Stimming X Lambert interview “Our innocent online love became quite a real life thing”
Unlikely duo’s debut drops this week
Who said online dating doesn’t work? Hear the story of Lambert and Stimming’s collaborative union, and perhaps you’ll be convinced niche music-tailored online dating really does work.
Lambert, the masked pianist from Hamburg, first met Swedish techno pusher and field recordist Stimming online. Despite sparking a strong creative drive, the pair naturally ended up relegating their relationship largely to the web for several years, only meeting up once in that space of time to improvise together.
Now on the cusp of releasing their first album Positive – out October 15 – we caught up with the unlikely pairing for a quick Q&A. Expect details of their free jazz interminglings, ‘organic sound’, and other shared suggestions that they may have been long-lost twins in a past life…
How did you two first meet? What made you click?
Stimming: We met on the Internet where we exchanged compliments. On our first date in real life, we improvised for two hours before we started to chat. I guess those two hours made us click. Improvisation is still a big part of our live show.
Despite having different musical backgrounds, you’ve said you “share aesthetics and tastes.” How does this musical dialogue take place, and how do you reconcile piano with techno?
Lambert: We share an interest in something I’d call ‘organic sound’. We just have a very different approach how to get there. Also in rhythm we share similar values, but we just use different tools. We don’t need to reconcile genres, we create a new one.
You’ve said the album’s production process forced you both to break free from your usual subgenre and production constraints. Could you go into a bit more detail about the new techniques you cultivated in the studio?
Lambert: For a tune like ‘Sommerflimmern’, Stimming pushed me to dig deep in my free jazz roots. Even though I use improvisation a lot in my production routine, I was never a big fan of losing control and just letting the tape roll, forgetting about the record button. Stimming found a great way to control the chaos there.
Stimming: In ‘Detektei’, Lambert used a pen to write down the melody. I haven’t done that in ages. In ‘Der Grune Gnom’ I used the software to get to the Melody. I screamed when I had to learn that on the piano for the live shows. Stimming encouraged me to let go of the felt piano sound from time to time, to process it in the production or to use other instrument (my favourite: the Roland 101, which I use for arranging three-part melodies like in ‘Pocket Tragedy’) or the electric Bass in ‘Gluhwurmchen’ (I am very proud here). So many new approaches to me – it was very challenging and inspiring!
Despite Lambert & Stimming being such an enduring creative partnership, you’ve not met up face-to-face much. Do you see this kind of creative union becoming more common in the ever-growing age of online connectedness?
Stimming: We’ve talked about going to the studio together one day. There is a real chance that this will happen. Maybe with the next album.
On the few occasions you have met up in person, how has it felt?
Stimming: Well, we toured and rehearsed together. The other day we met for some beers. Our innocent online love, became quite a real life thing. We live in different cities, and we are both used to be our own boss in the studio, but we like and fight each other like every other band.
The album’s title, ‘Positive’, flips ideas of positivity on its head – the idea being that COVID-19 tests make ‘positive’ the new negative. How do you feel this is reflected in the music?
Lambert: Maybe, generally I felt that people don’t really associate the term with its meaning, or even with the opposite. To me, it’s kind of a reclamation of a term that obviously means something good!
Is this flipping of ‘positivity’ on its head an analogy for conflicting emotions? Have you felt like this over the events of COVID?
Lambert: There might be a connection. Yes.
Jude Iago James
Buy your vinyl copy of Positive here: