Like most people wanting to park for free in Barcelona, we went up the hills and parked our vans near Montjuic’s diving pool, which I believe was abandoned at that time. But this was a bad idea because the next morning I woke up with my camper completely emptied out by burglars who stole from me while I was sleeping! My hard drives, music player, all of my clothing and some cameras were gone. Fortunately, they didn’t take all the heavy stuff, so my vinyl, mixer, speakers and two Technics were still there. And somehow my laptop was stuck behind my records, it was the only backup of all my tunes so I guess those Bunker Records from 2012 & 2014 wouldn’t have been here otherwise. Somehow I felt I had brought this upon myself, wanting to be the minimalist, and now I had even less stuff than before starting the trip. The only thing I really missed was my analog camera, for I had shot some nice pictures at Teknivals in Paris and Dresden.
For the next part of the trip, I drove to Vilnius where I played the Tundra Festival, a Goa trance festival (I know) with a techno/electro floor. I played with Manasyt; we just had the Artists Anonymous #2 out on Bunker so it was fun meeting him. On my way there I met a girl, the sister of some guy I met in Basel. I guess it’s how things go when traveling. Visiting friends of friends keep things familiar in a way. She was living in a Wagenplatz (basically a squatters’ trailer park) in Connewitz, the leftist area of town. Dubstep was really big back then, and I checked out Mala & Sgt Pokes at Conne Island. I’m pretty sure it’s the best DJ set I’ve ever seen. I also played an Electro set at an Antifa / Black bloc benefit event which I will never forget. Loads of these good (and bad) memories are the main reason I love coming back to Leipzig, so I’m glad I did one of my DRUM events in Institut fuer Zukunft (what a great club) there last January with Abdulla Rashim.
While looking for the location of this festival in Lithuania I got lost. Luckily I arrived a day or two early so I had time to figure out where to go. I walked into a restaurant and asked if people knew this place near Ukmergė, but nobody spoke a word of English. When I left I drove behind an old city bus from my hometown with a Dutch advertisement on the back. The city of Eindhoven must’ve sold the bus to this town, but I still can’t wrap my head around it; at that moment, being far away and seeing something so familiar was just extremely weird. Maybe I was just going mad.
Stream: Albert van Abbe – No Comment 9000
The trip lasted two years, traveling on and off and there are so many memories. I guess that’s the upside: the crazy stories you collect. The downside is that somehow because you’re living in a small space (the van) your world get’s very small as well. Also, it feels like you’re not really building up to anything, whatever that may be, so in the end, you feel like you are running from a home instead of making one.
