Tosca - Downtempo operatics

Tosca is Richard Dorfmeister and Rupert Huber’s pet project. Since 1994 the two Austrian musicians have sweetened our daily grind with first-class downbeat ambient tracks. This spring, the duo releases their new album “No Hassle” on !K7 Records -- reason enough for Electronic Beats to meet the two bohemians in Berlin and chat with them about inspiration, their border-crossing collaboration, music back then and today and of course their new album, which is not zeitgeisty in the least.

Where do you get inspiration for your music?
Huber: (thinks for a moment) I don’t know. It’s really hard to say. It’s like walking or moving. It is just there.
Dorfmeister: Difficult question. It comes from intuition and experience. But it happens unconsciously. Musically talking, we get inspired by records all the time. Before the download era, it was hard to get records from genres like reggae, funk and rare groove.

What kind of role does Vienna play?
Dorfmeiser: Certainly an important one. If you compare Vienna with Berlin you can see similarities regarding the cosiness. You know this “let go, take it easy” attitude. In addition you have this East touch, which you can find in both cities. Vienna is much more provincial of course. I mean it was totally off the wall for a few years, and still is a bit. It is literally behind the mountains. Therefore it is a refuge and in a way a source of inspiration.
Huber: No inspiration at all! Unlike Berlin or Paris where everybody around is screaming, Vienna is extremely sensitive to noise. As soon as someone harrumphs it is kind of distracting. Or when you are on the U-bahn and a baby starts screaming. This results in a certain pseudo-cosiness.
Dorfmeister: Zurich is even more extreme. There it is even quieter and you can hear EVERYTHING! And every single noise has a meaning. However, the two cities play an important role. In Warsaw we might have come up with a completely different record.

How does the collaboration work with Rupert in Vienna and Richard in Zurich?
Dorfmeister: We meet for about a week every month in the studio in Vienna. We’ve done it like that for ages and it works well. Because we don’t see each other often these sessions aren’t casual and are always exciting. One of us has to ensure that something can be produced so there is always a certain meaning and a result after each session. Maybe this is because we know subconsciously that our time together is not permanent. You start appreciating the time more intensively.

What do you bring to those sessions?
Dorfmeister: (Laughs) Drugs?

No, that’s your business. I mean ideas? Samples? Etcetera?
Dorfmeister: Both of us work on ideas in advance and bring some mental sketches, which we then completely throw over and revise. Usually the tracks originate through the gathering. It is ingenious: you couldn’t generate the same effect on your own, not with a lot of effort and hours spent in the studio. It is unbelievable! You compose something and you can present it to someone else immediately. Collaborating is much more effective than working on your own.

Let’s talk about your new album: is the title “No Hassle” an appeal to yourself or to the listener?
Huber: On one hand we think one shouldn’t talk something up; it just generates more stress. On the other hand, “No Hassle” refers to the album itself. It is a concept album without singles. In combination with the live CD, you have two hours to relax.
Dorfmeister: Nowadays it is pure luxury to take a two-hour break. You’re always distracted, there’s always something is going on.
Huber: The title points out that you should take the time to listen to the album unstressed.

Nice idea! You use more organic sounds for this album, whereas the last one “J.A.C.” was more club oriented. Why are you coming back?
Dorfmeister: We wanted to go away from the club. Of course, DJing will always have an influence on our work. Nevertheless, we want to be completely off-the-wall. However, we don’t want to be pigeonholed as terribly diluted lounge music.

What do you think of the end product?
Dorfmeister: We are pretty happy with the record. Unlike the two last records this one doesn’t contain songs per se, which are obviously understandable for everyone. “No Hassle” is a concept album. Unfortunately we learned that most of the listeners don’t understand this idea on the first sight. Maybe they just need a little more time. I am sure though, this will be one of our longest-lasting albums. Same as “Suzuki” which also had less vocals and more found sounds. “Suzuki” still works well. On the contrary, songs with vocals get old quicker.

