MEDLEY SWIMMER - SASSE

As Sasse and under his equally popular moniker Freestyle Man, Klas-Henrik Lindblad has been an industry man since the early ‘90s, one who bought house music to a nascent scene in Turku, Finland before moving on to bigger things at the eventual centre of it all in Germany. It was in 1999 that he arrived in Frankfurt to start his Finnish First nights at the infamous Robert Johnson club, and although those halcyon days have passed he still makes regular appearances at the club when time away from residencies at Watergate, Cookies, Weekend and Panoramabar in his hometown of Berlin becomes available.
“It’s manageable,” he says of his impressive DJ schedule. “I still prefer Panoramabar to anything else in the world, the vibe there is just amazing. The crowd has a nice edge to it and musically you can play anything you want. Sunday nights at Panoramabar are amazing, some magic moments there. There is of course still Weekend, Cookies and Watergate where I play as well, but I’m not doing monthlies anymore, it would make no sense with my DJ schedule.”
In between his hectic DJ schedule, Lindblad finds plenty of time for the studio and has a new Freestyle Man album titled The Bottom Line slated for February release on Hairy Claw Records. Lindblad started producing as Freestyle Man in 1996 prior to birthing Sasse, so it’s almost a full circle motion for him to return to the less used moniker. Even if Freestyle Man is the more adventurous of Lindblad’s alter egos, he still finds a certain narrative arc between both which is supported in part by a recent change in methodology.
“Personally I think there is a certain sound and feel from the older productions which still shines through in my new productions – or at least I try to make that connection happen,” Lindblad explains. “I think it must [help] that I took my hardware samplers back into the studio, loving that dirty sound and the limited possibilities you have with those old machines. I actually try to recreate those limits with today’s software [as] I think there are too many possibilities in music software. For a young producer it is much more important to concentrate on the music than on the next plug-in.”
In commenting on current trends, Lindblad draws attention to a sharp focus on quality A&R which contributes to the continued success of his primary label Mood Music, on which a fresh Sasse album will show up in 2010-2011. Though of late he’s been busier collaborating with the likes of Phonogenic, James Flavour and Martin Eyerer than working on the label, Mood Music continues with a stream of attention worthy releases and sister labels Sunday Music (established for Henrik Schwarz) and Must! Records have in the past tended to follow suit. Though the latter is effectively defunct, as a disco edits label it stood out as one of the best, but as the edits trend caught on Lindblad shelved the idea.
“Must! was a nice project for reworks and edits which made fun as long as it lasted,” he says. “I think when we started Must! there was not many edit labels around [and] it’s just lately been getting fashionable to do these edit records I think. Anyways, for me an edit was always about strengthening the original rather than reworking it completely.”

WHAT:    PLAYS CO-OP AT THE CIVIC
WHEN:   SATURDAY 6 FEBRUARY