pole

POLE
The music of Stefan Betke, a.k.a. Pole, is constantly in a subtle state of flux. His recordings are evidence of his music’s evolution, milestones along an open-ended journey. But this does not mean Pole’s albums are provisional or incomplete; on the contrary, they express a kind of perfectionism always aimed at reaching an imagined musical core.
The way Betke strips layer after layer of sound, working toward a minimalist essence, everything is possible. For Pole musical reductionism isn’t repetitive or deterministic. It involves constant motion around an ideal core, the smallest possible unit. As a result, all of Pole’s releases, despite their differences, are united by a central question: How can one extract the most intensity from the least amount of material as possible. Consolidation and purification as mutually beneficial processes.
It does not make any sense to try to approach Stefan Betke’s music with buzzwords or narrow musical categories. At the beginning there was, however, an often repeated anecdote, namely that of a minimalist dub musician who found his style by chance, if not accident. In 1996, Thomas Fehlmann and Gudrun Gut gave Betke a Waldorf-4-Pole filter, which had been damaged in a fall. Betke found it made beautiful static noise – a kind of crackling -- that became an integral part of his first series of recordings. The releases were just sequentially numbered (“1” in 1998, “2” in 1999, “3” in 2000) so no titles would interfere with people’s interpretation by preconceptions. The covers only differ in their colour – blue, red, and yellow, the primary colours of the spectrum from which all other colours can be mixed – mirroring the fact that for Betke, this series offered a musical equivalent to the three primary colours, able to be mixed in infinite combinations. The track titles “Stadt” (City), “Fremd” (Strange) do not really go a long way toward explaining the sounds, either. For Pole, titles only serve the purpose of making it possible to discuss tracks - they do not constitute any statement about the music. Pole’s minimal-electronica and dub remains abstract, but not empty. From the very beginning Pole has been using a warm, groovy, and elastic sound, but doesn’t lose himself in dancefloor functionality. The music can be heard as sound-architecture, as well as a story.
Stefan Betke, who was born in Düsseldorf - after a couple of years in Cologne - now lives in Berlin and works as a DJ, remixer and studio operator. In 1999, together with Barbara Preisinger, he set up the label ˜scape. These days he’s cut back on his DJ-ing to devote more time to his own music and his production work. But DJ-ing allowed him to keep on the lookout for new sounds to incorporate into his own music, too. His sets ranged from dub, jazz, and minimal music to hip-hop, the latter leaving its mark on Pole’s second series of records, which consisted of the two EPs, “45/45” and “90/90”, and the album “Pole” (mute, 2003). For “Pole”, Betke abandoned the static noises and, for the first time, worked with vocals, which were supplied by rapper Fat John from Ohio (US). Since 2005, Betke has also been working as part of a live trio, with bass (Zeitblom) and drums (Hanno Leichtmann). After numerous live gigs with this line-up, a mini-album is planned for 2007, which is set to update Betke’s musical ideas in an even broader format.
But neither hip-hop nor dub were the defining elements in Betke’s first two musical phases. Betke has never been a reggae or hip-hop artist. His music isn’t based in a scene or in private experience, but in musical structures, which he decontextualizes in order to integrate them into his own personal musical language. In Betke’s 2007 release “steingarten” there are no more references holding the music together. Electronics, loops, minimalism – all of that is there, of course, but now it’s all operating in a space all its own. Betke’s work, created in a vacuum, independent of musical trends and clearly defined reference systems, is not predicated on anything or prefacing anything - it’s a timeless artistic achievement.
POLE Discographie:
Solo:
12“ Tanzen Kiff SM/PIAS betke edition/BMG UFA 98
CD/LP 1 Kiff SM/PIAS betke edition/BMG UFA 98
12“ Raum DIN Records betke edition/BMG UFA 98
CD/LP 2 Kiff SM/PIAS betke edition/BMG UFA 99
12“ Rondell Kiff SM/PIAS betke edition/BMG UFA 00
CD/LP 3 Kiff SM/PIAS betke edition/BMG UFA 00
CD/LP R scape betke edition/BMG UFA 01
7“ Mein Freund der Baum/Alexandra pole feat Manou Monika Ent. 02
12“/CD 45/45 Mute scape publishing/ BMG UFA 03
12“/CD 90/90 Mute scape publishing/ BMG UFA 03
CD/LP „pole“ Mute scape publishing/ BMG UFA 03
12“ D.P. Krakau Echochord scape publishing/ BMG UFA 06
CD/LP „steingarten“ ˜scape scape publishing/ BMG UFA 07
Compilations:
Deutscher Funk Caipirinha Musik betke edition/BMG UFA 97
Freestyle Files Studio !K7 betke edition/BMG UFA 98
Pop 2000 EMI Electrola betke edition/BMG UFA 99
Sonar Festival 99 Sonar Music betke edition/BMG UFA 99
Clicks& Cuts Mille Plateaux betke edition/BMG UFA 99
Diverse Promotion Diverse betke edition/BMG UFA 97/98
Cashier Escape Routes CityCenterOfices betke edition/BMG UFA 00
Xarthybrid Offenbar betke edition/BMG UFA 00
Staedtizism Scape betke edition/BMG UFA 00
Pole vs Four Tet Leaf betke edition/BMG UFA 00
Ocean Club presents STUMMMUTE NIGHT Volksbühnenr.
betke edition/BMG UFA 01
Pop 2001 MME/Warner betke edition/BMG UFA 01
Nighteffects WMF Records betke edition/BMG UFA 01
Komfort Lab vs.scape WMF Records betke edition/BMG UFA 01
Sonar Festival 03 Sonar Music betke edition/BMG UFA 03
DIN AV DVD scape scape publishing/BMG UFA 04
Futurism Ain..t shit to me Kitty Yo scape publishing/BMG UFA 05
Remixe:
Various Artist No 9.5 Fatcat 98
Mike Paradinas Cajual u zique 98
Quarks Wiederkomm Monika ent./Plug Research 98
Lobi Traore Sayo F Communication 99
Biophilia Allstars No Movement, No Sound, No Memories Lux Nigra 99
Egoexpress Durchbrechen X Filme (Absolute Giganten) 99
Laub Grau Kitty Yo 99
Appliance Heroes of
Telemark Mute 99
Pole vs Four Tet Cload Leaf 00
Charged Cornered R&S 00
Fauna Flash Ten Compost 00
Atom tm Pentatonic
Suprise Quatermass 01
Station 17 Jesus hat gesagt Mute 01
Depeche Mode Carmatose Mute 01
T.Raumschmiere A Million Brothers Mute 03
Louis Armstrong Universal 03
Carl Douglas Kung Fu Fighting Echo Beach 04
Ferdinand Fehlers Hearts Meteosound 05
John Tejada Mono Palette 06
Produced:
Quarks Königin Monika Ent. 99 CD
B.Morgenstern Fjorden Monika Ent. 00 CD
Zigaretten Rauchen Männer Sony 00 7“
A.Nolte 21st Century Schizoid man, or how to lose your head scape 01
B.Morgenstern Nichts Muss Labels/Monika Ent. 03 CD
Contriva if you had stayed Monika 03 CD
T.Raumschmiere Monstertruck Driver Mute 04 CD
T.Raumschmiere Blitzkrieg Pop Mute 05 CD
TV:
Berlin House Viva 99 D
Pioneers Channel 4
Lee Perry,
Brian Eno
and more BBC 00 UK
Die Stadt ist Programm In Berlin TVB 00 D
Lola Da Musica Man Machine VPRO 00 N
Levis Rub yourself MTV Europe 02 Europe