NINA KRAVIZ Community versus conformity

Read all of Nina’s previous Groove columns here.
A German translation of this text has been published in Groove 156 (September/October 2015)

You’ll find a new Nina Kraviz track below, out November 13th through her very own трип!

Have you ever seen a school of fish in the water effortlessly coordinating their every move? I have always been mesmerised by how incredibly connected and synchronized those hundreds of little creatures are and how quickly once one has changed direction others instantly follow it. And while I totally adore this principal of unity in nature – where it feels so unquestionably right – when it comes to masses of people, or anything that is classified in groups, or even a slightly resembles a mob, it leaves me with very mixed feelings. It takes me back to my early teenage days in school. Though I was social enough, I wasn’t really a gregarious girl and never belonged to any particular group or a “class”, which caused me some trouble dealing with pretty tough Siberian street hierarchy. Despite my “outsider” status in school, which was kind of forced but was the only one that people could classify me with, I grew up into a socially integrated extravert. And in addition to a well-grasped notion that people like to gather to gain security and escape from loneliness, I learned that people need other people to establish emotional connections and share deep feelings like love to actually experience existence.

There is always a positive and a negative aspect of belonging to a group. Community versus conformity.

From an artistic point of view, the main question for me has mostly centered around depth, identity and how easily it gets commodified once you become popular and get exposed to a much bigger audience. Is it actually at all possible to convey a very subtle emotion that is normally directed to one particular person and in a much more intimate setting to a big amount of people that you don’t even know? I’ve surmised that it actually is. And while most of the questions raised remain open, it appears to me quite amazing how sensitive crowds can be.

One summer I attended a big festival where I performed in front of an incredible amount of people. Sadly I was a bit down and to keep it short was going trough some changes in my life. Everything felt very vulnerable. I started playing right before the sunrise, it was already bright and it felt a bit awkward – as if I was standing there absolutely naked. At some point the melody resonated so strong that I became really emotional. I lost it for a minute or two. It was such an intimate moment and I was experiencing it in front of so many people. Contrary to any logic I felt a huge relief. It felt comfortable and understood. And It is hard to describe the connection that we had that morning. Since that moment the flow became amazingly smooth and I had one of the most intense sonic rides with people that I could hardly see form the distance. For the length of my set hundreds of strangers became so close to me that I had nothing to hide. And like those fish we didn’t even have to coordinate our moves before diving really deep. All together.

Stream: Nina Kraviz – I Believe I Can Fly (KLM Delayed Flight Remix)

Diverse – ‘Ivan, Come On! Unlock The Box!’ (трип)