“Ostgut Ton | Fünfzehn + 1 is a commemorative compilation celebrating 16 years of Ostgut Ton,” says the compilation’s press release and for this occasion, the Berlin-based label goes all out: dedicated to its parent club Berghain, the 5×12″ vinyl boxset, which will have its physical release on the 3rd December 2021 after getting digitally released one month earlier, brings together residents of the club, artists of the label, and close affiliates who worked together in pairs to make music dedicated to the club’s five different floors.
One of the pairings consists of Jasss and Silent Servant, who contributed “Años Perros.” The track, and that’s a personal opinion, would probably go down very well on the clubs namesake main floor. Over the course of seven and a half minutes, the two producers push forward without only being straightforward. It is a techno track with a melodic sensibility, where the capabilities of both collaborators shine through.
While “Años Perros” aims straight for the dance floor, Jasss’ sophomore LP A World Of Service, which will also be released on Ostgut Ton on the 26th November 2021, shows a very different approach. It’s testament to a versatile artist who is capable of cohesively bringing together a broad range of influences. Next to the exclusive premiere of “Años Perros,” we are publishing an interview from zweikommasieben #17, in which Jasss recounts how her taste in music evolved at a young age and where she talks about her refusal to be defined by only one sound or aesthetic. In this regard, not much seems to have changed.
Premiere: Jasss x Silent Servant – “Años Perros” from Ostgut Ton | Fünfzehn + 1
Radical Places—An Interview with Jasss
“I guess the whole point behind playing records in this kind of situation is to remember what’s the opposite of pretentious,” writes Jasss about her contribution to the Ninja Tunes mix series, Solid Steel. The mix starts as anything but danceable, let alone catchy. A comment pops up at 1:12 minutes into the mix: “So do you first have to remind us of what pretentious is?” Social media is merciless. And yet Silvia Jiménez Alvarez aka Jasss has hit the nail on the head with her proclamation. Curiosity coupled with a little bit of fuck-you attitude, and a huge love of music.
With her debut album Weightless, which appeared on experimental label Ideal Recordings in 2017, Jasss navigates an impressive tightrope walk of childish curiosity and conceptual work; a difficult balancing act that has eluded many a producer. There is something very playful about the album, and many different sound recordings and samples are combined without overloading it. In this way, the album’s title does it full justice.
Jasss was invited to DJ at Dampfzentrale in Bern at the close of 2017. Samuel Savenberg and Remo Bitzi of zweikommasieben met the musician beforehand for an interview.
Remo Bitzi Your influences were always highlighted in the reviews and festival announcements that I’ve been reading. I assume they probably popped up in one press release and then got copied all over… African dub or free-jazz—is it true?
Silvia Jiménez Alvarez Yes of course those are influences, but so was almost everything else around. I remember at some point there was this one review… I mean a person that writes about music can write anything she or he wants, right? And if this person thinks, “I can totally hear the influence of this and that in the album”, then that’s probably true. But once a review gets published online and people start commenting and criticizing the critic, it gets complicated. “Yeah right, Africa. Jasss sounds very African.” Well, I didn’t say that. However, it’s still true that I listened to a lot of that music because of my parents.
RB Could you please elaborate on how you grew up and the role of your parents and their taste in music?
SJA My parents are not artists or related to art at all. They are working class people, but well educated. I guess it was a way to escape from some things. They were still very young when they had me and it was a time in Spain with a lot of turmoil—a very politically-driven atmosphere. They had friends that were importing records—records that were not permitted in Spain. Same with books and art. My parents always lived in small towns and villages, so they had to search for these things. I think it was a way to not feel mediocre in a place where everything was indeed very mediocre and sad.
RB So, for that generation it wasn’t a common thing to have access to these kind of records?
SJA No. Spain was closed. There were a lot of things that couldn’t come in or out of the country.
RB So it was an extraordinary thing. Your friends at school didn’t have access to the same music for example?
