factish (french/german faitiche) "(...)is a combination of facts and fetishes, and makes it obvious that the two have a common element of fabrication" (Bruno Latour, 1999). A label launched in 2008 by Jan Jelinek with his mysterious Ursula Bogner release and project, Faitiche has since provided a release platform for the prolific artist’s solo and collaborative releases both under his own name, or under his house-oriented Farben moniker. Tonight’s evening at Urban Spree celebrates the new collaborative Schaum release with Masayoshi Fujita, as well as a solo release by longtime collaborator Andrew Pekler, titled Tristes Tropiques.

→ Facebook Event page

Jan Jelinek’s approach is about transformation of sound, about translating parameters of popular music into abstract, reduced and textural electronics. In 1998 he started to release his works under a number of pseudonyms (Farben, Gramm) adapting his primary sampling premise to a surprising range of different sounds. During the following years, Jan Jelinek played a range of laptop or gadget/modular-synth based live sets, worked with improvisation ensembles from Japanese trio Computer Soup to the Australian jazz formation Triosk, wrote and produced radio-plays/collages for the SWR, and founded with Andrew Pekler and Hanno Leichtmann the improvisation trio Groupshow, which refuses any repertoire or standard performance durations.

Since Jelinek’s debut collaboration with vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita, titled Bird, Lake, Objects (faitiche03, 2010), the duo have played improvised concerts around the world. The duo sees Japanese vibraphonist Masayoshi Fujita prepares his instrument with various percussion elements as well as metal objects and toys, while Jan Jelinek layers loops made using small-scale electronic devices. Their latest album, Schaum, is forthcoming in November 2016.

Masayoshi Fujita first learned how to play the drums, followed by extensive vibraphone training to craft and play his own, mostly jazz and electronic-influenced compositions. Determined not to stick to traditional vibraphone styles or techniques, Masayoshi started to prepare his instrument with pieces of metal, strips of foil and other objects in the search for new possibilities with the instrument. The resulting new sounds help to expand the vibraphone spectrum without eroding the instrument’s intrinsic character.

The evening also celebrates a recent release by Andrew Pekler, an artist that experiments with found materials, be they samples, instruments or genre conventions. The man behind Sad Rockets and a member of Bergheim 34, Pekler began recording under his own name in the early 2000s. Station to Station, released by Scape in April of 2002, was born due to a culmination of a number of things: Pekler's move from California to Heidelberg, his increased interest in electric jazz, and acquaintances with saxophonist Elliot Levine and bassist Akira Ando. Pekler traces his roots to early jazz/electronica experiments, toying with subtle traces of funk, transformed remnants of Berlin urban dub, and raw found sounds that build up and dissolve in angular spaces of sliding atonal melodies. Following releases on labels such as Staubgold and Kranky, his latest work for Faitiche, Tristes Tropiques, is an album of synthetic exotica, pseudo-ethnographic music and unreal field recordings.

The night is rounded out by DJ sets from Jan St. Werner (Mouse on Mars) and Mo Loschelder (Heroines of Sound, EMD).