Kasper Bjørke – 10 All Time Favs

07.11.2014
Foto:Rasmus Weng Karlsen / © hfn Records
Wir fragen Musiker nach 10 Schallplatten, durch die sie geformt, gebessert und gebildet wurden und bitten sie diese Auswahl zu kommentieren. Diesmal nimmt sich der dänische Synthpop-Exportschlager Kasper Bjørke der Aufgabe an.

Es regt sich nicht viel im Publikum, wenn man die zwei Worte sagt: Dänemark. Musik. Für seine musikalischen Exportschlager ist das Land nicht bekannt. Einige hat es natürlich doch hervorgebracht. Einer davon ist Kasper Bjørke. Gemeinsam mit Tom Barford hat Bjørke als Filur angefangen Musik zu machen. 1999 war das und die beiden produzierten Disco House. Inzwischen hat Kasper Bjørke vier Soloalben und eine Best-Of-Compilation veröffentlicht. Sein viertes Album »After Forever« erschien Ende September. Kasper Bjørke zelebriert darauf den Synthpop, für den er bekannt ist. Er lotet ihn in alle Richtungen aus, betont mal seine »soulfullen« Elemente, ein anderes mal klingt er wie Track 3 auf einer Bravo-Hits CD aus den Neunzigern.

In seinen Katalog zählen außerdem Hitsongs wie »Young Again« oder das Rolling-Stone-Cover »Heaven«, zu dem Prins Thomas und Nicolas Jaar Remixe beisteuerten, und das international über die Plattenteller von Clubs und Radiostationen lief. Damit aber lange nicht genug: Bjørke macht nicht nur als Kasper Bjørke Musik, sondern außerdem als The Mansisters (gemeinsam mit der Bassistin und Sängerin Sexy Lazer – äh, toller Name…), Kasper Bjørke & His Friendly Ghost und Superbacon (toller Name again!). Wenn er nicht gerade Musik für eines seiner Projekte macht, managt er zum Beispiel Trentemøller (Dänermark. Musik), oder junge Talente wie Reptile Youth. Und wenn er gerade keinen Synthesizer bespielt, kein Mikrofon besingt, keinen Anruf beantwortet, keine E-Mail verschickt, dann ist immer noch nicht Feierabend. Denn auch als DJ hat sich Kasper Bjørke einen Namen gemacht. Er hat die bekannten Berliner Clubs wie die Panorama Bar und das Watergate bespielt, in London legte er bei Fabric auf, und so geht das munter über Paris, Miami nach Rio De Janeiro weiter. Und irgendwo dazwischen hat der vielbeschäftigte Mann noch Zeit gefunden. Uns stellt Kaspar Bjørke seiner 10 All Time Favs vor. Aus Dänemark hat es übrigens nichts in die Liste geschafft.

1 – »Dont Believe The Hype« by Public Enemy
taken from the LP »It Takes A Nation Of Millions To Hold Us Back«, Def Jam Recordings 1988
Find it at hhv.de: LP
Kasper Bjørke: One of the first vinyls I ever bought and the very first concert I ever went to, was Public Enemy in 1988, just 12 years old. I remember the experience as totally mind-blowing. That album is so great and I remained a big hiphop fan until the beginning of the 1990s when I got more into Pink Floyd, early brit pop and synth pop before being turned on by dance music. But hip hop is a big part of who I am musically and I still love to listen to olds school albums from that era in rap history.

2 – »Plainsong« by The Cure
taken from the Double-LP »Disintegration«, Fiction Records 1989
Find it at hhv.de: 2LP
Kasper Bjørke: I could pick any song from the Disintegration album, which is my favorite Cure album – with Faith coming in on a strong second place.
Plainsong is one of the most heartwrenching opening tracks I have ever heard on an album by any artist and it sets the mood of this unique masterpiece by one of my favorite all time bands. I didnt really get into The Cure until I saw them live in 1995 – but after that I was and still is spellbounded by their music.

3 – »Obscured By Clouds« by Pink Floyd
taken from the LP »Obscured By Clouds«, Harvest 1972
Kasper Bjørke: Another opening track that I can hear again and again. Pink Floyd was one of my favorite bands in my teens but actually I started listening to their newer records like Division Bell, before I discovered the old ones. When I dj I sometimes play this amazing psychedelic tune – so cool and atmospheric. If I could ever make a track as strong and simple as this, I would be very happy.