SJA I’d say that it wasn’t until the last years of high school that I found other people with common interests. I’m not that old, but at the time and place where I grew up I didn’t have access to much. I didn’t run into electronic music until much later. You have to understand that I come from a village. And it’s not like I grew up there and then moved to a big city. No. These villages are radical places.
RB Radical places—what do you mean by that?
SJA The people in the village would often reason with “its always been like this.” In the place that I grew up the macho attitude was so clear that it was already a parody. I didn’t take it seriously as a kid, because for me it was a parody. There was no way you could believe what they were saying.
Samuel Savenberg Would you say that you already had a different approach to music when growing up?
SJA Absolutely
SS And did you realize that as a kid?
SJA I did realize that I was attracted to different things than the others. Also the others weren’t really communicative. And I always struggled a bit to find my place. I never got bullied or such but I didn’t find a connection. I was able to function, I had my friends, but I guess a lot of people feel this way. At least a lot of people I’ve encountered much later know that feeling of alienation. Probably even some of those that I wasn’t able to communicate with did. But for sure the music their parents were listening to and the way they were educated was really different.
RB Do you sometimes go back there to visit?
SJA Yes, I do. I will be back there in two days actually. And I think it’s beautiful. There is a lot to learn from these situations. For example, we live in a time where everyone is super self-entitled to talk about and to criticize whereas in small places there is a lot of dogma and a lot of creepy stuff. But obviously this is not just black and white. So I ask myself, can I learn something from the social dynamics there? Sure I can.
SS I think that is an interesting point. Because nowadays one can witness so many discussions where it seems everyone is trying to stand above everyone else…
SJA Yes, when speaking to some people—and this often happens in bigger cities—you get the impression that they want to say is: “We have the perfect world and we are going to teach you how to do it.” You might go and tell your friends how to behave and to be open minded, but you are not going to tell Pepe from my village. No, Pepe’s view of the world is a bit different and will probably stay that way.
SS Is Pepe aware of what you are doing now?
SJA Yes, he’d probably say: “She’s traveling a lot because of her music.” They are not really interested in what I’m doing.
SS Would you call yourself a club kid?
SJA I like the club, but I wouldn’t call myself a club kid, no. I’d say I’m rather a little bit of a stalker when it comes to clubs.
SS Where did that fascination came from?
SJA The club has something utopic and dreamy… I mean it’s the big soundsystem, the power to decide what is played and how loud. That for me is amazing, because if I hung out with my friends—and this was before YouTube was there—we would all go to war with each other when it came to who was in charge of what to play. Imagine that you don’t have to fight with anyone because you have your slot and it’s much louder. And everybody pays attention and everybody shuts the fuck up. Or doesn’t shut up, which I wouldn’t care about because it’s loud enough. There’s so much amazing music and it’s so thrilling to play it out loud. It’s really exciting for me to discover music. I guess it really gives me some kind of rush.
RB Because people are listening, or in general?
SJA Both. It really means something to me. It’s not just the fun of it. I find it very touching for some reason. Of course not all situations are the same—when you play the closing slot at 10am then it’s different, but there were certain gigs, moments where I listened to a bunch of stuff that I had been searching for and then was playing in a set and I’m just like, “wow.” This thrill is the same as when I was a kid. It’s so giving.
SS Is this also a reason why you DJ instead of play live?
SJA I do play live. But I don’t play live in a club context. I mean, it’s difficult to say because I only have done it three times and these three times were perfect situations.
SS I guess the people coming to your concerts have different kinds of expectations depending on which record(s) they know.
SJA I mean, it’s always the same process, right? First they hear the Mannequin EPs and so that is what they think I do; then they put on the album released on Ideal and they are confused; finally they go and see the live shows and are like: “Oh, she’s doing something different than before…”
SS Do you like to play with these expectations?
SJA Yes, I love it. It’s not that I really play with it, rather I get bored very easily and I don’t think I should sacrifice the fact that I get really hungry to experience something new and that I get really excited. So I don’t think I should sacrifice this so as not to let people down because they’re expecting some specific sound or something. Because I could mix it all, you know… That’s the good part of not having such a big fanbase: You can do whatever you want.
