KARLBARTOS.COM

19th January 2008

Interview for HigherFrequency, NL – conducted by Nick Lawrence

Not many artists will start musing about Mozart, Thomas Edison or the binary alphabet during an interview, but then again most DJs do not lecture at the Berlin University of the Arts in a course about sound.

Karl Bartos didn’t seem particularly interested in talking about CD releases or the next big thing in dance music, but after thirty years in the business, who can really blame him?

Karl Bartos started out his musical journey as a classically trained percussionist and keyboardist. Shortly after, he joined up with possibly the most renowned electronic outfit of the 70’s and 80’s. While performing and writing for the German legends, Karl was instrumental in the creation of modern classics like “Radio-Activity”, “Trans Europe Express”, “Man Machine”, “Computer World”, “Tour de France” and “The Mix.”

The sound of his former band had a great influence on the world of electronic music, although this is something he plays down. Despite being in his 50’s and being dedicated to his work at the Berlin University, Karl is still traveling the world with laptop in his hand playing to packed dancefloors and entering the realm of sound art.

Karl Bartos: So, what do you want to know?

Higher Frequency (HRFQ): Everything!

Karl Bartos: Okay you’re asking.

(HRFQ): You are teaching Auditory Mediadesign at the Berlin University of the Arts, Karl, how did that happen?

Karl Bartos: During the production of “Communication” in 2003 Prof. Dr. Holger Schulze called me up and invited me to give a lecture at the second symposium of SoundXchange. Later on, the university offered me to join the preparations for an advanced degree program called Sound Studies. I was appointed guest professor in 2005 and the course effectively started in April 2006. Although we’ve got a tight schedule, this engagement adds a new quality to my life. It’s fantastic to work with talented students on sound design, music or audio-visual projects. I really enjoy the conversation on the methods of “Gestaltung.”

HRFQ: We have learned you have performed with a group called AudioVision which is about the combination of audio and visuals…

Karl Bartos: AudioVision, indeed, is my band and the name of my record label. I work with my partner Mathias Black and a few other people on a lot of projects. My main subject is music, of course, but at the same time I’m really interested in the convergence of image and sound. You know, usually people can’t remember what they have heard when they see a movie, for instance, because we perceive the world through our eyes. We see what is going on in the world, apparently sight is our main sense. And while we are concentrating on what we see, we are conditioned by what we hear. You see a different image when it was emotionally conditioned by sound. If there is a certain scene and you change the background music, then the scene’s meaning will change completely. I’m fascinated by the interaction between what we see and what we hear. For the duration of a movie people are having the illusion, that the screen or the monitor is in fact the reality, and that the flat images are three-dimensional. To a large extent it is the sound that creates the third dimension, the depth, but our minds fool us to believe that we see it.

HRFQ: What about your musical influences? Who or what has been a major influence on you?

Karl Bartos: I got touched by sound in the 60’s. British music from Liverpool and London got me going. Later on by American jazz and pop music and then by the classic compositions. But the most important question is: how do we perceive music? And why we find music in every culture of the world?

HRFQ: Go on, let me know your thoughts.

Karl Bartos: You know, unlike words and pictures music is not representing the world to us. A chord doesn’t mean anything and a melody has got no sense at all. If you draw a picture it gives you a view of the world but a melody or chord doesn’t. The interesting thing is that music is basically pure mathematics – airwaves whose frequencies work together in layers within a matrix of logical rules. But somehow – through a secret process – we can experience a wonder: Physical frequencies turn into feeling. How can that be? It is amazing! The German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen said: „Musik ist reine Zauberei” – music is pure magic. Although it’s not a language – it is universal. And I think it’s so important to any culture on our planet that no one can really imagine life without it. So, this is the driving force [behind my music], that I can touch people through a secret.

HRFQ: So, why do humans have music then?

Karl Bartos: I don’t want to sound like Nietzsche but music is here to save us. Again: Can you imagine a world without music?

HRFQ: Yes, it’s true. I can’t. So, Karl, please let me jump here to another subject: Let me know about DJing? Why did you start DJing in 1999?

Karl Bartos: We have a fantastic live performance with six or seven people but sometimes it’s too expensive to travel. So DJing is a compromise. It keeps us performing and in contact with the audience. At the moment we’re working on a audio-visual project called ‘Dance Cinema’ where we employ only some laptops, that’s it!

HRFQ: Back in the 70’s and 80’s you were most likely using a Moog synthesizer…

Karl Bartos: (laughing) The Moog is still around. I use a lot of equipment and I collect everything, so the house is full of analogue stuff and computers from generations way back. The first computer I bought was an IBM XT. A real Neandertal machine. In 1986 you had to pay for it 12.000 DM – too expensive! The current generation is quite powerful, though. I must confess, it’s so easy just to switch on your computer and everything is inside this single box.

HRFQ: Previously you have commented that your former band’s influence on electronic music is often overstated. What do you think has played the biggest influence on electronic music?

Karl Bartos: I know what you mean but if I look back on the history of sound I would like to mention just three major steps: First of all, the development of modern notation revealed the underlying mathematics of music and made it accessible. Secondly, in 1877, Thomas Alva Edison invented the phonograph. You know what that meant?

HRFQ: Well, sound recording?

Karl Bartos: Yes, of course! Edison separated sound from the source. Before 1877 the sound was always connected to the mechanism that produced it. Since that day, sound is disconnected from time and space. And today we’ve got the binary code with all options, but to me, however, the phonograph was the last major step in the sonic world.

HRFQ: Do you think that now we are not progressing musically like we did in the past? Has music become stagnant?

Karl Bartos: Everybody is asking about the future of music. All I can say about it is the following: Do you still remember the time when you had an analogue telephone? Now you have a digital telephone, how have your messages changed? Not at all? I think, however, the means of electronic communication will change the way we communicate, but it will take a while.

HRFQ: So, do you think it takes a while before music changes?

Karl Bartos: Well, it has changed in one aspect. We come from a word centered culture and we are now in a picture centered culture. And the same applies to music. Music became so visualized through MTV in the 80’s and 90’s and for any reason a lot of money for producing the music went into the film. So the music became secondary. The image has become so important that you only overhear the sound beneath it. But I believe that the future of music will be, anyhow, the combination of image and sound and their particular interaction of rhythm – anyway, that’s an other interview, I guess.

HRFQ: Is there anything that gives music hope then?

Karl Bartos: For me it’s always hard to evaluate contemporary pop music because it’s the sound of the here and now and it will follow fashion to sell the product. The only way to last – in my opinion – is to avoid the style of the moment, the last hot wave and just listen to your inner voice. But, of course, the future of music will be it’s presence in virtual space. The binary code is going to break new ground. Computer technology is a relatively new phenomenon in our culture, and the idea that a computer can be utilised as an instrument, like a drum set or a piano – is so new that we still need more time to get used to it.

HRFQ: Thank you for the interview.