As You Like It 10-year anniversary + AYLI Recordings Launch Party
As You Like It 10-year Anniversary
AYLI Recordings Launch Party
December 18, 2020
AYLI is debuting its long-awaited label, As You Like It Recordings, which promises to nurture and advance the Bay Area's historic legacy, by promoting burgeoning talent while sharing that deep family feeling with the world. Inaugural release “Ascent / Descent,” a fresh take on a classic acid sound, by San Francisco’s Christina Chatfield, encapsulates this drive with remixes from TIN MAN, Noncompliant, Lily Ackerman, and Tape Ghost.
Ticket donations pay for the artists, VJs and production teams that built this experience. All of your support is appreciated and allows us to continue bringing you quality broadcasts through these trying times and beyond.
VJ's: Loaf Baker, Will Erokan, Jason Worden and Pixelpusher
As You Like It (AYLI) is a multimedia culture creator that is the result of a shared taste for quality electronic music, late-night experiences, and creative expression, rooted in the underground and branching out to new heights.
TIME: 18:00 PST - 22:00 PST | 21:00 EST -01:00 EST | 01:00 UTC - 05:00 UTC on faultradio.com
Christina Chatfield
Christina Chatfield makes music to lose yourself in. Equally poised for turning up a club floor or soundtracking a melt session at home, Chatfield’s vision of techno pushes boundaries aside and seeks the outer reaches. Born in the Midwest, Chatfield has made the Bay Area her adoptive home. A lifelong musician, she studied synthesis at Berklee College of Music, leading towards her career as a professional sound designer. Her music upbringing has surely influenced her sound, mellifluous and effortlessly kinetic designed for consumption and expansion at once.
Her psychedelic acid techno sets - performed live on an array of gear - are familiar to dancers in San Francisco, Chicago, New York, and beyond. A resident of the Bay Area’s venerated As You Like It event series, she’s a consummate live artist, each performance tailor-made to its own specifications. Christina has released 12”s on Midwest staples Detroit's Beretta Grey and Chicago’s God Particle. Chatfield has been busy, she just released an EP for As You Like It Recordings and early next year her debut album, a cosmic exploration of ambient techno moods, will be released on lauded New York imprint Mysteries of the Deep.
Interview
1. Tell us a bit about who you are as an artist and what inspires you.
I’m a lifelong music nerd, and I get inspired by the things around me — whether that’s people, places, or instruments in my music studio.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It? Any favorite memories?
I first met Jeremy shortly after I moved to San Francisco. We met at a party, and quickly became friends. My favorite As You Like It memories are from the com# days — that venue was really special, and I miss the times we had there.
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
Being home-bound for months definitely changes the type of music that I’ve been working on. I’ve been leaning more in the direction of ambient, slo-mo, music that isn’t necessarily for parties. It will be fun to transition back to dancefloor music again eventually, but for now, I’ve been enjoying this opportunity to take things in a different direction.
Loaf Baker
While pursuing fine art at UC Santa Cruz, Sophie got into VJing through one of her TAs. With a passion for music, she always incorporated the idea of movement into her abstract prints and painting. After graduating she turned to video and animation to create surreal, ever-evolving landscapes, which she incorporates into large-scale projection mapping environments to produce immersive audiovisual experiences. Always inspired by natural textures, alien worlds, and parody graphic design, she aims to capture the awe sparked from experiencing something new - strange yet familiar, organic yet manmade, marvelous yet ridiculous..
Interview
1. Tell us about your approach to creating visuals and what inspires you.
I’m always chasing that feeling of awe and curiosity when you see something strange and new. A weird plant, insect, a glitch. Natural textures combined with the element of a man-made mark. Organic movements with nonorganic shapes. Then, it’s all about bringing these to ideas to life with animated patterns, manipulated footage, bright colors and textures in immersive environments.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It and the artist from our inaugural release?
I believe I first met Jeremy and Christina years ago through mutual friends. I’ve done visuals for a couple other AYLI parties and for Christina through Supervixen and Direct to Earth.