The vocals you are talking about don’t really make sense...
Dorfmeister: Originally it was not just pure nonsense, but there wasn’t any real sense either. We produced a track, which is unfortunately not included in the album, of a Thai taxi driver’s drivel. We went to Thailand for New Year's Eve and there I recorded this guy. He was speaking in this gibberish, this weird Thai, no idea what it was.
Huber: That’s how we were raised. At home my parents were listening to Italian opera and on the radio there were just English songs played. Until I studied English at 19, vocals were just kind of a fantasy language to me.
Dorfmeister: Indeed, most of the music you listen to without understanding anything. Words play the same role as instruments do.

How do you perform “No Hassle” live?
Dorfmeister: Finally, after 35 years we found a concept to perform our thing live – and without any hassle. The live realisation of our penultimate album started with a 30-minute piano session by Rupert, which mainly confused people, afterwards there was a DJ set. But this wasn’t really our thing. For other gigs we had a live version for “Dehli 9”, where we were playing the guitar and other instruments. But this wasn’t satisfying either. It was too exhausting and ineffective. So either we performed the album with a whole band – 10 to 15 people – or we make something completely different. And that’s where we are now: we perform it in a special ambience. Last summer we spontaneously had the idea to perform “No Hassle” in a church. The test run was in Linz. The two of us were at the altar and the crowd had to sit on these uncomfortable wooden banks – great! In combination with the candles and the visuals, this kind of live realisation worked out very well.
Huber: It was very interesting, the role played by the church in Linz. Not in a religious context; rather the aura. It was as if a famous bassist joined Tosca, so graceful.

What are you working on outside of Tosca? You see each other only one week per month, there should be a lot of time for other projects...
Dorfmeister: No, not at all! One week in the studio doesn’t mean that you produce a whole track. There is all the development behind it and it takes ages until the track is really good. Additionally I have to confess that we are not the fastest ones. We take time, no hassle! The idea is there quickly, but it takes a lot of time to develop it. And that’s probably the reason that we only release an album every four years.
Huber: Richard is still DJing outside Tosca and I am busy with noise installations.

How about the collaboration with !K7?
Dorfmeister: It’s a traditional thing. We’ve been working with !K7 for more than ten years and we know everything. It is like a family. I have to say, they are also a bit clingy. (laughs)

What do you think about the current music scene?
Dorfmeister: I think it is a pity that the kind of music we produce is this rare. Everybody is producing just uptempo, minimal and stuff like this. What goes off, you know. Everybody wants to go off.
Huber: We could look at that from a medical or global point of view: the tempo is increasing constantly.

So you are the medicine men?
Huber: (laughs) Yes, we are the medicine men.
Dorfmeister: (laughs) We are the doctors in da house! There was a time when this ambient thing was hyped. Nowadays there aren’t many producers around who produce listening music on a high level. It’s really a pity. I think that what we are doing is 'uncool'. At the same time it has this classic character. You can listen to the album easily and it isn’t doesn’t wear out. We could’ve released the record on a small label and then wouldn’t have to give interviews. But no: we are positive about our music!

Last question to you, Richard. Kruder & Dorfmeister finally released a new record in 2008. Can we expect more? Do you have some other tracks in the pipeline?
Dorfmeister: No! We release tracks just sporadically, we want to keep this mysterious aura. From time to time we have session, but as we don’t have any obligations, we don’t have a large-scale plan of action. Honestly, I think this is very cool. The longer this incredible phenomenon around Kruder & Dorfmeister exists, the more I like it. Releasing nothing is nuts and doesn’t meet any kind of business norm or logical understanding, but that’s how it is. Everybody is wondering what happened and that’s why I think it is so cool. Until there is a completely mind-blowing track, we won’t release anything! And certainly not a Session No.2. That would be nuts.

Tosca’s “No Hassle” appears April 17 on !K7 Records.