In The Element

Hendrik Weber is an artist in every sense of the word. The German-born producer’s last piece of work, Black Noise, was something of an “antithesis”, as Weber explains, of white noise. He aimed to capture the sounds of silence before a storm and to remind everyone that noise is simply everywhere, all the time. His latest project, Elements Of Light, however, takes on a different approach, the centre-piece being a three-tonne, 50-bell carillon beaming out across the Norwegian city of Oslo. “I always wanted to work with an ensemble of real bells and percussive instruments… In the first place, it’s nothing that I would go to logically – I can’t really explain it, it’s just something I really enjoy as a sound. I was missing this texture – it evokes this certain atmosphere, a contemplative state that I miss in techno music. I wanted to have this special entrance into another world in the dance music, and I think the bell sound is the best sound for me to transport that into the music, like a kind of state of peace and focus on you internally and in relation to the world around you.”

Plenty of artists are happy to improvise a direction without an idea in mind, but for Weber, the initial idea is an essential part of the beginning process. “You have to have an idea before you start anything. For me it was always about a general approach to the material, than to just fool around with something. If you have all these instruments and you don’t know what you want, then it’s overwhelming. If you know exactly what you want, you use an instrument you feel a connection with, and everything else just comes out of that moment – you basically create a relationship with the instrument and you have a certain output. It was also about not just making music, but another context. It was important to set the music in a certain environment. I need certain context, where I’m coming from, to make sounds. I see the world as a whole, and not just the instrument, or the musician, or the note they are playing – it’s the bigger picture.”

Despite the surging popularity of thumping, throbbing techno music that is often associated with being off your head and partying until the crack of dawn, Weber effectively wants the opposite with his audience. “Pantha Du Prince is something that created a new time, and this time isn’t from 3 ‘til 5, but 11 ‘til 3 or something, where people are attentive and have fun, but aren’t going mad in a completely overwhelming drug experience. The music is already so strong and so druggy and psychedelic that you don’t need drugs to get into that zone. I want people to have a totally clear consciousness and drinking water and tea, and just have a good time, but still enter a certain area where they can experience extraordinary things, without destroying their physicality. It needs to be gentle and full of love, not smashing you where you feel beat up a week afterward.”