Decades ago, Electronic music was reserved for avant-garde sound tinkerers operating futuristic machines – but ever since the 1990s, just about anyone has been able to cobble together tracks on their own laptop. That said, you’d be mistaken to think that software suites have made dedicated hardware obsolete.
When you hear a band play, you can usually imagine what their rehearsal space might look like. With electronic music, the situation is far less clear-cut – the range spans from a desk with a laptop and a pair of active speakers to sprawling lofts, meticulously treated acoustically and lavishly outfitted with shelves full of modular synthesizers, sequencers, effects units, and much more. In Inside The Studio – Spaces of Electronic Music Production, Gero Cacciatore’s photographs offer glimpses into the workspaces of more than 40 artists, covering the entire spectrum – from the imposing sound laboratory of Riccardo Villalobos to the bedroom of DJ Jana, where she makes music on her bed. The production spaces are primarily located in Berlin; a selection of studios by producers in Cairo provides the contrast of a completely different kind of music metropolis – and may be surprising as well, since it becomes clear that the individuality of the artists shapes their surroundings far more than the surroundings shape them.
This impression is reinforced by the brief five-question interviews conducted by Matthias Pasdzierny that accompany the photographs. They, too, offer fleeting yet revealing insights into each artist’s relationship with their equipment, as well as with their music. Inside The Studio is not a textbook that explains the tools of the trade themselves or how they interact – not even in passing. Only a few selected studios are accompanied by an uncommented equipment list, which merely serves to illustrate the contrast in technical complexity between different working environments. Instead, the book presents a snapshot-style survey that celebrates the diversity of production spaces – from DIY sound-tinkering desks to impressively professional setups to outright curiosities – as well as the diversity of minds that created them and work within them.
A poem by Sasha Perera, an introductory essay by Pasdzierny, a closing contribution from rave legend Westbam, and a photo spread by Cacciatore frame this cross-section of the producer scene in a rich variety of formats perfectly fitting the subject.
Inside The Studio – Spaces of Electronic Music Production. Berlin/Cairo
Gero Cacciatore, Matthias Pasdzierny
Hardcover | 188 pages, 120 photos | Around 44 € | Publisher: Hatje Cantz | ISBN: 978-3-7757-5904-5
