Issue #010 (January 2005) Inchtime Email this article to a friend Interview by Peter Hollo Hailing from Adelaide, a breeding ground for a large proportion of Australia’s top electronic artists, Stefan Panczak has recently released a mini-album, any colour you like, as well as a beautifully packaged one-track business card CD called root drinking in the dark. His music takes sampled acoustic instruments and sequences them with electronic beats, but what sets Inch-time aside is the depth of feeling that’s produced by his tracks. Gamelan instruments and warm double bass combine with beautiful string arrangements to create something very special. “I love Adelaide. It is a beautiful place with great food, beaches and surrounding hills. There is a healthy music scene and I have an amazingly talented group of friends who I can make music with – especially Curtis Leaver and Michael Goodfellow; they haven’t released anything yet but they are both big inspirations for me.” “I started making music in my early teenage years – folky angst-ridden acoustic guitar and vocals recorded on to four track,” says Panczak. “I also studied jazz saxophone at school and played in the school stage and concert bands – this actually put me off jazz music for a long time and it wasn't until I gave up saxophone at the end of school that I really started to appreciate it. However, it was still that study of jazz that helped me appreciate it. I remember travelling in Italy about eight years ago and hearing John Coltrane's Live at the Village Vanguard. I copied it onto my walkman and would listen to it frequently through my travels around Europe and Japan. It is still in my top five albums, especially the songs ‘India’ and ‘Spiritual’ – the combination of Coltrane's sax and Eric Dolphy's bass clarinet is incredible. One solo leading in to the next seamlessly.” “I developed an interest in electronic music after hearing two albums – Massive Attack’s Blue Lines and DJ Shadow’s What does your soul look like?. With DJ Shadow I really identified with the samples he was using – not so much the music ones but the samples from films such as THX-1138, Jacob's Ladder and West World. At about the same time the whole ‘trip hop’ explosion occurred and I got into the whole Mo Wax/Ninja Tune thing – especially Amon Tobin’s Bricolage. This led into drum’n’bass. I am still in awe of the Metalheadz compilation Platinum Breaks.” “I started making electronic music about seven years ago, beginning with a mostly hardware-based setup: sampler, effects etc. Two years ago I bought my laptop and have been developing the Inch-time project ever since.” I asked Stefan whether he still plays any live instruments. “I really just play my laptop at the moment. I also doodle a bit with a nylon string acoustic guitar (as on the song ‘squeezebox’) but I have never had any lessons. I no longer play sax – sold it to buy a sampler. I do however sample a lot of live instruments into my computer such as bells, cymbals etc, and get friends to play on my tracks. For my album I mainly collaborated with Curtis Leaver (guitarist for Clue to Kalo).” Although there’s an old mini-CD release listed on his website, there isn’t any other old music floating around. “The oldmini CD was early versions of some songs I completed this year for the album. No other releases thus far – however I am about to start on a new album. I will hopefully be spending the next three months high in the Swiss Alps so will have plenty of space, time and inspiration. I only produce under the name Inch-time but in Switzerland will be DJing house music under the name Max Cherkoff.” ?“Before the Inch-time project began I was doing a lot of DJing and made music with a hardware sampler. I was never really happy with that music and was very limited by my equipment. It was similar in sound to what I am doing now but constrained by my equipment. I don’t really have much unreleased music. A few tracks that are not quite finished, made in the last 18 months. The songs on the Inch-time CDs took me over 18 months from start to finish. A lot of that time was spent learning my software. The stuff before Inch-time is all pretty crap and I would rather forget about it.” “I finished studying medicine three years ago and after doing my internship having been working as a doctor part-time since. I mainly work in public hospitals – Accident & Emergency and some Psychiatry. It is good because I have been able to work approximately 20-hour weeks and spend the rest of my time on music. My girlfriend is luring me to Europe – she has never been before and wants to work in the UK. Hopefully I can further develop my music in Europe and make some new contacts. I really want to try and get some work in film doing sound design/music.” I was particularly excited by the strings on Inch-time’s tracks – not only a full string quartet, but some great solo cello lines on some tracks too. “One of my best friends is a cellist (Hilary Kleinig from the Zephyr String Quartet). The song Kyoto (autumn leaves) we did as part of a grant for a doco – a group of friends on a boat travelling through the Indonesian spice islands. Unfortunately one of the main people involved in the film side of things killed himself so it never got completed. However we still did a performance with some of the footage.” As mentioned, another notable sound on the album is that of the gamelan. “I have always been very interested and love listening to ‘exotic’ sounds/music from around the world. I find gamelan music very beautiful. I have travelled through Bali and Java several times and I used to study Silat Perisai-Diri, an Indonesian martial art. My teacher was a Buddhist, and through that I developed a deep interest in Buddhism. I always wanted to use gamelan sounds, and doing the music for the doco set in Indonesia gave me the excuse I needed to approach a local gamelan ensemble and ask them if I could sample their instruments – luckily they said yes! They also let me sit in for a few rehearsals – you have no idea how hard it is to play!!! For example, whilst playing most of the instruments, e.g. the metallophone, after hitting one note but before hitting the next you must dampen first note with other hand – then continually follow, striking the hand whilst playing the new notes of the melody.” “The core program for my stuff up till now is Logic, with Peak to sample into and edit samples. My new setup uses Ableton Live 4, Logic and Kontakt. The software can definitely affect the type of music you make. It is very easy to be controlled by the software and not the other way around – look at Rebirth. However, once you get to know the software you can exploit it to make the music that is in your head come out of the computer.” “My live sets are getting more and more ‘live’. I use the program Ableton Live which allows me to remix the tracks in real time. I also play with a MIDI keyboard so I can play virtual instruments at the same time. In Adelaide I would usually perform with Roy Ananda – he’s a visual artist who draws or sculpts along to the music. I also often perform with Curtis Leaver – he would usually play guitar or turntables. When I return to Australia I hope to tour with Roy and Curtis to Melbourne and Sydney... When I play live I always like to be able to remix the tracks and improvise. If I can’t do that with a particular song then I will not play that song live – otherwise you might as well just play your CD.” Inch-time has contributed electronics to a couple of tracks on the Zephyr String Quartet album, and it’s great to hear that further collaborations are planned: “Warning – the songs I did with Zephyr for their album were done a long time ago, before I had my laptop. Therefore they have very primitive sounds and production. We did the songs together, one song where I gave them a track and Hilary added strings to it, and the other a song of Hilary’s which I added some beats to. Hilary has applied for a grant so hopefully we will be collaborating again next year, working on the combining of electronic sounds with strings – taking the strings out of their traditional context and into ‘modern music’.” Inch-time’s current listening: M.Ward – all his albums Iron & Wine – Our Endless Numbered Days Björk – Medúlla Aeroc – Viscous Solid Alice Coltrane John Tejada – Logic Memory Centre Mara Carlyle – The Lovely Max de Wardener – Where I Am Today Mugison – Lonely Mountain Oren Ambarchi – Grapes from the Estate Triosk – Moment Returns The Necks – Mosquito”