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
Performing live is really one of the best ways to grow as an artist, so I think artists have all been grieving that space for growth and connection. Now that everything is online only, we’re really dealing with a different medium. It’s video and it’s music, but it’s not immersive in the same way. So we’ve all had to adapt our practices to fit a new medium. For me, I’ve started playing with new ways of combining visuals and video effects to pre-existing / live footage. More collaging content, adding effects, etc.
Tin Man
Tin Man is an artist in the truest sense of the word. Over the last decade, the man born Johannes Auvinen has explored an ever evolving sound palette that touches on house, techno, and ambient. Much like his namesake’s character in the Wizard of Oz, he has been on a mission to find his true self, except this Tin Man’s medium has been music.
Taking influences from “Chicago and radio pop rock as well as melancholic UK electronics and Sahkö” Tin Man’s extensive discography also explores less sublime and seductive sounds on labels like Keys of Life and Acid Acid, and plenty of raw sonics on albums like Sacred. This modern acid master performs live on 303s, 707s, and plenty more bits of hardware, always creating textures soundtracks using a range of FC and skills built up over the last decade.
Interview
1. Tell us a bit about who you are as an artist and what inspires you.
My main interest is Acid. Most of my work deals with carving out new space in the genre. I like to find histories in music where the historical inspirations are reframed and built upon; ie. American funk and R&B as manifested in Rocksteady or American funk and Franz Schubert in Kraftwerk.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It? Any favorite memories?
They invited me to play a party at 222 Hyde. It was a wild night. Each time I visited again, it was a great vibe as they always had great line ups.
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
I have pivoted; I went back to school. I feel I will not return to making a living as a full time touring musician. In effect, I’m retired.
Will Erokan
Will Erokan is a video artist and animation editor currently living in Los Angeles, California. He became a resident for ASR and then AYLI where he was able to take his knowledge of experimental film/video techniques and apply them to a late night environment. His work is characterized by a heavy use of analogue video broadcast equipment that he pulled from the trash during the digital television transition.
Interview
1. Tell us about your approach to creating visuals and what inspires you.
A lot of my equipment has been picked out of the trash. When I first started VJing, as luck would have it, the USA was transitioning from SD (analog) broadcasting to HD (digital). Suddenly, a lot of bay area tech companies and animation studios were throwing out their very expensive SD equipment. At one point, I had about 40 televisions in my house, my car, and my office. In college, when I was studying film, the professors had us do a project without sync sound. We created silent direct animations on 16mm film and recorded our soundtrack onto cassette tapes. When we screened them, you had to turn the tape on and then the projector. It was almost impossible to get them to start at the same time, so everything had to be a little loose. They explained that the audience would begin to draw associations between the action on the screen and whatever sounds they were hearing along with it. If you were playing music eventually the action and the rhythm would sync up on it's own. I'm very interested in that sort of thing, the interaction between the audience and the film. Along the same lines, I began to experiment with subliminal messages and symbolism. I'd cut specific words and phrases over images at random, I'd lay them off to VHS tape or DVD, and I'd cut back and forth between them without knowing what was coming next creating more chance juxtapositions. I'd been interested in William S Burroughs for some time and it wasn't long before I realized I could mimic a Dreamachine on the screen. I began to shoot video feedback with cheap CCTV cameras & CRT screens producing a rolling flicker. I'd cut the flicker (rhythm) against the image (melody). When I'm doing visuals, I'm trying to put the audience into a trance.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It and the artist from our inaugural release?
