). At first it was a database of female musicians and visuals artists, to bring them to visibility and encourage collaborations. Since the 8th of March 2013, the collective started to count how many women where playing in music festivals. The facts were then published in a press release: globally less than 10% of festival performers are women. After this shocking discovery, we decided to think about how we could make things better. The aim is mostly to invite promoters, bookers, and journalists to think about this too. Perspectives Festival was born, to show that there are women in the electronic music scene. KALTBLUT: How do you explain the fact that men and women are so unbalanced in the cultural field? Did it come as a surprise as a contrast to the developed countries in Europe? Kritzkom: First, even for us, who knew that it was quite bad, the count was a surprise because we didn’t expected such dramatic results. This became also a motivation. It’s a complex topic, but of course it starts with centuries of male power society. Even though it seems that girls are now educated in the same spirit as boy, in reality it’s very far from this ideal. Little girls are less encouraged to do whatever they would like to do, and to believe in themselves. The current cultural context produces a society where fewer women will become artists or musicians. Then the majority of bookers, promoters, organisers, label owners are men and, in turn, book mostly men. KALTBLUT: How far do you geographically extend this project? Kritzkom: Right now, the network is quite central in Europe. KALTBLUT: Do you think that this movement could develop into a label or other fields such as fine arts? Kritzkom: Of course it could, our group right now is more focussed on music, because most of us are musicians. But the topic is definitely more universal and concerns all women and men in all artistic fields. What is most important is that men and women should work on this together to get to a more balanced society. I don’t think a man can be proud to consciously exclude women. The art and music could only get richer.

www.femalepressure.net www.kritzkom.com www.anna-otto.org

KALTBLUT: One number we should all know? Kritzkom: Let’s remember that only 10% of the musicians are female and that’s at the festivals we counted around the world. KALTBLUT: How do you picture the perfect club scene? Kritzkom: Kind of balanced, no quota or rate, but a bit more equal. For now, 30% of women in music would be amazing.

97 ARI BENJAMIN MEYERS

is american composer and conductor who lives in Berlin. His work questions the borders of art and the materiality of music. The recent solo show «Do You Have Black Thoughts» at the Esther Shippers Gallery, was a performative installation where the spirit of kraut rock meets Erik Satie. Ari Benjamin Meyers who collaborated with the artists Saâdane Afif, Philippe Parreno or Dominique Gonzales Foerster is giving us a little idea of what is music. Question are you ready to set yourself free? His ongoing installation «Chamber Music(Vestibule)» is a the Berlinische Galerie from April 27, 2013 - April 28, 2014. KALTBLUT: How did you slide from classical composing to contemporary art? Ari: I am still a composer. But the art scene really came about because of the work I was interesting in composing and writing. It started to become more difficult to realise it in the music context and to fit into the music industry and business. The structures that are available are very limited for the music industry, you can give a concert or you can make a record that is all the business allows to do. I was starting to think about doing work that lasted a very long time 7 or 8 hours, much longer that you can do in a concert. I started making work where I was thinking more of the audience like this piece that is for one performer and one audience only. Then it started to break down. Those kinds of thoughts and doubts were happening parallel at a time where I was collaborating with artists. Bit by bit I just found myself working exclusively in the art context and stopped doing concert. So I took the next step and worked with a gallery. KALTBLUT: Is it the reason why you came to Berlin? Ari: No, I have been in Berlin for 15 years. I came to Berlin on a full break grant for opera conducting, which is the ultimate classical western music. I have studied composition and conducting so from the opera, I was always interested in new music and I started to do Musiktheater and experimental music theatre and experimental opera. This naturally lead me to work with more artists. KALTBLUT: Are you still conducting? Ari: I still do conduct on certain specific projects and conducting in general is a part of my practice. One of my pieces is a solo for one conductor, it is a quite silent composition. Conducting is very interesting in that way, you train for years and years and it is considered like almost the pinnacle of musical knowledge or ability. And yet in a very real way if you take a step back I started to see the conductor as a dancer, you make no sound, you make no music in that sense. It is quite

fascinating, of all of the job you could have, conductor certainly has to be one of the oddest. Basically you are dancing around on a little stage, in front of a hundred people to get them to do something, it is very bizarre. I am not an esoteric person but conducting has a thing, you al-

most telepathically, through the eyes, read the mind of people. I do explore this in my work. But for instance in the “Serious Immobilities” performance I do not conduct, the performers do. KALTBLUT: How far can they change the piece? Ari: Before every performance, we sat together and decided on the order. There are nine modules and they decided the order, the length.You can’t say that it’s improvised because the music is quite composed and written out but the structure is totally up to the performers. KALTBLUT: Is it more like a pattern? Do they have to play it all?

Ari:They don’t have to play everything all the time. They can play only two modules for six hours. KALTBLUT: What was your idea when you chose the performers? Ari: In fact the three female singers are all dancers. The pi-

ece is written for non classical opera trained female vocals. The girls of course should have good voices and be able to sing but i wanted the piece to sound as if you sing it, or when someone ears it that would not feel intimidated to sing along.The melodies are quite catchy, the idea is almost like a strange lullaby that someone is singing to you and that you might join in or clap along. Another aspect of the piece is about space, movement through space, arrangement regards the audience and I knew the dancers specifically are working with this. So it was easier to train them to sing instead of training a singer to use the space and body. The

two musicians are professional rock musicians. KALTBLUT: You wrote Serious Immobilities in Berlin, what was your inspiration besides the Vexations by Erik Satie? Ari: I knew I had that show at Ethers Shippers and I wanted a big part of the show to be a live performance and a composition. The inspiration was not so much a theme or a person but rather the situation. The issues and the questions I was trying to work on were: how do you create a composition that works in an exhibition? It is a piece that has no middle, beginning or end? I wanted to make a piece that could be strong for 5 minutes but if you decided to stay could also be strong five hours. A piece you could come in and out without feeling you have missed something, like a sculpture. The people can look at it from different sides, leave and go. I was inspired by the space and I knew I wanted the piece to last as long as the gallery was open so it was seven hours. KALTBLUT: The audience was invited to interfere notably while playing on a grand piano that was tuned with one note. How did you incorporate it into the piece? Is it a reference to constraint writing? Ari: Like Georges Perec? This missing tone is not missing from my piece but from the Erik Satie’s Vexations but the situation is right. There was a form of controlled chaos, sometimes you would hear some sounds from the other room that would bleed into the performance. And there is also a part where the performance is going to the other room. The Serious Immobilities uses all tones but I understand about this idea of constraint. And it is true that the most constraints you have the more interesting the outcome can be. KALTBLUT: You erased the time constraint, the stage situation, the hierarchy, you are rule breaker? Ari: It is not quite the same as a constraint but it is similar. A constraint is where you set up some boundaries and here I was trying to get rid of certain parameters that we use. For instance time, a pop song or a rock song is four minutes long,

98 and we use time to tell us if it is the beginning, the middle, the end of the song, it is the same in classical music you have symphony. Here I really wanted to remove this element of time through repetition. It was not easy to work for performers. Repeating two or three times is easy but It gets much more difficult when you get into a space where you are repeating so much that you don’t even have a feeling anymore. This was a big part for the audience to reach a point where they cannot think about where they are, when it is going to end. That was about removing the time dimension and the spacial dimension. The people could sit anywhere, could lay down and the performers were also all over the space. So those things are not so much about constraints but sort of trying to remove some various elements to get to something more essential about the situation. KALTBLUT: Is materiality a frustration? Ari: It is a frustration, especially as a musician or composer because, I think we have come to a point now where music really is something that we do not understand. It has become such a consummable product. Of course it is a process that started hundred years ago with the recording but now everyone is aware that we have reached a turning point where music is fundamentally changed to something constantly disposable, you have millions of songs

on your hard drive. Somehow it gets way down by its materiality. This units that you store on your iPad, or even on your record shelf, the music itself has lost along the way what it really is, something about time, space and being in a certain moment. The single most property about music that makes it unique, is the fact that you cannot pause it. You cannot reduce it to a single unit.The smaller you get, there is always another unit smaller even down to the sound wave. A film you can pause but music is something that exists purely in time, it is a totally time based phenomena. Along with the way we consume music we got caught up in the surface of it: the way it sounds. There is much beyond the way it sounds and yet I think we tend to leave it to only this. Maybe we should take a step back and understand that the way music sounds is only one aspect, it might be an important one but it is only one out of many. KALTBLUT: Do you tend to work on a most scientific approach? Ari: No, this is just my opinions and thoughts I am not trying to make a statement. As a composer I try to understand more about the essence of music. And I have the feeling that music is not found on a cd, on a concert hall where you sit down, you are quiet and the band is on a stage in the dark and you clap your hands. The essence is somewhere else, it is between people, something very physical, body based and

by its very nature music is a social phenomena because it exists in space. If you think about headphones, I use them but I don’t particularly like them, as they are isolating you from the space. What it does, it takes the social phenomena and by putting directly the music into your brain, it turns it into something visual. You cannot help it, when you listen with headphones, music becomes a private soundtrack to whatever you are doing. If this the prime way you consume music, I think it cuts out 80% of what music originally was about. KALTBLUT: When you read you hear your voice, do you picture or visualise the music when you write? Ari: I sort of do. When I am writing I am very aware. If I do have a kind of picture it tends to be what is the relationship between what is happening musically, with the listener, the audience, their expectations, how would I play with it, with the time and what is the situation? The great thing about composition and music is that you can also exist in a very abstract level. You don’ t have to convert always into signs that mean something. KALTBLUT: Can you picture for me a black thought? Ari: Sure the funny thing about the black thought is a sort of a joke with myself. The title of the show: «Do you Have Black Thoughts» really means music. There was a grand piano in the show what was black of course,

there was a score I wrote by hands with that graphite pencil which is black, the lines of the music paper are black, printed notes are black, somehow music in some ways is a black phenomena. But also going back to Satie, it really is a quote of his and I made the assumption that it was what he was talking about. In some ways, music is the black thought. KALTBLUT: Can you tell us more about your piece at the Berlinisches Gallery? Ari: That piece is on for a year. It is a composition for a solo voice. I worked with an opera singer from the Deutsche Oper. It takes place in the foyer before you enter the museum. It is a simple idea that leads to interesting situations because the piece can be played only when all the doors are closed. It is a decision that people have to make, to stay in this transition space. They have about five seconds between the two doors and if they stay they will hear the composition but of course many people don’t notice which is a part of the process. It is the opposite of a music box. There is a bench which is part of the piece too and of course an absurdity. I found this space of the museum very interesting; it represents the moment between outside and inside, public space and private space, between reality and art and to have something right there was quite interesting.

www.aribenjaminmeyers.com

Meet Jack The Box,

the House music duo revealed by the Chicago House legend Tyree Cooper and the talented DJ and radio host Bobby Starrr! The two Berliners share a passion for fun and music History. Their first album “Side A“ released on Mood Music records is a punch to get moving and carrying on the beat. Talking about moving on, theses two hyperactive producers are unstoppable. Among an incredible longevity in the music industry, they are producing music, hosting a weekly radio show on sweatlodge radio and organiSing parties with old-school DJs and emerging talents at Tresor! What is their youth therapy? And how do they pursue the impact of music in our virtual world? KALTBLUT: Is hip house over? Tyree Cooper: No,it never ended. KALTBLUT: What do you think of the hip hop attitude nowadays? Tyree Cooper: Since everything is kind of corporate, they sell you a product they don’ t sell you music. It has no tangibility, has no sustainability, it is just a product like a simile line that keep turning over and over, just like a car. The way they feed it to the kids is something new and the kids don’ t know, they cannot get the education from the other ones because the corporations, the video or records companies have taken control and sell it a natural thing. At the same time theses companies say that it is bad but they do sell a lot of music so there is a lot of hypocrisy.

Bobby Starrr: There are no long term sales anymore. Tyree Cooper: Long term sales only determines how long the records stays in the chart. Bobby Starrr: They build artist form an LP. Tyree Cooper:This is the whole point, they build artist from singles, they don’ t get an album deal anymore. EDM is just another way of chasing the music that we do. To be accepted by the masses. Instead of calling it house music they call it electronic dance music so they compose it all outside of hip hop. Though everything in hip hop is made with electronics but they never put the two together. And as old as I have been in the early 90‘s the reason why the world dance music is in our culture is because they tried again to change house music

99 to dance music, to make it acceptable for the masses and by the masses equivalent to white kids. Bobby Starrr: It is quite funny with the hip hop scene in Berlin to see especially in Neukölln and Kreuzberg you have got this under current quite aggressive scene and on the other side there is also a lot of international people here who got more a love for the jazz side of hip hop, it is a quite funny mix you see on the street. KALTBLUT: Regarding the great return of the 90’s, what is hip and what is deep? Bobby Starrr: It is funny how people keeps going about the 90’s into a certain period of house music, I guess it is good and bad I suppose. Tyree Cooper: Eight years ago it was all about Chicago, again it is the 20 years cycle. Some of these kids are just finding out about what this music is. This music has been going on for so long and some of them are between 20 and 32 years old

and have never been exposed to any of this music. So the 80’s return was a few year ago, now they are going to the 90’s and I guess they will catch up with themselves and go to the 2000. And by the time they go to the 2000’s, I would imagine we will catch up with each other, but until then, the corporations are still going to dictate what is cool and what is not. KALTBLUT: The techno scene in Detroit came out as a result of an economical change. You live in Berlin, the city is known for its economical and social issues regarding the rest of Germany. Do you get some inspiration from that context? Tyree Cooper: Hell yeah! Just like you said, generally good music comes out of an oppressed time. In the 80’s we had hip hop, house and techno from the urban area. Bobby Starrr: What about heavy metal? Tyree Cooper: No, I never put heavy metal in the mix, because these white guys they have a chance; these black kids, they had

no chance. That is why you get this music, it came out of an oppression of the people. Here in Berlin, it was like that for a while. Therefore, electro and minimal music was created because Berlin didn’t have any money during the early part of the millennium. They were the ambassadors of something that already existed but still, they were able to created out of oppression. Bobby Starrr: When I came to Berlin the first time, I felt the whole city was swamped by a certain sound and I was looking forward to seeing some love. But there was not that much love in what was being played. It was quite intriguing and two or three years later I have moved in and saw Daniel Wang play disco. Then I knew there would be some chance that the scene would change at some point. KALTBLUT: House music has never been so popular and the way of broadcasting have never been so multiple, you have quite of a record of longevity in the music scene, though it is still hard to release a good record? Tyree Cooper: Hell yeah! Let’s say you release a record digitally, in the week of your release there will be probably 70, 000 to 100, 000 of records released that day. Then you have to compete with the 60, 000 from the week before etc. So yeah, it is super difficult nowadays to release a record specifically digitally. Vinyl has become another new source but again, when they saturate that market, it is going to be equally as hard. So until they come out with another format, music is going to be rough unless you have the right tools and place to get your music exposed. Bobby Starrr: With digital you are in the instant, the music is out, people buy it and after two weeks, it is gone. At least with vinyl, it is still present in shop for at least six weeks. Tyree Cooper: You can also have thousands of records on a shelf and it is not selling though you have visibility. The only thing the digital game did, is to make it easier for the consumer to get their music, thank you Napster. KALTBLUT: What is your vision of the music Industry in the future? Tyree Cooper: A flapping bass and a smiling face (laughs) Bobby Starrr: The most important thing is to keep carrying on; you will never know what is going to happened in the market space. It is always going to change and it has been proven. I mean you build something out of it which is not only making money by just selling records. Every single avenue you have to click, from doing your own party, t-shirt…. Tyree Cooper: Socks, shoes, bra, eyeliner, ice cream… (laughs) KALTBLUT: So is art total? Bobby Starrr: It is getting more in that direction. Tyree Cooper: It is no longer music, it is the whole marketing branding, it is a lifestyle. KALTBLUT: Are we living a fluxus life style finally? Tyree Cooper: Well, there is individualism still. There is not a city unified so capitalism still plays a big part in this individualism, so what can you do?

www.moodmusicrecords.com

l a t e M k c Bla Photography & Postproduction by Valquire Vel

jkovic / www.valquire.de

COncept & Production by nicolas simoneau & Nico Sutor

mountain xl ring sabrina dehoff

102

103

chain: humana

sunglasses: ray ban

104

105

wide square stone zebra and leo ring: sabrina dehoff, originals 1950â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cufflinks: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank

106

BERLIN’S Best

Text & Atelier photos by Pernille Sandberg www.pernillesandberg.com Feat. ‘Holy Me SS14 Collection’ photos by Ingrid Pop I am in Neukölln, Berlin and it is a rainy evening beyond normality. The hard wind makes everyone on the street walk fast, trying to avoid getting completely wet, myself included. Berlin seems completely grey and pale, the overall atmosphere is gloomy and the air is thick just before it gets dark. This feeling changes immediately as I step into the universe of Augustin Teboul, created by the duo Annelie Augustin and Odély Teboul. Situated on the ground floor in what looks like an old grocery store with panorama windows covered on the inside with patterned paper it is impossible to tell that this is a studio when seeing it from the outside. Even though it is already 9pm in the evening the productivity is still high. Young assistants are sewing hectically on the sewing machines, boxes are constantly relocated and the styling and fitting are intensely discussed. This studio has been the base of Augustin Teboul since December last year. The stylist of Augustin Teboul’s presentation this season shows me around. In one room people are working and in the other one the final pieces hang, along with long racks filled to the brim with exclusive rolls of different black fabric – and only black fabric. My interview is held in the small kitchen of the studio. This is the place for their cigarette break – it also contains a smaller moodboard. The open window keeps smashing into the wall because of the cruel weather. Odély Teboul seems completely calm and professional and she gives me her full attention even though her time schedule is tight. Annelie Augustin has gone home as she just had a baby. What is special about this brand is that they have never done a runway show. They do presentations. They want to keep it simple and minimal and give people time to really explore the pieces that the models are wearing. What is even more special about them is their brand development – they started out dramatically by having a presentation during Paris Fashion Week in cooperation with the fashionable store L’Éclarieur and have had a presentation at Plazza Athénée. Now they are based in Berlin although they still have a showroom and a press agency in Paris. Everything is now produced in Berlin, all the prototypes made by hand in-house and then the collections are produced somewhere else in the city, going through different steps before it hits the shops...

