AJ: Our first meeting was around 2018 in the Australische Botschaft Berlin Ost. At that time you were working on some file recordings based on your passion for recording sounds outdoor. What has given this to your sound development and how do you implement them in your music productions ?

FK: Using field recordings in music feels natural to me as I’m also working as a sound designer for film projects. To create a soundtrack I prefer using sounds and ambiances that I’ve recorded by myself rather than using archives because it adds a personal component. In our album „Chronos“ for example we’ve added the ambiance in front of the recording studio to the track „Abschied“ and our children’s voices in „Reprise“. 

AJ: We have shared some live improvisation jams, were you have expressed your sound through guitar, effects and some synth chords. What has been the influence of the electronic music in this process and which artists have been reference for you ?

FK: I have always been fascinated by the combination of acoustic instruments like the guitar and electronic music. The electric guitar is an instrument that works particularly well with electric amplification and effects. Later I started to experiment more and more with synthesizers. If I had to name artists who have influenced me in this process, it would be Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins or Max Cooper.

AJ: Since a couple of yours ago, you have been working in a music project called AUSKLANG, showing some of your instrumental and classical music side. How Berlin has influenced that music concept, and why the Zionskirche has been a bridge to tell some of your sound narrative ?

FK: AUSKLANG is my ambient trio that I founded together with Benjamin Sohn and Simon Ansing. We regularly play live jam sessions at the Zionskirche in Berlin-Mitte. The church harmonizes perfectly with our music style because it has an extremely long reverberation time of over 5 seconds. This is disturbing for speech and percussive music but perfect for ambient. 

AJ: Resonanz album has been the result of dozens of hours playing live at Zionskirche and sound development. How important and relevant in your live improvisation and music composition, the church’s architecture and history has been ? 

FK: During our live sessions at Zionskirche there were many spontaneous moments where the music just "happened". At some point I started recording the sessions professionally to capture these musical ideas. At the end of the year I had collected many hours of great material and decided to release a live album with it. We called it Resonanz because we as musicians resonated with the architecture and acoustics of the church and the music came out that way. We also had a great cooperation with an artist called Sarita Dey who created a piece of art called "Resonance I" that she painted inspired by our livestreams from Zionskirche. It is also the album cover of Resonanz.

AJ: Chronos is your newest album production. It has been recorded and produced in your studio. What would you like to transmit with these compositions ? And where do you see yourself as a music performer in the next 12 months ?

FK: Chronos was a classic studio album, but the material also came mostly from improvisations we made as a trio in a recording room in Weißensee. The theme of the album is time. Chronos in Greek is the term for the passing of time, the hours, minutes and seconds. Kairos is the opposite of that, it's the time where we are really present and where we get a sense of timelessness. This is the title of our second studio album we are working on in the next months. We're also going to start a new series again at Zionskirche and do regular improv sessions there. 

AJ: What did you try to transmit with your Livestream at Astral Junction ?

FK: In my live session at Astral Junction I tried to transfer the idea of Resonanz to the space in Friedrichshain, it's about engaging with the architecture of a place. It was a new challenge to perform solo and I played synthesizer and guitar at the same time. I'm excited to see what creative things will will happen in this space.

More information about Fabian Koppri on:

https://fabiankoppri.com/
https://ausklangmusic.com/