by Alex (optix-noir) | May 3, 2010

Who and what is Abstrakt Reflections?

Steven: Abstrakt Reflections was founded by Pablo Benjamin (c0ma) and originally planned as an online platform and music zine related to darker IDM/experimental electronic music. He asked me about his idea and we talked about combining it with some kinda netlabel, by offering our (and maybe other artists) music for free. Well, a few days later I came up with the idea of creating a compilation sampler in it. Apparent Symmetry just released his album Mourn one month earlier all on his own and with the less promotion it was given, we thought of re-releasing and re-mastering it with new artwork as well. It didn’t take long and our first release saw the the light of the day, well received, made it up to lots of other places on the net and even got reviews. Since then with every release more and more people notice our works and we already built up a small fanbase.

Since when is AR working as a label?

Since December 2009.

How are the tasks, has everybody his own area or is everyone doing the same?

Steven:It varies, Pablo is working on the website for the most part and doing some promo. I for myself do most of the promo stuff, helping out the artists with cover artwork (if needed) and mastered a few of the releases (Apparent Symmetry and the Compilation Sampler called Researching Networks).
There are a few people who help us out anyway and who spread the word around other communities.

Paul: As Steven said, the way we manage stuff can vary. For example we’ve done most of the artwork ourselves and with help of friends (photography), sometimes I do it (posthuman), sometimes Steven and sometimes just both. I must say that Steven has done a great work mastering most of the stuff on the label, it sounds freaking amazing.

How many bands are right now signed to Abstrakt Reflections?

Steven: We’re currently working together with 10 artists who released for or us or plan to do so in the future. Some of them will stay with the label for future releases since they consider AR as kinda family and they want to offer their releases for free further on.

How active are these bands and artists according to concerts and festivals?

Steven: Nikka is doing gigs around Spain and is an active DJ as well and Miktek made his live debut recently @ Stainless Constructive Machines Festival in Athens. Synthetic Violence is mostly active live in Latvia and will play at the Zvera Open Air this July. Some more artists plan to play live gigs (there might be a little tour at the end/start of next year organized by another label which probably will feature In A Mindset).

Paul: Well, personally I will start playing livesets as c0ma after my album gets released, that will happen this year for sure but I just don’t know when it will be finished, it’s really in the works. My idea is to also start doing dj-sets as “serz” which has always been my dj nickname. These sets will include lots of Abstrakt Reflections stuff, c0ma tracks and artists that I really love/support.

What do you think about Piracy in Music business, does it cause problems to your Label or is it more helpful as a kind of promotion?

Steven: No, not at all since all releases are free and we’re just pleased If people share them on different places all over the net.

Will AR stay as a pure IDM/ Ambient Label or will you spread even other music styles like EBM/Industrial/Electro?

Steven: Yeah, I would say we’re just about to do this and we lately released Inhibition Level by LPF12, which is more of old school Electro-Industrial style, but not only that.
We’re really open to anything related to the dark electro scene and If we like it and the artists wants to release with us, sure thing.

You Guys did the soundtrack for www.pixelbreed.com, entitled “Stigmata”. There were 4 people from 4 different countries working on that track. This was the first track Fredrik Croona from Sweden (Voice of Project Rotten/Menschdefekt) was involved, too. What can you say about working together with Fredrik? Are there more Tracks planned with Fredrik as Voice now?

Steven: Since I’m part of this project, I only can speak for myself by saying that it was really fun to work on the track. But it’s different and not always easy, collecting all the ideas and getting it together, especially If it happens by exchanging sound files over the internet only. After we finished the track we were a bit concerned about the vocals, if they might fit with the track and with what Fredrik comes up with. But, the result was pretty amazing and all agreed that this has to be the final track. SEC 1nine13 is open for further collabs in the future and there`s no doubt about that it will happen.
Apart from that, I plan to work with Fredrik on a track for In A Mindset regarding my debut album.

All of you guys are doing music and not just working for the label, did you guys planning any new releases in future maybe @ another label?

Steven: Definitely, some artists got label offers recently and are working on their first CD release for them and “The White Room” EP by LPF12 and “Organic and Synthetic” by Erissoma are next on AR.

Paul: Sure, some artists in the label (including me) will contribute tracks for a double compilation by a well known underground label. We will give you more details about this soon.

All of you started in different styles of Music, Steven for example started as Guitar Player of different Punk/ Metal bands. What kind of Music made you before starting in Electronic music?

Almost all of the artists started with electronic music, though Apparent Symmetry was active in bands during high school and c0ma plays drums, who is just about to start with a friend a post-rock/electronica project. Erissoma collaborated with several rock and hip hop projects until he decided to start his own electronic music project and Steven played guitar and did vocals for metal and punk bands.

AR is offering all of their Tracks CD’s as free download at the Homepage, the Quality of this releases is really awesome, why don’t you charge some Money for downloading this Songs? This would help to defray some costs for the bands and even the label (Homepage etc.)

Paul: Yeah, we could do that but we would be missing the whole point here. The great thing about Abstrakt Reflections is that people can download music made by high-quality artists. We offer FLAC for the guys who likes quality and mp3 320kbps which is very good as well. All that for free.

However, since many people asked us how about physical copies of our releases we might start producing and selling limited physical copies of our future releases. This is for all the people that really wants to support the label and the artists. We will still offer high quality downloads for free.

How gets the label financed at the moment? Are there any sponsors?

Paul: Not at all but we recently added the PayPal donation button to our website and we got some donations that will surely help paying for hosting and stuff like that, we’ve paid for that all this time. However, our idea is to start selling some t-shirts and stuff at our website so everyone that wants to support the label can do it that way instead of donating. We will try to have some cool stuff for you!

However, the idea is that people will be able to support the label by getting some t-shirts and cool stuff instead of donating.

I heard there is a Homepage that is offering AR releases and charge Money for downloading this Tracks but @ the same time they point out that all Tracks can be downloaded for free at AR Homepage… What do you think about that?

Steven: Yes, we recently found that many of our downloads can be found on a russian site which offers payable mp3 downloads without the knowledge of the artists and by neglecting most copyrights and licences.
And there’s just one thing to say about this: If you’re going to pay for MP3s, please buy them at the familar and trusted sites and do not give any money to illegal platforms, you’re only going to support people who don’t care about the music and the artist’s work.

Is there anything you want to tell our readers?

Paul: Yes, thanks everyone for all the support, without you we wouldn’t be anything. Stay tuned cause lots of things are going to happen on Abstrakt Reflections.

Thank you for taking time for this Interview and we’re looking forward of new AR releases!