107

“I don’t really miss Paris but life is different here than in Paris. There is a lot of good energy and creative feeling here. It’s very inspiring. It’s dynamic here in a way because the city is still under construction. Paris is more established, especially in fashion.” Through time the duo has learned how to work together as a team.

“It’s very interesting, because we have very different personalities and on the other hand it’s like a fusion, a creative fusion of two people sharing creativity. We’re very different from each other, but we complement each other. The more you work together the more you learn how to make it quick. I think when you don’t have an ego that is too strong and you’re interested in working as a team it’s more interesting than fighting. It depends on how you want to work.” The two women come from different backgrounds, but both expenrienced handicraft as a part of their childhood homes. Odély comes from France and Annelie from Germany. Odély tells us how she never has and never will sew her own clothes, but likes to work with the cloth.

“I’ve done handicraft since I was a kid. I have always known that because my mom taught me how. Skills develop through time I guess. I think that’s important. When you know your techniques you can transform it into design.”

Odély and Annelie met at Esmod (international fashion and business school in Paris since 1841) but this was not the place of birth for their brand that has only existed since 2009. Within these few years they have managed to achieve the highest prized German fashion award SYFB (Start Your Fashion Business), not to mention the three awards their first collection “Cadavre Exquis” received – along with the ability to sell worldwide.

“I was working for Jean-Paul Gaultier in Germany. In 2009 I had a job interview in London. Annelie was living in London while she was working for Y3 Yohji Yamamoto for Adidas. I needed a couch to sleep on and got her phone number. It turned out we were in the same personal situation, looking for something creative and the desire to build something new. It just worked out and one thing leaded to another and it somehow turned into a brand.We won a few awards and with a small amount of money we started slowly. It’s a young brand but very luxurious. It still has a creative touch and a lot of handmade elements to it. It’s placed on the expensive market. Basically it’s ready-to-wear in the sense that all the clothes that you see you can buy in a shop. Our way of working is not by measurements. We don’t see our clients and make clothes especially for them, but create a collection that can be bought in a shop. In the sense of craftsmanship and techniques it’s a lot of couture.There is so much embroidery and handmade details.” Their courage to take a risk combined with hard work has leaded them into the position they stand in today. Back then they worked on a very basic level. Every morning they woke up and started working with their hands in a complete mess of 30 square meters, both sleeping in the same room, producing everything by hand. Things started to fit into place and magic started to happen.

“It’s difficult. Nothing is easy. We started with nothing. I lived in a one-room flat of thirty square meters and that’s how we began. Slowly, slowly, you know...” Their brand and working conditions have obviously changed since then, but it is important for them to be able to monitor every step of the process in the making of their clothes.

“It’s not our aim to create a big mass production. It will be interesting to enlarge the collection with more accessible pieces, once the label grows. For now we produce in Germany, and are focused on a production made in Europe. I think it’s important to be conscious with what you are doing when you’re involved in business. Nowadays there are so many brands; there is so much you can buy. It’s important for us to just concentrate on the quality of the pieces and all the finishing.That is where we want to put our energy.” Maybe that is the reason why every single piece in their collections is black. There is then room for complete focus and attention to the crafting, the embroidery and the details that makes the whole aesthetic. It is not a choice they have made to exclude a certain kind of woman – they design for every age and every style.

109

110 “It came by coincidence more or less. The first product we did together was created out of this game we played.You know this game where you draw something, fold the paper and then the next one has to draw something? We are two fashion designers so of course it became very fashionable drawings. It was really interesting because it was so unrealistic in a way. We decided to make an interpretation of this drawing, all in black with details and texture. It was a good base to start with cause I was working with a lot of colours and Annelie was very minimal when we met. It was a good base for combining our different universes. Black was our only restriction. We did these drawings and it was a very good way of starting working together. We wouldn’t make one of shoulders if one of us didn’t liked it. It became our first mini-collection of six looks and we decided to develop it. That’s why we only design in black cause we wanted to explore all the fields in only one colour.” Something that hits me again and again while I talk to Odély is her charming kind of humility, it runs through every word that comes out of her mouth. She knows what her and her business partner Annelie have achieved, but she knows the importance of staying calm and safe with both feet on the ground. The adventure will continue. The last thing she tells me is this:

“I don’t have something specific I’m proud of but I have moments where I can manage to look at some stuff we did and think ’wow, we achieved that, that’s cool’ and I feel… I don’t know if it’s pride or fulfilment. I think it’s important not to be too proud in life. When you manage to have a distance when looking at what you managed to do it’s difficult. Everytime I finish a creation I’m tired and feel that it’s disgusting. Then I look at it after a few months and think it’s good. Now when I wake up and come to the studio I realize that it’s such a big step from starting in one room, only two people working together.”

www.augustin-teboul.com

THE STORY OF A MOVEMENT AND A COMMUNITY We at Design Hotels™ are celebrating our 20th year of curating the most expressive and unique hotels worldwide. This special anniversary edition of our annual book looks back on the last two decades of innovative hotel design and forward to the future of cutting edge hospitality. The publication is available as a coffee-table book and a Limited Collector’s Edition that includes two timeless design pieces by Artek, the pioneering Finnish design company. Together, Design Hotels™ and Artek have created a peerless objet d’art for design addicts around the world. Explore our member hotels and more at designhotels.com

112

Blouse - Zara

/ Headband - H&M

/ Necklace - Asos

113

Photography – Julia Blank www.juliablank.com Model – Marika @ MegaModels www.megamodels.com Styling – Jeanna www.jeannastyling.com Make-up & Hair – Suzana Santalab www.suzanasantalab.com

114

Cap - Pinko / Jacket - Krew / Shirt - Monki / Skirt - Glamorous / Tights - Falke / Overknees - Sensual Latex / Necklace & Bracelet - H&M

115

Shirt - Asos / Necklace - Limited Edition

116

Jacket, Skirt & Gloves - Sensual Latex Pullover - Freak of Nature Bra - H&M Leggings - Asos Shoes - Zara Earrings - Vintage Bracelet - HermĂ¨s

117

Shirt - Moschino / Skirt - Sensual Latex / Tights - Falke / Shoes - Pleaser / Necklace - Asos / Ring - H&M

118

Bathing Suit & Earrings - Asos Cap - Stylist's own Bag - Monki

119

Pullover - H&M Shirt - Asos Skirt - Freak of Nature Necklaces - Limited Edition Headphones - Softwear Shoes - Buffalo

120

MEHRYL LEVISSE

Merhyl Lévisse is a sculptor and a photographer. He is also artist, an “Artiste plasticien”, one might say. The body takes a notable role in Merhyl’s work, perhaps because of Lévisse’s dance education. It was a real pleasure for me to discover his work; the beautiful pictures that he creates make me feel like a child peering in through the Christmas windows. There is so much going on; a whole world captured by a camera. To further showcase his work, I chatted to him about his passion, his inspirations and his meticulous way of crafting his art. Merhyl’s work is exhibited at his official gallery www.coullaudkoulinsky.com

KALTBLUT: Hi Mehryl, How are you doing? Mehryl: Hi KALTBLUT! I think I’m fine… if I don’t sleep, if I’m stressed, if I have many ideas for my work, it’s normal I’m fine. KALTBLUT: Could you maybe tell us a bit more about your artistic background? Mehryl: I have one “bac+5” in contemporary art, I was the assistant of several artists, I have a formation in dance and in contemporary dance, and I lived in Morocco two years to work in artistic structures, I returned to France in January. I’m represented by the French Gallery Coullaud & Koulinsky. KALTBLUT: I’m totally in love with your “Captations Photographiques”. How do you choose themes for your pictures? Mehryl: It’s really complicated, I work in two different ways. Once per year, I choose a theme and I work on this theme (for example; “ton sur ton”, “sciences occults”, “pornographie”) because at different months of the year and with the time past my ideas change and I don’t think about any more similar theme. For the other “captations photographiques” I choose the theme with my desires, my material, the object, the wallpaper, the carpets

and the body that I want to work. I never create more than one captation photographique by day, a lot of time is needed to built a photographic environment and I need to reflect and test my thoughts. When I sit and I don’t speak or I seem to make nothing in reality it’s there that I work most because I imagine in the slightest detail what will be my next images. KALTBLUT: What’s the process like when you work on a series? Do you have a clear idea before you start to shoot? Mehryl: My process is always similar. I work in a closed space, without daylight, and always artificial light. I begin in a room and I make the photographic space, I imagine the body, build the suit, accessory and I fit out the space. Usually, I have a specific idea for my photo, I think about the picture before starting to work and after I create the photographic space. Sometimes I forget this work method and I make the photo and think the body piece by piece, and then I forget the constraints, my code and at this moment I have absurd pictures (some are the ones I prefer in my work). KALTBLUT: Your finished work looks like a piece of theatre: there’s real direction in it. Every single picture you create

Interview by Nicolas Simoneau

looks like a different universe. Do you create all the set design on your own? Mehryl: I’m creating everything. I work alone, I don’t have assistants and it’s me who imagines and realises everything. It’s a lot of work. I choose to work alone, because I know where I’m going, when I speak with other artists they say, “I could have made that” and for me it’s really difficult to discuss that. Artists forget they aren’t me, I have a personal story, personal route they don’t know and they me and I think differently. Fortunately! KALTBLUT: Is there story behind each of your series, or is it more open to interpretation? Mehryl: Both, behind every pictures there is a story but I have chosen not to tell it to leave free to interpretation. It’s very important that every spectator imagine their own story. Each person imagines their own story, because we don’t have same real-life experience, the same memories, the same education, the same parents, the same family, the same route and my work calls on to all this, to the life of each person. KALTBLUT: As an artist, who are your main references?

This Page: BAUHAUSporn #5: Le monde des perversions.

121

122

This Page Up: BAUHAUSporn #4: Ornementation géométrique, This Page Middle: Epiphragme, This Page Down: Le dernier Jeu.

Mehryl: I have a great deal of references for the painting, in the sculpture, by way music, cinema, literature, opera, dance etc… Dance is very important to me, I studied the dance and I hesitate to become a dancer in a company. I love Maguy Marin, each of the plays causes an artistic explosion in my guts. Of course I love Pina Bausch it’s obvious, but I was born too late to meet her. The Spanish choreographer Olga Mesa that I met in Morocco and with whom I was lucky enough to think the body, the Moroccan choreographer Meryem Jazouli inspires me enormously, with whom I worked in casablanca during two years also deserves metion. There is also Josef Nadj, Steven Cohen, Raimund Hoghe, Benoît Lachambre, Sasha Waltz… The movie that I prefer is “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”, that was an obvious fact and a revelation when I saw it as a child. I read Jean Giono, Jules Verne, Gilles Deleuze, Charles Baudelaire, Ionesco, Oscar Wilde and I listen to some electronic music, new wave and experimental and I’m into “Fan death”. KALTBLUT: What is the over-arching inspiration for your work? Mehryl: Life. KALTBLUT: Your shots look totally realistic. Does any postproduction take place in your photography work? Mehryl: Yes they are realistic, there is no post-production in my shots. My work isn’t retouched by computer. Special effects are realised during the photography used the lightings, make-up, false grounds, prostheses as in the theatre. I never use postproduction it’s really important to me that my pictures are true. KALTBLUT: Are you working with a digital or an analog camera? and why? Mehryl: I work with a digital camera, because for make one picture, sometimes I realise three hundred or four hundred photographs to obtain THE photograph which I imagine. The tool is not important, I’m not a photographer I’m an artist. My work isn’t the photography, the photography is a documentary track. My work is the construction of the space, the thought of the body, the suits, before the photography and not the photography itself. KALTBLUT: You’ve worked on a few collaborations, how was it for you sharing project space with another artist? What were you hoping to gain by collaborating?

123 Mehryl: Actually I work on three new collaborations, an installation, a series picture and a movie. In collaboration I don’t share the space. We share the ideas, the thoughts and we work together on the project, but the photographic work is my work and nobody goes into the space. My associate works alone and then I work with his productions in the photographic space. I only think the space and it’s important to me. I love collaborations because our universes mix and takes me differently but the work is shared, the photography part is me. KALTBLUT: You also work in 3D. How does it compare working with photography and working with installations? Mehryl: The installations are the 3D of my photos. Both are connected and complement each other. These works are not comparable but additional, I both consider them as very important, but it’s true I realise less work in 3D and more photos. KALTBLUT: Can you tell us a bit more about the piece “Le Dernier Jeu”. I love the dark humour of it. Mehryl: It’s about a very personal work on which I worked several years, and connected to my life and a lego’s series of the photo. There are two coffins, one white one in colour and it’s unique piece. A arrangement box, a note of 900 pages and two volumes, four days to build and more of 3900 scrub each. KALTBLUT: A lot of artists use their work as a way to purge their souls, would you say it’s the same in your case? If so, what do your demons look like? Mehryl: It’s really true!! I’m so neurotic… I work on me, I try to make efforts for the everyday life, it’s really difficult. I’m very stressed, I have many demons but I keep it for me. KALTBLUT: Do you also work by demand or do you decide the time scale for all of your projects? Mehryl: I obey to nobody except my own creative drives. I have some projects in command but I’m free in my creation. KALTBLUT: Your pictures are everything but simple. The patterns, colours, repetition, bodies; our eyes are really “served” with your work. Are you a fan of “abondance” in general? Mehryl: I work a lot. I destroy a lot! I work on the everyday life, on the objects which surrounds us and to whom we give an mystic way.

www.mehryllevisse.fr

This Page Up: Joyeuses fêtes, This Page Middle: L’étude des figures, This Page Down: L’oisivore.

INTRODUCING:

124

CUNT CUNT CHANEL Searching for the soul in the very atmosphere itself Markus Nikolaus Büttner is currently producing his very first Solo-LP “The Monster Inside Of Me” (Suena Hermosa, Berlin), getting lost around Europe in search of hope through pleasure and pain, to overcome loneliness, weariness, hollowness and absurdity. Played between static contrasts, the songs are mostly minimalistic in structure with dreamy features, factory-like beats, distorted organ, deep bass, dental drills. His works are not so much arrangements or compositions, but simply pure expression. Let us introduce you to the sound of CUNT CUNT CHANEL. Photo by Bobby Anders I Interview: Amy Heaton KALTBLUT: For our readers who don’t know you, can you tell us a little summary of your project in your own words? C C C: Hello, my name is Markus Nikolaus. I am a live-act performing mostly solo under the name “Cunt Cunt Chanel”. If I’m asked to describe the music I make, I always feel like describing what a cake tastes like. You can never fully explain it to the person if they haven’t tried it themselves but for a little introduction. I play mostly digital with my computer, various midi-controls, a master-keyboard and use sound-pedals with the focus on the voice. Especially in a club I like to play with my drummer, who plays a Roland V-Drumkit on pads, instead of my own. My intention is to bring more profound diversity into the club scene, that I like very much myself, and to function in a way that’s both artistic and aesthetic but also poetic and soulful. KALTBLUT: Do you usually find yourself writing a text, and adding the music, or the other way around? Or is the whole process more organic? C C C: Usually I try to produce a lot before even thinking about making a song. When I do, I simply intend to find an interesting sound. I don’t think about the arrangement, if it is played right or about the harmony too much. I don’t produce, I actually just prepare and try to make something happen. I experiment with what I have. Sometimes I have a lot of equipment sometimes I only have my computer. For me, the piano is the only failsafe set-up. The digital equipment I use is always vague and destined to fail one day. Returning to the keys of the piano, i realise, it can only be me failin’. KALTBLUT: For me, music making is always at it’s most intense when it’s a solitary affair. Would you agree? C C C: I just try to prepare for a situation to pop-up. But I would agree that it is a solitary affair. Most of my strongest songs were made when I was on my own. Another person in the room steals your concentration. Either everyone goes into the same direction or it won’t work. The best way is to nicely ask the thieves of your creativity to leave. If that doesn’t seem to work. Get yourself a gun. KALTBLUT: I’m sure everyone asks you about the name, it’s brilliant. Where did you get the idea for it? C C C: To be honest, I didn’t have the idea, at the time I couldn’t think of one. It was a friend of mine, Matea. She came up with the name and I trust her opinion. She writes for the SPEX Music Magazine and in a pure moment of brainstorming she hit the spot. The word CUNT is not meant to be provocative but it seemed necessary to have a distance between the combination of words. I wanted to involve the huge opposites of FRANKFURT. The city has almost no middle-class. The huge skyscrapers and the poor and homeless sitting at the bottom

You can hear the wistful tones of CUNT CUNT CHANEL over at www.soundcloud.com/bobbyblueisamusiclover of it. I can’t think of any other place in Germany where people are so far away from each other, divided into the class-of-finance and the class-of-poverty but on the other hand, you see bankers and bank-robbers sitting in the same bar, café or club. When Matea said the name CUNT CUNT CHANEL it just hit me. In my head was this picture of a woman sitting at Goethestraße, Frankfurt ($$$) in front of the Chanel-boutique injecting, like she’s trying to reach somehow a moment of happiness which the rich and beautiful praise with their extraordinary lifestyle. It is mass-madness. The rich live in complete illusion of money and the poor are completely disillusioned in life by having none. KALTBLUT: Are you into fashion? How do you construct your image as an artist? C C C: I like fashion but I can’t afford it. I try to dress rather decent and I like to mix a more old-fashioned style with something that was clearly not made for me to wear. Peacocking in an Oscar Wilde’ish way. When I play live I try to only wear black, oftentimes because of the black light I use to paint things like the microphone or myself during the show. But what the hell is my

image? My image as a construct is maybe to be seen as someone who clearly escapes his habitus, his surroundings, hometown and family in a way to free himself whatever the cost, at all cost. The place where I grew up definitely influences my projection on the audience as for example a working class-kid; half-orphan growing up at my mothers butchers shop, ADHD, son of a butcher and so forth. I try to let all these pieces take somehow part in what I do. But I didn’t do blood yet on stage, I leave this to Hermann Nitsch for now. KALTBLUT: Your music is inspired by the electro scene in Frankfurt, how do you find it compares to Berlin? Which scene do you prefer? C C C: I use Frankfurt to create anything but the usual and I use Berlin to step back from the far outs. Frankfurt has a very common sound. In Berlin everybody just tries to be so very different, they are so far out that it almost scares me. I use both to seek and find inspiration and to come back to what I’ve learned. I like both and prefer none. KALTBLUT: From the clips I’ve heard and the live show

