Spekki Webu & Matti Vilho present: Signal Transmutations
Expect the unexpected as you enter the ego-less dimension of this Dutch-Finnish visionary duo.
“Tripped-out techno innovator Spekki Webu and visual artist Matti Vilho explore cycles of death and rebirth in a hallucinatory vision of infinite reincarnation and emotional transformation.
Spekki Webu has been transporting the Dutch underground electronic music scene to alternate dimensions for over 15 years. Probing the lysergic spaces in-between techno, trance and ambient, the DJ and producer conjures immersive sonic worlds with a preternatural ear for dense, narcotic compositions drenched with propulsive tension and extraterrestrial atmosphere. Between his legendary sets, his own productions and his influential label, Mirror Zone, Spekki Webu has demonstrated a direct line of contact with these worlds, enabling audiences to tune in to their strange frequencies and share in their transformative potential. With Optic Portal, a multidisciplinary imprint refracted straight from the Mirror Zone, he seeks to shed light on these exploratory transmissions, working with audiovisual artists to make these sounds visible. It’s this urge that lies of the heart of Signal Transmutations, a collaboration with visual artist Matti Vilho. --
“When the time has come to go for us humans and we have learned enough over the course of life, we join the new dimension and enter the light. Signal Transmutations is our perspective on this take,” adds Spekki Webu. “I see the experience of Signal Transmutations as a meditative journey which you can dive deep into and zone out. You don’t need to understand everything, the emotions that arise are most important,” continues Matti Vilho. Spekki Webu spirals through an atmospheric assemblage of gas leak ambience, submerged skitter and possessed drum programming, swirling viscous globules of reverb through oozing loops of found sound, riding a constant creeping tension between organic and synthetic textures that is reflected back in Matti Vilho’s cyclical landscape, the rebirth loop manifested in the time signatures of the music and the space of the virtual world. Screens are submerged in swamp water as far future technological interfaces hover and rotate, glowing fiberoptic cables drape from an enormous cluster of fungus, wires wound tightly into its mycelium. “The combination of alien and mundane has always been present in my work,” says Matti Vilho. “The giant fungus-like tree is an abstraction of the Tree of Life, connecting the past and present in a continuous fluid cycle.” Trance-inducing sound flows between smudges of hallucinogenic colour, organic matter and alien hardware, all captured through the imprint’s namesake ‘optic portal’. “The fun thing is that Matti hasn’t been sending out any visuals to get my music going,” notes Spekki Webu. “I started developing sketches of sound and shared this with him. The visual world building took off organically from there. It’s a mutual bond of trust we built over time.”
Link to full interview: https://www.factmag.com/2023/02/14/spekki-webu-matti-vilho-optic-portal-presents-signal-transmutations/
“Spekki Webu’s ongoing practice, as well as the works being presented at De School, are a strong example of how multidisciplinary collaboration and research can even touch upon enigmatic topics.‘Our installation will be a shortened version of our live show called ‘Signal Transmutations’, which is a story about the different stages of reincarnation.’ He explains how this has been a recurrent topic intriguing him for most of his life. Dealing with mysterious topics and attempting to shed light on them through club-specific performances can be challenging. Spekki Webu explains how collaboration with artists from other disciplines can help to facilitate that. ‘The remarkable thing when working with other people, especially in a visual context, is getting the opportunity to dive into somebody’s mind and see their ideas about the concept.’”
Link to full interview: https://www.minimalcollective.digital/editorial/spaces-of-experimentation