Is an italian DJ, avant-turntablist and sound artist and curator based in Berlin. Coming from a DJ and radiophonic background JD Zazie has explored over the years different approaches of real-time manipulation on fixed recorded sound sources. Her live and recorded output works to redefine DJ and electroacoustic activities. As a solo performer, in small groups or large ensembles she moves in an area which is constantly stretching the borders of what is supposed to be DJ mixing, free improvisation and composed music. Intended as musical instruments CDjs, turntables and mixer are her tools to mix and create the specific sound-sources she plays – being mostly electronic music, electroacoustic music, musique concrète, field recordings and improvised music. The typology of the sound-sources varies from already existing audio publications and sound effects, to self recorded audio files – as drawn from live sets and also fieldrecordings – through to selected pre-mixed material. Juxtaposition, decontextualization, fragmentation, repetition, sonic texture, scratch and error are elements of the grammar adopted to relate, organize and rearrange the sound material.
Questions
1.What is the biggest inspiration for your music?
Listening to environmental sounds and records.
2.How and when did you get into making music?
I started playing music at home when I was a kid using a fantastic orange and white keyboard, the beautiful sound of a mouth harp and several wooden flutes which my parents brought me from their travels abroad. As a teenager I played transverse flute for a little while and soon I started my experience in radio making, which changed my way of making music. The first radio I joined was Radio Tand em – based in my hometown, Bolzano. Through that I discovered the joy of mixing, the beauty of broadcasting live and pleasure of digging records to discover new music. Later on, when I moved to Florence, I continued the radio experience and I went closer to dance music. At Nova Radio I started to experiment with new ways of mixing in my weekly experimental music night radio show, by using mostly all reproduction devices available in the studio while playing. That’s how i expand ed into more abstract territories.
But then, beside DJing for parties in Florence, I started improvising with other musicians using my DJ’s tools as musical instruments, being involved in Burp enterprise collective’s activities.
Burp enterprise (www.burpenterprise.com) is a collective responsible for happenings, the coordination of self-managed productions, rags publishing, meetings, workshops, concerts, musical, graphic and multimedia productions mainly through our own label / publishing house BURP Publications.
3.What are your 5 favorite albums of all time?
It’s very hard to say, but if I can’t tell you more than five albums, then my favourite for this month are:
– Van Dyke Parks – Song Cycle
– Annette Peacock – I’m the One
– Grand master Flash/Melle Mel & the Furious Five – Grand master Flash v’s The Sugarhill Gang
– The Tape-beatles – A Subtle Buoyancy of Pulse
– F.X. Rand omiz – Goflex
4.What do you associate with Berlin?
Slow rhythm in the metropolis, empty spaces, a lot of music ready to be discovered, many venues and events, a respectful audience at concerts who listen carefully to your music, many public parks, cheap food with quality in it, the sound of S- and U-Bahn, many construction sites with cranes, the Turkish market, people walking with beer bottles in their hand s, dogs, thick layers of posters on the street walls, Mies van der Rohe’s National Gallery, big sidewalks, Karl Marx Allee..
5.What’s your favorite place in your town?
In Berlin, there is a spot in a green area in Alt Stralau close to the Spree which I really love for its land scape and sound – especially during the spring and summer time.
In Bolzano, I like the big Saturday market at Piazza Vittoria.
6.If there was no music in the world, what would you do instead?
I would listen to the beauty of all sounds and noises belonging to my everyday experience. Since I was a kid I considered them as music for my ears.
7.What was the last record you bought?
– “Broken Music” by Milan Knížák
– The split “Sammo Hung Quest II: Cursed Demons Season” by Debmaster and Dj Die Soon;
– The double vinyl version of “Cheval Ouvert” by Monno
8.Who would you most like to collaborate with?
eRikm
9.What was your best gig (as performer or spectator)?
As a performer I enjoyed a lot my first gig at STEIM and the concert held at Dachstock in Bern in the frame of Beat Diary release tour organised by Everest Record. Several years passed by, but i still have good memories of those concerts.
10.How important is technology to your creative process?
Not much.
11.Do you have siblings and how do they feel about your career?
No siblings for JD Zazie, but very good friends who are like brothers and sisters to me.
All of them respect my work.
Link: Website | Soundcloud
