Photo: Press (Ludwig A.F.)
Frankfurt’s past as an incubator for Germany’s take on rave culture can feel imposing, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t plenty of young artists pushing the envelope. Having grown up as the son of an artist couple with a shelf full of rave and IDM records, Ludwig A.F. is somewhat of a mediator between the city’s history and its present or even future, providing a fresh spin on tried and tested formulas on his releases, most of which he has released through his own Exo Recordings International. His mix for our Groove podcast is all about the here and now.
As a DJ, you drew more and more attention to yourself in 2018 and 2019. Then, the pandemic hit. What repercussions did that forced break have on you?
While the pandemic was a horrible thing to happen, it also brought a positive change of perspective to me personally. I could entirely focus on producing for myself and also helping other people as a producer for their projects. That way, I was able to finish a lot of music, some of which turned out to be the final material for my debut LP, by which I don’t mean the Air retrospective. More information soon. All I can say is I’ve never been busier.
The aforementioned Air is a compilation of tracks from the past eight years, most of them more on the ambient side of things. What were your criteria when putting it together?
I work mostly intuitively and apply that mentality to everything that I do which is connected to creating art. Somehow all of the pieces on the album instantly connected with each other and I already knew that when making them although what you hear is eight years of me exploring different things between some of the songs. First, I didn’t approach it as an album, but the more pieces I made the more I felt the need to turn it into a full-length project.
You have however previously pointed out that Air is not to be regarded an album. What constitutes a proper album for you, especially in electronic music?
Air is an album, but it feels more like a retrospective rather than a collection of songs from a specific period of time because it was made over such a long time span. In general I think that good art needs to tell a story and create images. In music, I feel like an LP is still a great way to do that. Making an album works differently compared to how it was done in the previous decades, but I don’t think it’s a lost art form. I actually think it will have a renaissance at some point because humans love stories! I at least am a big fan of the LP concept.
Like many of your EPs before that and also your debut under the Ludwig A.F. guise, Air was released through your own Exo Recordings International. Why was it so important to you from the start to have full control over your own music?
I always felt like just putting the music out wasn’t enough. I also wanted to be able to have full control over how it’s being put out and all the details, especially things like the artwork, because once it’s out there there’s no going back and it’s part of how I express myself. So I just thought ‘screw it. I’ll just do it myself.’
What was the idea behind your mix for our Groove podcast?
Most of the music is from 2022, recently I find that I want to play as much new music as I can. I like the idea of being a DJ that highlights good new music and there’s a lot of nice and innovative music coming out at the moment.
What are your plans for the future?
I want to make a perfume.
Stream: Ludwig A.F. – Groove Podcast 366
01. Machinedrum & Chrome Sparks – Idea 36
02. Surusinghe – GO BACKSTAGE
03. Human Movement – Breathe Deep
04. Nick León & DJ Babatr – Xtasis (Pearson Sound Remix)
05. CRUSH3d – Brick!
06. Wet Leg – Too Late Now (Soulwax Remix)
07. Hamdi – Okay
08. BAUGRUPPE9O – Schwung
09. Villager – Rave Bender
10. Otik – Sometimes The Nights Last for Months
11. Instinct (UK) – Rain
12. J Wax – Oceans
13. ⣎⡇ꉺლ༽இ•̛)ྀ◞ ༎ຶ ༽ৣৢ؞ৢ؞ؖ ꉺლ!
14. Chestnut People – ???