125

experience you put a lot of yourself into your music... gutwrenching, soul searching, atmospheric: would you say this is true of your work? C C C: I would say so because it is a part of me writing these songs and it is a part of me performing but since individualism became mainstream I see myself as a part coming shaped out of the same big thing and the same reasons trying to speak to the ones who think and feel likewise. I don’t want to be different, I want to place myself in the warmth of a circle of friends and with my music I am able to find these. KALTBLUT: You’re producing your L.P at the moment “The Monster Inside Of Me”, can you tell us a bit more about that monster? C C C: Confused in a moment, grey in grey, like a prophet, take the nearest exit or at him another hit, heartbeating piece of meat, once there was a time to carry truth out on the street, hard voices, widow, doubt, skin, unfaithful, sweat, panic attack, summer dress, blurred faces, main station, someone I know that is now someone random, glory, words, most likely somewhere out of reach, one single night a thousand feet deep, details, devils, save my soul, journey, pilgrim, sightless view, body presence, soul absence, muse breathing, out-loving, pictures, weakness, losing suitcase, the injuries that to myself I do, loss is fortune ever fixed, fleeting year, one shot revolver, have years told, now it is over, chance or nature’s changing course, well as long as man can breathe, bring me life approaching death, of this, our time, it’s worth to sing, have eyes to wonder, french kiss, black tongue, as long as ocean’s open, muscle works, one way I go, such is my love. KALTBLUT: Although your lyrical content is deep, imbued with layers of meaning, there’s a gentle dreamlike quality to your sound. Is this juxtaposition intentional? C C C: It is the dreamlike sound that gives the listener the biggest space for imagination. After minutes of atmospheric sounds it only needs a word or a line to get hooked on a thought. I don’t think it is my lyrics that are deep. I think it is the listener who creates this deepness in a moment of thinking when listening to my songs. KALTBLUT: The otherworldliness of your tracks is almost cinematic. Do you include any visuals when you play live? Or have you collaborated with any film makers? C C C: Truth is I’ve been experimenting with some people so far but for the visualisation of the show, I’ve not found the right person yet. For videomaterial I always like to take a filmer with me on the road or lock us up in my cottage nearby the forest. For the cut I have only one guy, Max Sternkopf, he’s got the right eye for it plus he’s magnificent in a way because he grows with the challenge. Whenever we have too little material he finds a way to cut 10 minutes material even better than a 3 day shot production. I don’t need rocket-scientists to make decent movies but what you need is a handful of very fine minds that have a sense of your own imagination. KALTBLUT: Which other artists in the music scene are most exciting for you right now? C C C: Julien Bracht (Cocoon) and Rouge Mecanique (Re-

kids). Both of these live-acts combine rock elements with club music and play solo, this is what made it interesting for me to learn because usually the club is not prepared for live-acts to that extend. Julien for example plays techno with very intense live drums. He is one of my closest but everytime I see his songs live, he leaves me with amazement. Romain, Rouge Mecanique, plays guitar throughout his show and the first time I heard him live at Heideglühen in Berlin, I knew it was something new. Both are very special artists and go into directions where I imagine to be. The perfect crossover of club-culture and concert music. When it comes to good pop music I think Ballet School (Bella Union, UK) is one band to keep an eye on. Rosalind Blair’s soprano voice brings my ear to frequencies I hardly heard live. Plus, Louis McGuire is a machine on the drums. A very fine one. KALTBLUT: Thanks so much for the cool photograph you made especially for us, what kinds of things did you think about when I told you about our theme: Noire? C C C: Of course first thing that comes to one’s mind is the night. Not very imaginative. After I thought about it for a while, I felt like going on one red thread most people would run on. The well trodden path, so to say. So, what I did was that I jumped into one of Berlins Photoautomat boxes at Kottbusser Tor and it was one out of four shots. I gave it to an acquaintance, Ludwig Kempf, he made it look like a bit more special. Noire is also a ¼ note in music. Take four of them and a bass drum and you have a club beat. So, NOIRE, for me is a artistic expression on music for the uncontrolled and spontaneous mind. KALTBLUT: Where would be your favourite location to play a gig in Berlin? Maybe you already have played there…or somewhere on your watchlist? C C C: Most people would probably answer Panorama Bar but Berlin is full of beautiful off-locations, rooftops, cellars, basements, outside places along the Spree. I could imagine though to play in the attic of the CHALET just as much as I would like to give a show at a lakeside or at an off-location somewhere in the nature of this town. This year I enjoyed to play outside in the yard of the Kater Holzig. Burning trash cans under the wide open sky, people from all over the world screaming my lyrics back into my face. I was very interactive. KALTBLUT: If I saw you in a cafe, book in hand, you would be reading…? C C C: It was very likely to see me with the book of gaelic wisdom called ANAM CARA by John O’Donoghue. Translated from the gaelic it means “soul-friend”. I treated it like my bible but since I gave it to a friend because I got it from a friend and wisdom is there to share, I would probably be reading one of Rilke’s book. I know I should at some point start to read something out of the 21st Century. Maybe better not care. KALTBLUT: What about your plans for the coming year, will you be touring outside of Europe at all? C C C: Europe is a small continent but with a lot of very diverse nations living on it. It takes some time to explore all the nooks and crannies of this continent. This is what I’d like to do before I start thinking about spreading my wings

to overcome the huge swimming pool of an ocean. Though a friend of mine, the brazilian writer Ricardo Domeneck and I have started working together this year combining poetry and music and we intend to play a few shows in Rio and Sao Paolo and hopefully some nice, little extraordinary places. Brazil is a very tough but interesting country that offers huge possibilities and space for art in general. I definitely want to be there someday. KALTBLUT: If you could live and create anywhere outside of Germany, where would it be? C C C: To really create songs I think I would only need a place in the mountains and my dog. But think it’s a relief to be able to work anywhere just with a pair of headphones. It’s different with the singing. It doesn’t always work to improvise on a rather high emotional level. For that I need to be absent from people. As an artist I cut out stencils on my own. If I like one I can recreate it unlimited in front of every audience without hesitation or the feeling of shame. Then the stencil is like carved wood in my head. KALTBLUT: You mentioned you’ve retreated to the countryside to work on your recordings, what is it about peaceful surrounds that you prefer as a base (as opposed to the hustle and bustle of the inner city) C C C: I don’t like silence very much but absence from everything that is not existential is very important. I start to hear more clearly and to overcome the deadly silence I instinctively start to sing. I am always surprised how this seems to work for me. The voice is my most important instrument and whatever happens, I always have it with me. KALTBLUT: How do you feel about music in the digital age? On the one hand it frees musicians from the shackles of traditional constructs, on the flip side of that it does make it harder to earn a living from being a musician these days... C C C: Musicians shouldn’t earn anything from their music if they put it online themselves. Nowadays most music is given out like flyers, its only the commercial for the actual product. I really (try to avoid the word “hate”) don’t like that especially if your songs come from deep down of your heart, it makes you feel like the music one makes is cheap but it is not. I want the people to download music illegally, put it up again for everyone to spread. I want the people to steal it and let them guess its actual value themselves. Nothing is expensive or cheap when you steal it but one has to discover what it’s worth. The audience should be forced to find it, if they adore it, overcome borders, break the law and literally rip it out of the hands of the industry. That is pure admiration for the artist. The artist doesn’t need the industry but the industry needs the artist. People need to be excited. Excitement is important. Boredom a killer. KALTBLUT: When can we expect to hear the new album? C C C: Never. there will always be a “new album” I don’t ever want to retire from this. I want this to be my profession and the start of making music is always my destination. However, there will be a techno-release this year with Florian Meindl, in which I did sing and my long awaited “Monster Inside Of Me” will be released on the berlinbased label Suena Hermosa end of this year.

MUST 126

You certainly can live without these ITEMS, but life is so much More Beautiful with THEM. Selected by Marcel Schlutt

DOCKERS Bomber Jacket

The Son by Jo Nesbo

Bomber jackets are this year an absolute must-have for every fashion boy out there. This Quilted Bomber Jacket by Dockers makes any look more comfortable and modern. Their lightweight nylon with quilted detail looks casual and keeps you warm. www.dockers.com

I love reading crime and mystic books. One of my favorite is The Son by Jo Nesbo. A thriller from no 1 bestselling crime author, Jo Nesbo, which sees a charismatic young prisoner escaping jail to find out the truth about his father's death. He listens to the confessions of other inmates at Oslo jail, and absolves them of their sins. Some people even whisper that Sonny is serving time for someone else: that he doesn't just listen, he confesses to their crimes. A book you should own.

Philips M1X Dj System

Mix like a DJ with Philips M1X-Dj , give your music through any device, and share it with others. Create incredible sets that will delight your friends, and stream the songs on the Lightning-Anschluss/Bluetooth. And take your music with you wherever you are for a big party at any location. www.philips.de

Straw Duffle Backpack

The Walking Dead Monopoly

Straw Duffle Backpack We have seen this wonderful green Straw Duffle Backpack at Topshop.com and we love. Spring is coming and yes we all have to buy new stuff for our spring wardrobe. Topshop is offering always some great items for those who like to spend their money for more than just clothing. www.topshop.com

The last thing you want to do, when the zombies hit the fan (so to speak), is to worry about real estate deals. What you DO want to be doing is making sure the property you own is well protected and ready to withstand the advancing zombie menace. Let this be your mindset when you play The Walking Dead Monopoly. It's Monopoly mashed up with Robert Kirkman's The Walking Dead. Don't just buy properties - fortify them! www.thinkgeek.com

HANIWA NO. 1

The label JEONGA CHOI BERLIN was founded in 2012 and provides unique and sophisticated hats and accessories. Each piece is lovingly handmade with the highest quality materials. The HANIWA NO. 1 hat is one of our favorite items from the young Berlin based label. And girls if you want something unique and special just have a look at their webpage. You surely will find the right thing for you.

www.jeonga-choi-berlin.com

Nike Air Max Ice

The next Nike lightweight in Hyperfuse mode! The Air Max 90 ICE stands out not only because of its color and geometric pattern on the outside, it has also got an Ice sole. Red, seamless, Hyperfuse upper with a clear 'ICE' midsole, a red 'ICE' Air unit and bold color airbag and outsole. Absolute eye catcher and very comfortable!

Zweena Pure Argan Oil

Argan Oil is the new big thing for your skin. Argan oil is a rich source of antioxidants and Vitamins E, A, and F, containing 80 percent unsaturated essential fatty acids including Omega 6 and Omega 9. Referred to as “liquid gold,” organic argan oil is produced from the kernels of the rare and ancient Moroccan argan tree. It has been valued for its abundant cosmetic and medicinal substances for centuries by the Moroccan people. Many consider argan oil a “superfood” for the skin due to its healing, moisturizing, anti-inflammatory and anti-aging properties.

Forever 21 The colorful Forever 21 rain coat finally brings color to the gray everyday life. The 90s style of the print should be in every wardrobe of a hip girl. It fits in a backpack. Is easy to clean and goes with any outfit.

www.zweenabodycare.com

DRMTM Cap

www.nike.com

www.forever21.com

The Duesseldorf-based street wear label DRMTM has the right thing for the coming spring and summer: the most beautiful Cap to forget winter once and for all. We are very excited about Roses Cap. And hope to see you all in it this summer, on the street or at parties.

www.drmtm.com

127

DEAR BAD BED BUG By Amanda M. Jansson & Emma E. K. Jones

128

Queen of Sorcery Photography: Tomokazu Hamada Styling: Linda Brwnlee Hair: Yoko Sato (AVGVST) Make Up: Yuka Hirata (A.K.A) Model: Symone Postproduction: Chaos

Clothing : Harue Nagamoto

129

Clothing : Yuya Nakata

Clothing : Harue Nagamoto

130

131

Clothing : Harue Nagamoto

132

Clothing : Harue Nagamoto

133

Clothing : Harue Nagamoto

134

Gesaffelstein: Prince of

There’s something undeniably terrifying about music that has the power to rip your head clean off: contort, cajole and crystallise your movements as if you were suddenly transported outside of yourself helplessly looking in. Everyone has a fearless beast living inside of them, and Gesaffelstein is the man who knows just the way to set it free. Naming himself after two of the most confident and unwavering concepts in human history is a pretty demonstrative start. Gesamtkunstwerk: the German ideal of the total or universal artwork, bringing together music, the visual arts and narrative into a single intoxicating vision. Albert Einstein: the ultimate example of human intellect, the man who explained the universe. When Mike Levy, the Paris-based DJ-producer, was asked how this name came to be he explains, “Gesaffelstein is an ambitious name, but I want my music to be art, with something to say. Einstein is about quantum physics too, that means the small things, the tiny things that change everything, the detail. He always kept questioning and refining his ideas. That’s what I strive towards.” Perhaps it was setting the bar so high from day one that pushed Levy on to develop something so distinctive, and unfaltering. Born in Lyon, France in 1985, Levy discovered techno music in his teenage years. “This was my first contact with electronic music and I was obsessed with it,” he recalls. “I was almost too shy to admit that I liked this music. It was primitive, but in a serious way and I really liked that. I kept it to myself for years.” After playing around with his neighbour’s collection of synthesisers he began to realise it was not so much music he wanted to create, but pure sound. “I was intrigued by white noise and analogue sound,” he says. At 18 he moved to Paris and began what he now describes as

Darkness ‘research’. You would think coming from a long line of tortured intellectual types his heritage and homeland must have something to do with it, but is his music at all French? “It’s hard to say” he comments, “We live in a digital world where all frontiers have broken down. A kid in the South of France can be making Detroit techno that sounds indistinguishable from the “real” thing. Who would know where it came from? Does it matter?” He has a point, but as he steps out on stage sharply dressed and coiffed to perfection, it’s hard to believe that the sound about to be unleashed from such a man can be so anarchistic, so visceral. “I had to work again and again to find my proper sound,” he says. “The revelation came when I did the first EP ‘Variation’ on Turbo in 2010. When I finished that I knew it was the sound I was searching for.”

This is the ear-shattering revelation that has he has been building on ever since, and to fully experience the extent of it is to let go of any preconceived notions you once had about what techno should be, one taste of the piercing complexity behind his sonic explosions, and you’ll soon be converted. Building a fanbase amongst dance music fiends since the middle of the Noughties, his ominous combination of hard techno and industrial primal drive is more commercially acknowledged by way of his collaboration with Kanye West on two standout tracks on 2013’s ‘Yeezus’ album, the abrasive ‘Send It Up’ and the glam-punk rap riot ‘Black Skinhead’, a co-production with Daft Punk and Levy’s friend Brodinski. Releases on the OD, Zone and Bromance labels showcased an ever-developing individual style whilst his remixes for Lana del Rey, Justice, The Hacker, Laurent Garnier and heroes Depeche Mode put his unique sound on the mainstream map. It’s only this year that the full extent of Levy’s musical intensity has been released

in his debut album ‘Aleph’, wantonly bludgeoning us with a musical exploration that isn’t for the faint of heart. His pounding yet melodic tracks awaken some dark, uncomfortably human impulses: perversion drives each beat, pounding on the inside of your skull looking for a way out. His structures are brutal yet calculated—connecting the clashes of our modern era with expert precision. The first release from the album, the insistent and acidic ‘Pursuit’, was accompanied by a sinister controversial video created by director duo Fleur & Manu. As the camera pans out clinical images of war and machinery are juxtaposed with the elegance of neo-classical existence, disturbing as it is enthralling Gesaffelstein’s unrelenting beats and electronic wails provide the perfect backdrop for this world of decadence, technology and sex. His second release, the powerful ‘Hate or Glory’ also directed by the filmmaking duo, is a contemporary take on the cautionary tale of King Midas, pushing even harder and deeper with a more powerful drive. “I don’t know why I’m so drawn to dark sounds,” Levy admits. “It’s like when you make a movie about love,” he explains, “that’s not your life, it’s the art you have made. It’s a fiction. The music is exactly the same. Although there is nothing dark in my life, I have a facility to understand dark emotion.” These two tracks turned out to be just a taster for the sinister pleasures that lie within the album: refreshing a stale techno scene with the disturbing flavours that ran through pre-pop Human League, Throbbing Gristle and early Kraftwerk. On several tracks London singer Chloe Raunet—formerly of lo-fi electro band Battant on the Kill The DJ label, now working on her solo project C.A.R.— provides lyrics and vocals to compound the seductive atmosphere: a fierce female presence in a wicked storm of sound.

135 Although his electrifying DJ-sets have earned him acclaim from Boiler Room Berlin to Electric Zoo in NYC, Sonár in Barcelona and Bestival in the UK as a self-confessed introvert Levy admits that he isn’t by nature an outgoing clubbing type, “If the music is really good I have to sit down on my own and listen...when I go out I have to forget the technical side of the music,” he admits, “DJ-ing can be fun, especially if I‘m doing it with Brodinski. We’re friends and it’s exciting to work together. But in the end, you are playing mostly other people’s records. I prefer to play live.” Indeed, the Gesaffelstein show is the best way to experience his decadent vision: a classicist form of electronic music that aspires to high art. His approach to each live exposition is with meticulous attention to detail, performing from within a giant custom-made marble altar where he can control everything from the frequencies to the lights. “I can have a response directly with the audience,” he says. “I can take the pressure up and down, build tension and release it, and take people deeply into the music. I have much more pleasure this way.”

complex at the same time and everything relates to the idea of the Aleph, which is both the beginning and the return to the beginning. It’s a beautiful object.” Similarly his music video archive is a black hole of visual exploration. The first video that grabbed me was the monochrome film project for “Viol” entitled “Ghostrider”, filmed in the darkened streets of Paris the directors Jérémy and Anto, aka, Les Darons, twinned their passion for fixies and film-making capturing a dark spirit of the discipline on camera. As they ride like hell without a flicker of fear in their eyes the cyclists push on in time to the oppressive beats of Gesaffelstein creating an addictive visual reality that is instantly seductive. This is the kind of visual that fits perfectly to his music, and the powerful imagery it can inspire.

