Dave Dk – Influences

His “Selected Ambient Works 85 – 92“ album is one of the first pieces of electronic music that I got in touch with back in the 90s. There are a couple of tracks on it that have never left my DJ bag. “Heliosphan“ is Ambient and Trance at the same time. A hymn at its best, if you take out the beats and just loop the pad synth theme it can be put on any modern techno or house beat.

This track is part of a soundtrack that Jon did for the movie Monsters. He did also the music for How I Live Now. I’m a big fan of his soundtracks and have listened to them many times without getting tired of it. I love the interaction of distance and closeness, hope and relieve. I find it incredible how movie soundtracks can draw pictures in your mind. He has mastered his skills to in the “Abandon Window“ track of his last album, ethereal feeling all over.

What a timeless piece of warm organic sounding glitch minimal music. I love the way he creates this loopy dub electronic atmosphere based on samples. One of my favourite albums is Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records as well as his Farben project. At that time he had perfectly mastered his skills as an outstanding producer of this genre.

Robag is a unique genius when it comes to working with samples of any kind and making the use of glitch sound work without overdoing it. Almost everything he touches turns into gold, same goes for DJ Koze. This is one of my secret gems of his output. Sophisticated warm beat construction with a deep melodic theme. I’ve played this track many times in special moments and will do so in the future.

Like other Dial artists I’ve been following Hendrik Weber from the early days. I’ve listened to and played his albums countless times. I can get lost in these intelligent ambient works with a straight beat to them. The noise and drone sounds combined with field recordings make it a fine match with the deep melancholy in there, sometimes in a pop structure. His Bell Laboratory project is also very interesting making use of bells as the leading instrument.

I find his work pretty inspiring. This track can be found on his last album “Virgins“. Distortion, looping, noise and rumbling drone sounds are some of Heckers trademarks. I discovered Tim pretty late, I have to admit, though I’m happy I did. I can feel some parallels to Pantha du Prince at some point, though his approach is way more experimental, avant-garde electronic like. I still have a lot to discover in his music.

This remix is one of my secret weapons from the past years. Pretty minimal use of sounds but well balanced saturation in it. Atoms For Peace is another project by Thom Yorke, Nigel Goodrich and Flea. No wonder they put their hands on the remix of the title track “Tamer Animals“ as Other Lives were touring with Radiohead.

Boards of Canada are one of my all-time favourite bands of the late 90s and 2000s. I’ve been following the Electronica scene a lot, Lali Puna and Notwist have accompanied me throughout the years. This song from their last album from 2010 “Our Inventions“ is a nice example for the experimental use of looped chords and vocal pieces, their typical playful melancholy and the tender voice of Valerie Trebeljahr.