Let Die Wilde Jagd guide you through a recently discovered selection of beat-less soundscapes. Following the release of the extensive ‘Morgenrot’ remix package on Minimood, Sebastian elevates you into dreamworlds with an exploratory listening session.
Die Wilde Jagd will lock you into a upwards spiral with their explorative blend of heady guitar loops, electronic percussion, drums, synthesizers and lyrical wizardry. Headed by Berlin-based producer and songwriter Sebastian Lee Philipp, in collaboration with co-producer Ralf Beck and several guest musicians, the project released their eponymous debut album on Bureau B to great acclaim back in 2015. Following the releases of their EP for Correspondant and follow-up long player on Bureau B, the project’s neo-romantic ‘Morgenrot’ gets revisited by a vast array of producers.
As part of the second installment in Minimood‘s multidisciplinary fusion series, the extensive body of reworks features Ancient Methods, CV313, Luigi Tozzi, Roman Flügel, Rude 66, Steve Bug, The KVB, Vactrol Park, and Variant. With the gatefold 3×12″ vinyl only package dropping earlier this month, we caught up with Sebastian covering the release, his latest performance at Rituel Festival and things to come, next to supplying us with a spellbinding trip.
Welcome Sebastian, first off the usual icebreaker. How have you been and where do we find you today?
Hello and thank you, I’m very well. I’ve just come back home to Berlin from a studio session in Düsseldorf. Today I’ve been listening back to the results in my local set up.
You’re fresh from performing at Rituel festival in France. Tell us a little about how the weekend went down and your experience there.
Yes. This was the first Die Wilde Jagd concert in Rennes and it turned out to be a very pleasant experience. This festival event took place at a venue called Ubu, which is run by an association around a charming man named Jean-Louis. He told many entertaining personal stories about famous bands he had booked and hung out with at his festival in the past.
Earlier this month, Minimood released a very comprehensive body of remixes for one of the tracks of your 2015 eponymous debut album on Bureau B. Before diving into the guts of it, what sparked the idea for this project and why did ‘Morgenrot’ in particular get centre stage?
Voltmar from Minimood got in touch with me regarding his idea about a fusion project that would see “Morgenrot” re-interpreted by a range of artists associated with various electronic music scenes. I was impressed with the passion he expressed for the project and his diverse taste in music in general – it’s important for me that people I work with are excited about what they do, and so I quickly agreed to the project.
Traveling across a wide-array of artistic disciplines, tell us a little about the coming together of the remix LP’s tracklist, next to the thought process behind its curation.
We obviously talked a lot about what artists we should ask to remix the song, both of us had many ideas and suggestions. The release contains remixes by artists we both knew and quickly agreed on, as well as remixes by artist one didn’t know before and was introduced to by the other. I enjoyed this process of selection and watching it all come together bit by bit. Then it was of course also interesting to see how each artist has their own remix philosophy and I must say that I’m very happy with the results and with the diversity of the interpretations of the song.
Opening the package with your ‘Fangschuss Version’ Ralf and you contribute a new take on the song as well, featuring vocal work by New Zealand based singer Nina Siegler. How did that come to be? And what can you tell us about this version?
The mood I’m trying to portray in the lyrics is one of togetherness and the longing to share an experience. With the opportunity to revisit the song, I felt that it would be nice to introduce a counterpart to my voice. I’ve known Nina for a few years and she had in the past expressed an interest in collaborating with me. Shortly before her move to New Zealand last year, I felt that we should finally arrange a recording session while she was still in Berlin. At that point I had a rough idea for a new Die Wilde Jagd song and asked her to sing some of the lyrics I had written for it. I was taken with the quality of her voice, its delicate melancholy and tenderness, and the song in question containing her voice will be included on the forthcoming Die Wilde Jagd album.
When it came to including a counterpart voice on the new version of “Morgenrot”, it was clear to me that Nina should sing the part. At this point, however, she had already moved back to New Zealand and having her voice recorded in a studio over there proved difficult. When time became an issue, she suggested to record her voice with her mobile phone. To me, this concept and the physical distance between us and our respective recordings correlate with the lyrical themes of the song.
The package is accompanied by a beautiful cover from Düsseldorf-based artist Susanne Giring. What’s the story there?
I’ve known Susanne since I started to spend time in Düsseldorf around 2006 and I would regularly meet her at the Salon des Amateurs. Susanne is responsible for the artwork of the second Die Wilde Jagd album “Uhrwald Orange”. Voltmar and I immediately agreed that we should ask her to design the artwork for the Minimood release. Susanne approaches collaborations like these with a lot of care and sensibility. When we talk I’m always very impressed with how carefully she has listened to the music and how she turns her unique thoughts into visual representations of the release.
What can you tell us about this mix you’ve put together for us?
I’ve been listening to a lot of beat-less music recently and wanted to make a mix of songs that don’t contain any drums or percussion. All the tracks in the mix are pieces of music that I only recently discovered – some older recordings such as John Hassel’s “Blues Nile” from 1977 but mainly new discoveries like EOB (which is Ed Brien from Radiohead), and Land of Light, the project of Jonny Nash and Kyle Martin. Kyle Martin is, together with Guido Zen, Vactrol Park. I decided to include theirs and Variant’s remixes of Morgenrot in the mix also.
What do these last weeks of 2019 have in store for you? And how’s 2020 shaping up for you – I saw you’ve a little Swiss tour planned in January?
I’m currently preparing for the upcoming Die Wilde Jagd shows in China towards the end of the year. Before that I will DJ together with Voltmar and Shumi at Acephale in Cologne to celebrate the release of the Morgenrot remixes on Minimood. And yes, then we have a small Swiss tour coming up in January together with my friends from Kenel\Sonne.
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Photo credit: J.Jackie Baier
Grab your copy of the ‘Morgenrot’ remix LP on Minimood HERE.
Tracklist
John Hassell – Blues Nile [Lovely Music, Ltd.]
Die Wilde Jagd – Morgenrot (Vactrol Park Remix) [Minimood]
Land Of Light – Distracted Tenderness [Melody as Truth]
Die Wilde Jagd – Morgenrot (Variant Remix) [Minimood]
Catarina Barbieri – Gravity that Binds [Important Records]
EOB – Santa Teresa [Over Normal Limited]
Philip Glass, Third Coast Percussion – Angels with Extraordinary Abilities: Triptan [Orange Mountain Music]