Without a doubt Levy is a master of exposing the Noire that hides in all of us. His sound encapsulates the madness, the melancholy and the darkness that’s somehow striving to get out. Working at the intersection between solace and aggression there are themes to which Gesaffelstein will always As far as the visual return: raw, and unis concerned this is ending, ecstatic, yet an entirely different deeply concentrated matter, and he freand controlled. When quently collaborates asked to comment on with fellow artists, dithe meaning behind rectors and designers the title of the album, to help better express ‘Aleph’, he explains the ‘Gesamtkunstthat it’s a word which Photo by Emmanuel Cossu werk’ element of the can have many meText by Amy Heaton. project. Inspired by anings. The first chaartworks that range racter of the Hebrew www.gesaffelstein.net from the contemporaalphabet. The comry abstract paintings puter that contains of Pierre Soulages to a complete reality the severity of 18th century neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis Da- in Neal Stephenson’s cyberpunk novel ‘Snow Crash’. The letter vid—infamous for his depiction of Napoleon on horseback—it’s which brings a clay Golem to life in Jewish legend…and whatever no wonder that the visual is just as important to Levy as the music other interpretation you as the listener wish to bestow upon it. “I itself. Take the album cover for the album for example, the design have the key to my music,” says Levy, “and I keep it for me. But was created with Manu Cossu. “He has the hands to make it hap- I’m really excited to witness other people discovering it.” Now it’s pen, and I have the words,” Levy explains. “The cover is pure and your turn.

136

PHOTO KOTY 2 WWW.KOTY2.COM MODEL ALICJA KOSIBA @VOX STYLISTS DOBROCHNA RAWICKA & JUSTYNA MICHALCZAK STYLISTS ASSISTANTS MAŁGORZATA EJMOCKA MAKE UP EEVI MAKEUP STUDIO HAIR AGNIESZKA STENKA LOCATION STUDIO IP

OVERALLS DIVA NGUYEN BAND ANNA BLAUTH

137 OVERALLS ANNA CICHOSZ NECKLACE DIFRIPERI JACKET QUITENORMAL

138 SKIRT HENRY&VINCE DRESS EDYTA PIETRZYK SHOES MODELS’S OWN

139 NECKLACE ADA KORDYS BLOUSE INGA BUCZYNSKA PANTS NOLOGO SHOES STYLIST‘S OWN

140 BAND KOTO BIZUTERIA// PAKAMERA.PL SWEATER ROBOTY RECZNE BOOTS STYLIST‘S OWN

141 BLOUSE HENRY&VINCE NECKLACE ADA KORDYS BLOUSE INGA BUCZYNSKA

142

Eirik Lyster

KALTBLUT: Hi Eirik, how are you? This Page: “Floral Brutal” 2013, 42x59,4 cm, Drawing with pen. Next Page: “Sleepwalker” 2013, 42x59,4 cm, Drawing with pen.

Based in Oslo, Eirik Lyster is such a creative individual that we’re going to have problems listing all his achievements. But we’ll try: he’s a stylist, he’s a performer, he’s also a sculptor and last but certainly not least, he also draws. Not just any old drawings, one’s in which the characters he creates seem to have a full wonderland imagination going on. It’s half magic, half gore. We meet and chat to him, and in the end Eirik creates two brand new pieces exclusively for KALTBLUT, which we’re rather proud to present.

w w w. e i r i k - l y s t e r. c o m

Eirik: Hello! I’m fine, thank you. KALTBLUT: You only work with pens, where does your love of pens come from? Eirik: I’ve tried a lot of different expensive pens, but the pen I always end up with is a regular pen. It is kind of dry and has these shades of dark blue almost. Looks really good when I draw hair, which I do a lot. I was thinking about pens and drawing the other day… we live in a world where everything is so digital, so I think it’s good to stop up and actually create something with a pen. You cant just push a button and it will magical appear. KALTBLUT: So tell us a bit more about the characters you draw. Some of them sort of look like hybrid creatures. What are they exactly? Eirik: The main character is actually a rubber duck. But most of the time you can only see the face of it with closed eyes, dressed up in different layers of animals. A pop icon walking in a cold landscape. KALTBLUT: Where do they come from, what’s their story? What does their world look like? Eirik: It’s a world in between dreams and reality. Each drawing holds a different story and emotion.

143 KALTBLUT: Your drawings bring to the surface a mixture of very different emotions : cuteness, childlike innocence, and yet there is a lot of blood and gore. Cute but not so cute? Eirik: It is uninteresting for me to show something pure good or bad. I like to show both sides. If you look at nature, it is so beautiful but so grotesque at the same time. I think we live somewhere between those things. KALTBLUT: All of your pieces are pretty big. Are you more comfortable working on large canvases? Eirik: Yes I really enjoying making big drawings. It’s kind of how it has to be… fair to my work in a way. Not every drawing suits being small. I’ve made some huge drawings straight on wall also (laughs) In my hometown there is a hairdresser that has a big piece of my work on their wall, but the ones you’ve seen is on paper. Google it! KALTBLUT: How did you come to do illustration? Eirik: I have been drawing my whole life. I can’t remember a time without it. It comes naturally to me. When I was a kid I could sit and draw animals and characters and make up stories for hours and hours. I always knew I was gonna be an artist. I’ve always felt like one. I also so badly wanted to feel the things that all the icons I admired had felt. Even the bad stuff. Lonliness, struggle and the endless dreaming. KALTBLUT: The contrast between the black and the bright pinks, reds and yellows is quite strong…. why these clashing colours?

KALTBLUT: Where do you draw inspiration from? Eirik: I get inspired by everything in my life. Identity, fame, pop culture, death, nature. I’m fascinated that beauty and life are fragile; something that is slowly fading away. Its like I draw beauty that is aware of its own death in a way. When I’m going through something, good or bad, my first reaction is how can I translate this in the most beautiful way I know. My art is poetic but also very pop. I tell stories in a metaphoric way, but at the same time it is branding itself. I like to repeat things over and over again. I also like the idea of making things that will live longer than I will. We so often tend to think life is a promise, when it’s not at all. If life is not a promise, then at least I will promise myself to live forever through art. KALTBLUT: There obviously is a dark side to all of your drawings. What are your demons? Eirik: I am a person that listens to my dark times as much as my bright times. Regardless of how much it hurts I stay in it for as long as it takes for an answer to come. I embrace darkness and struggle as much as happiness and success. I think you have to accept both sides if you’re an artist to survive in a way. KALTBLUT: Do you use your art as an outlet? Eirik: Yes, its the way I express myself. Without art, life would have no meaning to me. Its a luxury to get to be private in public in an artistic way. KALTBLUT: You live in Olso, how does your city influence your work?

Eirik: I’ve always said that drawings come to me. I see drawings. I have visions. When I’m feeling something out of nowhere I get drawings in my head. When I’m going through something, if the feeling is strong enough, drawings come up really clearly. It almost feels like an instinct. And then as I work I see that I can add certain metaphors to highlight what I’m telling. I want the art to look like something that is easy on the eye, but when you look closer you can see layers of poetic undertones, which is maybe different to the image that you first saw.

Eirik: The city is bigger than the one I’m from so there’s a lot more opportunities. I’ve lived here for over a year now and many dreams have come true. It’s all about hard work and discipline. I got to show my work in the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art. I meet a lot of interesting artists and musicians all the time so Oslo makes me feel like home. As often as I can I try to make time for a walk before I go to sleep, under the stars or into the city lights. Thats also inspiring to me: to walk, think and listen to music and watch the city neon lights popping up in the sky. Magical.

KALTBLUT: Any artists you look up to in the illustration world?

KALTBLUT: Any other cities where you’d love to go to, to visit or to live in?

Eirik: There are many talented artists out there, but I have to say Theodor Kittelsen. He has this cold Scandinavian feel to his work ,which I’m fascinated by. His drawings and paintings are just beautiful. I don’t think you can necessarily compare us, but he has a soul in is work I can really relate to. Beautiful but dark.

Eirik: New York and Iceland. Maybe L.A. and Hollywood also. Ive always pictured myself in the future living or at least staying in NYC for a while. Or living in a house by the sea in Iceland. Time will show. But right now, I’m really happy to be working in Oslo.

144

Sam wears Bra – DKNY Suspenders – Maison Kiss Kiss Stockings – Maison Kiss Kiss Knickers – Maison Kiss Kiss Shoes – Missoni Matthew wears Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz

Love & Malice Photography: Nik Pate - www.nikpate.com Make Up: Mark Bowles Hair: Paul Jones Styling: Justin & Andre @ a+c:studio Models: Matthew Riches & Samantha Jackson @ S.O.S

Dress – Lee Paton Cuff’s and Neckbrace – Maison Kiss Kiss

145

Sam wears Leather Bodice/ Top – Tamzin Lillywhite Jacket – Katie Eary Trousers – Heohawn Shoes – Pretty Little Things Ring – Only Child Earrings – Finchittida Finch Matthew wears Trousers – Sopopular

146

147

Sam wears Bra – Tamzin Lillywhite Leather-Pleated Skirt – AMEN Couture Fishnet Stockings – Maison Kiss Kiss Fur Boots – Robert Cligerie Necklace – Mirabelle Matthew wears Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz

Sam wears Dress – AMEN Couture Head Piece – Jay Briggz Bracelet – Eshvi Earrings – Finchittida Finch Matthew wears Lace Gimp Mask – Jay Briggz Trousers – Sopopular

148

149

Dress – AMEN Couture

AUSTRA

AND THE DESIRE TO BE CANDID

In the words of Marina Abramovic, “Performance is about being in the present; it’s about creating a luminous state of being.” Luminous indeed, Katie Stelmanis shares her middle name with the Latvian goddess of light. It’s also the name she chose for her solo-project some five years ago. Classically trained, Stelmanis’ musical career came to life in her early teens amidst the Canadian opera scene and flourished into the now critically acclaimed synth-pop band Austra when she began experimenting with electronic music in 2009. Fast forward to 2013: she released her second fulllength album, Olympia, which reaches deep into the history of dance music and early house. Indeed, the album’s single Home features a serious old-school Chicago house thump, with Stelmanis stating, “the main intention of this record was to make electronic music acoustically.“ Ridding herself from the rigidity of classical music, she’s unequivocally explored the flowing and numerous possibilities made available to her by way of Olympia. The main shift from the debut, Feel It Break, and Olympia isn’t just adding more beats, but adding more overall: introducing more involved members and transforming the bedroom project into a full six-piece live band, bringing more layers to Katie’s lyrics by acquiring Sari Lightman as her ghost-writer and pushing the entire feel of it from orchestrally imbued gothic impulses to house-inspired, synth-pop. But it’s not cluttered. It’s not over-thought, it’s not strategic, and it’s not calculative. It’s progressive, and organic, it came about naturally and it’s authentic. From the intimate lyrics and the erupting beats to the pristine production and the emotions conveyed, it’s candidly created. Olympia is more lyric-based than its predecessors and as a result it’s persuasively personal and, at times, political. Stelmanis’ voice shines as she weaves tales of lovers’ plight and same sex-marriages (“We don’t have to marry…. in this town we’ll bury all the minds that clench too tight”) addressing bigotry and the patriarchal over gothic-leaning synths. The sounds are loud and omnipresent but the intent is serene and the message subtle: enough to cause a stir but not frenzy. Live, Katie’s energetic, passionate and in the moment. She’s having fun. Stood in front of the hand-painted mountain scene that adorns Olympia’s cover and surrounded by glowing parasols, she sways and swings amidst four sultry band members. Like that of an opera singer, her performance is theatrical. She might have strayed away from the classical in her music, but her movement, her persona; her energy belongs very much on stage. The emotional power and the aesthetic interest of all her work- from her performance and videos to the lyrics and album cover- reside in the comfort and allure of authenticity; reminding and enlightening us that being straightforward is that which always come naturally. Subtly changing the air in the room Austra is played, Katie shall sing and you shall listen.

151

“…Marina’s The Artist is Present did play a role in the desire to be candid on this album…” KALTBLUT: When you first started the project people weren’t really getting it and said you should be playing acoustically with instruments. What encouraged you to push through and stick to what you felt was right and what you wanted to create? Katie: I guess I just loved working with electronic instruments. At the time, it was different to what everyone else was doing in Toronto and I preferred the sounds and I enjoyed that I felt like I was doing something unique. Of course, in the rest of the world it wasn’t anything special but in the city that I came from it felt like I was doing something different. KALTBLUT: You started Austra as a “solo project” would you say its now as collaborative as it’s ever been? Katie: Yeah, it’s definitely very collaborative now. Well I mean, the first record Feel It Break was essentially a solo record for the most part and then we kind of formed this six person live band while we were touring Feel It Break for a few years. For the next record we kind of wanted everybody to be involved in it, so actually all six of us kind of played a role. We made that album…even though we’re currently touring Olympia; we’re touring as a four piece. It was kind of in that moment that we wanted to do that. KALTBLUT: You’ve said you brought a certain energy to the record from playing live. Can you expand on this? Katie: Well, the songs felt completely different after touring with them for

two years than they did when I listened to them on the album. When I listen to Feel It Break right now it sounds a little foreign to me in some ways. I definitely think that playing them live we improved on songs a lot …they gained a lot of depth and a more interesting sound palette. So we wanted to bring all those characteristics forward in the new record. KALTBLUT: How does Olympia compare to Feel It Break personally? How does it feel looking back and seeing where you are now? Katie: Well for me, the biggest difference is in the production. It went from being a bedroom project to being a real band project in a studio. There were so many more people involved in the making of Olympia than there were for Feel It Break. We had lots of band members who were contributing; we worked with a lot of different engineers and my friend Mike from the band Fucked Up had some co-production credits on songs so it just felt like a group effort whereas Feel It Break felt like a much more personal effort. KALTBLUT: You have a background in classical music and were previously an opera singer. What elements from your classical training have you brought to Austra and specifically to this record? Katie: I mean to be honest I try and move away from the classical training as much as I can. I haven’t really studied classical music in like ten years but I’m sure there’s lingering habits…it took a

while to move away from the classical style of singing and to learn music in a different way because classical music has such a rigid way of playing and understanding music and I find when you’re writing music it kind of helps to just ignore that. A lot of people who are classical musicians if they are told to improvise they just won’t know what to do, and so I think it’s kind of dangerous to go really far down that path. KALTBLUT: You picked Owen Pallett as an example of an artist cutting through genre. Do you like to label yourself as a crossover band? Katie: Its really hard to label and identity your own music. I think about us being a crossover band and then I think there are a lot of people listen to us who think that we’re straight up electro (laughs) Y’know, I don’t really have a proper perspective. I mean I listen to certain songs on the record and for me, the influences are glaringly obvious and other people would have no idea really. It’s hard to say. KALTBLUT: The lyrics for both Home and Forgive Me are blunt both lyrically and musically. Obsessive, tense and desperate for closure: they’re almost like a plea to a lover. You’ve said before you weren’t very good at writing lyrics or didn’t use to be the focal point of your creativity. How has it changed for Olympia? Katie: With Olympia I had the desire to write more personal and more meaningful lyrics. I really think the reason behind that being… y’know after performing for

152 a few years, I just wanted to kind of identify with the audience in a new way, or a different way. I’ve always loved doing covers of songs that are very lyric-based… a crying, choking natural woman and I kind of wanted that story behind the songs I was making. I tried to do that with Olympia and also worked on the lyrics with one of the back-up singers at the time. KALTBLUT: Am I correct in thinking that the video for Home was inspired by Marina Abramovic’s The Artist Is Present? Katie: Um, a little bit, I guess. It was difficult because I wanted that video to really embody the sentiment behind that song, but its really hard not to do it in a cheesy way, because the lyrics are so… obviously it could go really wrong…keeping it as simple as possible was the best way to go. We worked with a director and he had this concept of pretending it was a dressing room and I think it worked really. It was really nice we only had to perform it like four times and we had a video. With so much weight off our shoulders, we were able to capture the sentiment perfectly. KALTBLUT: I Don’t Care, I’m a Man is a short but powerful interlude on the record. What was the thought process behind it? Katie: Well I guess that song originally came to life… my way of writing lyrics is generally me writing all the music and then I’ll sing on top of it and I’ll kind of say anything and often what I’m saying kind of makes sense and I make it to real lyrics later. But in the case of this song, the words that stuck for me, that I kind of worded were I Don’t Care, I’m a Man. I appreciated those words because I enjoyed the anti-patriarchal vibe around them. Then I put Sari with the song and I think she kind of interpreted it to be more of a direct relationship between a man and a woman, maybe an abusive relationship. Really, there are a lot of meanings and interpretations around it. KALTBLUT:You’ve said before began by making music; you weren’t a band with a message. It feels that with Olympia you’re making more of a stand - is that true? Katie: I think we’ve always had the same… I’ve never really written political lyrics, well actually that’s not true, I have in the past, but I’ve always been pretty vocal about my politics and my position on feminist issues and queer issues and I think Olympia maybe because its more lyrically driven has more of an effect. KALTBLUT:The reason I ask is because you’ve commented before that one of the reasons you left the opera world is because you felt uncomfortable as a lesbian in a predominantly male hetero world. How does the music industry you find yourself in now compare? Katie: Well its not that its predominantly male because I don’t think that’s true but I think…I guess it just embodies a very traditional way of performing where the women would literally have to be wearing ball gowns to be taken seriously. On an on-stage competition or performance, I just wasn’t fitting into that ideal of what an opera singer should be. I didn’t

connect with it. And even the role I was playing in the opera, I didn’t connect with that. Obviously I think in the music industry there are some difficulties being a woman in music but ultimately feel lucky that I can do my own thing and make a career out of it. KALTBLUT: So you’re from Toronto, what does the city’s music scene mean to you? Katie: I feel like… I mean the Toronto music scene is a huge part of me developing as a musician, as an artist. When I was in my early twenties there was a lot of stuff happening, there was Blocks Recording Club and there were a lot of important parties that were happening at the time. Right now I feel kind of disconnected to it essentially because I’ve been touring for three years straight but aside from that I feel lucky that I was raised in a really strong music scene. KALTBLUT: Aside from the musical, are there any creative influences that you can list? Katie: I don’t know I mean we’re always influenced by a lot of things, I feel like during the process of writing Olympia, while we were working with Sarah and Romy, they were introducing me to a lot of things I didn’t know before, for example the film The Red Shoes ended up being a big influence and how we presented Olympia visually. Again, Marina’s The Artist is Present did play a role in the desire to be candid on this album as well. KALTBLUT: Can I ask the reason behind the title of the record? Katie: Well I mean in actuality, it was named after a baby that was born… the family was really close to us during the recording process. It felt like we wanted commemorate the idea of new life, and the new album. Aside from that I think the name also holds a lot of alternative meanings, its kind of slight homage to the nineties riot girl and then of course, the Manet painting exhibits the prostitute staring into the eye of the viewer in a very candid way. We appreciated all the references that the name had behind it. KALTBLUT: It’s been noted that your music feels emotional and is also electronic dance music. Where do you think music- both yours and in general- is headed? Katie: I don’t know that’s kind of difficult question. I don’t know I try not to really follow where the general, mainstream ideas of music are going because I think that could be dangerous. I definitely know where our intentions behind this album were- to create an electronic album basically because I felt the market was becoming oversaturated with musicians who were just making albums on their laptops and that particular sound was just becoming over-used in my opinion and we wanted to do something different. And then of course Daft Punk also had that idea (laughs) and they made the whole electronic album acoustically. I thought that lots more people would want to do that, maybe they will eventually. But I don’t know it seems that people are still really into the idea of making laptop music.