4 – »Behind The Wheel« by Depeche Mode
taken from the LP »Music For The Masses«, Mute 1987
Find it at hhv.de: LP
Kasper Bjørke: Again this is an album where I could pick any song from. I have heard this album maybe close to 1000 times during my lifetime and it still sounds fresh to me to this day. Not that many albums can do that to me. Behind The Wheel is such a strong track and obviously one of Depeche Modes all time best songs – the synths hooks, the drums, the vocals – everything is perfect. For my new After Forever, I had the chance to cowrite with my friend musician Kurt Uenala in NYC, who also cowrote all the songs with Dave Gahan on the latest Depeche Mode album. So that definitely gave something of the DM vibe to my music…

5 – »I Wanna Be Adored« by The Stone Roses
taken from the 12” »I Wanna Be Adored«, Silvertone Records 1991
Kasper Bjørke: The Stone Roses debut album is another of my alltime favorite albums. I got the 12” before I got the album and is one of my most treasured vinyls in my collection. I love the artwork and I obviously love the song. Such a strong and catchy vocal and the slowly rising intro always gives me goosebumbs – when the bass and guitar starts before the drums kicks in, thats one magical moment…

6 – »Burnin´« by Daft Punk
taken from the Double-LP »Homework«, Virgin 1997
Find it at hhv.de: 2LP
Kasper Bjørke: This is one of the rougher and very clubby tracks on the most siginifcant electronic album of the 1990s. I have DJed this track out many, many times and it just sounds amazing. When that album came out I actually stopped listening to indie and hip hop and what else I had been into since I was a boy. Daft Punk changed my perspective on music and I wanted to make music because of what they were doing.

7 – »Windowlicker« by Aphex Twin
taken from the 12” »Windowlicker«, Warp Records 1999
Find it at hhv.de: 12inch
Kasper Bjørke: Richard D James is a electronic genius – no doubt about that. I just never really got into that whole electronica wave of music during that time. But Windowlicker obviously stood out with that insane electronica production that sounded like nothing else -and also because of the insane cover on the vinyl taken from that amazing music video. Its definitely one of the tunes that still sounds amazing today. I have actually decided to check out his new album which was released on the same date as my new album on 22nd September.

8 – »Losing My Edge« by LCD Soundsystem
taken from the 12” »Losing My Edge / Beat Connection«, DFA 2002
Kasper Bjørke: I still put Losing My Edge into my DJ sets sometimes. I got toally caught up in the DFA sound from the very beginnining when Tim Goldsworthy and James Murphy started releasing their first tracks and remixes when I visited my friend Dominique Keegan in NYC at his record label Plant, who shared offices with DFA back then, I got all the promos of their back catalogue and I still keep them in my collection. When Daft Punk changed my life in the 90s – DFA changed it again in the early 2000s. That combination of Disco, Punk and Dance led me to start producing music in a different way and it opened up to a whole new scene that I still find very interesting to this day.

9 – »Moody« by ESG
taken from the 12” »ESG«, 99 Records 1981
Kasper Bjørke: I discovered ESG after I started listening to DFA and found out that most of their inspiration came from bands like ESG. All these 80s post disco bands in NYC really blew my mind because they carried on the dance aspect of the disco tradition but totally changed the sound at the same time. Much cooler and more loose. That bassline and those wobbly drums was such an inspiration and I started DJing all these records out as well which made it both alot more fun but also alot more difficult because none of these bands played very tight, which made it very hard to beatmix.

10 – »Optimo« by Liquid Liquid
taken from the 12” »Optimo«, 99 Records 1983
Kasper Bjørke: Another big source of inspiration for me from that period of time is Liquid Liquid from NYC. A Glasgow DJ team that I am a big fan of even named themselves after this track. Its insanely great and has a fantastic percussion vibe going on. I got in contact with Liquid Liquids percussionist, Dennis Young, long after the band had broken up and met up with him in NYC. Such a great guy. He ended up playing percussion on two of my previous albums, which was a personal big highlight even though most people dont know this band.