pole

Location:
berlin, DE
Type:
Artist / Band / Musician
Genre:
Experimental / Electronica / Dub
Site(s):
Label:
˜scape
Type:
Indie
FOR BOOKING PLEASE CONTACT booking AT scape-music DOT DEPOLE

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 Aint 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
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