Interview by Ange Suprowicz Photos by Norman Wong www.austramusic.com

153

154

ANA ALCAZAR

Between Daylight and Dreams Photography: Federica Roncaldier www.federicaroncaldier.com Interview & Concept: Marcel Schlutt and Nico Sutor Styling: Christina van Zon www.christinavanzon.com Hair & Make-Up: Pascale Jean-Louis Models are Lex OlsĂŠn @ Seeds Management and Jules Wiegemann @ M+P Models London Production: Nico Sutor Special thanks to Halil Erbek and VĂśgelchen Bar, Berlin www.a-n-a.com

155 Lex wears Jumpsuit: Ana Alcazar Necklace: Zofie Angelic Bracelet: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank Earrings: Six Jules wears Dress: Ana Alcazar Earrings: Akkesoir Collar: Rita in Palma Tights: Burlington

156 When it comes to fashion in Germany there are only a few labels that are really making it into the international market. The Munich based fashion label is one of them. Founded some years ago by the two sisters Beate and Jutta Ilzhöfer, Ana Alcazar is one of the most successful labels here in Germany. I had the pleasure of having a chat with the two creative minds behind the label. About their long journey into the fashion world, the new collection, and their love for fashion design. Also, I wanna thank Federica, Christina, Pascale and Nico for producing this great editorial for our new issue. Fashion designed for strong women. KALTBLUT: Beate and Jutta, a warm welcome to KALTBLUT. We are big fans of your label Ana Alcazar. Tells us something about your background. What made you get into fashion? Be: Hello Marcel, this really pleased us very much! We are also very big fans of your magazine and find it great to see how successful you are internationally as well. Sometimes we feel a bit reminiscent of ourselves back in time; a private label, or in your case to bring your own magazine new on the market, that takes a lot of energy, stamina and courage. Respect! Ju: True, it was not always easy, but if you stay true to yourself and believe in your work then that's a big step already. My sister and I come from Swabia and wanted to get out and discover something new. During our time in Milan and Paris we kept ourselves afloat with modeling jobs. Be: Right. It hasn't always been very easy. To get modeling jobs you have to go to this or that party in the evening - it was not about fun but only to find new jobs. This was in the long run too stressful for us. We did not want to go back home. Munich, we always found so exciting, even as little girls traveling through on the way to Italy vacations. The fashion scene at that time was more open and more exciting - there were no mono-stores. While Ju continued modeling, I earned some money as a graphic designer to add to the pot. Ju: At that time we used to go out a lot and started to sew our nightlife outfits for ourselves. This was well received and we had a lot of fun with it. Well, there were already the wildest creations forming - we wanted to stand out, and so we didn't remain undetected. The first requests came and we started tailoring outfits for our friends. Yet it never crossed our minds that we would someday start a company. Be: That we could live on this? I never would have thought. We

were brave and had of course also tried to sell our clothes in stores. Our first attempt, I will never forget: We went to the Ludwig Beck in Munich, a renowned shop, and had our tailored clothes with us. Edler jersey from the fifties, with coarse sacking that we stole from some scaffolding at night. Ju: Our pulse was beating like crazy, but the buyer was more than impressed and bought the goods immediately. The next day we got a call that all outfits were sold and he had rarely experienced such a thing. We could be certain of a second order. So things went on little by little and today we serve nearly 1,000 retailers in Europe, Australia and Russia. KALTBLUT: Both of you have been involved in the fashion world for over 20 years now. Is it easier to go this route as a team? Or can it also be a hindrance working together as sisters and having a daily business to maintain? Be: It is not easy, certainly not. The fashion industry and the market makes no difference whether one designs alone or whether it's two or three people working together. But it is beautiful. The close familiarity and being able to completely rely on each other, those things offer security. This gives you a certain earthiness. There are also clear separations, which is extremely important in teamwork. We cannot each of us do everything at once, which would bring unnecessary confusion and waste time. And obviously: we do also not always agree - but with us there is no fighting or bickering. We are sisters, but also reliable business partners. KALTBLUT: Do you still remember the first piece of clothing you designed? Be: No, I do not know now. Ju: No, I do not know what the first model was. But I can remem-

ber moments connected to a certain style. KALTBLUT: You are based in Munich, this is where you are at home with your label. Why just there and not in Milan, Paris or London like many other labels? Ju: We have lived for years in Milan and Paris. Both wonderful cities, but we had fallen in love with Munich at that time. Our friends and our families are at home here. Here we feel comfortable. KALTBLUT: You are also big Berlin fans, though. Why is that? Do you show your collections here at Fashion Week as well? Be: Berlin is absolutely breathtaking, no question about that! During Fashion Week in Berlin, we are showing at Show & Order, every year, and then in the evening we go on great discovery trips. It is always exciting and the city is changing so rapidly, almost too quickly. Hopefully Berlin can preserve its charm. Who knows, maybe you'll find us in your neighborhood in Berlin soon. KALTBLUT: When I look at all your previous collections, I would say you do not own a typical trend-oriented fashion label. You've got your own personal style. Can you describe the Ana Alcazar woman in a few words for us? Ju: Self-confident, fashion-conscious, bold, feminine and no interest in mass-produced goods. KALTBLUT: The collection that we photographed for the Noire theme is almost completely in black. What is your inspiration for this collection? Be: We design 4 collections each year. We are very pleased and happy that you have photographed exclusive parts of our first Ana Alcazar Black Label Collection. With the first Black Label line, we have focused on

157 Lex Dress: Vintage Earrings:Â Zofie Angelic

158

Lex Dress: Vintage Earrings: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank Shoes: Varese seen at Roland Bag: Selected Femme Jules Dress: Ana Alcazar Necklace: Dawid Tomaszewski Shoes: Vagabond Stockings: Augustin Teboul

159

timeless classics. This is the reason why black plays a major role. The Black Label is an experiment, so in the future we want to clearly set this line apart from the main line. Ju: Ana Alcazar Black Label is intended to be innovative, avant-garde and yet unmistakably Ana Alcazar. The development is exciting and we are very glad about that. KALTBLUT: You also experiment with colours and prints, few designers incorporate those so well. Question to Beate: Can this be traced back to your time as a graphic designer? Be: It has certainly trained my eye. I think that the skilled use of patterns in a dress has mostly to do with the sense of female silhouettes. If a pattern is placed incorrectly, it can quickly become a disadvantage, but there are no rules - the fabric has to be adjusted individually each time. Ju: Clearly this is our strength. That is what our Ana Alcazar customers love and always expect from us. KALTBLUT: Your Ana Alcazar woman is very sexy but also very strong and independent. Is this your form of feminism, but on beautiful legs? Be: Absolutely. Sexy and strong are not opposites. The woman of today is not â&#x20AC;&#x153;Miss Oversensitiveâ&#x20AC;? but lives her own life and shows that with full passion. Just magnificent! The beautiful legs do not matter really. KALTBLUT: The fashion industry is often accused of degrading women to sex objects just because men design the stuff. Do you have to face nasty allegations such as these even though you are both women?

Jules Dress: Ana Alcazar Shoulderpiece: Zofie Angelic Tights: Falke

Ju: No. Fashion thrives on freedom, tolerance and creativity. Our woman is represented in our campaigns as a self-confident, strong person. Be: In our last shoot we have our Ana Alcazar model posing with a naked man. We were amazed at how many women were upset about the naked man. We had actually expected more protests from men - but there was not a single negative comment. This was only a very small

group of course, like I said. The majority found the campaign exciting and interesting in terms of sexism - just this time reversed. KALTBLUT: How was it for you to become established in the fashion world? How do you deal with criticism from the outside? Ju: The biggest critic is ourselves. Fashion is an ongoing process. That's what captivates us, that's what we love and what drives us forward. Be: It was not always easy, that's for sure. For a long time German fashion hadn't been taken seriously. This has luckily changed. Nevertheless, it is fashion and Germany or actually fashion in Germany that is not easy. Our provocative pieces we sell exclusively abroad, where here are obviously more courageous women willing to wear them. KALTBLUT: Your fashion exudes a particular strength. It has that special Rock Star touch. Where does this come from? And what would be the perfect rock band for you? Be: Rock Star Touch? [laughs] that's a very interesting approach. During the collection design we take great care that the pieces do not kill the person wearing them. The wearer is always at the forefront. Dresses are to support and transport the person and her own character to the outside. There is nothing sadder than clad women. Always stay true to yourself, authenticity is important. KALTBLUT: You sell your fashion on the internet a lot. Is this more and more the future for the designer in the form of direct sales and communication with the target group? How important is the whole social media trend for you as a designer? Ju: The internet is great: for the first time, as a manufacturer and designer we can stay in touch with the consumer. Now real, direct communication takes place. Incredibly great! Bonding with the customer is thus much more intense; customer needs and habits can be directly taken up and considered in our collections. This creates trust and a bond. Be: Absolutely! And the

160

161

Lex Top: Ana Alcazar Skirt: Dawid Tomaszewski Hat: Lierys Jules Dress: Ana Alcazar Garter Belt: Hunkemöller Stockings: Aubade Hat: Seeberger

162 many emails and messages of Ana Alcazar fans, that's something we always look forward to very much. It's just nice to see that customers get married in an Ana Alcazar or spend a wonderful holiday in it. At this point we want to thank all our loyal fans! KALTBLUT: How important are fashion fairs and fashion weeks still for a fashion label? Or does the Internet make these events actually unnecessary? Ju: Clearly! No. We see the Internet as a complement, not a substitute. Virtually, information is exchanged every millisecond, but reality can also be a great feeling, an enthusiasm that can't be replaced. In real life I have the opportunity to look to the left and right, and not only what the camera captures. Feel fabrics, sense them, this is possible only on the fashion fairs. The internet can attract attention though, arouse curiosity and inform. A symbiosis of feeling and information that's how it works. KALTBLUT: Your label Ana Alcazar has a daring history in terms of its name. In the beginning it was called CCCP: Capitalistic Culture Control Program. What I personally find very captivating. Then switching to Ana Alcazar; Ana stands for “anarchistic neurotic alien.” Is that also equal to a warning? And what does Alcazar mean? Be: Oh yes, that's right [laughs]. Life, the people, society - everything is in constant upheaval. Everything around you is in constant motion - standing still is dangerous. Yet, being able to rest can be something nice and in my opinion the true essence of creativity. We have tried many things, in fact, and it's still incredibly fun to try new things, such as our Black Label experiment. Ju: We wanted to be provocative, but not politically - we did not do ourselves a favour with our first label CCCP. In the mid-80s, the name wasn't welcomed by the authorities and the international market. We sensed this really fast and renamed our label and our company to Tricia Jones - a purely fictitious name - just like Ana Alcazar, which we then launched mid 90s. Besides the Tricia Jones line that was extremely avant-garde, progressive and high-priced, we wanted to establish a young, portable and affordable label. The name Ana Alcazar sounds very feminine, yet mysterious, spirited and strong - just like the collections. It is not Ana Alcazar that means "anarchistic neurotic alien" - this has been misinterpreted by a newspaper - but our menswear line, that we had to give up on after five years, due to lack of time. The menswear label was an exciting mix of sporty chic and provocative style. We still get emails and inquiries from guys, whether we do not want to continue the label - and we find this amazing class! So dear men: we have heard you and we'll see, perhaps there is something for you in the near future. I also think the guys from KALTBLUT would have loved the anarchistic neurotic alien collection very much. KALTBLUT: Thank you for having taken the time to collaborate with us. I am very pleased. We wish you much success for the years to come. Be: Thank you so much, I wish you and the entire KALTBLUT team every success. Ju: Thank you, Marcel. Continued success with your great magazine!

Lex Dress Ana Alcazar Earrings: Antique & Vintage Jewellery Oliver Rheinfrank Gloves: Roeckl Hat: Mayser Bag: Ystrdy

163

c355p001 164

If you look up c355p001 online, you won’t find much. A few illustrations, sure, but unless you speak Japanese you’ll encounter a fair few obstacles trying to navigate the website. But this is the year 2013 and there’s a whole world out there full of technology and tools to help us. We used a mighty translation engine to decipher an interview with her, and we’re honoured to be able to present you a bit more of the mysterious c355p001. KALTBLUT: My first question will be a fairly basic one, but as I couldn’t find much about you on the web, who are you? Who’s hiding behind c355p001? c355p001: My name is Fumiko. I was born in Kyoto Japan in 1984. When you will see my works, a presence of me will disturb. So you might want to forget who I am. KALTBLUT: Tell us about the name “c355p001”. What’s the story behind it and where does it come from? c355p001: The beginning is a personal reason. I made myself a place of pardon: for my illustration and my own world. The cesspool which I can throw in anything. That was “c355p001”. Now I use this symbol as name. KALTBLUT: How did you get started in illustration? c355p001: There was pen and paper. This is a difficult question, like asking how to have mastered the native language. KALTBLUT: There is something dark and obscure about your work, some very disturbing elements. What inspires you and gets you going as an artist? c355p001: The feeling inside a dream: somatosensory. Wonder and beauty of the body. KALTBLUT: Most of your drawings are made with simple lines. What’s your medium of choice?

165 c355p001: A pen-and-ink drawing. My favourite is “Isograph” 0,13 MM by Rotring. KALTBLUT: There are a lot of human bodies in your work, bodies that are deformed, transformed, cut, separated or even destroyed… Why is the human body so central to your work? c355p001: Because I am human. I have a doubts about the body. Have you seen the dream in which your skin melts or your limbs are torn to pieces? I fear and expect simultaneously that it actually happens. KALTBLUT: You do not work with colours, if we consider black and white as non-colours. Why? c355p001: If necessary for a illustration, I will use colours. I choose suitable means / colours and tools. My only rule, is “Optimisation”. KALTBLUT: Each of your drawings seems to work as its own little story. Is that that the case in your creative process? c355p001: They have own little stories or the feel, like a seed secretly paused, waiting to grow. I wait for them to be watered people I see. KALTBLUT: Where is this blackness of yours coming from? c355p001: Blackness comes from people who found blackness. KALTBLUT: Nature is another very important element of your work. Or at least some aspects of it, like the fusion between men and nature, am I right? c355p001: Petal is also the flesh or the skin. Stalk is also the blood vessel or the nerve. All living things are on the same line. Sometimes fusing, sometimes punishing.

Interview by Nicolas Simoneau

www.c355p001.net

166

Skirt - American Apparel Turtle Neck - American Apparel Ring - GoGo Phillip Earring - Bill Skinner Necklace - Top Shop

Photography NIK PATE www.nikpate.com grooming sophie anderson styling justin & andre @ A+C: studio model danny blake @ D1

167

Jacket - Jessica Walsh Skirt - American Apparel Bandana - Stylist's Own Trousers - American Apparel Shoes - Nike Ring - Claudia Ligari Bracelet - Go Go Phillip Necklace - Stylist's Own

168 Top - Benjamin Bertram Trousers - Clio Peppiatt Bandana - Stylist's Own Shoes - Nike

169 Jacket - Lucy Offen

170 Meggings - Top Man Skirt - American Apparel Turtle Neck - American Apparel Ring - GoGo Phillip Earring - Bill Skinner Necklace - Top Shop Shoes - Nike

171

Headpiece - Jay Briggz T-Shirt - Hardware LDN Shorts - American Apparel Watch - Triwa

172 Headpiece - Jay Briggz T-Shirt - Hardware LDN Jacket - Parka Shorts - American Apparel Socks - Stylist's Own Shoes - Nike Watch - Triwa

Let the games begin

bitte-bitte.com

himmelspach-berlin.com

173

174

GUSTAVO JONONOVICH

The beauty of Gustavo’s work in incontestable. His images are so pure, and so full of emotion. His work “RICHLAND” is particularly touching. All the people I’ve met in Buenos Aires so far are all concerned with what is happening in their country, and once again, Gustavo Jononovich is one of these photographers that want to use his work to pass a message and not only to show the beauty of some random landscape. The Argentinan photographer accepted to share a little chat with us.

Interview by Nicolas Simoneau

KALTBLUT: Hi Gustavo, my first question will be really basic, how did you get into photography? GUSTAVO: After finishing high school, I started studying engineering, over time, I realized that I was on a path that was not mine. I decided to drop out of university; I had no idea what to do next or what I really wanted out of life. I spent the following year without any direction trying to untie some of my ‟inner knots”; social beliefs, family expectations, fears... I liked photography but I had never set out myself to do it seriously. At that time, I just needed to do things that I like, without too many pretensions or expectations, just the fact that something caught my attention was enough to try it. So in 2003 I began studying photography and became more interested in documentary photography. KALTBLUT: One of the noticed when looking is the fact that you black and white. Why

first things we at your work are only using is that?

GUSTAVO: I also use color sometimes. The decision of using black and white or color depends of the projects I’m working on KALTBLUT: Some of your shots seem also to be taken at night, am I right? GUSTAVO: Yes, you are. Night is part of the day... KALTBLUT: I also notice, especially in your work ‟YUMA” that you are working a lot with multiplicity. Multiplicity of objects, animals… Does that have a special significance for you? GUSTAVO: It is not a conscious decision but yes. Multiplicity could be a tool, like geometry, shapes, contrast, light, etc, etc. KALTBLUT: What was your original idea when you started working on ‟YUMA”. What did you want to say/show with this series?

