Six Of One: Techno with Cassegrain
In techno circles, Cassegrain shouldn’t need too much of an introduction.
With a label résumé that includes, among others, Prologue, Infrastructure New York, Killekill, and Ostgut Ton, alongside highly regarded performances at Berghain, Village Underground, and Output, they’ve more than stamped their name on the scene.
Alex Tsiridis and Hüseyin Evirgen, the two artists behind Cassegrain, formed the project after a chance meeting at the Redbull Music Academy in Barcelona. In the years following, they collaborated remotely via email, sending stems back and forth before making a move to Berlin where they currently share a studio. On their recent debut visit to Australia, we chatted to the duo about 6 tracks that is relevant to their musical career...
The track that got us into techno
Josh Wink - Higher State of Consciousness
Hüseyin: I bought this on cassette single when I was 10 years old. I was already into quite a bit of electronic music at a young age starting with The Prodigy's Music for the Jilted Generation, but this opened up a more underground direction for me.
our first release as cassegrain
Cassegrain - Cotton
We made this track when we first met at the Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona. This was 2 years before it was released on Mikrowave. The label wanted us to come up with a name so that's when Cassegrain came up.
Cassegrain's most recent release
Jamaica Suk - Around The Vines (Cassegrain Remix)
The most recent thing we released was a remix for Jamaica Suk on her new label called Gradient. The last original music we put out was our last record on our own label Arcing Seas, ARCS-04.
current favourite track in our sets
Mike Parker - Necklace Dancer
Alex: Really hard to pin it down to one, but I'll go with Mike Parker - Necklace Dancer. I think it's out soon. Perfect sounding techno as you'd expect but this feels like it has a fresh touch to it from his usual material.
Hüseyin: Hakan - Outer Space. He´s an old friend of my mine from Istanbul who produces outstanding techno but hasn´t released anything yet.
The last track we remixed
Paulie Jan - Fëa (Cassegrain Remix)
We remixed a French producer, Paulie Jan most recently. His original is a great ambient piece full of textures and melodies so we had beautiful material to work with. That will be out soon on Paris based label Intervision.
Our all-time favourite techno track
Planetary Assault Systems - Rip the Cut
Hüseyin: It´s impossible to pick one. But the first track I could think of: Planetary Assault Systems - Rip the Cut. I heard some bits and pieces of that in the last LSD (the trio) performance at Berghain on NYE and just made me feel like a total fan boy.
Alex: I have no idea, sorry. Spent way too long trying to answer this question haha.