From the heart

Berlin-based collective Jazzanova is a cadre of six label-running studio engineer DJs. But not only are the German producers — who compose in pairs — accomplished disc jockeys, they are acknowledged disc junkies.

While a vast majority of the collective’s personal discography can be neatly summed up by two albums — 2000’s The Remixes: 1997-2000, reworkings of others’ material, and 2002’s In Between, a full-length of original collaborations — Jazzanova’s six-headed, 12-armed creative Hydra is best experienced dozens deep on the dancefloor during one of its DJ sets. With deep crates to pull from, Jazzanova as DJs and producers are an exercise in synchronicity, featuring first-rate vocal contributions from pockets bulging with rhythms — from frenzied, funked-up rare-groove rim shots to neo-soul cinematics, scratchy disco strut to bossa ‘n’ boogie and highly animated anti-techno hip-house to more melancholic moods.

So why has it taken Jazzanova so long to release its first mix CD, ... Mixing? Charting the collective’s progress — remixing for four years and crafting only a handful of original productions before taking nearly two years to finalize a full-length — reveals that everything takes Jazzanova a long time. And only now have the prolific remixers released any subsequent original material. One thing’s for sure, however. On ... Mixing, the collective’s “Heart” is in the right place.

”[‘Let Your Heart Be Free’] was the first original we did after [In Between],” says Jurgen Knoblauch, who, along with Alex Barck and Claas Brieler, make up the Jazzanova DJ team. Paired with Axel Reinemer, Stefan Leisering and Roskow Kretschmann, they comprise the entire production team. “We were planning [... Mixing] for one-and-a-half years. But the main focus was on ‘Let Your Heart Be Free.’ I was in the studio when [Nicola Kramer, Clara Hill and Georg Levin’s] vocals were recorded, but the track is by Alex and Stefan. The rest of the mix all creep out from ‘Let Your Heart Be Free.’ That was always the base.”

... Mixing formed from the six men scrupulously handpicking their inclusions — original productions, exclusive remixes, promo-only sides, CD-R’s acquired on the road — which they then leveled, chopped and pasted in ProTools to guarantee a meticulous, crisply assembled finished product. The resulting mix combines records that have not left the DJs’ boxes since 2002’s In Between tour — tracks featuring artists such as Jill Scott, Bahamadia, Slope and Dimlite — and newer discoveries including Sirius Mo, Bakura and Sidsel Endresen. Outside of “Let Your Heart Be Free,” a breezily swinging Patrice Rushen cover, are two exclusive remixes of Jazzanova tracks (by Britain’s AtJazz and Germany’s ame), as well as a production from Extended Spirit (the alter ego of Jazzanova’s Reinemer and Leisering).

“We wanted something that would go from a jazzy thing to a more house thing,” says Knoblauch, “something that features in one track on the CD what we do more or less across our mixes. AtJazz was totally up for it and brought in the musicians from the Herbert Big Band. Extended Spirit — we were so excited to include it because it’s more our B-boy side, well, let’s say instrumental hip-hop thing, that’s not featured otherwise.”

Another way Jazzanova reflects its members’ myriad facets — and another reason it takes so long for them to release material — is the time spent developing Jazzanova’s Sonar Kollektiv label’s international stable of musicians. Jazzanova’s imprint and mix CD reflect its Berlin, full of space to create an undisturbed and idiosyncratic, but not completely detached, world that benefits from an influx of influence.

“Now we have our place and know how to do so many more things in the studio, work with so many more musicians, so we won’t take so long between tracks,” says Knoblauch. “We work so hard with others and take so long because with our music, we try to make people feel, but not any one way because we have so many influences and feel so many different things, as well. Our music leaves the room for listening, dancing or talking.”

Jazzanova’s approach allows for a genuine mix.

tony.ware@creativeloafing.com