175 GUSTAVO: I traveled to Cuba because my wife decided to do an internship in a hospital in La Havana, she’s a Doctor. Until then, I had always made photographs guided by a specific theme, trying to tell something about other people’s misfortunes. I decided to experience photography in a different way this time. I wasn’t interested in telling or describing anything about the well-known political and historical characteristics of the Cuban system. I didn’t want to need to look for ‟useful situations”. I tried to forget that I was there. Liberating myself of having to tell something about Cuba allowed me to connect in a more authentic way with the place. Photographing using only my instinct allowed me to discover what I was feeling. My method was to walk the same streets over and over again, in silence, just focusing in contemplating. I sometimes felt attracted to the expression of the shapes and textures and to the simple beauty of nature. Other times I felt I was just photographing my own sense of calmness or the mystery that Cuba inspired me. KALTBLUT: There is also a lot of nature in your work. Is this a theme that you particularly like? GUSTAVO: I live in Buenos Aires surrounded by concrete and asphalt therefore my direct contact with nature is sporadic, but necessary. During the recent years my relationship with nature increased notoriously, I’ve been in the jungle, in the desert, in the mountains, in lakes, rivers and the sea. I like to imagine our planet without our intervention, without the human civilization, just like it’s been for about 5 billion years. Only stones, water, land, sand, air, trees, plants, insects... It feels good to see no artificiality at the horizon sometimes. KALTBLUT: Why did you decide to to create the series ‟RICHLAND”? What was your motto behind it? GUSTAVO: RICHLAND is a project about the exploitation of the natural resources in Latin America and the resulting long-term negative effects. Rather than benefit from natural resources abundance and wealth, local people living

176 in areas of exploitation have experienced loss of livelihoods, health problems, human rights violations and environmental degradation. This body of work was made between 2008 and 2012 in Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Our history has transformed us into a civilization which functioning depends on consume. The engine of our economic structure is fed by generating new needs, invented needs. Something that did not exist a month ago can be indispensable tomorrow and become a useless thing a year later. Our lifestyle and the so-called ‟comfort” set up a huge contradiction. Some companies extract natural resources which are used by other companies to manufacture products that will be purchased by all of us. The more things we consume, more natural resources must be extracted. There’s no other way. Always a new laptop, a new cell phone, a new car, a new blender, more clothes, always more and more, it seems like it’s never enough for us. Business is more important than any other thing. In the name of ‟progress” we can transform a forest into a desert and a desert into a city. We can move mountains or make them disappear and we can drill the soil for miles to extract what is down there. We can also disrupt mighty rivers to convert them into inert lakes. Among the millions of species that exist and existed, the human is the only one capable to do that sort of things, to modify an ecosystem for their own benefit. Such ability means a big responsibility for us. I wonder why we consider that the earth belong to us, why we consider it as our property like any other material good. KALTBLUT: Would you consider yourself as an engaged Artist? What do except from the people who see your work? GUSTAVO: I prefer not to label myself. I make pictures that tell something about my thoughts or the way I see our world, what happen next it is out of my range. KALTBLUT: Are you working on any other projects right now? GUSTAVO: Now I’m looking for a publisher to make the book of Richland. I’m also making new pictures, I would say that I’m into a transitional moment of changing my approach to photography.

www.jononovich.com

177

The Insider

178

Text by Aude Gouaux-Langlois Illustration by Nicolas Simoneau

Black is a colour that can be found in others, but searching for its nuances, and shimmering glimpses inside the unexpected, is no mean feat. An oblique perspective which allows another meaning to shine. Matthieu Chedid has been sewing his joyful yet deep musical message together with his alter ego -M- for the last 15 years, and it is with a frank smile that he started to play around with the idea of “Noire”: as a symbol, a colour, an idea. Our afternoon conversation takes place in his XVIIth century hôtel particulier in the heart of Paris, and a selection of simple drawings around the theme of “Noire” are going to lead it. Matthieu Chédid in 5 dates 1971 : Born in Boulogne-Billancourt (France) 1997: Creation of the character-Mand first album release Le Baptême 2009 : 4th album Mister Mystère 2012 : 5th album Îl 2013 : Live album Îl(s)

Un portrait en noir -Depiction ONE: The image of a French In your last album “Îl”, there is a deeper poetry in the French language that appears in your texts. How do you manage to stand in front of a nonmusical icon dressed in blackfrancophone audience? “Edith Piaf…? This is very strange. I connected with her for the first time “Just like Edith Piaf gives an interpretation that goes beyond words, I when I watched a documentary about would focus on the energy of the sound so that the sound itself is the meher love life two weeks ago. Since aning. This record gives the literacy, this resonance given to the words then, I have been listening to all her as well as a sound is sufficient in itself. Unconsciously, I am trying to get records with a new ear, because I un- to the point where the sound is a language. I think that it can be enough, derstood the importance of a certain that the melody and the intensity behind the words are meaningful. I truth: she is not in the form, she is in have been touched by English speaking songs without understanding the the substance (=essence) meaning meaning so often...I assume it works the other way round! Also, I like to that she can repeat 8 times the same let the imagination doors open and let everyone build their own story. sentence, and it doesn’t matter, the This is a bit my intention, not to write realistic texts : to remain onirique.” intention flows. She gives us a lesson of authenticity, strength and interpre-Depiction TWO: “Noire” as a record, the swirling black of a vinyltation. A wonderful energy…” Your musical influences are taken from a English speaking background but your texts are anchored in the French language. Do you consider French Chanson a heritage for you?

Throughout your career you’ve worked with other artists from different backgrounds. Even though, a certain poetry comes out of every association. How do you choose your musical collaborations? “These are meetings of life: if I were a carpenter, I would meet people that inspire me in this particular field. As a musician, I always liked to accompany other musicians, enter another universe, be open and regenerated. It is very natural to me to exchange, to share. It can be a singer, a film director, a photographer, for instance, I will be lucky enough to meet Martin Parr, an iconic English photographer. I really like his universe: it is very aesthetic yet raw. I like artists, poetry and how we can contribute to make things poetic by sounds or images. When I meet people with whom I have a common language I want to build something like a hand worker. Poetry or building an object, the aim doesn’t matter.”

“After Piaf came a new wave of French singers (my father Louis Chédid, Alain Souchon, Michel Jonasz, Laurent Voulzy..) and musically they were the children of the Beatles. I am from the 2nd generation of this original wave and my aim is to merge the two cultures closer together. Even if it belongs to the period, I feel more son of an Hendrix or Led Zeppelin. And today -Depiction THREE: A black curtain: being exposed or hidden. we see a 3rd generation that connects with electronic music…”

179 Stage time seems very important for you. I have the impression that you are going back to the essential with the new electronic “power trio” you create together with Brad Thomas Ackley and Dorion Fiszel. “Every change of line-up is a new experience. I started on my own with a kick drum and samples 15 years ago then joined by the cellist Vincent Segal and the drummer Cyril Atef to create this unconventional trio. A second tour has been done with Alain Gaudi on drums and Sébastien Martel on guitars, we stayed 10 years this way. The Mister Mystère tour has been a cut as I did it with my family with Cyril Atef and other young musicians. I am now drowned to the power of the trio. Brad is playing an instrument called basstar with 2 bass strings and 4 guitar strings. We build this instrument here adding a midi controller connected to his computer which can add samples and filters. It is very challenging! And I already have in mind the story I will tell in the next album and live situation!” -Depiction FOUR: A blues progression, the influences of “Noire” in music.. “Blues is the root of everything as we find it in funk, reggae, modern African music. These 5 notes are a base for lots of things. I more and more experience that I sing like my guitar and my guitar plays like I sing. The link between them too is very close: it is simply the expression of the same soul.” You claim a strong inspiration of the blues in this album which is so musically sunny. This is quite of paradox don’t you think? “This is all what -M- is about: it is a romantic soul in a playful universe. It can also be the opposite. I really like the A-minor tonality for instance. Melancholy is more or less perceptible but there is always one or two sad songs in my albums like “Délivre”, “Oualé”... It is part of me. Moreover I am fond of contrasts, alchemies, the mix of opposites. When I started my career, someone did a street-interview asking “why do you like -M-?” A girl answered “because it is the mix of Coluche and Prince” and I thought it was quite on point (smiles). Anyway, life is made of contradictions and I like my music to reflect this. For me it is totally normal to have a sad text on

a joyful music or the other way round. It creates a 3D of per- “Yes, travelling is very inspiring. When I am not busy with ception. As musicians, composers or artists, we are chemists music, I just travel. Îl contains one song totally made for a place that touched me a lot, La Réunion. This island has a and inventors.” nickname and this is how I called the song : “L’île intense”. Using the term chemist makes me think of mixing. Are you ac- Lyrics can be seen as fragments of a tale, using the island’s particular vocabulary. And when I am with Saraï (the sister tive in the post-production process? of Dorion Fiszel in Los Angeles), we threw a party and it lead Saraï”. Every place inspires “Yes, I have my home studio here where we recorded and mixed to the song “La maison de a song or more. For inthe whole album. I sometimes mix the songs I really like the stance, Mali is a country laboratory side of it, it is part of -M- aesthetic.” that moved me a lot.” -Depiction FIVE: A map of Africa…. we talk about roots and Serge Gainsbourg was also intravelsspired by Mali. “Îl” is an album where you travel a lot: India, Africa, Egypt, “Yes, Gainsbourg released “Gainsbourg PercusChina, USA... Is travelling an important source of sions” including “Couleur Café” in 1965. Even though inspiration for you? it is 99% inspired from African songs, it is always turned his way and it is magic! He is a genius of geniuses! (smiles) I also take part in the festival “Fiesta des Suds” in Marseille. The line up mix African and European musicians. Four years ago, I found myself on stage with Ayo singing, Flee (Red Hot Chili Peppers) playing bass, Tony Allen on drums... It was very unexpected and intense moment…” -Depiction SIX: -M- shaped black sunglasses, hiding in the darkIt’s difficult to draw your portrait without speaking of the link between -M- and Matthieu Chédid, shadow, light, nor the accessories can describe… did you ever feel like hiding yourself behind a character? “Black sunglasses drown me to the mask, the wolf. I took this sentence from Nietzsche saying ’Everything that is deep loves the mask’. Perhaps I reinterpreted its original sense but I think that you are deeper when you hide yourself because you are disinhibited and go searching further away. It is like going to a masquerade, being dressed up allows you to let go. For me, it is obvious that you reveal your true self being someone else in the form, you are closer to your true self. Unconsciously, -M- comes from this approach: to reveal your soul behind, or because of a mask.” Then you could also appropriate this sentence of Oscar Wilde ‚Give him a mask and he will tell you the truth’? “Yes sure. (smiles)” This truth may also lie in the cycle you draw through your career. In contrast to David Bowie who radically changes character with each album, I have the feeling that you moved -M- away in “Mister Mystère” to let it evolve, and consider -M- and Matthieu Chédid as the same person in “Îl”. Do you agree? “All things considered, I never locked myself in one character. This is more like a game. I really enjoy playing, there is space for freedom. To be honest, I would compose and play exactly the same music with or without the look of -M-. This is not what changes my music. My music is very instinctive; it reflects periods of my life. The colours can change from an album to another but the content would stay the same. Like a painter, I really like the idea of ‚period’. I am very much in the present as well as aware of the timelessness: I always have a long vision of things and like to make things coherent.” The sounds of Matthieu Chédid can be heard at : www.labo-m-music.com

Termites 180

Photography by Eileen Rullmann www.art-photographie.com

I Heteropteryx dilatata I

181

I Xylotrupes gideon I

I Zanna nobilis I

182

I Leopa sikkima javanica I

I Lasiocampa quercus I

183

I Prioneris thestylis I

I Samia cyrithia I

184

COL

What’s Left O by Amy

Frustration, stalling us at every turn. Amongst the crowd of vacant eyes you can feel its grip tighten. Suffocating, yet familiar, constricting, yet comforting. The Noire is all your darkest doubts, your enemies, and your fear of being alone. It’s a locked door, a sealed hatch in the floor, a darkened room: that contains all the secrets about your true self, but you’ve never dared open it to look inside. Everyone has something hidden, something mysterious, magical and precious: just meant for themselves, kept from others, it’s how we were intended to be. We have the capacity to keep a secret. Yet in an attempt to establish total control, for the so-called good of our society, we began to clean up, renovate, and demolish the walls behind which we hid such secrets for so many eternities. The places where we could once go to express our innermost desires and our distresses, suddenly engulfed by cleanliness: a sheen of musty dirt aggressively purified by something mechanical, chemical—no regard for the poetic beauty that may once have been festering within.

ily ingrained within us from an early age, so deeply ingrained in fact, that lines have been drawn that we are so inherently petrified to cross, for our own protection: or for the greater good. As soon as the darkness becomes just a little too inviting—welcoming, even. The adrenaline inside of us, the fight or flight signal, switches the light from off to on, revealing the reality of a harmless empty room. This isn’t to say that we don’t fabricate these environments, we still love to be terrified for the sake of it, to explore our dark fetishes, our perverse fantasies, but only if a panic button lies just within reach: we build something that can be quickly erased, forgotten or buried. Noire is not a way of life for the average human being, just something to be played with, teased, and used as entertainment. If anything gets too out of hand, well—it’s only our imagination. How powerful can that be? It was all just a dream. Pinch yourself to check for sure. This isn’t to say that every mind should have been unlocked, and plenty of depraved, psychotic a-lid in this world should have undoubtedly been left shut, but still there’s Fear of the mysterious is ordinar- no way to know exactly how our

world would look had these and other such tools of control—the gatekeepers of the Noire–never been known.

derfully abstract, suddenly now seeming so concrete, our doubts sent scattering.

As soon as we switch on and Perhaps the most intense critilog in, accept the terms, check cism surrounds the network we the box, something we never know as the world wide web, even knew we had is inextricainnumerable factors, strings bly ripped from us: a foetus of of thought and oppositions are unknowable energy, curiosity open to consideration in regards and depth. Should we have the to this. However, one thing is opportunity to look outside of our certainly clear, that we no longer assumed blinkers, even just for understand the importance of the the briefest of moments, and live phrase, “some things are betour own lives, instead of focusing ter left unsaid”—suddenly we on the experiences lived by one are all knowing, all telling, and thousand million others? all masters of our own online Through media, music, video, universes, as tiny robotic devices sound and film, we can experisurround us and ‘enrich’ our daily ence the cultures, lives, emolives. No question left unantions, existences and imagery of swered, no stone left unturned, every area of the earth, witness no dark, mysterious passageway the most horrific sights of war, left unexplored. Yet we are all famine, depravity, and death— still fascinated by a story withbut have the majority of us ever out an end, an adventure: a tail, really seen anything at all? only visible to the naked eye, but Something with our own eyes, to to what kind of creature can it the point that it shakes us to the possibly belong? For fear of the very bones, shakes us into action, answer we constantly construct outside of the safety of our living rational thought to somehow rooms, our cosy, comfortable disband these once so revered nests. How much of your life is myths: webpages, forums, self- lived within a virtual reality, that help websites, all answering the separates you from your fellow unanswerable questions of the human, a virtual reality, that has world, that were once so wonreally become your cage.

UMN

185

f The Noire? Heaton

that in fact, when we finally look Anonymity and privacy are back: no one’s there. Instead of things of the past: our emostaring, sharing, tweeting and tions, everyday and otherwise, liking our way through life, copy/ shamelessly spattered across pasting our personalities into pages, even the most hardened the endless white space, why critic has their price. Nothing not step outside and take a walk, is sacred anymore. Existence, down a darkened street, down once so wonderfully fragile and a road without an end, and see unfathomable is now tirelessly what’s really possible? How far analysed and finally, explained are we really able to defend ouraway: there is no mystery. How selves and cross the line into the can there possibly be when every place without an exit? To discover moment, feeling, living, waking all the sordid delights that may day is captured through the eyes well lie within. of a camera lens, how much of your life do you even live through Yet it is irreversibly so, that the your own eyes? Let’s appreciate beauty in the unknown has been the irony in all of this interconlong since forgotten. In a world nectedness, if only for a fleetfull of endless safety features, ing moment. Each time we find soft cushions and user-friendly ourselves afraid, and isolated, bullshit, how is it even possible within moments we are able to to find the Noire? Let alone live network to our nearest and dear- a life inside it. To really crawl est in a heartbeat. Slide open the into its cavernous mouth, teeth iPhone screen to reveal a world glinting, tempting as they are of human contact within, but if destructive. Those who even hope we were ever forced to face our to find a way must live on the own most twisted fears head on, fringes, outcast, the only ones how quickly would a cry for help who dare to go where others really be answered? How many dare not, living life to the full, of those so-called friends would travelling further, pushing themcome to your rescue when you selves harder to the very edges. truly needed them most? Have we As more and more mysteries of somehow become so lost in our the world are seemingly solved, own world of imagined security unmasked, excavated, where

do we find that last place that is truly—underground. Ignorance may be bliss for a while, but somewhere there’s a feeling deep inside that’s niggling away, yearning for something more than just the world that is tailored for us by the choices we already made. Who we know, why we know them, where we go, what we do there, what we buy, where we work, where we went once, twice, three times. Perhaps without this constant observation of our every movement we might feel free to explore some of those secret corners of the world, those hidden places you can’t read up about on Lonely Planet, leaving your review from 1–5 stars. No photo app filter can blur the reality of what was really there. No edit button, no retouching tools. As we become ever more intertwined I start to wonder what will become of us in the end, what will be left of the Noire, in us, in the things that surround us, perhaps it was never even there in the first place, or perhaps we simply don’t care what happens when all the mysteries are solved. Concepts are researched and researched into nothing. References quoted, captions

explaining, clarifying, criticising. Whatever happened to just letting things be? Leave notes hanging—artfully mounted in the mid-air. When the rush of excitement of simply not knowing, is a feeling that humans can no longer ever experience. Background checks, google searches, facebook pages: telling us all we really need to know. Why would you bother looking anywhere else? As a lack of empathy, and disconnectedness overwhelms and consumes you, are you really in a position to stand up and fight? Drugged, subdued, and vacuous, tapping away into the abyss. As we disband the external socalled threats that surround us, will we start to destroy ourselves from the inside out, our minds so constricted that they slowly coil in on themselves, tighter and tighter around our consciousness until the last drop of curiosity is unravelled. What hope is there for the Noire—half-dead already– taking it’s last gulps of air in a world where anything that once waited patiently in the shadows, is now mercilessly exposed beneath the unblinking chill, of inextinguishable neon lights.