When Jeremy told me he was going to start throwing ASR parties again, I told him I wanted a slot to do visuals. I'd been working on short films and video art for a few years. I'd done video installations at Art shows, but I'd never done anything for a crowd that large. Terry Estioko and his team (Vibration) set everything up, I think I only performed for a couple of hours and they did the rest. By the time ASR had their last party and AYLI was formed, I was handling the visuals by myself without Terry's help (although he was still very supportive, and would lend me projectors and BNC cables until I was able to secure my own). My friend Tom Cooney would often come out and help with the installation and my wife Morgan Edel began mixing video as well. We were using the AYLI parties as a chance to test out new techniques both on the screen with flicker rates, video feedback, subject matter, symbolism, etc, and then with the gear as well with different arrangements of projectors, incorporating CRT screens. I was always struggling to keep it from getting too bright. At one point, I was projecting through scrims to combat it. As for Tin Man, I've never actually worked with him before. I first encountered his music back in 2007 when our friend Danny Ortiz took Morgan and I down to LA to see the Takashi Murakami show at Moca. We stayed at his friend Lars' warehouse in Skidrow. Lars was showing us around. He was showing us his soundsystem and he started playing his brother Johannes' music. When AYLI first booked him at Hyde, I was bummed out because the Hyde parties were done without visuals. By the time he played another AYLI party, I'd already moved down to LA. So when Jeremy asked me if I wanted to do Tin Man's visuals for the AYLI 10 Year, I jumped at the chance.
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
The full effects of COVID/quarantine have yet to be seen. As Marshall Mcluhan was fond of repeating, "I don't know who discovered water, but you can bet it wasn't a fish." With that in mind, one effect that I can see rather plainly, I've been spending less time shooting footage and less time on video in general. I have two little kids and it's been harder lately to get time to spend with my gear. Instead, I've begun to experiment with synthesizers. I'd never used a drum machine before this started. Back in March, my friend Mathias lent me his Volca Beats and I realized I could hangout outside with my kids while I played around with it. Since then, I've picked up a few more. For the last few years, I've been running a cable access show called HERE COMES EVERYBODY, which is broadcast in select cities across the country. Once COVID started, I decided to put the show on hiatus and I've been using some of the time slots for a new series called Through The Shadow Mask where I'm doing the audio and the video. I suppose that would be another example of COVID's effects on my work.
Noncompliant
Raised in small town Indiana on a musical diet of 80s synth pop and punk rock, Noncompliant soon found barnyard raves and warehouse techno parties and (as DJ Shiva) quickly became a fixture of the fabled 90s Midwest USA rave scene.
Two decades and a name change later, she is at the top of her techno game. Mixmag named her one of 2017’s Top 20 Breakthrough DJs. She owned a packed and sweaty Boiler Room during Movement Detroit, turned in mindblowing mixes for Slam Radio, Discwoman, and Resident Advisor, and quaked some of the world’s most respected dance floors like Smartbar Chicago, Amsterdam’s DeSchool, Concrete in Paris, and Berlin’s legendary Berghain.
Her festival appearances include Unsound, Red Bull Music Festival Paris, Movement Detroit, and While United Queer Festival. Her releases and remixes on labels like Valence, Argot, Flash, and Dark Entries have pounded sound systems worldwide. At her core, she is a die-hard techno fan with a deep love for music and a drive to continue honing her craft as a DJ and producer in order to share her favorite music with people on dance floors everywhere.
Interview
1. Tell us a bit about who you are as an artist and what inspires you.
I am just a techno fan who loves to play music as a means of catharsis and joy. :)
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It? Any favorite memories?
AOL RAVE CHAT! Me and Bispo met there decades ago and have just remained friends ever since. And then there is always seeing him every year at Movement Detroit, with whatever wild shirt he has chosen for the Monday morning madness at Tangent Gallery. :)
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
To be completely honest, it has sucked beyond belief. Like most artists right now, I am stuck at home. I ended up getting whatever soul-killing day job I could (currently sales, which I hate). One good thing is being able to further my tech education while I am at home and my cat REALLY likes that I am home all the time. But, it's been hard to find time for creativity and even when I do the Covid anxiety has made it tough to really get into it.
But, we do what we have to. I am glad the internet can still keep me connected with my friends. It's also been nice to have been able to participate in the first record on AYLI too. Gives me some joy in the midst of the struggle to be sure.
Pixelpusher
Pixelpusher has been a visual contributor to the San Francisco area music scene for more than ten years. She creates live video art for electronic music events. Comfortable with a variety of styles, she excels at creating synergy between visuals and music. With a background in video production and a longstanding love of music, she utilizes a collection of videos and effects to create unique visuals for live music performances. Her signature style is to combine the best parts of analog video with modern digital elements blending them seamlessly into a fluid array of engaging patterns and shapes.
