INTERVIEW WITH A NEW TECHNO SENSATION - HARZ
In 2018, two Vienna-based musicians Bernd Ammann and Niklas Satanik formed a duo project called Harz.While thecho being the main focus their music spans several genres, including downtempo,ambient, and dance.
Over the last 2 years the band have played a number of sets and released their first album “Kontinuum” a few months ago.
Harz music is a combination of the aesthetics of the analog driven electronic world with acoustic and electric instruments, which blends into concert and dj set atmosphere. The band chooses an entirely dawless set up which is reactive and open at any moment. Niklas plays formerly hang (a diatonic tuned steel pan made in Switzerland), djembe and other percussion.
Bernd plays the electric bass, synthsand, takes care of the drum machine and effects.
What are your goals? What inspires and motivates you?
“We are making music to move people, creating a surrounding to dance but also to listen, evoke physical and psychical reactions.
A big inspiration is experiencing the art in the genre and subculture itself and being an active part of it. People are not only listening to a concert, they enjoy being in contact with the music through all of their senses. In these really ecstatic moments while performing on stage, we drift together although we are present and focused.”
Your music consists of multiple musical identities, how does it interact with your own personal identities?
“Harz is still young. Also our interests and practical knowledge in this genre are very young. It all started with the idea to form a rhythm based duo setup, we never had a specific idea where it will end up. So our individual identities grew, step by step, together into a direction. And this was very helpful because we never got too egoistic on this blank paper we were drawing together. Our musical identities have been formed differently; Niklas has a self taught background - open and very playful. I (Bernd) studied music and am doing a lot of production and sound design, taught and considered.
From where we started to work together, our musical identities expanded in a similar
way and direction, always being able to bring in our roots.
Our multiple musical identities are not detached from our own personal identities, there was never an active external influence, everything from composing to producing was done by ourselves. We also never thought about having a collective identity as a band and how that should be.”
How is the current situation influencing you? How do you deal with it?
“We worked hard to introduce our latest release a couple of months ago. All of our shows got cancelled, bookings and postponements are not relevant because the situation is too unstable these days, especially for clubs and festivals. A music video was produced, we have a finished LP, the live setup was ready and tested and then - lockdown. Instead of being frustrated and unproductive, we always try to stay positive. At the moment we focus on perfecting our live performance, getting to know our gear even better, preparing new songs and also caring for our families.
The cultural sector is almost not existing at the moment, including the whole infrastructure around it. For freelancers, the creative industry and cultural sector, a precarious financial situation has been made even more precarious due to the
coronavirus outbreak.
For the moment, we are luckily in a situation, where we have other music and non
music related jobs to provide our living, however - we miss the stage a lot.”
Would you like to share a playlist of your favorite music with our readers?
HARZ - Soundcloud, Spotify