186

TRENTEMØLLER Not all who wander are LOST I nte r v ie w: Ange Suprow icz & Amy He aton Photo C redit: Alastair Phil ip Wip e r

“ I wrote all the songs with certain vocalists in mind but without their knowing. So Luckily everyone said yes actually, if not these songs would not have been on the album. Each track was specifically written for the vocalist who recorded it in the end. ”

187 Composing at the intersection between indie and electronica, Copenhagen-based musician Anders Trentemøller released his debut album ‘The Last Resort’ in 2006. Since then he has been exploring a penchant for emotional melodic moments and experimental production methods, touring with his live band of multi-instrumentalists and remixing every well respected artist in the electronic music scene from Moby to The Knife. After starting up his own record imprint, In My Room, Trentemøller’s second album Into The Great Wide Yonder was released four years later, it was a move into a more analogue sound influenced heavily by indie and post punk incorporating even more live instrumentation and vocals. This autumn he released his third full-length album Lost, drawing inspiration from his extensive live touring stint, is a record defined by Trentemøller’s grunting reverb, psychedelic grooves and a jumpy synth pattern that pushes us into the album’s dark, emotive context. Lost is Trentemøller’s most collaborative effort yet, pairing him with a vibrant cast of vocal features— the legendary duo Low, Jonny Pierce from The Drums, Marie Fisker, Kazu Makino of Blonde Redhead, Jana Hunter of Lower Dens, Ghost Society and Sune Wagner of The Raveonettes. Live, Anders is accompanied by a band made up of three guys dressed in black and two girls on his right adorned in floaty white chiffon. Together, they create a musical journey that twists and turns; it peaks in pitches high and low, it rattles and tattles. As the drums build from a tribal romp to a panicked bubbling, the atmosphere is rife with a feverish buzz. Haunted by past endeavours and a droning EKG pulse, the entirety of Lost may exist in the bliss of the intermediate, neither here nor there; the disparate state of wandering and intentionally finding oneself lost. The members on stage take turns to stand in the foreground, as if taking turns to navigate through the unknown. Equipped with shakers, tambourines, cymbals, a xylophone and other tinkling sundries, the group noisily makes it way into the dark void ahead. On stage, three pieces of art installation appear, obstacles in their path, and there’s a gloomy moment of uncertainty. Classic horror movie sounds eke in, and it seems the end is nigh. Slowly, Anders’ gnarled, bass heavy synth style moves into the foreground and he begins clapping, exciting the audience and encouraging his band to push on. The straight instrumental sheds a light on Anders’ technical finesse and he raises his hand as if to exclaim “It’s this way, follow me!” The band follows; having found a fork in the road, they see an open stretch of opportunity. Marie Fisker’s uncanny voice is silky and sultry and oddly comforting, it grounds both audience and band, and together we find our way out of the abyss. The performance’s closing moments recapitulate the album’s theme: it progresses from a wide-eyed sensual understanding to disorientated wanderings to a profound feeling of escape. Anders has chosen and acted wisely: if you’re going to get lost, it’s best to have five virtuosos by your side. KALTBLUT: On your website it says that the album is a “fuck-you to whatever genre” your followers had boxed you into. What kind of progression brought you to this definitive point? TRENTEMØLLER: Thankfully it’s not all my ‘followers” who like to put me into a box, but yeah, it has sometimes been a bit frustrating for me that people seem to find it difficult to accept that I keep on developing my sound. I still think there’s a red line connecting the music I did in my past up to now, but my life also naturally developed. That should hopefully be something you could hear in the music too. Of course I don’t make the same music as I did eight years ago but I don’t think in genres to be honest, so it’s sometimes a bit fun to see, especially music-journalists, who try to put my music into different kinds of weird boxes. Why not just judge the music for the music itself ? I sometimes like to think...

TRENTEMØLLER: Not much at all! That’s not my purpose in making music. I make music out of a personal passion. Music is for me, one of the best ways to describe my feelings and I try to only be in the now and not thinking about music in a ‘music marketing’ or business kind of way! I don’t care about target groups either. KALTBLUT: In 2008 you won an award for Best Chillout Artist and later stated you never thought your music would be categorized as “chillout”. How would you describe it then? TRENTEMØLLER: I won’t try to squeeze the music into a specific genre, but I would say it’s melodic and kind of dramatic music with a lot of contrasts and dynamic. All in all I actually just try to make good quality music! That’s the most important thing for me as an artist.

KALTBLUT: How important do you think is it for musicians to break out of their genre?

KALTBLUT: What was the recording process like for you this time? Did you have continuity with your studio set up?

TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t like to think too much in genres, I think it’s all about making personal music that reflects your moods and feelings, then if it breaks the genre or not at all, that does not matter to me as long as the music touches me. A band like Mazzy Star sounds totally the same on their new album as they did when they released their last 17 years ago…and I’m glad about that! They are amazing and Hope’s vocal is so unique, I don’t need them to break genres, I need to hear them write fantastic songs and they did not disappoint me this time either!

TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah, pretty much! I have a nice studio in Copenhagen with a recording room for drums, guitars, piano, amps and other stuff and then my working/producing room next door, where most of the time is spent. This time I began the writing of the tunes often at my upright piano. I like to focus on the melodies and chord progressions first and for that the piano is the natural choice. I don’t have the music graphically in front of me on the computer monitor but I am using only my ears and I like that fact, it makes it easier for me to write music that way. Then later I turn to my studio and arrange those ideas and parts I have written for the different instruments and work on them again on the computer.

KALTBLUT: How much of your work is done with the intention to surprise and shock?

188

KALTBLUT: This album has, indeed, a far more song-structured style–-compositionally speaking—and not only because of the vocals from collaborating artists. Was this a calculated attempt to spend more time working with other people? Do you think the album is more commercial than your previous work? TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think about being commercial or not, so it’s hard for me to say, but maybe it’s a bit easier for people to connect to because there are more vocal tracks on the album. It was very much just how the tunes I wrote ended up progressing, I did not plan to do an album with more vocals on than before, but the songs somehow really fitted vocals as I went along, it wasn’t my intention to create something more commercial at all, but simply because the tunes I wrote kind of ‘demanded’ vocals it seemed natural to follow the flow. KALTBLUT: You’ve been quoted as saying, “For me, making music is quite a lonely process.” Does this ever bother you? Or do you embrace it? TRENTEMØLLER: I really love the process of writing and producing all on my own, that’s what works best for me. I don’t incorporate the musicians when I’m in the studio, I like to have 100% control over the music at this point. So often we make quite different versions of the same song, and then when we finally get together we share our ideas. I can offer my experience as a musician, because I know what it’s possible to actually play on the different instruments and often that is a big help, and the musicians give me a lot of feedback on the music and often come up with other ideas how to play the different parts, and at this point it becomes more of a collaborative process. I didn’t really want the album to be a ‘feature’ album actually, that was very important for me. So I really hope the album works as a whole album even if there are several different vocalists on it. There are also several instrumental tracks and that is something that I still really love to do. Next album could maybe be a pure instrumental album, who knows…

ally wrote all the songs with certain vocalists in mind but without their knowing. So it was quite nerve-wracking finally after the songs were kind of finished from my side to begin to contact these vocalists and hope that they would want to work with me! Luckily everyone said yes actually, if not these songs would not have been on the album. Each track was specifically written for the vocalist who recorded it in the end. KALTBLUT: Was there any one particular artist with whom you had a special musical chemistry, where you just immediately clicked? TRENTEMØLLER: Yeah! The song I did with Mimi Parker of Low. It was so easy to work together and the result turned out so well I think. I’m a HUGE fan of their music and they have been a constant inspiration for me the last 15 years, so for me it was a fantastic thing to have them on my album. When I started working on the chord progression of the song I had Mimi Parker’s beautiful voice in mind, so it was a great, great pleasure and a big honour that she actually really liked the music I sent to her and made this magical melody and lyrics to put with my music. So that’s also one of the reasons that the song ‘The Dream’ is the opening track on the album. From there you can go everywhere… it’s quite open and I like that! KALTBLUT: The collaboration with Jonny Pierce from The Drums is the one that surprised us the most. What’s the feedback on that been like? Did it open up a new audience for your sound? TRENTEMØLLER: I had a really good feedback on that track, especially when we are playing it live. We play it in a quite different more uptempo version that sounds a bit like The Cure. It’s Marie Fisker, who also appears on the album, that sings it live. So to make the song adapt to her we change it quite a lot actually, but it works. KALTBLUT: Do you feel like you’ve collaborated with almost all the people you’d like to? Or is there anyone that seems out of reach for you—a dream collaboration, perhaps?

KALTBLUT: How do your collaborations usually come about? TRENTEMØLLER: For me it’s actually not the main thing to collaborate with vocalists, but since I really sing quite badly myself I need someone to sing my songs! When I started writing for this album these songs just materialised when I sat at the piano, and I instantly knew that they would fit specific vocalists, so I actu-

TRENTEMØLLER: If I had to choose one artist that I really respect and love it would be Nick Cave. To work with him on a song would be out of this world! Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds played just before us at a festival, and we watched the whole concert from the stage. It was mind blowing, nearly a bit scary how well they played and how good Nick Cave was on stage.

189 KALTBLUT: Who’s your favourite artist that has remixed one of your tracks so far?

KALTBLUT: How do you think the electronic music scene has evolved since you’ve been apart of it?

TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think that I have ever got a remix that I really liked...but for the first time I really got a fantastic remix of the track Gravity (feat. Jana Hunter from Lower Dens) from the new album from danish band Pinkunoizu. It’s a brilliant remix and it will be out soon! I’m so happy about it!

TRENTEMØLLER: To be honest I don’t really follow it so much because when I was doing more pure electronic music l did not feel any connection to the scene actually. So I’m not at all up to date with what is happening, and it was the same thing back then. I tried not to focus so much on a genre or scene but just to make music, and back then what came out from me had a more electronic sound but I never felt that I belonged to the electronic scene.

KALTBLUT: How was it working with Dorit Chrysler? We’re big fans of her unique experimentation with the theremin sound. TRENTEMØLLER: Dorit is a good friend and she supported us on our US tour two years ago. She is also married to the Danish video artist Jesper Just who did the music video for Sycamore Feeling from my last studio album and it’s through Jesper that I got to know Dorit and her music. She’s so talented and a great performer. She’s a real diva (in a good way) so that was also why I produced and released her latest EP on my own label In My Room. KALTBLUT: What do you see in the future of recording and sharing music? Especially in regards to GEMA on our Berlin backs. TRENTEMØLLER: As regards file sharing music, I really think it’s rude and with no respect for the artist when people upload a WHOLE album with graphics and everything for people to download for free. It’s really hard to make a living as an artist now, because the physical sales have been minimised so much, so one of the only ways we can have the time and freedom to make music is if the people using our music also pay for it! I don’t mind if one of my tracks is on a blog or another place on the net, but a whole album for people to download for free is too much disrespect for the artist and I hate that I can find my new album as a .zip file free to download on the internet quite easily, but at the end of the day it’s really hard to fight that. KALTBLUT: You once said in an interview Berlin doesn’t do it for you quite in the same way as Copenhagen. What does the Danish capital have on the German one? Are there any other cities you would you consider moving to? TRENTEMØLLER: I just like Copenhagen and the vibe here. So much interesting music has come out of Copenhagen and Denmark these past years I think. Maybe because we started to trust our own sound and do not try to copy what is coming out of for example US and UK, but we try to define a certain Scandinavian way of writing music, often with a more melancholic touch. KALTBLUT: Let’s talk about your imprint ‘In My Room’. When did you start this up, and why? TRENTEMØLLER: I simply wanted my own platform from where I could release my albums and sometimes other artists that I find interesting, but so far the only other artist I have had the time to release is Dorit Chrysler. Hopefully I can sign another new artist soon that has that special thing that I’m looking for. But right now I’m really busy touring so when the touring stops next year I will definitely start searching for more artists to work with. It basically just means that I have 100% artistic freedom and that is of course very important to me! KALTBLUT: What does it mean to you that electronic musicians appear to be taking a darker, more industrial and atmospheric turn? Do you have any thoughts on the influences behind this progression? TRENTEMØLLER: I can’t talk on behalf of other artists, especially not electronic artists so I don’t know if the overall music style has taken a darker twist. I don’t see music as a whole scene or a whole sound or style, but what I certainly miss in a lot of electronic music is melodies! It’s too often only atmospheres, beats and sound design and too less melody, but that’s just my opinion…maybe I’m wrong?

KALTBLUT: How important is the relationship between the visual and the auditory for you? TRENTEMØLLER: Quite important! I work very closely with the Danish artist and fashion designer Henrik Vibskov on the visual side of the show. Henrik actually used to play drums in the band too but these days he’s too busy for that because he’s using all his time on his own stuff. But Henrik is designing and building the whole stage set-design that we always bring with us when we play live. There is no video projections, it’s all build up and then we use a lot the light to make these set ups work even stronger. KALTBLUT: A lot of musicians are starting to turn towards working on film soundtracks. Does this appeal to you at all? TRENTEMØLLER: No. Not really! I worked on a Danish movie once but then I realised that it takes a lot of time and energy, it’s nearly the same as making a studio album and I would rather use that time on touring or making new music. I do like the fact that other directors use my music in their movies though, for example Pedro Almodóvar used one of the tracks on my earlier album Into The Great Wide Yonder for his movie, ‘The Skin I Live In’. It’s a key scene about two minutes in with no dialogue, only the music, and then he actually also used that track for all the trailers for the movie. He also asked to have the different parts in the music separately so he could mix up for example the guitars so they fitted what happened in the scene which was a long chase scene with Antonio Banderas on a motorbike. Also Oliver Stone used my surf track ‘Silver Surfer, Ghost Rider Go!!!’ in his latest movie, and the french director Jacques Audiard used a mix I did with Bruce Springsteen in a key scene in Rust And Bone. So the fact that other artists that I also admire a lot can use my music in a creative way is fantastic. I’m very grateful for that! KALTBLUT: How do you approach your Dj-ing versus your tour shows? Where do you like to let your creativity and risk-taking run wild? TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t really play as a DJ anymore, my focus is playing my own music live rather than playing other peoples tracks as a DJ, so it’s also mainly with the band that I use my creativity! KALTBLUT: You started out presenting your work as a solo artist and then began touring with a live band. Did it take a lot of work to transform the set up? TRENTEMØLLER: I don’t think really think about it in advance, like about if or how the music I make will work in a live situation, but It’s really nice after all these months isolated in the studio and the album is finished to meet with the band and start to rearrange the song and rehearse them together. It’s a totally different process and a nice contrast for me! KALTBLUT: What are you currently listening to when you’re not working? TRENTEMØLLER: The Soft Moon, The Smiths, Dirty Beaches, Flaming Lips, Moon Duo, The Warlocks….

www.anderstrentemoller.com

190

Susann Bosslau

LENTICUL[I]AR

Objects in mirror are further than they appear A fashion star is born! May I introduce you to my friend and fashion designer Susann Bosslau? I've known her for some years now, and we used to curate the fashion element of our project HONK! Magazine together two years ago. She is a model, fashion editor and just finished studying at the Akademie Mode & Design (AMD) fashion school in Berlin. If someone is truly gifted with talent then it is Susann. This blond-haired German girl is an all-rounder and just moved to London to enter the fashion world from there. I am proud to present her first Spring/ Summer Collection for 2014: "LENTICUL[I]AR - Objects in mirror are further than they appear" Together with photographer Suzanna Holtgrave she has produced this great editorial for our Collection Noire. Her designs are fashion-forward, exactly what I expect when I think of avant-garde fashion. The woman Susann is designing for must be a strong characterâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a woman with style, sexy and edgyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;because she herself is that kind of woman. To be honest I hate the fact that she is designing womenswear. I would love to see, and perhaps one day wear, some amazing menswear pieces from her. Susann do you hear me?

191

Interview by Marcel Schlutt

Concept and Photography by Suzana Holtgrave

www.suzanaholtgrave.tumblr.com

Styling and Designs by Susann Bosslau

Hair & Make-Up by Timo Blum www.timoblum.blogspot.de

Assistant: Stella Semmerling

Models: Kassandra and Pepa M4 Model ManagementÂ Special THX Kiko Dionisio and Nero the dog

192

“The

‘Twin Peaks’ character Josie

Packard would be the perfect model for my clothes”

193

KALTBLUT: Hello Susann. Welcome to our magazine. We've known each other personally for a long time now, but please tell our readers something about your background? How did you get into fashion design? Susann: Hey KALTBLUT. Thank you for having me. It’s been a while since we last worked together, before I started working on my Bachelor Degree collection at AMD Berlin. I had to leave the Fashion Editor part at HONK! (which has now become KALTBLUT) in order to focus on my B.A. From a very young age I was involved in the arts. I was dancing a lot, jazz, modern dance and ballet, and I actually always wanted to become a ballerina because I had this obsession with those painful but beautiful ‘pointe’ shoes. I was always so keen about designing the outfits or at least having a say about the costumes and looks my dance group wore for performances and competitions. I guess this is when designing started to take over my life. My mum always made the clothes I designed. She was unbelievably patient with me. Her mum was a tailor and she learned it from her and I learned part of that from my mum. KALTBLUT: You just finished your studies at the AMD Berlin. For how long did you study fashion there? Do you have the feeling that it was time well spent? Susann: I finished my B.A. in February 2013. Studying there definitely made a change to my life. Not only was I studying with very good teachers and professors for 3 and a half years but also extremely talented students who are now very good friends. It was a tough time but I am happy that I chose to study there. KALTBLUT: We are presenting your first collection for Spring/ Summer 2014 entitled "LENTICUL[I]AR - Objects in mirror are further than they appear". Could you explain your inspiration for this collection? And what does the name mean? Susann: Visualize a liar. Someone who hides his weaknesses behind a fabricated facade. There will always be people who create a fake character in order to hide their not so cool self. LENTICUL[I]AR actually refers to physics. A lenticular lens is an array of magnifying lenses. It is a lens specially designed in a way that when you look at it from different angles different images are magnified. You might know this effect from pictures where lenticular printing was used. As a child I had this card with butterflies on it. When I held in my hand I could see the butterflies with their wings either closed or opened but when I moved it they looked like they were flying. I used it because just like my collection this lens shows you an illusion, a lie. It’s like a different reality or how I call it a parallel universe of yourself. This is where those metal corsets, pants and gloves come into the picture. That would be the inspirational negative part of this collection. The positive part is that you should always look at something from different angles before you judge, the picture can change on a second or third look. When you see my clothes from the front they will lead you in a certain direction but this direction will turn completely when you see the back. I think faking is self-torture. However that torture was inspirational enough to make metal corsets, pants, latches and gloves. KALTBLUT: I love the shapes of your designs. How would you describe the aesthetic of your work? Susann: It’s a neo 50’s/60’s mix with a hint of Han Solo’s ‘Millennium Falcon’. Elegant, straight-forward, laced up but at the same time sexy. KALTBLUT: Also your choice of different materials in the collection is amazing. From fake leather to multicoloured brocade. Why those different materials? Was it easy to work with them? And what else can we find in your collection?