Interview
1. Tell us about your approach to creating visuals and what inspires you.
My process tends to be more footage based, so I take inspiration from everywhere, from the geometry of the large FIDI buildings in downtown, to the organic flutter of leaves. There are so many things in this world to gain inspiration from, and any of them can be used as source material for visuals. I take the source material and mix it with other layers and apply visually appealing effects to create synergy with the music. That's always my ultimate goal, is to create aesthetically pleasing synergy with music.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It and the artist from our inaugural release?
I'm not sure how I connected with AYLI originally -- it was kind of like osmosis -- I've been a fan for years, but only started doing visuals for them a few years ago. AYLI always brings great talent. As for Noncompliant, I was introduced through DTE and Konstruct -- a couple of rad techno crews here in SF, who I regularly do visuals with. They had the opportunity to bring her to the Midway the night after she played an underground event and I did visuals for her that night. She has an impressive history behind the decks and slayed it that night! It's way easier to do visuals for music that I enjoy, so I was super stoked to be invited to do this set for this 10 year event. Happy Anniversary AYLI! Thanks for letting me be a part of it!
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
COVID has impacted me as an artist in the usual ways. Of course there are no live in-person events at this time. At the beginning of the pandemic, my number of gigs dropped quite a bit until everyone figured out the best way to make the best of a bad situation and started broadcasting events online. I'm now doing as many gigs as I did before the pandemic, so that's great. I feel fortunate in that way. I do feel a bit more free to experiment when I'm doing online events, which is nice. But sadly, I have to say -- none of these online gigs really give the same level of satisfaction as being in a club with a large screen, big speakers and the energy of the crowd. Of course, I'm happy to have online experiences over COVID any day of the week, so I'm really glad they are happening.
Tape Ghost
Oakland-based Tape Ghost, aka David Grunzweig, is an architect of emotional spaces. As both an ambient and techno producer, Tape Ghost’s identity is grounded in a complementary duality. Inspired by Detroit masters like Carl Craig, Robert Good, and Plastikman, Tape Ghost was born as a minimal-leaning techno project in 2015 with a focus on live performance. Adept at curating both live sets and DJ sets, his presence has been felt in the Bay-Area, where he’s thrown parties through the collective Asterisk and supported artists like Call Super, Dr. Rubinstein, Dax J, Mike Gervais, dBridge, and m50.
In 2016, Grunzweig adopted a second project, becoming one half of Night Sea: a dub-tinged, ambient techno outfit. What bridges Grunzweig’s two projects in his purposeful approach to music, which, in his own words, aims to “open a channel for direct emotional connection.” Like a sun fading on the edge of the horizon, his productions are imbued with nuance, stillness and depth, captivating those who listen. Through intentional production and a growing body of work, Tape Ghost has emerged as a vital presence in the burgeoning landscape of electronic music.
Interview
1. Tell us a bit about who you are as an artist and what inspires you.
I grew up in a musical household, my dad played jazz flute and my mom taught me how to play guitar. There was always music on, often jazz (especially Brazilian), 60s and 70s rock (usually with a folk and western flavor), and soul. During high school I focused primarily on classical guitar, which I think was my real introduction to ambient music. Classical guitar is almost always a solo instrument, so you learn to make the most with very little and play the space between the notes. Growing up, my favorite music was always really atmospheric. I found that the excitement of recorded sound vs live performed sound was the way all the tools in a studio could create a virtual environment for the mind to wander. Since then I’ve found that establishing a compelling sonic space is the most important part of my compositional process. These days I’m finding most of my inspiration in 70s funk and disco. Especially the rhythm sections - when you have drummers, bass players, guitarists, and conga/percussion players who have mastered their craft, there’s so much to be learned from how these musicians play together. When you want to make people dance, it's good to study songs that are 40+ years old and still light up a dance floor. Maurice White of EW&F, BT Express, and Willie Bobo are some real favorites for me at the moment.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It? Any favorite memories?
