Electronic Spotlight:Carl Craig, Moritz Von Oswald, Francesco Tristan 12.02.10

Words By Stevie Tee

Royal Festival Hall in London

For the first featured set of the Electronic Spotlight, we have a truly fantastic performance from three prominent-if-not-legendary producers. This super group embodies a classical elegance with a free form jazz feel that's all filtered through their masterful and precise production capabilities. Let's get a little bit of background on all of our players and discuss their role in the performance.

Carl Craig is one of the biggest names in Techno, often credited as spearheading the second wave of Detroit Techno. For this set his rig consisted of his laptop, a large keyboard/MIDI controller and a few other large pieces of hardware that appear to be samplers, drum machines and possibly a loop station.

Moritz Von Oswald is a Berlin-based producer who co-founded the label Basic Channel and the production group Rhythm & Sound, both of which are influential names in the world of minimal techno and ground breakers in the fusion dub music and techno. Oswald had his own laptop, a large mixing board interface and probably a few controllers. He seemed to have control over the total output, mastering and global effects in addition to any production contributions.

Oswald and Craig produced an LP "Recomposed" together that was released in 2008, that was a neo-classical techno work of art that shows influence from Philip Glass, Steve Reich and others. Craig has also been sitting in on certain dates of the Moritz Von Oswald Trios last tour, including their performance at Detroit Electronic Music Festival last year.

Francesco Tristano is a graduate of Julliard who now resides in Barcelona. Tristano is a modern classical and jazz pianist who has composed albums in both fields. After releasing a collection of classic electronic covers from artists such as Autechre, Jeff Mills and Derrick May, he quickly caught the attention of electronic music community. Coupling his formal training and education with his dance music sensibilities has made him a top name in the experimental electronic music scene. Tristano played behind a large rig of different electric keyboards that were all mixed in his own laptop which then runs into Oswald's rig.

Also featured is David Brutti on a bass saxophone, though not included in the title of the set or performance. This is some truly gorgeous music that may change your mind about what the word techno can mean. A great performance on all parts and shows what can come from great musicians using elements and instruments of electronic music production to make live music. The concert was commissioned and recorded by Red Bull Music Academy. Enjoy…

Carl Craig, Francesco Tristano, Moritz Von Oswald live at the Royal Festival Hall, London.