SS As an electronic musician people get to know you because of your productions. But then again, when they book you they expect you to DJ, which is probably something different. I guess this is confusing to the audience.
SJA I think the best thing is to just not give a damn. Because people have their own criteria and they will always have it. I think that’s alright! I think it’s fantastic when someone thinks that my music is shit. But I think it’s my duty to not give a shit about that. I should not care; although, I have to pay the rent and get something to eat. But that’s where the gold is at: When you don’t give a shit, when you’re a child. To be able to think like a child. It’s what you lose when you grow up.
RB Could you describe that a little more precisely? What part of being a child do you mean?
SJA The way I feel is that as you grow up, you get more cynical. You start creating roads and paths to follow. “This car goes this way, that car goes that way.” It’s very difficult to deconstruct that and imagine how you used to build these roads and how these roads are flexible. That’s what we all try to come back to. For example when you make a sound that fascinates you or you come up with a loop and you say to yourself “Wow, this is the shit!” That’s the feeling. It’s beautiful.
RB Do you still have that when you work on music?
SJA I haven’t had it in a while because I haven’t had the time to work on new music. I was traveling a lot. It’s also because of the way I record. I have to be in a working mood. Not just “okay, I’m gonna record some sounds.” It’s not conceptual but just like searching for a melody or so.
RB What about the samples that you use—there’s a lot of sources, right? For example there is this one track, “Mother”…
SJA Oh, well that’s actually a recording of me singing.
SS However, there’s a lot of different sources—is it a challenge to make music with so much material?
SJA Yeah but that comes later. I don’t need a melody, I need a mood to get started. The moment that I get into this mood, everything else comes together. Of course it still needs time, but I haven’t had problems with this. I don’t know how other people produce but for me it’s a really emotional thing. And then this resonates in the music—it’s almost a bit cheesy, which I try to hide. But then after a while I say to myself: “Ok, bring on the cheese!” [Laughs] As for the sampling, it’s like with everything else. First there’s the mood, then it needs a texture. There is this one track I made for a compilation. It’s based on a really sweet and naive melody that I played on a synthesizer and it also has this sound of water. I recorded some people at a swimming pool. So I finished this track and was really happy with it. I didn’t listen to it for about two months… But then, I listened to it again and ever since I can only think of my father when he was a kid. It’s really strange. Because this hadn’t been my intention back when I recorded the track. So it’s somehow the other way around this time—the mood came after.
RB Compared to your earlier works your album is quite different. I guess you must have some pretty different moods?
SJA I am a very moody person. [Laughs] So yes, I am already working on my next mood but it’s gonna take a little longer I guess.
SS Do you sometimes wish that people would know about your moods and how directly they affect your music?
SJA Oh, no, please not! Sometimes you read those long reviews that try to include a story that’s just not there: “And then you’re driving through the desert…” Let me tell you, you’re totally not driving through the desert. But that’s amazing. And therefore I don’t want people to know the backstories because that would be a little bit like telling people what to feel. There is one thing though, that I would love to be able to do and that is to hear what I do without being me. To be able to judge myself with clean ears. Would I put that music out?
RB Let’s come to an end with some DJ talk. I noticed in your mixes that there is quite a variation with tempi and styles. I’m pretty impressed by this and was wondering how you manage to do so in front of a club audience?
SJA Audiences are totally underestimated, it’s crazy. For example I did this show in the Basque country in a contemporary art museum where I was booked to do a set that was not dance music. I got the best feedback that I ever had after playing. The other day I also played some heavy bass music during the Mannequin labelnight at Bergain’s Säule. The Mannequin audience is normally not into that kind of stuff—in theory! However, you should have seen the people! Bodies are into rhythm, not into genres.
Ostgut Ton will release the compilation Ostgut Ton | Fünfzehn + 1 on the 5h November 2021, and the LP A World Of Service by Jasss on the 26h November 2021.