LUMP200
... is a Berlin based electro-clash cross act featuring some acoustics (tuba, vibraphone, bass clarinet, vocals) in rather abstract electronic surroundings. In the noughties it started with some releases on Mentalgroove/Kompakt and on a sub-label of Mo’Wax.
Since then Lump200 have been shifting from clubs to theatre and radio stages back to extended studio sessions and started to experiment with participation and trans-medial techniques. Lump200 are questioning the enclosed self-contained work and the separation from stage and floor. What led them to the current project Isles of You, the coming album and web app which both invites you to cooperate and differentiate. Don’t forget to breathe. Lump200 deal with contradictions, are minimalist and maximalist at the same time. Meditation and stress in one and the same garden.
Who is the human behind the artist LUMP200?
A father, a lover, a sceptic who sometimes is a bit astonished that he has been stumbling through parts of this wonderful and bizarrely inhabited planet for about half a century already.
"Kryptomarch" creates a great atmosphere, what was your inspiration?
Thanks. Concerning Kryptomarch I can only speculate, the melody just flew to me within seconds while I played around with the quite nervous session sounds I associate with deconstructed marching drums, that’s where the name of the track comes from. I tend to identify the inspiration in the process of creation itself - though I am sure that there must have been certain conditions that lead to this very process, but I don’t know much about these..
What's in your opinion the most difficult part, keeping an instrumental song thru' it's duration "alive"?
I think it’s the recipient who keeps a song alive - through listening to it. I can only offer him*her an atmosphere and a set of arranged ingredients and impulses arranged over the time - the most difficult part for me is not to offer too many of them in one track, I guess.
First release of the album, what can we expect from?
There will be a handful of vocal tracks and around two handfuls of instrumentals. You can expect some kind of oscillating transition from overload to minimalism, I played with gaps and contradictions.
Harsh electronics meet organic acoustics, together they describe a zigzag between the genres, there are dubby aspects as well as funky ones. And as the album is the starting point for the app there is a tendency to thinned out tracks.
Album & App, could you please let us know more about the web app?
islesofyou is an open and inclusive project platform that I develop with partner gravity&storm. It’s about participation, co-creation, crowd recording and can be used in many different ways. Every project starts with a piece of time (image and sound matrix) on which users can easily record and publish their own audio contributions, voice, music, whatever sounds.
All published takes can be arranged and edited on the matrix – a variety of versions can co-exist and be shared as widgets. A beta version of islesofyou will be introduced with the 2nd single from the album in February 2023.
How important are "socials" for the indie music scene?
I am definitely not an expert for socials and their importance for specific scenes, but I find it promising that they bear a potential for closeness and directness. In a way I feel that we are still in an early stage of using social media, mainly they are used as amplifiers what makes them essential for promotion, of course.
I would appreciate if the longer the more the production itself was influenced by social interaction and not only made louder and shinier through it.
Let us know a former favorite song you can't listen to anymore now?
Hmm, not a single one comes to my mind..
Being an Indie artist in Berlin is ...?
Well, sure is that you’re not alone, there are plenty of potential collaborators and whenever you need some urban input you can get it.
What’s next for you?
I want to experiment with a variety of formats for the app, I’m very intrigued to find out what forms of participation and co-creation with crowds or remote teams will be possible and fruitful, what input will come from other artists and so on. And as soon as I find the time I want to think about shows again, too.
