Derelicht TALKS

This year Derelicht touched down in Ipswich bringing a much needed breath of fresh air to the East of England.
3 artists playing 3 hour sets each, they’ve already seen the likes of Sian, Auntie Flo, James Zabiela and Tom Demac grace the space with Ame & Will Saul still to come later this month. The events have been anchored by resident Thermal Bear. It’s not your run of the mill type line-up… and it’s not your run of the mill space that the parties are taking place in. Ahead of the 2013 series season finale we caught up with Gav the event’s curator to talk the number three, architecture, Romain Tardy and designing aircraft… amongst other things.

Hey Gav…. let’s talk a bit about how Derelicht came to be – its quite unusual to have the type of high-level lineups your putting together in East Anglia….

To be honest the majority of the concept surrounding Derelicht is borne out of frustration, in that; after a difficult week at work I, like most others am raring to go however reality sets in around 1700 on a friday when you realise your home is Suffolk and there ain’t a great deal going on apart from rambling, vintage fairs and cup cakes. Its a massive catchment is the East of England and I thought there was absolutely no reason why it couldn’t be compared to the other side of the country and potentially have what bristol has, it just needs someone at the front creating & driving a scene rather than chasing the small bucks or short term opportunities.

What is the local  electronic music scene like in East Anglia at the moment, anything bubbling below the radar that we should know about?

So as I’ve been pulling the events together I’ve been inundated with local artists wanting to help which is healthy but consuming at the same time, I also can’t say “no” to people so I have to listen to everything sent through and always give feedback as I know how much that means. Next year I really want to help these artists wherever I can and really start to generate a hotbed of talent. At the moment I’m really liking The Soft, Deadpoole and Treen, all producing some really innovative stuff and certainly have a sound future ahead of them.

Derelicht aims to utilise redundant architecture and abandoned spaces… Can you tell us about the venues you use, theres a very industrial aesthetic to it…

I wanted to incorporate architecture from the start, I think its often overlooked and Derelicht just wouldn’t work in an existing club atmosphere. Its cliched but I had a moment of epiphany when reading a book by Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre titled The Ruins Of Detroit. The book pretty much confirmed what I had been thinking for a long time in that there were a thousand venues out there just waiting to be used, colossal, almost biblical type backdrops that could only enhance any event. My parallel thoughts before reading this book were that; now and again a track emerges that is so colossal and has the potential to create such a biblical moment it takes a certain backdrop to allow it to really work in an ethereal way, its like the Dubfire rework of Radioslave Grindhouse a few years back, the track is massive but just consumes smaller atmospheres, what I’ve tried to do with Derelicht is provide worthy backdrops, which inevitably means finding bigger & better locations so that the tracks can be unchained and allowed the atmosphere they so command.

Have you got a background in architecture?

Not specifically, though I have always had an eye for design, especially industrial design but by trade I’m an aerospace engineer locked in the defence industry so I’ve had the chance to work on some pretty interesting projects like the Apache Helicopter, Type 45 Destroyer and the odd UAV programme, its just a job, I think the key to being successful with anything though is rolling up your sleeves, getting involved with the detail and leading from the front, its the same ethos I carry across into Derelicht.

What were some of the venues/spaces/parties that inspired you to take the route you have, prior to Derelicht coming into existence…

I’ve certainly taken inspiration from the early days of Tresor and DC10 in that we are utilising venues that were never designed to house events, we’re effectively giving the buildings a new lease of life, showcasing some outstanding architecture and providing a very industrial & immersive feel to each event.

Can you tell us about the visuals youre using at the events – 3d mapping, instillations, and the likes…

Personally I’m inspired by the works of Romain Tardy, Joanie Lemercier and the Anti-Vj crew who are really pushing the visuals scene forward. Rather than using light to mask the architecture or blast lasers at people with Derelicht I wanted again to focus on the architecture and promote the features/facades within. So we’ve used the talents of Joe Catchpole to map the internal features of the building which he can then model and manipulate through a series of Ultra HD projectors. This produced some unbelievable results to the point whereby at D02 we had the inside of the building being projected and manipulated on the outside of the buildingget your head round that?!

How do you go about selecting the lineups, youve got Ame, Will Saul and Thermal Bear for the forthcoming event – does the architectural aesthetic feed into the choices you make when booking acts?

With the line-ups for me it’s definitely about making sure the artists fit the venue 100% and also about steering clear of the obvious, Im getting bored with the same old uninspiring line-ups, I’ll always favour live performance and artists who are really pushing the boundaries. Because of our location I’m having to tease our way in balancing entertainment with education, if I was to stage the line-ups that I personally wanted at this point in time I think I would scare everyone off!

?You seem to have a bit of a thing for the number 3: 3 artists at each event, playing a 3 hour set each, 3 events a year, any particular reason for this?

I just got bored of listening to un-engaging (is that a word?) 2 hr sets, and really wanted to let our artists engage more with the audience. I think for an organisation in our position and given our location challenges, I really needed every artist to put in 100% and felt I could get that from them by throwing them a curve-ball and getting them to commit to a 3hr set. So yeah, no real fetish for the number 3 just a good solid concept that seems to have worked. I’ll let you know more after D03!

So, Derelicht 003 is going to be your final party of 2013, what does 2014 have in store?

Lots of speculation at the moment surrounding next year, but I’m really just looking forward to some time off, there are certainly more events to come next year, the launch of our website and maybe even a recording label & booking agency, who knows, lets see

Finally, If you could hold a Derelicht event in any space anywhere in the world throughout history, and book three artists from any point in time, where would it be and who would be on the bill?

Venue has to be the Colosseum in Rome, line-up would be Trentemoller, Nicolas Jaar, Jon Hopkins, can’t stop at 3, am I allowed any more?Ulrich Schnauss, Mano Le Tough, Actress, Pete Lazonby as supporting artists maybe?

The Derelicht season finale takes place on 31st August with Ame, Will Saul and Thermal Bear. Full details.