When I moved to San Francisco, I had never gone out to a club before and enjoyed it. I was listening to old house and techno and wishing I could find the underground rave experience somewhere I had read about and seen in documentaries. I think I had this assumption that all clubbing in the US was going to be a bottle service safari. I was lucky to land here and amongst friends who were more clued in than I was. The first time I went to something that felt like a real rave was actually the As You Like It Roots Party with Russell Butler, Silent Servant, DJ Nobu in 2016. I remember getting lost trying to find the warehouse and wandering around in the dark with my friends, the only people walking around in this industrial area in the middle of the night. At some point someone literally stepped out of the shadows and startled all of us and just said "The party is over there, kids." And sure enough, soon we were whisked inside the muggy and thumping warehouse. That was my first time encountering the hypnotic late night techno sound and my first time seeing a live set with a modular, and both of those things play a central role in my musical style now. Of course, my first time playing an AYLI show is a beautiful memory. It was a b2b set with my lover right after we started dating, we had a crowd full of friends and played a bunch of warm and joyful house tracks.
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
When COVID hit, I was feeling ready for a break from clubbing and club music. I was hitting a burn out point, my studio work had been really intense from writing an album with Night Sea over the past year, an EP and remix as Tape Ghost, and preparing live ambient sets. On top of that I was starting up a new party series at UGSF called Negative Space. I took the forced break as a time to reset a bit and develop a new relationship with dance music, and develop a deeper sense of why it matters to me. These days I’m ready to be back, to be amongst my friends and dancing. I miss seeing my friends play at Underground SF the most, and little house parties where everyone in the room is a DJ or collector, these environments in which everyone is a music lover and we share the joy together. All this time without performing has taught me to find fulfillment in the studio process. Before the studio was the woodshed and the stage was the reward, but these days I’m finding that the process of composing and mixing is a reward of its own.
Jason Worden
Jason Worden is a San Francisco based visual artist that utilizes analog video synthesis to create an audio-visual experience. He is the visual coordinator of Resident, a monthly open-mic style electronic and visual event. He has performed at numerous events around the Bay Area, including Visions of the New World, Brouhaha, Bread SF, Resonant Frequencies, Noctuary SF, and Asterisk Collective.
Interview
1. Tell us about your approach to creating visuals and what inspires you.
I enjoy creating rather minimal visuals for the live club experience, with the intent of augmenting the club vibe rather than taking it over. Dancing in a safe space is something I value, so I try not to brighten up the room too much. Negative space is my friend. Having said that, I take the opportunity to take over the screen a bit more with bright colors for recorded visuals that are enjoyed on the screen of your choice. I compose mostly with analog video hardware and video synthesizers, and video synths provide for some wicked colors and gradients.
2. How did you first connect to As You Like It and the artist from our inaugural release?
I first met David (Tape Ghost) at a Visions of the New World show back in 2018. We definitely geeked out a bit over analog gear and Eurorack-- he has a Eurorack setup for his tunes and I have one for my visuals. His crew, Asterisk Collective, and Noctuary were gracious enough to have me on for visuals that same year in the good ole Public Works Loft. Miss that place big time.
The AYLI 10 year anniversary is our first recorded collab since that show and it's definitely been a long time coming. Shout out to AYLI for giving us this chance to link up virtually for such a special opportunity!
3. How has COVID impacted you as an artist?
We've really got to see how brittle underground culture can be in a recession and pandemic rolled into one. I've found it more important than ever to support the artists you know and support your local scene in whatever way you can.
As for my visuals, there's an unsurprising culprit for my biggest recent workflow changes: no live shows. For the first time in years, I went all out optimizing my setup for recording visuals rather than performance. I've gotten more experience using video editing software, after not digging into an editor in ages. I generate all my visuals without a computer, but definitely utilize one for tying clips together. Video editing is fun but not my forte -- I felt like a Grandma trying to use a smartphone at first but have gotten a bit better at it with practice!
Interviews by Kylie-Ayn Kennedy.
