Atom Heart and Pink Elln

Atom Heart (Uwe Schmidt) and Pink Elln (Tobias Freund), both individually prolific musicians in the techno and acid house world, have documented their live series of improvised collaborations from their recent performances in Valparaiso and Zürich. With 20 years of friendship and having first shared a stage full of sequencers, synths, drum machines and effect units for an improv set back in 1992, it is audible that these two are comfortable performing together. And yet they also challenge each another to take the live mix into new, unmapped territory based on the variable contexts of place, audience feedback, and stage set-up. These mixes that range approximately 30 minutes in length each are constructed with a Roland TR-808 and two computers, and can each be slotted into an acid house genre. The Valparaiso mix does not deviate too much from the acid strain but rather builds from minimal chirps and drips to a fuller sound replete with electro drum rolls, phaser FX and vocal layering paying tribute to early Chicago house in "Talkin’ About Jack.” Although working from a similar sample base as in the Valparaiso mix as some themes recur, the Zürich mix wanders into electro house with splattering of funky keys, handclaps, playful bass lines and female vocals that serves to take the edge off the pure acid sound.