DISKRET

WHERE FONDUE AND SYNTHESISERS MEET

I personally love fondue. I love the pungent smell of the particular brand of cheese used for it. I love how these chunky gobs full of concentrated dairy fat feel on your tongue and in the back of your throat when you chew them and swallow. I love the ritual of it all, getting together with a bunch of heads to partake in it! Because this isn’t a thing you normally do alone, especially since cleaning the pots is such a pain in the ass. But outside of the particularities of the dish itself, I also love the coma that ensues after the meal. It’s a blissful blackout spiked with a nice wine buzz. If you’ve ever gorged on this stuff and drank some nice white wine along with it, I’m pretty sure you know what I’m talking about. 

I mention all of this because just recently I received a press release from a new Swiss project called Diskret. They are James Varghese and Ramon Ziegler and they make a very contemplative, synth and drum machine-based instrumental brand of electronica. It’s a bit retro as well, at least in terms of choice of synthesiser aesthetics. It’s also the type of music that would probably work well on a silver screen – dramatic enough, yet also subtle and unassuming in equal measure. Gentle would be a good word to describe it in one word.

It says in their press text that the material – a total of 4 songs – came about as a result of being stuck in a cabin up in the Swiss Alps during a blizzard. And while the fellas were lost in the maze of improvisation they only took breaks for raclette and fondue. Oh how I would love to have been their sound engineer! Not that I have the skills for it really, but I could definitely help out with an occasional:
“Enough! You guys are not getting anywhere right now. Take a break. Lets have fondue!” 


Clearly, this music is not for the lactose intolerant which probably means that it won't blow up in China, but you can’t have everything, right? 

 


The full EP, also called Diskret, will be released on the first of February on Quiet Love Records. And now for a short q&a with James Varghese:

Fondue and synthesisers, yeah?
Oh yeah! It’s the perfect combination. It would be great to incorporate this into our live-set! It’s also great because it takes very little preparation so you have more time to concentrate on the music.

Fondue and that sticky icky, that too? 
I can only speak for myself. But that is also a great combination. Although it doesn’t happen often these days.

This EP: serendipity or destiny? 
Probably a bit of both. Destendipity? Serentiny? There’s definitely some serendipity. And looking back there are a lot of arguments that point towards destiny. But I guess looking back everything can always be interpreted as destiny.

From an EP to an LP?
LPs are just so much work (laughs). And we are lazy! No, when we have enough material for an LP we will definitely release it. But we like the EP format because it allows us to release the music faster.

From Switzerland to.. 
..
London. I’ll be spending the next couple of months there. But we’re preparing some things in other countries as well, but nothing we can talk about as of yet.

In closing, what is a Limba? 
We derived the name from the main instrument of the song, which is a Kalimba. It was great to record a real physical instrument as well. We were tweaking so many knobs and faders and programming sequences during the recordings. It was a welcome change for us and I think it’ll also be that for the listener.

words by Oro D. M.