Susann: I wanted the materials to clash. I wanted to draw attention to the fabrics and show that this mix can work. Whilst researching for fabrics I focused on what sort of association a certain material recalled in me. The multicoloured woven brocade reminded me of a stuck up English tea party with rich middle-aged wives. The polyvinyl chloride on the other hand reminded me of wrapped up meat that you get in supermarket with a hint of fetish. KALTBLUT: For how long have you been working on the collection? And how many nervous breakdowns did you have during that time? Susann: 3 Months. Breakdowns: enough. KALTBLUT: I love that your collection features a lot of black pieces but also some yellow. Is it a risk to create a mainly black collection for the upcoming season? Or do you see your woman wearing a lot of black? Susann: Black is timeless and doesn’t depend on certain seasons. So no, not risky. And yes there is always a good time to wear black. KALTBLUT: The theme of our issue is NOIRE. Do you have an idea why black is the perfect colour for fashion? Which are your favourite colours? Susann: To me black is a colour that leaves questions open. So it challenges you. Black can be strong, fierce, elegant, menacing anything really. Black has many faces and a person wearing black is not easy to judge. I like strong and heavy colours but I might go with pastel when the fabric to that is strong and heavy. I have an affinity for collisions.. KALTBLUT: For what kind of woman do you design your clothes for? Susann: The ‘Twin Peaks’ character Josie Packard would be the perfect model for my clothes. A passionate, straight-forward and inconspicuously sexy woman who doesn’t want to be overlooked. KALTBLUT: You also created some amazing shoes. I know you love to make accessories. Are there any plans to come out with an accessories line one day as well? Susann: The shoes are all handmade with aluminum. My brother was crazy enough to help me make them. Marty Mcfly’s ‘Back To The Future’ Deloreaon (I LOVE THAT CAR) was an inspiration. If Josie Packerd would travel through time in that car I would love her to wear my shoes. Accessories are important because they transport the message of your look and can lead it in a very different direction. Plans for an accessories line are in the making. KALTBLUT: Your current collection is only for girls. What a pity, because I think you would dress the guys quite well. Why have you decided to go for womenswear? Susann: There are so many details of menswear in womenswear that I think I am already satisfied. For now I will focus more on designing for women but I wouldn’t say I will never design for men. After all I am actually wearing my boyfriend's clothes every now and then.

194

195

KALTBLUT: As a young fashion designer in Germany it is not so easy to survive. Germans are not so into fashion like our friends in London or Paris. How much of your cultural background, especially Berlin, can we see in your designs? Susann: The fascination for metal must come from my families background of blacksmithing. Once it was about smithing horse shoes and now it's about forging women shoes and accessories. The accessories are actually made of these old metal construction kits my brother played with as a kid. You are supposed to build cars and trains out of it. I thought why not make some pants, gloves and glasses. So I took my brother's old metal kits and started to play dress up. I’m not sure if you can see anything of Berlin in my collection. You probably see a culture clash though. To support myself and to finance my studies I fly around the globe as a flight attendant every now and then. That enables me to explore different parts, traditions and people of this wonderful planet. Japan fascinates me. Tokyo is the most inspiring city I’ve ever been to. Whenever I’m there I feel like a child who tastes candy for the first time. Mind blowing. KALTBLUT: Is there any designer you look up to and why? Do you have some kind of a fashion icon? Susann: Rei Kawakobu. She is brilliant. Nothing more to say to that. KALTBLUT: Where do you create your designs? Do you have your own studio? Susann: I designed and made the collection in my 56 square meter apartment in Berlin. That was a challenge but a successful one. KALTBLUT: Some may not know it but you also worked as a model, fashion editor for HONK! Magazine back in 2011 and as a double for Cate Blanchet. Now you are a fashion designer. I have the feeling you are still on a private journey through life. Where do you see yourself let’s say in 20 years? Susann: Good memories come back to my mind when I think about that. I had such a good time doing all this. Being a designer you’ve got to be open for everything and multitasking in a way. Otherwise, how are you supposed to create something new? KALTBLUT: Let’s play a little game. If you could dress a famous person out of these two who would it be and why!? Marilyn Mason or Justin Timberlake? Susann: Marilyn Manson because he is a crazy genius, I love his music and because there is always a little bit of Manson in my mood boards. KALTBLUT: Thank you very much for your time and the amazing editorial you and Suzana Holtgrave have produced for our Noire theme. Come back to see us soon when you have a new collection to show! Susann: Thanks to you KALTBLUT!

KERBY R osanes 196

Kerby Rosanes is a freelance illustrator. The things that occupy him the most? Sketching and doodling, of course. Hailing from the Philippines, he spends every bit of free time he has clutching his notebook, armed with his beloved pens. He’ll fill up blank pages with thousands of little details; put those details together and creates an extraordinary piece of art. For Kerby, these doodles are much more than just “unfocused drawing.” This is his passion, it’s his way of life.

KALTBLUT: Hi Kerby, can you please tell us what are your started working that way when I decided to drop my pastels and coloured pencils, when I lose the patience of colouring my work. influences and what inspires you? Kerby: A lot of things inspire me. Nature, music, anime, cartoons, scifi movies, personal experiences and anything interesting I encounter everyday. My greatest influences include other ink artists like Mattias Adolfsson and Johanna Basford, film characters of Hayao Miyazaki and my mom for teaching me how to be creative at all times. KALTBLUT: There is a lot of detail in your illustrations. How did you start working this way?

KALTBLUT: How long does it take you to finish one of your illustrations? What does it depend on? Kerby: It depends on the size and what purpose it will be used for. Most commissioned pieces would take me a couple of weeks to finish since research is being made. For personal doodles, I do it in two days most likely every night after a busy day at the office.

KALTBLUT: How has your work changed as you evolved? Kerby: I love putting details in my work. I think that characteristic alone makes my work unique from other artists. Without it, any of my Kerby: My work has changed from the ordinary scribbles in my class pieces will not come alive knowing that I don’t usually colour them. I notebooks, to more detailed and conceptual illustrations that are well

197

recognized across the globe. I still have a long way to go when it comes to “evolving” my craft and that’s what I am more excited about! KALTBLUT: What kind of things scare you the most? What do you fear? Kerby: Many things actually. I’m afraid of heights, paranormal activity and losing my beloved pens! KALTBLUT: If you would make an illustration of yourself, what would it look like? What kind of things would it involve? Kerby: Hmm.. tough question. But I think I’ll just include things I love and best represent me. It can be so random without any art direction at all. Just like my other drawings, I want it to be just plainly spontaneous leaving the viewer to figure out the stories behind them. KALTBLUT: You often include animals in your work, can you tell us a little about it? What do they symbolize? Kerby: They don’t symbolize anything at all. I just love to explore the wild and natural elements as a major theme of the artwork. Animals are good subjects when you want to reach a wide audience, appealing to kids, adults, art professionals, tattoo artists, nature lovers, etc. KALTBLUT: Each one of your illustrations seems to be a whole world. If you could bring one to life, which one would it be and why? Kerby: It would be the doodle called “CROW-DED”. It might sound weird but I love crows! KALTBLUT: There is a lot of black and white in your work. What makes you choose black and white over colour? Kerby: I just don’t have the patience to colour in my work. KALTBLUT: Where do you see yourself in 10 years from now? Kerby: Still doing what I love. Travelling the world for more inspiration. And teaching kids about my art. Interview by Amanda M. Jansson, Emma E. K. Jones and Nicolas Simoneau

www.kerbyrosanes.com

MUST

198

Selected by Marcel Schlutt

TECIDOFINO X MARC STONE "There is no luxury in the world a man can be closer to!"

Photos by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

The label tecidofino has presented itself on the catwalk for the first time during the last Berlin Fashion Week together with the Swiss designer Marc Stone's underwear. And it was the perfect combination. Marc Stone is known for his classic men's fashion. But due to his athletic new collection he sent models in underwear from tecidofino on the catwalk . And guys , we all know how important the perfect pants are for us. Founded in 2013 the Berlin Label tecidofino has got high quality materials combined with the latest design ideas and so produced the finest underwear for men in the world. Tecidofino makes a name for itself, because the fine fabric represents design, quality, luxury and wellbeing. The natural , luxurious comfort is not only special because of the fashionable design but also because of the use of environmentally friendly raw materials . All fabrics are primarily made from renewable resources. The proverbial red thread which runs not only through the entire collection , is rather subtle and yet signal red, is found on any of the tecidofino designs. The classic aesthetics of Marc Stone's man fits perfectly to the really high quality underpants of tecidofino.

www.tecidofino.com

www.marc-stone.ch

www.aureliapaumelle.com B端rknerstr. 5 - 12047 Berlin

Sorry My Love 200

Concept & Photography: Suzana Holtgrave Model: Amanda at Satory Models Hair and make up: Anna KĂźrner at Basics Styling: Anita Krizanovic Production: Marcel Schlutt

Dress & Skirt: Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s That Girl

201

Dress & Cardigan: Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s That Girl, Scarf: Illith, Earrings: Stylists Own

202

Dress, Skirt & Cardigan: Who’s That Girl, Pinafore: Illith, Earrings: Stylists Own, Gloves: Très Bonjour

Dress: Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s That Girl, Pinafore: Illith, Scarf: Illith, Shoes: Gianni

203

Dress: Who’s That Girl, Stockings & Body: Très Bonjour, Shoes: Gucci

204

205

Dress & Cardigan: Whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s That Girl, Scarf: Illith

206

HUMPHREY BOGART

Text by Claudio Alvargonzรกlez Tera Illustration by Emma E. K. Jones

THE KING OF

F I L M

N O I R

207

If you think of classic Film Noir, one of the first images that comes to mind is a black and white picture of a gangster, a private detective or a drunk journalist with a hat, a raincoat, a cigarette and a glass of bourbon. If you try to put a face on that image I bet that it belongs to Humphrey Bogart.

came along and he finally got a role in The Petrified Forest with two bigger stars, Leslie Howard and Bette Davis. The film was a success and Bogie signed a contract with Warner Brothers, but it wasn’t until 1941 when he met his friend John Huston (probably the most influential man in his life) during the shooting of their first film together The Maltese Falcon.

The film only won three Oscars (including ‘Best Film’) but it deserved many more. Bogart’s love life was as difficult as it was depicted in many of the roles he played. He got married four times. He became a drunk, probably because his third wife (actress Mayo Methot) was a compulsive one, and like some of the gangsters or private detectives If you are born on Christmas Day, he played, he was looking for some I guess you are destined to do The film became an instant Film Noir kind of redemption. It came in 1944 something special with your life. Humphrey DeForest Bogart was born classic (you can find a small review while shooting To Have and Have Not when he met a young model called in New York City on that special day of the film in our TOP 5) and Bogart Lauren Bacall (Dame Lauren Bacall simply jumped into a higher Hollyin 1899. His father was a wealthy wood status. They made seven films in my opinion). They got married Manhattan surgeon and his mother a year later and had two children. together, including The Treasure of was a famed magazine illustrator Their love story continued until and photographer. Bogart’s parents the Sierra Madre, Key Largo (with his last wife Lauren Bacall) and The Bogie, too ill with cancer, died in wanted him to be a doctor, probJanuary 1957. The Harder They Fall African Queen with Katherine Hepably dreaming about studying at Yale University like the rest of posh burn. This last role of a gin-swilling (1956) was his last movie. His face was not the same due to his long riverboat captain finally gave him kids from New York City. However fight against this illness. His fight the Oscar he was waiting for in destiny had prepared something was very hard, the same way he and completely different for him. Since 1952. He defeated Marlon Brando his characters did on screen but this and his amazing role in A Streetthe beginning, his marks at Trinity time he was defeated. At his funeral, car Named Desire, and then came School and Phillips Academy were his friend John Huston said: “He is Casablanca. Of course, I won’t forget pretty low and he was eventually the film which is ranked as the best an irreplaceable man. There will kicked out. Yale University was never be someone else like him…” one ever made in cinema history out of the picture, and his parents’ Although I agree, I still prefer what dream was broken. Bogie, like many (according to audiences). I would’t young guys in those days, joined the say that much. I just think it’s simply Lauren Bacall said to Lars von Trier after a fight during the filming of United States Navy during the spring impossible to choose just one but Dogville: “Listen stupid, you weren’t I agree the film is indeed at least of 1918. Those were the times of one of the Top 10 in history. Anyway, even born and were already sleepFirst World War and the young ing with Humphrey Bogart”. Casablanca is a masterpiece and Bogart was sent to service during the conflict. That was the time he got Bogie became a worldwide star Bogart had the perfect face for with his Rick Blane (an American injured by the impact of shrapnel Noire, a face filled with characexpatriate during World War II). leaving him with that famous scar ter. Our signature image of him is There is not too much to say about on his lip. seated at a table, the inevitable Casablanca as you already know drink nearby, cigarette in hand, as the story. The script is one of the After leaving the navy he found a he stares out at the world without best ever written, Ingrid Bergman job at the World Film Corporation and some time later he finally got a never looked better and the director passion but understanding of its full meaning. It is said Bogart’s means role in a theatre play called Drifting Michael Curtiz gave us some of the (1922). It was his first role. Soon he most memorable images in cinema of expression were limited, but his eyes radiated complexity. He played became quite popular on Broadway, history. For example, we all know the melody of “As Time Goes By” and men of principle, men with their own working in one play after another code of honour. Men with a cynical until 1929, when he decided to move think about how many times you mask hiding integrity. Bogart was to Hollywood. The truth is he wasn’t have used the quote: “We’ll always the king of Film Noir but above all, have Paris”. See?? That is what too lucky at the start. Broadway is makes cinema and this film eternal: Humphrey Bogart is in two words: one thing, but Hollywood is a much classic cinema. A myth. the collective imaginary. bigger playing field. The year 1935

Perhaps in the same way there was just one Marilyn, one Katherine, one Bette or one Ava, there was just one Bogie, and his last name was Bogart.

CRAY

208

Zay

You like it, you get it. Just pick the item you would like to win, write a nice-crazy-funny letter (ho yes we’re a bit old-school, we love snail post!) with your name, your address, and the thing you want. JUST ONE ARTICLE PER PERSON. Good Luck. Your Kaltblut Team. Write to : Kaltblut Magazine, Grünbergerstrasse 3, 10243, Berlin, Germany.

Dockers

2 x Chinos www.dockers.com

Nintendo

1 x Nintendo 2DS 1 x Game “The Legend of Zelda” www.nintendo.de

Pins

Stylejunky

1 x Album CD “Girls Like Us”

1x iPhone Case by Oliver Rath 1x iPad Case by Oliver Rath www.stylejunky.com

www.wearepins.co.uk

Mr. Spex

Trentemøller

3 x Sunglasses

1 x Album CD “Lost”

www.misterspex.de

www.anderstrentemoller.com

Gesaffelstein

1 x Album CD “Aleph” www.gesaffelstein.com

Claesgöran

3 x Low 8-hole Canvas Sneaker www.claesgoran.com

Outfittery

3 x 50€ Voucher

www.outfittery.de

209

KALTBLUT Magazine Grünbergerstrasse 3 10243 Berlin Germany www.kaltblut-magazine.com www.facebook.com/kaltblut.magazine www.twitter.com/KALTBLUTMAG www.kaltblut-magazine.tumblr.com KALTBLUT Magazine is published by KALTBLUT Media UG (haftungsbeschränkt) CEO: Nicolas Simoneau, Grünbergerstr. 3, 10243 Berlin, Germany

Info info@kaltblut-magazine.com

Press press@kaltblut-magazine.com

Adverstising advertising@kaltblut-magazine.com Photo by Valquire Veljkovic

Events events@kaltblut-magazine.com

Concessions. People say you have to make something happen if you want to be able to make your way in life. You start with a project, an idea; where you put all your heart and soul, you have a vision, a really good view of the goal you want to hit - but the thing is, the whole thing is not really working the way you would like it to. So to make it work you have to allow for concessions; have to accept the fact that by transforming the thing, it may actually finally work. The question is, how much are you ready to give away? How many concessions are you ready to make in this process, and where is the limit? What about if you make too many concessions and you’re even not able to recognize this thing as your own anymore? It may indeed feel as though it is not yours anymore, because it's too far from the vision you originally had. This is a really delicate process, and you have to be open for changes, of course; but also ready to accept that your initial idea was maybe not as good as you once thought it would be. This is not just about your project, at the end - this is

also about yourself and to be able to look at your actions with some distance, and to be able to readjust. When I heard that we had to reduce 400 pages of our beloved collection down to 200, I was angry and sad, because I thought if we only print 200 pages, that this is not us anymore, this is not what we created. However with a good long look at it, and seeing with an open mind the facts and the way they are, I can truly say that this Collection [Noire] is by far the best we have done yet. The content is thick-and-tight, really fits the theme, and the editorials and the interviews are just on point. Here we are, always trying to push ourselves to be able to present a beautiful product to our readers, and for once we can stand proud, and be sure that you’ll understand. We are in constant evolution, because we try to evolve with you. Thank you to everyone who has helped to make it possible this time, and god knows that they are a lot of people to name.

Thank you for being fidele. I really hope you did enjoy it. Yours Nicolas

All Copyright at KALTBLUT Media UG KALTBLUT Magazine is printed in Germany AZ Druck und Datentechnik Gmbh Sportfliegerstrasse 6 | 12487 Berlin I www.az-druck.de

All of KALTBLUT´s contributors are responsible and retain the reproduction rights of their own words and images. Reproductions of any kind are prohibited without the permission of the magazine, editor and each contributor.

210

212