Absis is a music project based in Barcelona. Behind it is Salva Coromina, who can look back on many years of experience as a DJ and live act. In recent years he has proven his qualities as a musician on labels such as Hivern Discs, Oslated, Huinali Recordings and several others. With “Saw”, he also released an EP on Affin last year. Time to take a closer look at him in a conversation, which is published here.
JS: How would you describe your entry into electronic music, when was it, what was the main element behind it? It seems like you’ve been active as a DJ for a long time, with releases only appearing a few years later. Have you been producing in secret for a long time?
A: Even though at 16 I was already listening to a lot of electronic music and started playing all kinds of records when I was playing at parties, at that time we mixed everything from Rock, Pop, Disco, Hip Hop, Grunge, Funk… the moment when the real breakthrough was in 94/95 with the beginning of Sonar, that blew many of our minds, seeing Orbital live in 95 was a very stimulating experience! A turning point, then you could go to very small clubs like the Moog or the first Nitsa and see DJs of the time like Laurent Garnier, Kenny Larkin, Jeff Mills… everything was new and very exciting, I produced some things in the 90s early 2000s like mouseDown/MouseUp, although I think what I do now is much better. I have learned a lot!
JS: Can you explain which moments trigger you to produce a new piece? Is there this point for you where you get sucked in and then the rest practically happens as if by magic? Or are there certain machines or software tools that particularly inspire you?
A: I spent many years as a professional DJ working a lot, I was a resident of The Loft Razzmataz for 14 years! Before in La Sal Mataró, Sppuny Sabadell, Gusto (currently Switch)… They are all well-known clubs in my generation, I also played almost every year at Sónar, Creamfields… that led me to complete burnout and I decided to stop completely in 2013 , I thought I would never return to music! I sold thousands of records, all my machines, I changed completely and started studying acupuncture, tai chi, meditation, osteopathy…
I dedicated a few years to that, it was very enriching for me, but music called me again around 2017… then I started another once with all the excitement, it was like starting over, I met up with my music friends again and they had made a quantum leap musically during this time that I had been away, music caught me again! I started with machines and one thing led to another, I discovered that machines can lead you to create in a much more organic way, I also started organizing Naima parties with F-on and in 2019 my session at Paral.lel got me involved. fully inside again, it was a very special moment. Machines motivate me when it comes to producing because they generate unexpected things that surprise you, and that you take advantage of for your purposes, it’s like stealing that spontaneous magic that you don’t really know where it comes from.
JS: I know you’re a collector of hardware in the studio. Can you characterise your workflow in the studio?
A: My workflow is usually always the same, I dedicate long sessions to recording sound sources in Ableton: sequences, percussions, textures, noises… from my synths, modulars, microphones… I always set the tempo that I am going to use in that track in Ableton so that later everything fits together, at another time I take all those recordings and work on them, I make loops or choose sections… I put together the whole puzzle and create the music, I also try not to let the machines take over my sound, for example, in my Hivern’s first album “Foud Ritual”, the analog rhythm has a brutal prominence, the double VCO that it has gives it a lot of personality, in the Oslated album “All the moments” it is also quite present, so I decided to sell it so that new ones would emerge things, I’m not one of those with the goal of having “My sound” that idea bores me a little, even though I know that the goal is many and one of the keys to success, it doesn’t appeal to me at all to have my sound, I like it explore new territories, and I would like to have much more time to do so, also collaborating with other musicians… but time is my number 1 enemy, I don’t have the time that those who dedicate themselves exclusively to this have, I have a 40-year design job. of sound and I get parallel jobs, that’s because the family doesn’t leave me much space for music, I have to be quick at producing and I realize that I would like to dedicate much more time to it
Regarding the hardware, I have to say that I am a fan of vintage, also with hifi equipment… I am very sensitive to those harmonics they generate and I love the sound, so I am not one of those who looks for the perfect, clinical and super clean sound either. That the evolution of technology has given us, I am not interested in the performance of a machine either, something simple with good sound is what interests me, and what I like is that which cannot be explained, that which only an SH101 gives you or a Korg Monopoly for example, and no, clones are not the same, although I am in favor of them being made and that everyone can access them, I myself have replicas and clones, I have to say that some Replicas do. They sound 1:1 like the original, but I always prefer the original. I also have to say that all of this is very personal and passionate, there are people who make very good music and that sounds very good only with software and there are also people who do terrible things with machines, YouTube is full of that!
JS: To what extent do your live experiences influence your future productions? Is there an interaction, do you try parts of pieces in development in your live shows?
A: I really approach the live tracks like many tracks, I create a series of loops in ableton that give me a base and I do it in the same way that I have explained before, I control them with a novation controller, normally I enter things by opening and closing the filter, everything It’s smoother, I map some sends to effects and then I improvise on top with the modular or whatever, syncussion, dfam, 909…. In the end the result has nothing to do with what I have previously created, because I play with loops and machines to create new things, sometimes I can take advantage of some of those elements created for live performances for future tracks but it is not normal.
JS: You grew up and live in Barcelona. How would you describe life in Barcelona, does the daily routine there influence your music and what is the musical environment like in the city? Has anything changed in the city since the annual Mostra Festival was founded, does this favour regional and international networking?
A: I was born in Barcelona and I lived all my time going out, playing and enjoying here, when I was 17 I started working and left my parents’ house! I think this doesn’t happen much nowadays, at that time I went out a lot, I spent hours and hours in record stores, I played every weekend or traveled to play somewhere, especially here in Spain, at that time everything was quite incredible, I played continuously with all the DJs I admired, Andrew Watherall, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Oscar Mulero, Steve Bicknell, Mark Broom, Luke Slater, Matthew Herbert… everyone! I think I touched everyone being at the Loft and the Spunny! It was so easy to adapt to the warmups, at least that’s what they said, I had a great time!
Now I live much calmer in Sabadell, a city 20 km from Barcelona, I am 52 years old and have 3 children, so my relationship with the night does not go beyond the days I play, I know very well what the vibe is like now in Barcelona beyond my nights at Laut or other clubs in the city when I play, but it seems to me that there is a lot of activity and many small clubs that are doing cool things, the big clubs are no longer what they were, they really program 90% of horrible things! It’s time for festivals and small clubs, that’s clear to me
Regarding Mostra, I think that it is, apart from the effort and courage of Félix, the result of a very specialized musical niche, quite a minority, we could say “underground” with a very fine palate and that comes out in parallel with many other festivals that move in the same line and that already existed before such as Paral.lel, Monument… and other types of more minority events such as Perpendicular, Simbiosis… in the end we all know each other and we are like a family, but personally I think Mostra has something special, Alfonso makes a incredible job with the programming because he is very up to date with everything and has a lot of judgment, and the difficult thing is finding something that you don’t like or that surprises you, it is an honor to be a resident of what I consider to be the best music festival there is right now, At least for my palate and that is within my reach. I’m sure there are others around the world that escape me!
Joachim Spieth 