Variations _ Interview with Joachim Spieth

Your new compilation Affin Fractals represents the label perfectly. We were chatting before about how there’s a need for thoughtful Techno music to be presented in this way. I think compilations are a much better way to come across new artists, as the lines are clearer than in a DJ mix and you can examine each track in its own space..

The idea was to give exclusive tunes only and do a label presentation mix. It was not easy to get it all together because of the diversity, but in the end it worked. After some compilations that displayed the labels development in retrospective, we wanted to give something different. Affin Fractals is the main part of “5 years Affin”. It was released exactly in the time the label started 5 years ago, but nobody knew 🙂

Regarding your thoughts, all the tunes are available separately from the release and the DJ mix I gave just as “album only”, so everybody was able to buy a single tune instead of all. It was  a lot of work to get it all managed, but I’m happy we did it.

Actually, I loved that Sensual track that was on the “Sensualized” 100th Affin release. That was the last one of yours that I heard. I guess the world needs people to work behind the scenes too, but is it difficult to find time for your own music when you are a label boss?

The reactions on Sensual were very positive, it was played out from DJs such as Juan Atkins, Depeche Mode’s Martin L Gore, Scuba, Shlomi Aber, Samuel L Session and countless others…

Sure, I prepared the Affin 100 more than a year before it appeared. It wasn’t easy to get all the artists involved with their deadlines etc. For my own tune it was clear that it should be a special tune and so I took really long time to produce it. Basically, it’s made just with one chord and countless variations of it. I’ve loved this approach for a long time now.

Finally, I’m still happy with this tune and it’s possibly my best one in a long time. Yes, there’s not too much output. It’s tricky if you have to do most work on your own.

Will there be more of your own music being released soon? I like the style of the Sensual release.. but your track record shows that you’ll probably go off in another direction haha!

I have a new remix for Danilo Schneider’s Enough ! Music label; Ark Prose – 100 times I have shown you. Then another remix coming up early 2013 is on Noah Pred’s Thoughtless Music; Platypus – The Streets have a Voice.

At the moment I’m preparing new material for 2013.. An album. Why not? Next time will tell…

What is your studio like now? Have you simplified it over the years, or are you a hoarder?

I’ve tested a lot of machines and software since 1996. What has remained are the EMU hardware samplers; E 6400, E Synth and E 5000 Ultra. T C Electronic fx; M2000, Fireworx, D-Two. A Mackie mixer and my Genelec monitors. I use Ableton live & Native Instruments Komplete. The main instrument i use is Kontakt. I bought the first one as 1.0 and never quit.  This software sampler for me really does it. I don’t hoard. I’ve sold a lot of machines in the past, just the Virus & Nord Rack2 remain on the desk.